How Vietnam’s communist party chief earned a surprise third term at this year’s National Congress. By March 05, 2021 Newly re-elected Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, center, leaves after a press conference at the closing ceremony of after the Party’s 13th National Congress in Hanoi, Feb. 1, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Minh Hoang Advertisement This article is the second in a two-part series. Part 1 is available here. When Nguyen Phu Trong assumed Vietnam’s presidency following the death of President Tran Dai Quang in September 2018, he became the first Vietnamese leader since the 1980s to hold two of the country’s four senior leadership posts.