Trần, Quang Cơ 1927- 2015

Tran Quang Co died in 2015. He was a Vietnamese Communist Party member for more than half a century.  After serving as a People’s Army Enemy proselyting officer during the war against France, he was transferred to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry in 1954 and rose steadily through the diplomatic ranks until his retirement in 1997. 

After a two-year assignment as First Secretary of the North Vietnamese Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tran Quang Co was sent to Paris as an “expert” assigned to the North Vietnamese delegation to the Paris Peace talks, where he served from 1968 until early 1973. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975 Tran Quang Co became the Chief of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s North American Bureau, where he was intimately involved in Vietnam’s failed efforts to normalize relations with the United States from 1976 to 1979. 

Following a four-year tour as the Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand (1982-1986), Tran Quang Co returned to Vietnam, where he was quickly appointed as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and was elected to membership in the Communist Party Central Committee. 

From early 1987 onwards, Tran Quang Co was intimately involved in negotiations with China and in those related to the international agreement to end the Cambodian conflict.