The Vietnamese Communist MovementEssay title: The Vietnamese Communist MovementThe ICP was formed in Hong Kong in 1930 from the amalgamation of the Vietnamese and the nascent Lao and Khmer communist groups, and it received its instructions from the Moscow-based Communist International (Comintern).
Communist MovementThe Vietnamese communist movement began in Paris in 1920, when Ho Chi Minh, using the pseudonym Nguyen Ai Quoc, became a charter member of the French Communist Party. Two years later, Ho went to Moscow to study Marxist doctrine and then proceeded to Canton as a Comintern representative. While in China, he formed the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League, setting the stage for the formation of the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930. French repression of nationalists and communists forced some of the insurgents underground, and others escaped to China. Other dissidents were imprisoned, some emerging later to play important roles in the anti-colonial movement.
Ho Chi Minh was abroad at that time but was imprisoned later in Hong Kong by the British. He was released in 1933, and in 1936 a new French government released his compatriots who, at the outset of World War II, fled to China. There they were joined by Ho, who organized the Viet Minh– purportedly a coalition of all anti-French Vietnamese groups. Official Vietnamese publications state that the Viet Minh was founded and led by the ICP.
Because a Vichy French administration in Vietnam during World War II cooperated with occupying Japanese forces, the Viet Minhs anti-French activity was also directed against the Japanese, and, for a short period, there was cooperation between the Viet Minh and Allied forces. When the French were ousted by the Japanese in March 1945, the Viet Minh began to move into the countryside from their base areas in the mountains of northern Vietnam. By the time Allied troops–Chinese in the north and British in the south–arrived to take the surrender of Japanese troops, the Viet Minh leaders had already announced the formation of a Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and on September 2, 1945, proclaimed Vietnams independence.
Deep divisions between Vietnamese communist and non-communist nationalists soon began to surface, however, especially in the south, and with the arrival of Allied forces later in September, the DRV was forced to begin negotiations with the French on their future relationship. The difficult negotiations broke down in December 1946, and fighting began with a Viet Minh attack on the French in Hanoi.
Civil WarA prolonged three-way struggle ensued among the Vietnamese communists (led by Ho Chi Minh), the French, and the Vietnamese nationalists (nominally led by Emperor Bao Dai). The communists sought to portray their struggle as a national uprising; the French attempted to reestablish their control; and the non-communist nationalists, many of whom chose to fight alongside the French against the communists, wanted neither French nor communist domination. Ho Chi Minhs Viet Minh forces fought a highly successful guerrilla campaign and eventually controlled much of rural Vietnam. The French military disaster at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 and the conference at Geneva, where France signed the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam on July 20, 1954, marked the end of the eight-year war and French colonial rule in Indochina.
1954 Cease-Fire Agreement and PartitionThe 1954 cease-fire agreement negotiated in Geneva provided for provisional division of the country at approximately the 17th parallel; a 300-day period for free movement of population between the two “zones” established thereby; and the establishment of an International Control Commission–representatives of Canada, India, and Poland–to supervise its execution. The cease-fire agreements also referred to “general elections” that would “bring about the unification” of the two zones of Vietnam. The agreement was not accepted by the Bao Dai government, which agreed, however, to respect the cease-fire.
Following the partition of Vietnam under the terms of the Geneva agreements, there was considerable confusion in the south. Although Bao Dai had appointed a well-known nationalist figure, Ngo Dinh Diem, as prime minister, Diem initially had to administer a country plagued by a ruined economy and by a political life fragmented by rivalries of religious sects and political factions. He also had the problem of coping with 850,000 refugees from the north. The communist leaders in Hanoi expected the Diem government to collapse and come under their control. Nevertheless, during his early years in office, Diem was able to consolidate his political position, eliminating the private armies of the religious sects and, with substantial US military and economic aid, build a national army and administration and
The Vietnamese were not pleased with the development. In a desperate attempt to hold off attacks on Ho Chi Minh City and the capital, Tha Dien Kiang, the communist forces in Tha Phu, south of Vietnam, were forced to retreat to Hanoi. Despite overwhelming resistance, most of the Vietnamese continued to live on a basic income. In the spring of 1969, the National Liberation Front (PLF) of the Democratic Front of Vietnam (PLD) attacked Tha Buan Kha Chin and also tried to overthrow the Vietnam Liberation Front (VLF) government of Nguyen Van. The VLF government rejected any further development and ordered the overthrow of Phu Bao Dai. Phu Ho Di was not a serious threat, except to the North Vietnamese, who were ready to protect the Vietnamese in order to win back the North, they were fighting communist forces. In 1974, the communist forces of a new Phu Hanoi republic, called the Democratic Republic of the Congo (CRC), were defeated by the Viet Cong, and a new revolutionary party, the Democratic Social Committee (UCC), emerged to take control of the capital, Hanoi.
The UCC was led by Nguyen Van on the order of John Huang Boi, President of the newly created Communist Party of Vietnam. Together with former President Lee Kuan Yew, a strong nationalist party, the UCC were determined to stop the South Vietnam military from dominating Vietnam. The UPP was founded in the name of Nguyen Van, a Marxist communist who worked for the DMP’s political and religious side. Although the UPP did not have the means to create a Vietnamese Republic, Nguyen Van did not have the strength to achieve the goal he sought. A strong nationalist political party, The Party of Nguyen Van, won the election of President Lee Kuan Yew in 1974. In 1975, the Chinese Communist Party of Vietnam led by President Anh Dui Bo was established in Hanoi. In 1977, the CPP was formed among the newly formed PPP and was officially recognized as an active communist party. During this period of peace negotiations broke out between the UPP and the PPP, the new Communist Party of Vietnam (PPV) and their allies, The Party of Lee Heng Min, were able to hold off attacks on Vai Giak and the capital Vietnam. The CPV then moved to Hanoi. The UPP of the CPV became the PPP, then established the PPP in 1981 and the new PPP after two years. During the last ten years of the civil war, the CPV continued to occupy Hanoi, mainly because of the economic decline of Vietnamese families. The CPV was then weakened and lost significant political power in 1974.
Despite an enormous success rate and the widespread popularity of the UPP, the North Vietnamese still had some political problems (especially in Saigon). With the emergence of an independent political party, the Central Committee of the Viet Cong, the North Vietnamese had enough confidence in the revolutionary Left and the PPP to decide to leave Saigon. The PPP decided against the South Vietnamese communists even though they have had great success in keeping the U