Hoàng Văn Thái was dismissed as Chief of Staff shortly before the beginning of the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ.

At the Battle of Loc Ninh he was Commanding Officer (27 October 1967 – 10 December 1967), also during the Tet Offensive in January 1968.

Through experiences gained from secret activities, he spread leaflets on the sly in order to encourage people to get involved against high taxes, struggling for democratic freedom.

Under the name of Quoc Binh, meaning "peaceful country", several comrades and he left for military training in Liuzhou, China.

After military school he returned to Vietnam with a new assumed name Hoang Van Thai (Thai stems from his hometown Thái Bình, also meaning "peaceful"), joined the resistance against Japan and then joined the August Revolution against France in 1945.

He also was one of 34 soldiers led by Võ Nguyên Giáp that met on 22 December 1944 to found the Armed Propaganda Unit for National Liberation that later became the Vietnam People's Army.

In March 1945, he commanded a group of 100 members to advance to Chợ Đồn District to form a foundation in the area.

Thai, subsequently, took order from Võ Nguyên Giáp to hand over the area to the local Việt Minh cadres and continued to lead members down to Cho Chu, Tuyên Quang, supporting as well as training self-defence units and political cadre groups.

At the same time, the Political-Military Japanese Resistance school (Trường Quân chính kháng Nhật) was established in Tan Trao.

Under this mandate, Thai was assigned as the first Chief of General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army.

By the end of 1946, approximately 1 million militias were organised and trained in preparation for war while every diplomatic means failed.

Eventually, Operation Léa resulted in French limited success and Vietnamese strategic victory.

Following the victory of Việt Minh in Dien Bien Phu, Geneva Conference was signed, ending 80 years of French presence in Vietnam.

[5] In March 1965, the first US troops were sent to Đà Nẵng, marked the official appearance of the Americans in South Vietnam.

From 1967 to 1973, he was assigned to the South, made Commander of the People's Liberation Armed Forces and Deputy Secretary of COSVN.

The US army called him a "3 legged tiger", the highest Northern commander in the South during the war years under the name of Muoi Khang.

Also on 30 January 1968, he was the main commander of events during the Tet offensive throughout South Vietnam under instructions from the North.

On 2 July 1986, he died suddenly of a heart attack at the Army Medical Institute 108 before he would have been promoted as the Minister of Defense, the first chairman of the Vietnam National Security Council (responsible for national security, home affair, and foreign policy matters.

His second wife was Đàm Thị Loan, a former Tay Lieutenant Colonel in the People's Army of Vietnam.

Thai was fluent in Mandarin, as well as proficient in writing Nôm, and was known to have a good command of Tày, and Nùng.