Nguyễn Văn Đỗ was born in 1941 as son to a Vietnamese fisherman. Văn Đỗ grew up in a small village near the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi working on the rice fields with his mother and aunt. The First Indochinese War and the Vietnam War had a huge impact on his life. The young Văn Đỗ was familiar with violence and poverty, things he admitted to have shaped his political views. Nguyễn Văn Đỗ joined the Việt Minh in 1960, at the age of nineteen. This is where Văn Đỗ established his belief in marxist thought and his defiance of imperialism. During the war he enjoyed an extensive military training and showed the gift for higher education. His senior officers decided to send him to the military academy of Hanoi.