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⚫ ] was introduced into ] with the emergence of three separate ] parties; the Indochinese Communist Party, Annamese Communist Party and the Indochinese Communist Union, joined later by a ] movement led by ]. In 1930 the ] (Comintern) sent ] to Hong Kong to coordinate the unification of the parties into the ] with Trần Phú as the first Secretary General.
{{POV|date=January 2018}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2011}}}}
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⚫ '''] in ]''' is linked to the ''']''' and the push for independence. ] was introduced in Vietnam with the emergence of three ]: the Indochinese Communist Party, the Annamese Communist Party, and the Indochinese Communist Union, later joined by a ] movement led by ]. In 1930, the ] (Comintern) sent ] to ] to coordinate the unification of the parties into the ], with Trần Phú as its first Secretary General.
⚫ Later the party changed its name to the Indochinese Communist Party as the Comintern, under ], did not favor nationalistic sentiments. Nguyễn Ái Quốc was a leftist revolutionary living in France since 1911. He participated in founding the ] and in 1924 traveled to the ] to join the Comintern. Through the late 1920s, he acted as a Comintern agent to help build Communist movements in Southeast Asia.


==History==
⚫ During the 1930s, the Vietnamese Communist Party was nearly wiped out under French suppression with the execution of top leaders such as Phú, Lê Hồng Phong, and Nguyễn Văn Cừ.


⚫ Later the party changed its name to the Indochinese Communist Party as the Comintern, under ], did not favour nationalistic sentiments. Nguyễn Ái Quốc was a leftist revolutionary who had been living in ] since 1911. Participating in the founding of the ], in 1924 he traveled to the ] to join the Comintern and, in the late 1920s, acted as a Comintern agent to help build Communist movements in ].
⚫ In 1941 Nguyễn Ái Quốc, now known as ], arrived in northern Vietnam to form the ] Front, short for ''Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội'' (League for the Independence of Vietnam). The Việt Minh Front was supposed to be an umbrella group for all parties fighting for Vietnam's independence, but was dominated by the Communist Party. The Việt Minh had a modest armed force and during the war worked with the American ] to collect intelligence on the Japanese. From China, other non-Communist Vietnamese parties also joined the Việt Minh and established armed forces with backing from the ].


⚫ During the 1930s, the Communist Party was nearly wiped out due to French execution of its top leaders such as ], ], and ].
In North Vietnam during the 1950s, political opposition groups were suppressed; those publicly opposing the government were imprisoned in hard labor camps. Many middle-class, intellectual Northerners had been lured into speaking out against Ho's communist regime, and most of them were later imprisoned in gulags, or executed, known as the ]. Prisoners were abused and beaten atop of labor-intensive work forced upon them. Many died of exhaustion, starvation, illness (who often died without any medical attention), or assault by prison guards. The government launched a ] program, which, according to ], was "aimed at exterminating class enemies."<ref name="RosefieldeVietnam">Rosefielde (2009), ''Red Holocaust'', Routledge, p. 110.</ref> Victims were chosen in an arbitrary manner, following a quota of four to five percent.<ref name="MargolinVietnam">Jean-Louis Margolin, "Vietnam and Laos: the impasse of war communism" in '']'' pp. 568–569.</ref> Torture was used on a wide scale, so much so that by 1956 Ho Chi Minh became concerned, and had it banned.<ref name="MargolinVietnam"/> It is estimated that some 50,000<ref name="MargolinVietnam"/> to 172,000<ref name="RosefieldeVietnam"/> people perished in the campaigns against wealthy farmers and landowners. Rosefielde discusses much higher estimates that range from 200,000 to 900,000, which include summary executions of National People's Party members.<ref name="RosefieldeVietnam"/><ref>See also Robert F. Turner (1975), ''Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development'' Hoover Institution Press, pp. 141-3, 155-7; Turner (1972), "Myths of the Vietnam War: The Pentagon Papers Reconsidered", ''Southeast Asian Perspectives'', No. 7, pp. i-iv, 1-55: "''Although no official figures were made public, the best estimates are that about fifty thousand people were executed, and several hundred thousands more died as a result of the "policy of isolation''"; Lam Thanh Liem (1990), "Chinh sach cai cach ruong dat cua Ho Chi Minh: sai lam hay toi ac?" in Jean-Francois Revel et al., ''Ho Chi Minh'', Nam A, pp. 179-214.</ref>


⚫ In 1941 Nguyễn Ái Quốc, now known as ], arrived in ] to form the ], short for ''Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội'' (League for the Independence of Vietnam). The Front was to be an umbrella group for parties fighting for Vietnam's independence from French and Japanese occupation,<ref name=":0" /> but was dominated by the Indochinese Communist Party.<ref name=":0" /> The Việt Minh had an armed force and, during the war, worked with the American ] to collect intelligence on the Japanese.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Chieu|first=Vu Ngu|date=1986|title=The Other Side of the 1945 Vietnamese Revolution: The Empire of Viet-Nam (March-August 1945)|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2055845|journal=The Journal of Asian Studies|volume=45|issue=2|pages=293–328|doi=10.2307/2055845|jstor=2055845|s2cid=161998265 |issn=0021-9118}}</ref> From ], other non-Communist Vietnamese parties also joined the Việt Minh and established armed forces with backing from the ].
North Vietnam ] Laos in 1959, and used 30,000 men to build invasion routes through Laos and Cambodia by 1961.<ref>''The Economist'', 26 February 1983.</ref> About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated into the south from 1961–63.<ref name="Ang16">{{cite book |first=Cheng Guan |last=Ang |title=The Vietnam War from the Other Side |url=http://books.google.com/?id=4OgLBUXHikIC&printsec= |year=2002 |publisher=] |isbn=0-7007-1615-7 |pages= 76}}</ref> North Vietnam sent 10,000 troops of the ] to attack the south in 1964, and this figure increased to 100,000 in 1965.<ref>''Washington Post'', 23 April 1985.</ref> By early 1965, 7,559 South Vietnamese hamlets had been destroyed by the Viet Cong.<ref>''Readers Digest,'' , November 1968.</ref>


⚫ ===North Vietnam===
⚫ Viet Cong death squads assassinated at least 37,000 civilians in South Vietnam; the real figure was far higher since the data mostly cover 1967-72. They also waged a mass murder campaign against civilian hamlets and refugee camps; in the peak war years, nearly a third of all civilian deaths were the result of Viet Cong atrocities.<ref>Guenter Lewy, America in Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 1978), pp272-3, 448-9.</ref> In the former capital city of ], communist troops captured the Imperial Citadel and much of the city, which led to the ]. During the interim between the capture of the Citadel and end of the "Battle of Huế", the communist insurgent occupying forces ] civilians.
In 1945, ] declared Vietnamese independence and established the ]. The country would go on to defeat the ] in the ] in 1954. Between 1953 and 1956, the government of the DRV instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "]", which resulted in the execution of thousands of accused landlords. During the land reform, testimony from witnesses ''suggested'' a ratio of one execution for every 160 village residents, which extrapolated to a nationwide total of almost 100,000 executions. Because the campaign was mainly concentrated in the ], a lower estimate of 50,000 executions was accepted by many scholars at the time.<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Robert F.|title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development|year=1975|publisher=Hoover Institution Publications|isbn=978-0817964313|page=143}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 3024603|doi = 10.2307/3024603|title = Communist Land Policy in North Viet Nam|year = 1959|last1 = Gittinger|first1 = J. Price|journal = Far Eastern Survey|volume = 28|issue = 8|pages = 113–126}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Courtois|first=Stephane|display-authors=et al|title=]|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-674-07608-2|page=569}}</ref><ref>Dommen, Arthur J. (2001), ''The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans'', Indiana University Press, p. 340, gives a lower estimate of 32,000 executions.</ref> However, declassified documents from the Vietnamese and Hungarian archives indicate the number of executions was ''much lower'' than reported at the time, although likely greater than '''13,500'''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly |title=Newly released documents on the land reform |work=Vietnam Studies Group |access-date=2016-07-15 |quote='''Vu Tuong''': There is no reason to expect, and no evidence that I have seen to demonstrate, that the actual executions were less than planned; in fact the executions perhaps exceeded the plan if we consider two following factors. First, this decree was issued in 1953 for the rent and interest reduction campaign that preceded the far more radical land redistribution and party rectification campaigns (or waves) that followed during 1954-1956. Second, the decree was meant to apply to free areas (under the control of the Viet Minh government), not to the areas under French control that would be liberated in 1954-1955 and that would experience a far more violent struggle. Thus the number of 13,500 executed people seems to be a low-end estimate of the real number. This is corroborated by Edwin Moise in his recent paper "Land Reform in North Vietnam, 1953-1956" presented at the 18th Annual Conference on SE Asian Studies, Center for SE Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley (February 2001). In this paper Moise (7-9) modified his earlier estimate in his 1983 book (which was 5,000) and accepted an estimate close to 15,000 executions. Moise made the case based on Hungarian reports provided by Balazs, but the document I cited above offers more direct evidence for his revised estimate. This document also suggests that the total number should be adjusted up some more, taking into consideration the later radical phase of the campaign, the unauthorized killings at the local level, and the suicides following arrest and torture (the central government bore less direct responsibility for these cases, however). |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110420044800/http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly%20released%20documents%20on%20the%20land%20reform%20.html |archive-date=2011-04-20 }} cf. {{cite journal|last=Szalontai|first=Balazs|title=Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56|journal=Cold War History|volume=5|number=4|date=November 2005|pages=395–426|doi=10.1080/14682740500284630|s2cid=153956945}} cf. {{cite book|last=Vu|first=Tuong|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZbr9iD1HZ8C&q=15%2C000|title=Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia|publisher=]|year=2010|isbn=9781139489010|page=103|quote=Clearly Vietnamese socialism followed a moderate path relative to China.&nbsp;... Yet the Vietnamese 'land reform' campaign&nbsp;... testified that Vietnamese communists could be as radical and murderous as their comrades elsewhere.}}</ref>


===Vietnam War===
⚫ == Socialism after 1975 == <!--Linked from ]-->
{{Main|Socialist Republic of Vietnam}} {{Main|Vietnam War}}
] prisoners in 1965.]]


The DRV established the ] (NLF) on December 20, 1960, to foment insurgency in the South. Many of the NLF's core members were volunteer "regroupees", southern Việt Minh who had resettled in the North after the ]. Hanoi gave the regroupees military training and sent them back to the South along the ] in the early 1960s. The NLF called for Southern Vietnamese to "overthrow the camouflaged colonial regime of the ]" and to make "efforts towards the peaceful unification". The PLAF's best-known action was the ], an assault on more than 100 South Vietnamese urban centres in 1968, including an attack on the U.S. embassy in Saigon. The offensive riveted the attention of the world's media for weeks, but also overextended the NLF. Later communist offensives were conducted predominantly by the ]. The NLF was dissolved in 1976 when North and South Vietnam were officially unified under a ].
⚫ In 1976, Vietnam was officially unified and renamed ] (SRVN), with its capital in ]. The Vietnamese Communist Party dropped its front name "Labor Party" and changed the title of First Secretary, a term used by China, to ], used by the Soviet Union, with ] as Secretary General. The National Liberation Front was dissolved. The Party emphasised development of heavy industry and collectivisation of agriculture. Over the next few years, private enterprises and private homes were seized by the government and their owners were often sent to the New Economic Zone to clear land, often to uninhabited forested areas. Members of the ], North Vietnamese military or the former Viet Cong and their families were often the recipients of the confiscated properties, often in downtown areas of cities and towns. The farmers were coerced into state-controlled cooperatives. All food production was collectivized as it was in the North, forcing farmers and fishermen to sell their goods to the government at very low prices, otherwise farmers and fishermen couldn't purchase farming supplies and fishing equipment. Transportation of food and goods between provinces was deemed illegal except by the government. Within a short period of time, Vietnam was hit with severe shortage of food and basic necessities. The ], once a world-class rice-producing area, was threatened with famine.


⚫ The ] are estimated to have eliminated about 36,725 ]ese soldiers between 1957 and 1972. Statistics for 1968–72 suggest that "about 80 percent of the victims were ordinary civilians and only about 20 percent of them were government officials, policemen, members of the self-defence forces or pacification cadres."<ref name="Lewy">{{cite book|author-link=Guenter Lewy|last=Lewy|first=Guenter|title=]|publisher=]|year=1980|isbn=9780199874231|page=272-273}}</ref> In the former capital city of ], NLF troops captured the Imperial Citadel and much of the city, which led to the ]. During the interim between the capture of the Citadel and the end of the "Battle of Huế", the occupying forces ].
Up to 155,000 refugees fleeing the final NVA ] were killed or abducted on the road to ] in 1975.<ref>Wiesner, Louis, ''Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam, 1954-1975'' (Greenwood Press, 1988), pp. 318-9.</ref> Sources have estimated that 165,000 South Vietnamese died in the re-education camps out of 1-2.5 million sent,<ref name="Desbarats">Desbarats, Jacqueline. "Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation", from ''The Vietnam Debate'' (1990) by John Morton Moore. "We know now from a 1985 statement by Nguyen Co Tach that two and a half million, rather than one million, people went through reeducation....in fact, possibly more than 100,000 Vietnamese people were victims of extrajudicial executions in the last ten years....it is likely that, overall, at least one million Vietnamese were the victims of forced population transfers."</ref><ref>Anh Do and Hieu Tran Phan, , ''Orange County Register'', April 29, 2001.</ref> while somewhere between 50,000 and 250,000 were executed.<ref name="Desbarats"/><ref name="Statistics of Vietnamese Democide"/><ref>Al Santoli, ed., ''To Bear Any Burden'' (Indiana University Press, 1999), pp272, 292-3.</ref><ref>Morris, Stephen J. , ''Vietnam Commentary'', May–June 1988.</ref> Rummel estimates that slave labor in the "New Economic Zones" caused 50,000 deaths (out of a total 1 million deported).<ref name="Desbarats"/><ref name="Statistics of Vietnamese Democide">Rummel, Rudolph, , in his ''Statistics of Democide''.</ref> The number of ] who died is estimated between 200,000 and 400,000, out of the 2.5 million that fled.<ref>''Associated Press'', June 23, 1979, ''San Diego Union'', July 20, 1986. See generally Nghia M. Vo, ''The Vietnamese Boat People'' (2006), 1954 and 1975-1992, McFarland.</ref> There were also tens of thousands of suicides after the North Vietnamese take-over.<ref>Le Thi Anh, "The New Vietnam", '']'', April 29, 1977, estimated some 20,000 post-war mass suicides.</ref> Including Vietnam's foreign ], Rummel estimates that a minimum of 400,000 and a maximum of slightly less than 2.5 million people died of political violence from 1975-87 at the hands of Hanoi.<ref name="Statistics of Vietnamese Democide"/> In 1988, Vietnam suffered a famine that afflicted millions.<ref>Crossette, Barbara, , ''],'' May 15, 1988.</ref>


⚫ ===Post Vietnam War=== <!--Linked from ]-->
⚫ In foreign relations, the SRVN became increasingly aligned with the ] by joining the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (]), and signing a Friendship Pact, which was in fact a military alliance, with the Soviet Union. Tension between Vietnam and China mounted along with China's rivalry with the Soviet Union and conflict erupted with Cambodia, China's ally. Vietnam was also subject to trade embargoes by the U.S. and its allies.
⚫ In 1975, Vietnam was officially reunified and renamed the ] (SRVN), with its capital in ]. The ] dropped its front name "Labor Party" and changed the title of First Secretary, a term used in China, to ], used in the Soviet Union, with ] as its Secretary General. The National Liberation Front was dissolved. The Party emphasised the development of heavy industry and the ]. Over the next few years, private enterprises and private homes were seized by the government and their owners were often sent to the ] to clear land, often to uninhabited forested areas. Members of the ], the ] or the former NLF and their families were often the recipients of the confiscated properties, often in downtown areas of cities and towns. The farmers were coerced into state-owned ]. All food production was collectivised, forcing farmers and fishermen to sell their goods to the ] at very low prices, otherwise farmers and fishermen couldn't purchase farming supplies and fishing equipment. Transportation of food and goods between provinces was deemed illegal except by the government. Within a short period of time, Vietnam was hit by severe shortages of food and basic necessities.


⚫ In foreign relations, the SRVN became increasingly aligned with the ] by joining the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (]), and signing a Friendship Pact, which was in fact a military alliance, with the Soviet Union. Tensions between Vietnam and China mounted along with ] and conflict erupted with ], then China's ally. Vietnam was also subject to ] by the ] and its allies. Many of those who held high positions in the old South Vietnamese government and military, and others who profited from the colonial regime were sent to ], which were hard labor prison camps.
Many of those who held high positions in the old South Vietnamese government and military, together with influential people in the literary and religious circles, were sent to ]s, which were actually hard labor prison camps. The inhumane conditions and treatment in the camps caused many inmates to remain bitter against the Communist Party decades later.


The SRVN government implemented a ] ] in the South as they did in the North. The network of security apparatus (Công An) controlled every aspect of people's life. Censorship was strict and ultra-conservative, with most pre-1975 works in the fields of music, art, and literature being banned. All religions had to be re-organized into state-controlled churches. Any negative comments toward the Party, the government, ], or anything related to Communism might earn the person the tag of Phản Động (Reactionary), with consequences ranging from being harassed by police, expelled from school or workplace, to being sent to prison. Nevertheless, the Communist authority failed to suppress the ], where food, consumer goods, and banned literature could be bought at high prices. The security apparatus also failed to stop a nationwide clandestine network of people trying to escape the country. In many cases, the security officers of some whole districts were bribed and even got involved in organizing the escape schemes. The SRVN government implemented the ] nationwide. All ]s had to be organised into state-controlled associations. Any negative comments about the Party, the State, ], or anything else that was critical of status-quo might earn the person the tag of a ''Phản Động'' (Reactionary), with consequences ranging from harassment by the police, to expulsion from one's school or workplace, or imprisonment. Nevertheless, the government failed to suppress the ], where food, consumer goods, and banned literature could be bought at high prices. The security apparatus also failed to stop a clandestine nationwide network of people from ]. In many cases, the security officers of whole districts were bribed and they even got involved in organising the escape schemes.


These living conditions resulted in an exodus of around 2.5 million Vietnamese secretly escaping the country either by sea or overland through ]. Some were successful in fleeing the region and landed in numbers in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong, only to wind up in ] camps. Some famous camps were ] in Malaysia, ] in Indonesia, ] in the Philippines and ] in Thailand. Some managed to travel as far as Australia in crowded, open boats. These conditions resulted in an exodus of around 2.5 million Vietnamese (approximately 5% of the population<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://countryeconomy.com/demography/population/vietnam?year=1975|title=Vietnam - Population 1975}}</ref>) secretly escaping the country either by sea or overland through ]. Some were successful in fleeing the region and large numbers of them landed in ], ], the ], and Hong Kong, only to wind up in ] camps. Some famous camps were ] in Malaysia, ] in Indonesia, ] in the Philippines and ] in Thailand. Some managed to travel as far as Australia in crowded, open boats. While most refugees were resettled in other countries within five years, others languished in refugee camps for over a decade. In the 1990s, refugees who could not find asylum were deported back to Vietnam. Communities of Vietnamese refugees arrived in the US, ], ], France, ], and the ]. ] arrives at ], to meet U.S. President ], 6 July 2015]]


⚫ Vietnam's third Constitution, based on that of the ], was written in 1980. The Communist Party was stated by the Constitution to be the only party to represent the people and to lead the country, according to ] ideals.
While most refugees were resettled to other countries within five years, others languished in these camps for over a decade. In the 1990s, refugees who could not find asylum were deported back to Vietnam. Communities of Vietnamese refugees arrived in the US, Canada, Australia, France, West Germany, and the UK.


In 1980, ] ] became the first Vietnamese person and the first Asian to go into space, traveling on the Soviet ] to service the ] space station. During the early 1980s, a number of overseas Vietnamese organisations were created with the aim of overthrowing the newly unified government through armed struggle once peaceful protesting was no longer a viable option. Most groups attempted to infiltrate Vietnam but they were eventually surpressed by the ]. Most notable were the organisations led by ] from the US, Võ Đại Tôn from Australia, and Lê Quốc Túy from France. Hoàng Cơ Minh was killed during an ambush in ]. Võ Đại Tôn was captured and imprisoned until his release in December 1991. Lê Quốc Túy stayed in France so he could undergo kidney treatment while his allies were arrested and executed in Vietnam. These organisations gained massive funding from US-aligned interest groups as from their eyes, transitioning modern-day Vietnam into a ] would be a superior economic and social alternative and would improve the lifestyle of many of those living under the current socialist system (which utilises many capitalist-style marketing techniques), whereas Pro-Socialists in Vietnam may unwittingly see this act, even if it is viewed as benign by pro-democratic, as an act of reopening unhealed wounds. Additionally, a drastic shift in governance ideology would produce a change too vast for the Vietnamese to cope with, as evident with how Russia suffered immense drops in economic and social conditions when USSR dissolved in 1991 due to ]. In the following decades of the dissolution of the USSR, only five or six of the post-communist states are on a path to joining the wealthy capitalist ] while most fell behind, some to such an extent that it will take over fifty years to catch up to where they were before the fall of the Soviet Bloc, justifying that Vietnam did not need to transition to ] anytime soon.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ghodsee, Kristen Rogheh, 1970-|title=Red hangover : legacies of twentieth-century communism|date=19 October 2017|isbn=978-0-8223-7241-7|location=Durham|oclc=982394511}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Milanovic|first=Branko|date=2015-03-04|title=After the Wall Fell: The Poor Balance Sheet of the Transition to Capitalism|journal=Challenge|language=en|volume=58|issue=2|pages=135–138|doi=10.1080/05775132.2015.1012402|s2cid=153398717|issn=0577-5132}}</ref>
⚫ Vietnam's third Constitution, based on that of the ], was written in 1980. The Communist Party was stated by the Constitution to be the only party to represent the people and to lead the country.


However, throughout the 1980s, the voices of the Overseas Vietnamese and those struggling under the socialist system were not left unheard, as Vietnam made the transition from a ].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Riedel|first=James|date=1997|title=The Vietnamese Economy in the 1990s|journal=Asian-Pacific Economic Literature|language=en|volume=11|issue=2|pages=58–65|doi=10.1111/1467-8411.00016|issn=1467-8411}}</ref> It had also received nearly $3 billion a year in economic and military aid from the Soviet Union. Most of its trade was conducted with the USSR and other ] (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) countries during this time. Some cadres, realizing the economic suffering of the people, began to break the rules and experiment with market-oriented enterprises, thus, following models inspired by ] values. This was tolerated by most local authorities before becoming widespread and popular after small business regulations loosened in the 1990s – around the same the time the USSR started to dissolve. Vietnam's economy started to recover and poverty levels gradually declined.
In 1980, ] ] became the first Vietnamese person and the first Asian to go into space, traveling on the Soviet ] to service the ] space station.


===Government of Vietnam===
During the early 1980s, a number of overseas Vietnamese organizations were created with the aim of overthrowing the Vietnamese Communist government through armed struggle. Most groups attempted to infiltrate Vietnam but eventually were eliminated by Vietnamese security and armed forces. Most notable were the organizations led by ] from the US, ] from Australia, and ] from France. Hoàng Cơ Minh was killed during an ambush in Laos. Võ Đại Tôn was captured and imprisoned until his release, in the 1990s. Lê Quốc Túy escaped to France after many of his comrades were arrested and executed. Lê Quốc Túy later died in France from poison.
{{Politics of Vietnam}}
⚫ The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a ]. A new ] was approved in April 2013, replacing the 1992 version. The central role of the Communist Party was reasserted in all organs of government, politics and society. Only political organizations affiliated with or endorsed by the Communist Party are permitted to contest elections. These include the ], worker and trade unionist parties. The ] is the titular ] and the nominal ] of the ], chairing the Council on National Defense and Security. The ] ] is the ], presiding over a council of ministers composed of three deputy prime ministers and the heads of 26 ministries and commissions.


⚫ The ] is the ] ] of the government, composed of 499 members. It is superior to both the executive and judicial branches, but not to the Communist Party. All members of the council of ministers (executive branch) are derived from the National Assembly. The ], which is the highest ] in the nation, is also answerable to the National Assembly. Beneath the Supreme People's Court stand the ] and the ]. ] are also a powerful branch of the judiciary with special jurisdiction in matters of national security. All organs of Vietnam's government are led by the Communist Party. Most government appointees are members of the party. The ] is one of the most important political leaders in the nation, controlling the party's national organization and state appointments, as well as setting policy.
Throughout the 1980s, Vietnam received nearly $3 billion a year in economic and military aid from the ] and conducted most of its trade with the USSR and other ] (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) countries. Some cadres, realizing the economic suffering of the people, began to break rules and experimented with market-oriented enterprises. Some were punished for their efforts, but years later would be hailed as visionary pioneers.


==See also==
⚫ ==Government of Vietnam==
*]
⚫ The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a ]. A new ] was approved in April 1992, replacing the 1975 version. The central role of the Communist Party was reasserted in all organs of government, politics and society. Only political organizations affiliated with or endorsed by the Communist Party are permitted to contest elections. These include the ], worker and trade unionist parties. Although the state remains officially committed to ] as its defining creed, the ideology's importance has substantially diminished since the 1990s. The ] is the titular ] and the nominal ] of the ], chairing the Council on National Defense and Security. The ] ] is the ], presiding over a council of ministers composed of three deputy prime ministers and the heads of 26 ministries and commissions.
*]

*]
⚫ The ] is the ] ] of the government, composed of 498 members. It is superior to both the executive and judicial branches. All members of the council of ministers are derived from the National Assembly. The ], which is the highest ] in the nation, is also answerable to the National Assembly. Beneath the Supreme People's Court stand the ] and the ]. ] are also a powerful branch of the judiciary with special jurisdiction in matters of national security. All organs of Vietnam's government are controlled by the Communist Party. Most government appointees are members of the party. The General Secretary of the Communist Party is perhaps one of the most important political leaders in the nation, controlling the party's national organization and state appointments, as well as setting policy.


==References== ==References==
{{reflist}} {{Reflist|30em}}
{{Vietnam topics}}
{{Asia topic|Communism in}}


] ]
] ]

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Communism in Vietnam is linked to the Politics of Vietnam and the push for independence. Marxism was introduced in Vietnam with the emergence of three communist parties: the Indochinese Communist Party, the Annamese Communist Party, and the Indochinese Communist Union, later joined by a Trotskyist movement led by Tạ Thu Thâu. In 1930, the Communist International (Comintern) sent Nguyễn Ái Quốc to Hong Kong to coordinate the unification of the parties into the Vietnamese Communist Party, with Trần Phú as its first Secretary General.

History

Later the party changed its name to the Indochinese Communist Party as the Comintern, under Joseph Stalin, did not favour nationalistic sentiments. Nguyễn Ái Quốc was a leftist revolutionary who had been living in France since 1911. Participating in the founding of the French Communist Party, in 1924 he traveled to the Soviet Union to join the Comintern and, in the late 1920s, acted as a Comintern agent to help build Communist movements in Southeast Asia.

During the 1930s, the Communist Party was nearly wiped out due to French execution of its top leaders such as Trần Phú, Lê Hồng Phong, and Nguyễn Văn Cừ.

In 1941 Nguyễn Ái Quốc, now known as Hồ Chí Minh, arrived in northern Vietnam to form the Việt Minh Front, short for Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội (League for the Independence of Vietnam). The Front was to be an umbrella group for parties fighting for Vietnam's independence from French and Japanese occupation, but was dominated by the Indochinese Communist Party. The Việt Minh had an armed force and, during the war, worked with the American Office of Strategic Services to collect intelligence on the Japanese. From China, other non-Communist Vietnamese parties also joined the Việt Minh and established armed forces with backing from the Kuomintang.

North Vietnam

In 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnamese independence and established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The country would go on to defeat the French colonialists in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Between 1953 and 1956, the government of the DRV instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in the execution of thousands of accused landlords. During the land reform, testimony from witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every 160 village residents, which extrapolated to a nationwide total of almost 100,000 executions. Because the campaign was mainly concentrated in the Red River Delta area, a lower estimate of 50,000 executions was accepted by many scholars at the time. However, declassified documents from the Vietnamese and Hungarian archives indicate the number of executions was much lower than reported at the time, although likely greater than 13,500.

Vietnam War

Main article: Vietnam War
Viet Cong prisoners in 1965.

The DRV established the National Liberation Front (NLF) on December 20, 1960, to foment insurgency in the South. Many of the NLF's core members were volunteer "regroupees", southern Việt Minh who had resettled in the North after the Geneva Accord (1954). Hanoi gave the regroupees military training and sent them back to the South along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the early 1960s. The NLF called for Southern Vietnamese to "overthrow the camouflaged colonial regime of the American Imperialists" and to make "efforts towards the peaceful unification". The PLAF's best-known action was the Tet Offensive, an assault on more than 100 South Vietnamese urban centres in 1968, including an attack on the U.S. embassy in Saigon. The offensive riveted the attention of the world's media for weeks, but also overextended the NLF. Later communist offensives were conducted predominantly by the People's Army of Vietnam. The NLF was dissolved in 1976 when North and South Vietnam were officially unified under a unitary Marxist-Leninist state.

The NLF are estimated to have eliminated about 36,725 South Vietnamese soldiers between 1957 and 1972. Statistics for 1968–72 suggest that "about 80 percent of the victims were ordinary civilians and only about 20 percent of them were government officials, policemen, members of the self-defence forces or pacification cadres." In the former capital city of Huế, NLF troops captured the Imperial Citadel and much of the city, which led to the Battle of Huế. During the interim between the capture of the Citadel and the end of the "Battle of Huế", the occupying forces Massacre at Huế.

Post Vietnam War

In 1975, Vietnam was officially reunified and renamed the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRVN), with its capital in Hanoi. The Communist Party of Vietnam dropped its front name "Labor Party" and changed the title of First Secretary, a term used in China, to Secretary-General, used in the Soviet Union, with Lê Duẩn as its Secretary General. The National Liberation Front was dissolved. The Party emphasised the development of heavy industry and the collectivisation of agriculture. Over the next few years, private enterprises and private homes were seized by the government and their owners were often sent to the New Economic Zones to clear land, often to uninhabited forested areas. Members of the Party, the People's Army of Vietnam or the former NLF and their families were often the recipients of the confiscated properties, often in downtown areas of cities and towns. The farmers were coerced into state-owned cooperatives. All food production was collectivised, forcing farmers and fishermen to sell their goods to the Government at very low prices, otherwise farmers and fishermen couldn't purchase farming supplies and fishing equipment. Transportation of food and goods between provinces was deemed illegal except by the government. Within a short period of time, Vietnam was hit by severe shortages of food and basic necessities.

In foreign relations, the SRVN became increasingly aligned with the Soviet Union by joining the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), and signing a Friendship Pact, which was in fact a military alliance, with the Soviet Union. Tensions between Vietnam and China mounted along with China's rivalry with the Soviet Union and conflict erupted with Kampuchea, then China's ally. Vietnam was also subject to trade embargoes by the U.S. and its allies. Many of those who held high positions in the old South Vietnamese government and military, and others who profited from the colonial regime were sent to reeducation camps, which were hard labor prison camps.

The SRVN government implemented the dictatorship of the proletariat nationwide. All religions had to be organised into state-controlled associations. Any negative comments about the Party, the State, Ho Chi Minh, or anything else that was critical of status-quo might earn the person the tag of a Phản Động (Reactionary), with consequences ranging from harassment by the police, to expulsion from one's school or workplace, or imprisonment. Nevertheless, the government failed to suppress the black market, where food, consumer goods, and banned literature could be bought at high prices. The security apparatus also failed to stop a clandestine nationwide network of people from trying to escape the country. In many cases, the security officers of whole districts were bribed and they even got involved in organising the escape schemes.

These conditions resulted in an exodus of around 2.5 million Vietnamese (approximately 5% of the population) secretly escaping the country either by sea or overland through Cambodia. Some were successful in fleeing the region and large numbers of them landed in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong, only to wind up in United Nations refugee camps. Some famous camps were Bidong in Malaysia, Galang in Indonesia, Bataan in the Philippines and Songkla in Thailand. Some managed to travel as far as Australia in crowded, open boats. While most refugees were resettled in other countries within five years, others languished in refugee camps for over a decade. In the 1990s, refugees who could not find asylum were deported back to Vietnam. Communities of Vietnamese refugees arrived in the US, Canada, Australia, France, West Germany, and the UK.

Chairman of the Communist Party Nguyễn Phú Trọng arrives at Joint Base Andrews, to meet U.S. President Barack Obama, 6 July 2015

Vietnam's third Constitution, based on that of the USSR, was written in 1980. The Communist Party was stated by the Constitution to be the only party to represent the people and to lead the country, according to Marxist–Leninist ideals.

In 1980, cosmonaut Phạm Tuân became the first Vietnamese person and the first Asian to go into space, traveling on the Soviet Soyuz 37 to service the Salyut 6 space station. During the early 1980s, a number of overseas Vietnamese organisations were created with the aim of overthrowing the newly unified government through armed struggle once peaceful protesting was no longer a viable option. Most groups attempted to infiltrate Vietnam but they were eventually surpressed by the security apparatus and the armed forces. Most notable were the organisations led by Hoàng Cơ Minh from the US, Võ Đại Tôn from Australia, and Lê Quốc Túy from France. Hoàng Cơ Minh was killed during an ambush in Laos. Võ Đại Tôn was captured and imprisoned until his release in December 1991. Lê Quốc Túy stayed in France so he could undergo kidney treatment while his allies were arrested and executed in Vietnam. These organisations gained massive funding from US-aligned interest groups as from their eyes, transitioning modern-day Vietnam into a Liberal democracy would be a superior economic and social alternative and would improve the lifestyle of many of those living under the current socialist system (which utilises many capitalist-style marketing techniques), whereas Pro-Socialists in Vietnam may unwittingly see this act, even if it is viewed as benign by pro-democratic, as an act of reopening unhealed wounds. Additionally, a drastic shift in governance ideology would produce a change too vast for the Vietnamese to cope with, as evident with how Russia suffered immense drops in economic and social conditions when USSR dissolved in 1991 due to Shock therapy. In the following decades of the dissolution of the USSR, only five or six of the post-communist states are on a path to joining the wealthy capitalist West while most fell behind, some to such an extent that it will take over fifty years to catch up to where they were before the fall of the Soviet Bloc, justifying that Vietnam did not need to transition to Liberal democracy anytime soon.

However, throughout the 1980s, the voices of the Overseas Vietnamese and those struggling under the socialist system were not left unheard, as Vietnam made the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. It had also received nearly $3 billion a year in economic and military aid from the Soviet Union. Most of its trade was conducted with the USSR and other COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) countries during this time. Some cadres, realizing the economic suffering of the people, began to break the rules and experiment with market-oriented enterprises, thus, following models inspired by Western World values. This was tolerated by most local authorities before becoming widespread and popular after small business regulations loosened in the 1990s – around the same the time the USSR started to dissolve. Vietnam's economy started to recover and poverty levels gradually declined.

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The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a one-party state. A new state constitution was approved in April 2013, replacing the 1992 version. The central role of the Communist Party was reasserted in all organs of government, politics and society. Only political organizations affiliated with or endorsed by the Communist Party are permitted to contest elections. These include the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, worker and trade unionist parties. The President of Vietnam is the titular head of state and the nominal commander-in-chief of the military of Vietnam, chairing the Council on National Defense and Security. The Prime Minister of Vietnam Phạm Minh Chính is the head of government, presiding over a council of ministers composed of three deputy prime ministers and the heads of 26 ministries and commissions.

The National Assembly of Vietnam is the unicameral legislature of the government, composed of 499 members. It is superior to both the executive and judicial branches, but not to the Communist Party. All members of the council of ministers (executive branch) are derived from the National Assembly. The Supreme People's Court of Vietnam, which is the highest court of appeal in the nation, is also answerable to the National Assembly. Beneath the Supreme People's Court stand the provincial municipal courts and the local courts. Military courts are also a powerful branch of the judiciary with special jurisdiction in matters of national security. All organs of Vietnam's government are led by the Communist Party. Most government appointees are members of the party. The General Secretary of the Communist Party is one of the most important political leaders in the nation, controlling the party's national organization and state appointments, as well as setting policy.

See also

References

  1. ^ Chieu, Vu Ngu (1986). "The Other Side of the 1945 Vietnamese Revolution: The Empire of Viet-Nam (March-August 1945)". The Journal of Asian Studies. 45 (2): 293–328. doi:10.2307/2055845. ISSN 0021-9118. JSTOR 2055845. S2CID 161998265.
  2. Turner, Robert F. (1975). Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development. Hoover Institution Publications. p. 143. ISBN 978-0817964313.
  3. Gittinger, J. Price (1959). "Communist Land Policy in North Viet Nam". Far Eastern Survey. 28 (8): 113–126. doi:10.2307/3024603. JSTOR 3024603.
  4. Courtois, Stephane; et al. (1997). The Black Book of Communism. Harvard University Press. p. 569. ISBN 978-0-674-07608-2.
  5. Dommen, Arthur J. (2001), The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans, Indiana University Press, p. 340, gives a lower estimate of 32,000 executions.
  6. "Newly released documents on the land reform". Vietnam Studies Group. Archived from the original on 2011-04-20. Retrieved 2016-07-15. Vu Tuong: There is no reason to expect, and no evidence that I have seen to demonstrate, that the actual executions were less than planned; in fact the executions perhaps exceeded the plan if we consider two following factors. First, this decree was issued in 1953 for the rent and interest reduction campaign that preceded the far more radical land redistribution and party rectification campaigns (or waves) that followed during 1954-1956. Second, the decree was meant to apply to free areas (under the control of the Viet Minh government), not to the areas under French control that would be liberated in 1954-1955 and that would experience a far more violent struggle. Thus the number of 13,500 executed people seems to be a low-end estimate of the real number. This is corroborated by Edwin Moise in his recent paper "Land Reform in North Vietnam, 1953-1956" presented at the 18th Annual Conference on SE Asian Studies, Center for SE Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley (February 2001). In this paper Moise (7-9) modified his earlier estimate in his 1983 book (which was 5,000) and accepted an estimate close to 15,000 executions. Moise made the case based on Hungarian reports provided by Balazs, but the document I cited above offers more direct evidence for his revised estimate. This document also suggests that the total number should be adjusted up some more, taking into consideration the later radical phase of the campaign, the unauthorized killings at the local level, and the suicides following arrest and torture (the central government bore less direct responsibility for these cases, however).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) cf. Szalontai, Balazs (November 2005). "Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56". Cold War History. 5 (4): 395–426. doi:10.1080/14682740500284630. S2CID 153956945. cf. Vu, Tuong (2010). Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia. Cambridge University Press. p. 103. ISBN 9781139489010. Clearly Vietnamese socialism followed a moderate path relative to China. ... Yet the Vietnamese 'land reform' campaign ... testified that Vietnamese communists could be as radical and murderous as their comrades elsewhere.
  7. Lewy, Guenter (1980). America in Vietnam. Oxford University Press. p. 272-273. ISBN 9780199874231.
  8. "Vietnam - Population 1975".
  9. Ghodsee, Kristen Rogheh, 1970- (19 October 2017). Red hangover : legacies of twentieth-century communism. Durham. ISBN 978-0-8223-7241-7. OCLC 982394511.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. Milanovic, Branko (2015-03-04). "After the Wall Fell: The Poor Balance Sheet of the Transition to Capitalism". Challenge. 58 (2): 135–138. doi:10.1080/05775132.2015.1012402. ISSN 0577-5132. S2CID 153398717.
  11. Riedel, James (1997). "The Vietnamese Economy in the 1990s". Asian-Pacific Economic Literature. 11 (2): 58–65. doi:10.1111/1467-8411.00016. ISSN 1467-8411.
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