
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991                   TAG: 9103070525
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BANGKOK, THAILAND                                LENGTH: Short

VIETCONG FOUNDER, HIEU, DIES AT AGE 68

Nguyen Van Hieu, a founding leader of the Vietcong and a negotiator at the Paris peace talks during the Vietnam War, has died, the official Vietnam News Agency reported. He was 68.

Hieu died Wednesday in Ho Chi Minh City, called Saigon when it was the capital of U.S.-backed South Vietnam. The cause of death was not given.

At the time of his death, Hieu was president of the Vietnam-France Friendship Association and a leading member of the Fatherland Front, sponsored by the ruling Communist Party.

The news agency report, seen in Bangkok today, said Hieu was born Nov. 24, 1922.

He was general secretary of the Central Committee of the National Front for Liberation of South Vietnam in 1960, its founding year.

North Vietnam established the front, better known as the Vietcong, to group local opposition to the South Vietnam government.

by CNB