VIETNAM PARLIAMENT FIRES PRIME MINISTER, PRESIDENT
Vietnam's parliament sacked Prime
Minister Pham Van Dong and President Truong Chinh, but the
choice of their successors indicated the influence of the old
guard may not be over, diplomatic sources said.
    Dong, prime minister for 32 years, left in fading health at
the age of 81. He is a popular hero of wars against France and
the United States and a staunch ally of the Soviet Union.
    Parliament replaced him with second-ranked politburo member
Pham Hung, 74, the Vietnam News Agency said. Hung headed the
Viet Cong guerrillas in the Vietnam War.
    Diplomats in Bangkok said Hung, not a noted supporter of
economic and political reforms, had been widely tipped for the
less important presidency.
    That post went instead to Vo Chi Cong, a technocrat who
ranks third in the politburo. Diplomatic sources said Cong was
more in tune with the national economic and political changes
being pushed by reformists who apparently had gained the upper
hand in the all-important politburo in December.
    Chinh, a hardline Marxist and a veteran of the wars against
France and the U.S., Was ousted at the age of 80. His political
stance had recently softened, the sources said.
 REUTER
