[2] This position was formerly designated as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Chủ tịch Ủy ban Thường vụ Quốc hội Việt Nam) from 1946 to 1981.

The Standing Committee, over which the chairman presides, is a permanent body in charge of the National Assembly's activities when it is not in session.

For instance, the two first office holders Nguyễn Văn Tố and Bùi Bằng Đoàn were not members of the Communist Party, while Trường Chinh, the fourth chairman, was ranked second in the Politburo hierarchy.

The first chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly was the scholar Nguyễn Văn Tố; he was not a member of the Communist Party.

On 3 March 1946, under the chairmanship of Nguyễn Văn Tố, the National Assembly formed the first government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

[6] Nguyễn Văn Tố was succeeded in office on 9 November 1946 by Bùi Bằng Đoàn, a poet and another non-Communist Party member.