[3] Nông Đức Mạnh was born in Cường Lợi, Na Rì District, Bắc Kạn Province.

[4] In a profile of Mạnh published in the official press immediately after he gained this position, Nông Thị Trưng was identified as his mother.

[5] Nông Đức Mạnh's official biography gives his date of birth as 11 September 1940 and states that he was born to a peasant family from the Tày ethnic minority[6] when Hồ Chí Minh was still in China.

In April 2001, shortly after Nông Đức Mạnh was named as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, a reporter at a news conference asked him to confirm or deny the rumor.

When asked again about the rumor in January 2002 by a Time Asia reporter, he denied he was Hồ's son and stated that his father was named Nông Văn Lại and his mother Hoàng Thị Nhị.

From 1963–65, Mạnh was the deputy chief of the Bạch Thông wood exploitation [clarification needed] team; he later returned to his studies, learning Russian at the Hanoi Foreign Languages College (from 1965–66).

[3] From 1973–74, Nông Đức Mạnh served as director of the Phú Lương State Forestry Camp in Bắc Thái province.