[5] Huỳnh Tấn Phát joined the Indochinese Communist Party in March 1945, and began revolutionary activities in Saigon, whereupon he was appointed Deputy Director of the Information and Press Committee for Southern Vietnam.

When the French re-occupied Saigon after World War II, he was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison.

Upon his release, Phát resumed his revolutionary activities and in 1949 was appointed a Commissioner of the Administrative Resistance Committee for Southern Vietnam and directly managed the Free Voice of Saigon-Cho Lon Radio.

[6] He later emerged as a leading chief theoretician of the Viet Cong (formally the National Liberation Front).

He held this post until 2 July 1976, when the country was reunified with the North, making him the only communist South Vietnamese prime minister.