 Mai was born in central Vietnam in 1940 and served as a junior member of Vietnam's negotiating team at the Paris Peace Talks.After the war ended he served successively as deputy director and director of the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hanoi and Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs (1984-1986), then as Ambassador to Thailand (1986-1989), before being named Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1990).In 1994 he joined the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party.