Nguyễn Thành Trung

Nguyễn Thành Trung (born 1947) is a Vietnamese military and civilian aviator. Trung fought during the Vietnam War and later became an executive of Vietnam Airlines.

Biography

Military service Trung was born in Châu Thành District, Bến Tre Province in 1947. Trung's father was a local politician who eventually rose to be deputy secretary of Chau Thanh's communist party. In 1954 Vietnam was partitioned into North and South Vietnam, leading to the ruling parties of both nations conducting a purge of their political enemies. As part of these purges, in 1963 the South Vietnamese commandos killed Trung's father and arrested his mother; the rest of the family were subjected to intimidation and had their homes burned. After this event, Trung adopted the surname Nguyễn to avoid further reprisals. According to his later accounts, the death of his father left Trung with a seething hatred of the South Vietnamese government.

Trung enrolled in Saigon University of Science in 1965, pursuing three bachelor's degrees. He also became tangentially involved with Viet Cong activity in Saigon at that time. Trung was continuing his education when in 1968 the Tet Offensive occurred, disrupting Saigon and causing South Vietnam to increase conscription requirements. The South Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) was particularly interested in recruiting college students into the air force; according to Vietnamese records, this requirement spurred the North Vietnamese to recruit left-leaning college students into the Communist Party of Vietnam in the hope they could be used to infiltrate the VNAF. The South Vietnamese military situation continued to deteriorate, with North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces advancing on Saigon in April 1975. However, in early April a South Vietnamese counterattack captured a North Vietnamese Intelligence officer who revealed that several North Vietnamese agents were operating around Saigon, including an unnamed officer - Trung - in Bến Tre. Fearing that Trung's identity would be uncovered, his handlers ordered him to stage his defection, preferably with an aircraft but on foot if necessary. He later destroyed a fuel depot before landing at a nearby airstrip, disarming his aircraft's 20mm cannon in preparation for a crash landing, and then flying towards North Vietnamese lines, successfully landing his aircraft (albeit with some damage) at an airfield in Phước Long. The strike caused relatively minor damage, but also caused remnants of the VNAF to evacuate many of its remaining aircraft to Thailand. In addition, the attack was a major factor in the United States deciding to scrap its planned evacuation of Saigon via fixed wing aircraft in favor of using helicopters in Operation Frequent Wind. For his actions during the war, Trung was granted the rank of Captain of the Liberation. In 2005, Trung piloted a Vietnam Airlines 777 carrying Vietnamese President Trần Đức Lương to the United States for an 11-day diplomatic tour. During the trip, Trung expressed a desire for closer ties between the American and Vietnamese aviation industries. Before retiring from Vietnam Airlines, Trung was appointed as the Airline Deputy General Director.

Two of Trung's daughters work for Vietnam Airlines as Flight Attendant, with one becoming a flight instructor. Trung's son also work for Vietnam Airlines as a Pilot and has reached the rank of Captain.