1945 : Text

In the text David Marr argues that 1945 is the most important year in the modern history of Vietnam. (Marr, pg. 1) It is thought throughout the history of Vietnam that the Communist party was the primary driving force for Independence. Marr attempts to dispute these hypotheses, not by devaluing the impact of the Communist in Vietnam, but by focusing on other outside contributors. Marr describes the year of 1945, and years prior as an “awaking” of the Vietnamese people. The political transformations of 1945 took place in all the provincial towns and most rural districts of Vietnam. (Marr, pg. 2)Marr does not undermine the importance of the Communist party in Vietnam. He does stress the importance of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) and the Viet Minh. Although these organizations were essential to the movement, Marr argues that many Vietnamese did not even understand what the Viet Minh stood for. (Marr pg. 2) He contests that the Viet Minh did rally the people of Vietnam, but that these people were not brought together under a shared belief in Communism – and for that matter no individual group was really in control. (Marr pg.6) Marr saw the situation about people of diverse backgrounds and intentions contesting for hegemony. (Marr pg.6)

Applying his knowledge of Vietnam and numerous other accounts Marr describes the year of 1945 in great detail, including the years leading up to Independence. Marr begins by laying out the ground work in earlier years in how the Vietnamese people were treated by the French Imperialist. Marr begins the text at the point when the French are still technically in control of Vietnam, but it is evident that the Japanese are the ones who are really in control upon their arrival in 1941. (Marr pg.13) Japanese control of the region was out of necessity as a result of the American embargo set on Japan. (Marr pg. 26) Japan offered to remove its troops from southern Indochina in return for the United States rescinding the freeze on Japan, but the United States refused. (Marr pg.27) after the refusal of the freeze Japan began to exhaust Indochina of its resources creating contempt amongst its inhabitants. (Marr pg. 30)

Marr describes these actions by the Japanese and the years of abuse bestowed upon them by the French as the underlying factor for the resolve of the Vietnamese people. He argues that it was not this great Communist revolution that created Independence, but it was the people of Vietnam tired of being oppressed rising up and defeating two Imperial powers.Marr sees the ICP and the Viet Minh as the main contributors to organizing and providing a commonality for the people of Vietnam to fight under. He argues that in 1945 with the French weak and the Japanese losing their power, the Vietnamese people saw a power vacuum and an opportunity for Independence. Marr contests that it was the Communist party jumping at the right opportunity that gained them fame, not the party that caused the fall of the French and Japanese.

After the Vietnamese gain Independence Marr still points out the various factors that still stand in the way of a completely independent Vietnam. He describes how the Viet Minh and the Communist rise to power, but that there is still this unsettled anxiety amongst the people of Vietnam. It is not until many years later that Vietnam gains true independence and is united under one party.The debate that David Marr writes about in his book 1945 is that the Communist party in Vietnam did play a major rule in gaining Independence, but they were not the underlying factor. The argument that Marr brings forth is that no one was in control. (Marr pg.6) If one were to read about Vietnam history today that majority of text would attribute Vietnamese independence to the Communist party. This is however not the case. It was the people themselves of Vietnam that rose up to defeat the Imperialist forces.The people of Vietnam did not understand what the Viet Minh stood for, they were inundated with political slogans, flags, salutes, and even stamps to try to promote the Viet Minh. (Marr pg. 2) The people of Vietnam did not see this as an opportunity to join the Communist party; they saw it as a chance to kick some Imperialist ass.

After the Japanese seized power on March 9, 1945 the French nationals became subjected to increasing amount of physical and verbal abuse from the Vietnamese. (Marr pg. 65) The Vietnamese people at first did not know what to expect from the Japanese, perhaps as liberators or continuing the Imperialistic domination. (Marr pg. 90)
During the Japanese take-over the underground Communist Party in Hanoi was aware of the events, but did not act. (Marr pg. 152) This was the point when the Communist party started to see opportunities in some former prisoners under French rule being freed and possible recruits for their cause. The greatest event in the Viet Minh early days was the return of Ho Chi Minh. (Marr pg. 164) Ho began propaganda campaigns to recruit individuals into the party. His propaganda supports Marr’s dispute in that Ho, made sure propaganda made no mention of Socialism or the Communist Party. (Marr pg. 173.) The argument that Marr is trying to convey is that it was not the fact that the Viet Minh and the ICP were Communist that brought them to power, it was that they were the most organized, supported and successful group at the time of revolution. Marr would dispute that if any other organization be it democratic, utilitarian, or communist the people of Vietnam would have joined it in a common resolve to end the Imperialist oppression and free their land. Marr even points out in the text how the Viet Minh themselves where not all communist. Hundreds of thousands of people in the VML (Viet Minh League), which was “more than communist,” allegedly incorporating nationalists, high mandarins, and native soldiers in the colonial army. (Marr pg. 228)

1945: Subtext

Subtext

Ministry of National Defense Institute of Military History. Trinh Vuong Hong 2006. Ho Chi Minh: Thought on the Military. The Gioi Publishers. Hanoi.

This novel describes the military and political development of Ho Chi Minh. His studies in France, the Soviet Union, and China influenced his ideas and fostered the man that helps define a nation. Ho took ideas and customs from all these countries to build a new nation in Vietnam. Ho focused militarily on the people. He believed that if a people were organized and had the desire to gain independence they could succeed over any oppressor. Ho also realized that the people were the only means to gain independence in Vietnam. For any individual wanting to follow the military and political growth of Ho Chi Minh would find this novel intriguing and inspirational.

Borton, Lady. 2007. Ho Chi Minh: A Journey. The Gioi Publishers. Hanoi.

Ho Chi Minh led a fascinating life. From his birth to all the nations that he traveled to Ho was a worldly and scholarly man. Many people, especially in the West, view Ho Chi Minh as a tunnel digging little Vietnamese Communist. This is far from the truth; Ho spoke many languages, studied various religions, and understood various cultures. Many Americans would be amazed to read this book and find that Ho worked at a hotel in the United States and admired America. The captivating aspect of this text is the pictures. There are photographs of Ho with various famous individuals, poems, and his personal writings. Not a large text in itself, the book wonderfully lays out a chronological depiction of Ho Chi Minh’s life.

Barholomew-Feis, Dixee R. 2006. The OSS and Ho Chi Minh: Unexpected Allies in the War against Japan. University Press of Kansas. Kansas, MO

For the regular American it would be a surprise to realize how much the United States aided the Communist Vietnamese and Ho Chi Minh during World War II. If one would read this novel and see how much Ho admired America and the United States intelligence agencies the relationship with the two countries could have been different during the cold war. The United States intelligence agency the OSS, which is the precursor to the CIA, helped the Vietnamese with strategy and military intelligence that helped to aid the Vietnamese in their struggle for independence.

Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. 2002. Cloak and Dollar: A History of American Secret Intelligence. Yale University. New Haven and London.

The history of the American intelligence agencies is a web of underhandedness, lies, brilliant individuals, short-sidedness, and an unthinkable amount of money. The American government has financed military and political dissention on every continent in the world. The truth about many of these operations will never really be known. There has been success in the history of the intelligence agencies. But, the mistakes cost thousands of lives and in the case of Vietnam, Iran, and many other countries led to war and the backing of tyrannical individuals.

The Vietnamese August Revolution Reinterpreted. Huynh Kim Khanh. The Journal of Asian Studies. Vol. 30, No. 4 (August 1971). pp. 761-782. Association of Asian Studies.

Many scholars agree that August 1945 is the most important month in Vietnam’s history. The events that took place that month shaped the country into what it is today. The acts of the Communist party during this revolution were the key actor in Vietnam’s struggle for independence. This text argue that the Communist were the reason that Vietnam was victorious over the colonial oppressors.

1945: Context

Context

David Marr disputes the popular notion that Communism was the reason Vietnam gained independence. The Communist party was the primary actor in Vietnam’s struggle for independence. There are many novels, movies, and other text to back this argument. Marr however, provides ample evidence that it was not just the Communist party. He argues that it was a Nationalist movement just as much as a Communist Revolution. The Vietnamese people were first ruled by an oppressive French imperialist regime and then a similar repressor in the Japanese in March of 1945. (Marr 1995, pg. 1) The people of Vietnam endured many hardships under theses tyrannical regimes and were looking to gain independence by any means. The Communist party just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

The vital role of the Communist party in the August 1945 Revolution and Vietnam’s independence is widely known. The main catalyst in the Communist party was Ho Chi Minh. Ho believed that for Vietnam to gain independence it would take all the Vietnamese people. Ho believed in the people and their invincible power to overcome the colonial oppressors. (Trinh 2006, pg. 147) The line between Communism and Nationalism is skewed during this period. Ho and his compatriots believed in Vietnam gaining independence by any means. He is even quoted as saying, “I am a Communist, but the point in which I am concentrating now is independence and freedom for the country of Vietnam, not Communism. I have one special revelation to share with you: Communism will not be realized in Vietnam during the next fifty years.” (Borton 2007, pg. 83) Ho himself saw that Communism was not what the Vietnamese people were fighting for, they were fighting for freedom.

One could argue that the 1945 revolution was a Nationalist revolution and not Communist. The people of Vietnam no longer wanted to be under the rule of their colonial oppressors and wanted a nation of their own. In his own thoughts on the struggle to gain independence Ho said, “To sacrifice our lives, interests, and ideas to create a national revolution.” (Borton 2007, pg. 47) This quote underlines a national revolution, not a Communist revolution.

Ho Chi Minh and the Communist were also willing to collaborate with anyone who would help them in their struggle. An important provider of intelligence and other support for Ho and the Communist was the United States and the OSS, the predecessor for the CIA. Marr would argue that this is proof that it was not primarily a Communist revolution in that they were willing to ally with any type of government as long as it aided them in gaining independence. To back up this argument after Vietnam gained independence Ho created the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence after the American model, not a Communist manifesto. (Jeffreys-Jones 2002, pg. 195-196)

Life in Colonial Vietnam: Subtext

Tran Tu Binh The Red Earth: A Vietnamese Memoir of life on a colonial Rubber Plantation.

This book by Tran Tu Binh about a boy that endures the colonial mistreatment on a rubber plantation significantly parallels the accounts that were encountered during the Colonial prison era. This memoir expresses the similarities of how his experiences as a worker on a French rubber plantation mimicked the lives of Vietnamese prisoners during this oppressing time of the Vietnamese people. Even though The Red Earth accounts were credited toward a rebelling Communist faction it appears that their are more Communistic ties within The Colonial Bastille due to its vast majority of political prison scholars.


Truong Buu Lam Colonialism Experienced: Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism 1900-1931. Chapter 2.

Chapter 2 of this book by Truong Buu Lam is primarily focused toward the Vietnamese perception of colonialism during the French Regime. This chapter accounts for many of the hardships that the Vietnamese peasants faced during this period and provides detailed accounts of the oppression that these people faced. This perspective is solely from the view of a Vietnamese peasant and deals with issues such as high taxes, land concession, government monopolies, and labor camps.

Life in Colonial Vietnam: Text

Peter Zinoman's The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940 recalls the period of mass imprisonment of Vietnamese citizens and political revolutionaries in French Indochina by the Colonial Regime. He uses an abundance of sources that range from inmate and French memoirs of individuals present throughout this period that were published during the 60's, 70's, and 80's as well as accounts from numerous scholars on the topic. Zinoman expresses through his research the turmoil that Vietnamese inmates faced through the Colonial period and how it united them in a common goal to oppose the French Regimes through these political factions.

A primary focus that Zinoman tries to portray throughout this text is the sense of prison life and how it effected the inmates to create a common goal of opposing the French. Prisons during this period were ill-disciplined and poorly structured. Throughout the text are examples of how prison life made inmates withstand physical hardships but also emotional strains as well. Prisoners were mentally scorned by the conditions of prison life and length of time they would have to spend away from their families, as well as those who lost their families by going away to prison due their lower class status. This left inmates with the decision to end their suffering quickly or create bonds with their new family within the prison walls.

An account from the memoir of a political inmate claimed that upon his release his comrades shared tears of anguish and embraced their brother upon his departure. It was through these impenetrable ties and a common enemy that restructured the Communist party within the Colonial prison. The Thai Nguyen Rebellion was a common acknowledgment of this idea because Phan Boi Chau's Restoration Society lead to an abundance of political prisoners within the Thai Nguyen prison. Accounts from published memoirs claimed that inmates from over 30 different provinces banded together in this valiant revolt against the French Regime.

The Colonial Bastille offers an in depth analysis of how the Colonial prisons brought forth a restructured and even stronger revolutionary revolt than ever seen before in previous years. It exclaims how prison created the perfect environment for establishing an underground faction of political independence regimes. It served as an ideal atmosphere to practice the principles of Leninism by centralizing themselves with secrecy and discipline. Prison also gave these political inmates the means of French opposed prisoners to strengthen their numbers by guiding them into the Communist light.

Peter Zinoman's The Colonial Bastille is an extremely well written and informative realization of how Communism had reawakened during the Colonial era and possibly led to Vietnamese independence from the French. The published memoir's from actual political inmates provided within this book expressed the actualization of how prisons transformed into schools for Communist and Anti-Colonial revolutionaries.

Vietnam 1945: Text
In the text David Marr argues that 1945 is the most important year in the modern history of Vietnam. (Marr, pg. 1) It is thought throughout the history of Vietnam that the Communist party was the primary driving force for Independence. Marr attempts to dispute these hypotheses, not by devaluing the impact of the Communist in Vietnam, but by focusing on other outside contributors. Marr describes the year of 1945, and years prior as an “awaking” of the Vietnamese people. The political transformations of 1945 took place in all the provincial towns and most rural districts of Vietnam. (Marr, pg. 2)
Marr does not undermine the importance of the Communist party in Vietnam. He does stress the importance of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) and the Viet Minh. Although these organizations were essential to the movement, Marr argues that many Vietnamese did not even understand what the Viet Minh stood for. (Marr pg. 2) He contests that the Viet Minh did rally the people of Vietnam, but that these people were not brought together under a shared belief in Communism – and for that matter no individual group was really in control. (Marr pg.6) Marr saw the situation about people of diverse backgrounds and intentions contesting for hegemony. (Marr pg.6)
Applying his knowledge of Vietnam and numerous other accounts Marr describes the year of 1945 in great detail, including the years leading up to Independence. Marr begins by laying out the ground work in earlier years in how the Vietnamese people were treated by the French Imperialist.
Marr begins the text at the point when the French are still technically in control of Vietnam, but it is evident that the Japanese are the ones who are really in control upon their arrival in 1941. (Marr pg.13) Japanese control of the region was out of necessity as a result of the American embargo set on Japan. (Marr pg. 26) Japan offered to remove its troops from southern Indochina in return for the United States rescinding the freeze on Japan, but the United States refused. (Marr pg.27) after the refusal of the freeze Japan began to exhaust Indochina of its resources creating contempt amongst its inhabitants. (Marr pg. 30)
Marr describes these actions by the Japanese and the years of abuse bestowed upon them by the French as the underlying factor for the resolve of the Vietnamese people. He argues that it was not this great Communist revolution that created Independence, but it was the people of Vietnam tired of being oppressed rising up and defeating two Imperial powers.
Marr sees the ICP and the Viet Minh as the main contributors to organizing and providing a commonality for the people of Vietnam to fight under. He argues that in 1945 with the French weak and the Japanese losing their power, the Vietnamese people saw a power vacuum and an opportunity for Independence. Marr contests that it was the Communist party jumping at the right opportunity that gained them fame, not the party that caused the fall of the French and Japanese.
After the Vietnamese gain Independence Marr still points out the various factors that still stand in the way of a completely independent Vietnam. He describes how the Viet Minh and the Communist rise to power, but that there is still this unsettled anxiety amongst the people of Vietnam. It is not until many years later that Vietnam gains true independence and is united under one party.


Vietnam 1945: context
The debate that David Marr writes about in his book 1945 is that the Communist party in Vietnam did play a major rule in gaining Independence, but they were not the underlying factor. The argument that Marr brings forth is that no one was in control. (Marr pg.6) If one were to read about Vietnam history today that majority of text would attribute Vietnamese independence to the Communist party. This is however not the case. It was the people themselves of Vietnam that rose up to defeat the Imperialist forces.
The people of Vietnam did not understand what the Viet Minh stood for, they were inundated with political slogans, flags, salutes, and even stamps to try to promote the Viet Minh. (Marr pg. 2) The people of Vietnam did not see this as an opportunity to join the Communist party; they saw it as a chance to kick some Imperialist ass.
After the Japanese seized power on March 9, 1945 the French nationals became subjected to increasing amount of physical and verbal abuse from the Vietnamese. (Marr pg. 65) The Vietnamese people at first did not know what to expect from the Japanese, perhaps as liberators or continuing the Imperialistic domination. (Marr pg. 90)
During the Japanese take-over the underground Communist Party in Hanoi was aware of the events, but did not act. (Marr pg. 152) This was the point when the Communist party started to see opportunities in some former prisoners under French rule being freed and possible recruits for their cause. The greatest event in the Viet Minh early days was the return of Ho Chi Minh. (Marr pg. 164) Ho began propaganda campaigns to recruit individuals into the party. His propaganda supports Marr’s dispute in that Ho, made sure propaganda made no mention of Socialism or the Communist Party. (Marr pg. 173.)
The argument that Marr is trying to convey is that it was not the fact that the Viet Minh and the ICP were Communist that brought them to power, it was that they were the most organized, supported and successful group at the time of revolution. Marr would dispute that if any other organization be it democratic, utilitarian, or communist the people of Vietnam would have joined it in a common resolve to end the Imperialist oppression and free their land. Marr even points out in the text how the Viet Minh themselves where not all communist. Hundreds of thousands of people in the VML (Viet Minh League), which was “more than communist,” allegedly incorporating nationalists, high mandarins, and native soldiers in the colonial army. (Marr pg. 228)













Vietnam 1945: Subtext

David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995
David Marr is an expert on Vietnamese history and has written extensively on Vietnam and Asia. Marr wrote the book after his 1990 experience in Ho Chi Minh City and other various trips around Vietnam. His experience with the people of Vietnam, their history and the stories he heard during his visits inspired him to write his own history of the country. In his countless hours of research into its past Marr saw that the communist party did have a great impact on the revolution, but that they were not the underlying factor. Marr set out in this book to give more credit to the everyday Vietnamese people who overcame oppression and won independence.

Life in Colonial Vietnam: Context

During the period between 1862 -1940 of the Colonial Regime of France the Vietnamese were subject to a high rate of mass imprisonments and a brutal oppression of its people. These prisoners consisted mainly of common law violators, those falsely accused, and political revolutionaries that opposed the French Regime. Also, during this time period of the colonial regime many Vietnamese villagers and peasants were facing the same adversities that those prisoners and political revolutionaries had faced.

During this period of the French regime Vietnamese villagers fell victim to colonial oppression which lead to years of mistreatment and death. Probably the most typical form of oppression bestowed upon these people were that of high tax rates forced on extremely poverty stricken individuals. These taxes forced people from their property and also lead to constant hardships of trying to make enough money to support themselves.

Another oppression method of the French were their land concession in 1932 where the French controlled nearly 1/5 of the land throughout all of Vietnam. This land was confiscated from generations of villagers and if they were to resist their evictions they would be sentenced to long-term imprisonment or even occasionally death. With this land the French comprised themselves of rubber, coffee, and tea plantations that acted as profitable concentration camps for Vietnamese workers who were promised a better life. These workers were subjected to harsh working conditions, beatings, and evens killings. Those villagers that tried to flee this life a solitude were eventually found and killed, but the madness did not stop there as the French would completely burn the homes of those housing the worker.

These villagers were highly oppressed by physical abuse, but also subdued to economic monopolies and mental distress. The colonial regime had monopolies over alcohol and also the opium trade. Any personal distilling or trading of opium was considered illegal, which forced the poor peasants to pay high prices for these products. Also, the mental anguish that peasants had to deal with was the physical superiority complex that the French had over the Vietnamese. Frustrations turned into violence or death and punishment for these French individuals would most likely consist of suspended jail sentences or petty fines. During this time, it was common for French people to leisurely abuse villagers.

On the other hand along side the amount of common criminals within the French Indochinese prison system there were many political prisoners. Although political prisoners were eventually subject to special treatment while imprisoned they were capable of finding comrades of their Communist ideals within the prison walls. Prisons became revolutionary schools of the communist movements due to the number of political revolutionaries that were sentenced to prison during this period. These inmates were given the opportunities to study the Marxist-Leninist theories of Communism and create stronger and closer revolutionary factions within prison than as free men. The author of The Colonial Bastille concluded with his research that the forefront of Vietnamese Independence was created by those Communist factions that were reconstructed during the Colonial imprisonments.

After many small revolts and the Thai Nguyen Rebellion, thousands of inmate deaths, and the reconstruction of political factions the French encountered a change in government that led to the amnesty of most of the political prisoners. The majority of these political offenders were given reduced sentences and when they were released were hounded by Administrative surveillance and the shame of prison. Once freed from prison these ex-convicts scattered across Indochina spreading the word of Communism and creating factions to oppose the French Regime. The political prisoners were released in 1936 and quickly began their tasks of creating these revolutionary factions. These elements of resistance would lead to the highest number of imprisonments in the history of Vietnam between 1936 and 1939.

The lives of both prisoners and the citizens of Vietnam were turmoiled with many difficult hardships and were more or less prisoners within their own homes. These people were enslaved with high taxes and government monopolies, land reforms, labor camps, imprisonment, and physical abuse during this colonial period which meant it was going to take an incredible formation of unity to bring this oppression to a halt. The reformation of the Communist party within the Vietnamese prisons was the exact unity that the country needed to give it a sense of strength that they were capable of rising up and overcoming their adversity.

Rise of Communism: Subtext

Tran Tu Binh. The Red Earth: A Vietnamese Memoir of life on a colonial Rubber Plantation. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985.

Tran Tu Binh was an early revolutionary in the communist movement in Vietnam. He voluntarily chose to work on a colonial rubber plantation to become “proletarianized”. The memoir shows the organization of the worker cells in these plantations as they fought for their rights as workers. There were progresses and setbacks in the three years that he was at the plantation. One important aspect of the memoir is it shows the influence from the outside communists and the way they used propaganda to gather the masses to become part of a bigger revolution.

David Marr, Vietnamese Traditions on Trial, 1920-1945. Berkley: University of California Press, 1984.

David Marr has focused on 20^th century Vietnam and other revolutions in Asia similar to the Vietnam model. In this book he focuses on how the educated youth of the early 1920’s were searching for a new political ideology. Many different books were written in this time trying to find a system that could pull the masses together. The educated youth had become agitated at the elders in Vietnam for failing to keep the country independent. Vietnamese Traditions on Trial becomes a supplement to Khanh’s work by showing the intellectual world conditions that were present at the time in which many political systems were thought about in Vietnam.

Martin Bernal, “The Nghe-Tinh Soviet Movement 1930-1931,” Past and Present, No. 92 (Aug., 1981), pp. 148-168

Martin Bernal, A scholar of modern Chinese history, looks at the movement in the providences of Hghe-An and Ha-Tien in the early 1930’s. His thoughts are formulated by talking to veterans of the movement and looking at documents from Hanoi and Paris. Bernal shows the chronology of the movement starting with the political agitation in these rural areas as early as 1930. The police presence in these areas was minimal which allowed the movement to gain momentum. He shows how the movement was able to successful penetrate intimidate the French until the finally staged a movement to pacify the movement. The focus of the essay is to answer the question of why this movement arose. It shows the conditions of the area and the historic effort to resist the French in this area. Hghe-An is an area where the first six members of the Thanh Nien hailed from showing the anti-French feelings in this area.

Hy Van Luong, “Agrarian Unrest from an Anthropological Perspective: The Case of Vietnam,” Comparative Politics, Vol.17, No. 2 (Jan., 1985), pp. 153-174

Luong, a professor and chairman of the anthropology department at Harvard, explores the role of the peasants in the Vietnamese revolution. He critically examines three major works that focus on the sociological and political aspect of the Vietnamese revolution, specifically the agrarian unrest. These works include Jeffery Paige’s Agrarian Revolution, James C. Scott’s The Moral Economy of the Peasant, and Samuel Popkin’s The Rational Peasant. The piece focuses on the Nghe-Tien areas and shows the factors that went into the agrarian movement in these areas. Luong argues “that without an in-depth analysis of the ambiguities and contradictions in the structural principals and ecological parameters […] the Nghe-Tien movement cannot be fully understood.” [i]

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[i] Hy Van Loung, “Agrarian Unrest from an Anthropological Perspective,” p. 153.

Rise of Communism: Text

Huynh Kim Khanh’s Vietnamese Communism 1925-1945 examines the rise of communism as a political player in Vietnam from 1925-1945. Khanh seeks to show the complex relationships that were present in the molding of this movement. The Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) was bound to two separate entities: the Vietnam people and the Comintern. Khanh argued “to achieve political legitimacy and pursue its social mission, the youthful Communist movement had to constantly maintain a delicate political balance between patriotism and proletarian internationalism.”[i] This was a difficult task that caused many problems for the development of the party. The radicalism of the late 1920’s for an independent state ostracized many of the peasants. By focusing on independence and not the social issues of Vietnam, it left the peasants on the outside of the movement. In the 1930’s however the roles were reversed. The push for social upheaval isolated many of the urban and rural support that was needed to win the struggle. A balance was instrumental for the movement to succeed.

Using mainly primary sources, Khanh tries to show this balance in the framework of the Indochinese Communist Party. He investigated many of the original ICP documents “to avoid being misled or identifying too closely with the subject.”[ii] Although he does credit many of his colleagues with writing beautifully on the subject, he feels that the primary sources paint a much clearer picture. The sources show the triumphs of the party as well as many of the negatives which almost led to the downfall of the party itself.

A central theme that Khanh tries to illustrate is the years before the creation of the communist party. The radical youth of the era had rejected reformism and began pursuing a new political system. A Marxist-Leninist system was introduced that adhered to the principals of the radical youth. Communism had an outlet into Vietnam and became the main political ideology of the time, which still remains today. An important thing to note is the political turmoil that surrounded the time of introduction. The youth of the time were Western-educated and they brought a system that could gather the masses. The Marxist-Leninist system was able to appeal to the majority of people in Vietnam. The peasants and the proletariat would be able to rise out of the oppression of the bourgeois, and the whole country could become independent by ousting out the French.

Upon reading Huynh Kim Khanh’s history of the rise of Vietnamese communism, it shows the struggle that the party endured to rise to power in August 1945. The French were constantly trying to end anti-colonial sentiments throughout Vietnam and almost succeeded in that goal in the early 1930’s. They had arrested most of the key figures and made the movement dormant for almost five years. It was at this time that Ho Chi Minh left Vietnam because he was looked down upon for failing to direct the party. Rumors spread through Vietnam that he was dead. The people thinking he was dead, criticized some of his ideas during this turbulent time

The international hand also played a huge role in shaping the party. The Comintern’s policies caused factions in the party which hindered it from reaching the true goal of independence. This communist movement was created in Vietnam as a means to end colonial rule. Along the way people became tied up in the details of how that goal would be reached. The goals of the proletariat in the international agenda interfered with the goals of independence for Vietnam, causing many setbacks.

It is clear that the idea of class struggle was a key element in the ICP. You cannot deny it or minimize its impact on the political landscape, but it seems that the Vietnam model is different in regards to the social revolution aspect of other communist countries. I say this because of how the ICP eventually pulled the masses together to a common goal. Huynh Kim Khanh emphasizes how class struggle was put on hold by the ICP in 1941 to put their attention on pushing the imperial powers out. In that respect it seems that communism was not the policy that allowed Vietnam to take control of the country in August 1945, but more of a nationalist model. The party put its political agenda on hold to achieve an important step for Vietnam. Nguyen Ai Quoc and other leaders saw that social reform and independence could not be done at the same time. They focused on bringing as many people as they could into the movement and turning their attention to their enemies. By ousting their enemies they could begin to implement their social agenda on a free Vietnam.

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[i] Huynh Kim Khanh, Vietnamese Communism 1925-1945, London: Cornell University Press, 1982, 21.

[ii] ibid, 24.

Rise of Communism: Context

In the mid 1920’s Vietnam experienced two events which would forever shift the face of Vietnam politics. Imprisonment of Phan Bui Chau and the death of Phan Chu Trinh, both anti colonial Confucian, brought an end to the traditional anti-colonial movements. Communism rose out of a need to end French Imperial rule in Vietnam. A radical youth movement arose in the mid 1920’s after the end of the traditional anti colonial Confucian models had failed. The educated youth (Thanh Nien) attempted to fuse Marxist-Leninist ideologies with the goal of making Vietnam an independent state.

Many barriers were persistent through the twenty year rise to power of the communist party in Vietnam. The Thanh Nien dissolved due to conflicts in how the party should reach their goals. With no dominate communist party to follow the Communist International (Comintern), two parties emerged. The Annamese Communist Party and the Indochinese Communist Party vied to represent Vietnam. A conference, led by Ho Chi Minh, was held in 1930 to unite the two parties; with The Indochinese Communist Party emerging as the united party.

Early in the decade, a large uprising occurred in the Nghe-An and Ha-Tinh provinces. It would be called the Nghe-Tinh Soviet Movement. For several months the groups staged uprisings and workers strikes within the region. The movement was able to have early success due to the limited French presence in the region. The Nghe-Tinh Soviets began to bomb offices and depots of the French. This caused the French to retaliate with bombings and eventually troops arrived to kill the movement.

The communist movement suffered great hardship in the 1930’s. Uprisings occurred early in the decade, but were not organized enough to cause great harm to the establishment. The French quickly squelched the uprisings and threw thousands of communists in prison for their actions. The party had become too reliant on the goals of the Comintern and had abandoned the goals of an independent Vietnam. The party idea of a social revolution clouded their judgment and made them forget about independence. Without the main leaders and a direction to travel, the party was at an all time low.

It was at this time when Ho Chi Minh was ostracized from the party. The Comintern was unhappy with the way he was directing the Communist Party in Vietnam. From the early 1930's to 1940 he was not in Vietnam.

Ironically the party was revived by the Comintern’s seventh congress. A new “people’s front” policy was created in which people from all political parties unite against a particular enemy. In the Comintern’s case this meant fascism, but for Vietnam it could be translated to imperial oppressors. In the past the communist movement in Vietnam had excluded the non worker and peasant classes as part of the revolution. Ho Chi Minh, fresh upon his return to Vietnam, founded the Viet Minh. This new movement had the goal to liberate Vietnam of French and Japanese control. With this new policy the Vietnamese could turn their focus to ridding themselves of colonialism. This new policy was the catalyst that allowed the communist party to emerge once again and ultimately win independence.

The new nationalist policies coupled with the Second World War were factors that allowed the communist movement to succeed. Japan began occupation in 1940 greatly weakening the French stronghold on Indochina. The Vietnamese saw that the French gave up control as if it were nothing and began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The Viet Minh put out propaganda and trained the followers. As they organized the French power dwindled, culminating with the Japanese taking control of the country in March of 1945. They locked up all French officials and ended the French control. Unfortunately for Japan their control over Vietnam lasted only five months as they were forced to surrender to the allied forces. The Viet Minh were able to walk into to all public buildings and take control of the land while all the French officials remained in prison. This event is known as the August Revolution. In twenty years the communist movement had taken control of an “independent” country.

Although it can not be argued that the Communist Party liberated the country, there is controversy in their victory. Some scholars argue that the liberation was the result of nationalism. Starting in the early 1940's the party moved away from the idea of a class struggle. They began to appeal to a much wider audience in Vietnam. By pushing the idea of independence, the party was able to appeal to a larger audience. This audience was highly motivated for the new cause. Without a class struggle and a platform for independence, it can be argued that the victory was due to nationalism.

Radicalism: Context

When the Vietnamese revolution broke out in 1945 it was dominated by the Communist-led Viet Minh. Due to the ‘triumph’ of Marxism-Leninism over rival anti-colonial ideologies little has been written on the radical movements that subsequently failed to mobilize the majority of the population. The period in which Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution focuses begins in the 1920s; this period is traditionally viewed as a transition between the scholar-gentry of Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh’s generation to the emergence of the Indochinese Communist Party and Nguyen Ai Quoc/Ho Chi Minh in the 1930s.

The generation of Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh were concerned with questions of long-term modernization and Westernization in Vietnam as a result of French colonialism. While Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh were ultimately seeking the same goal, an independent Vietnam, their arguments were characteristically different. Phan Boi Chau can be characterized as an ‘anti-imperialist’ determined to throw the French out completely whereas Phan Chu Trinh can be viewed as ‘anti-feudal’, seeking to learn from the French in order to later overthrow them. According to David Marr, these “men set the guidelines for most later debate on anticolonial tactics, strategy, and doctrine. The next generation would be better equipped intellectually and would have the advantage of improved objective circumstances . . .” as well as learning from the past mistakes of their predecessors.”[1] David Marr characterizes the period 1925-1945 as the merging of Phan Boi Chau’s ‘anti-imperialism’ and Phan Chu Trinh’s ‘anti-feudalism’ into one stream of anticolonial thought exemplified by Ho Chi Minh.

David G. Marr’s Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885-1925 and Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945 provide the standard views of this period of intellectual foment beginning with the above-mentioned Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh. Marr states that the “twentieth-century history of Vietnam must be understood within the context of fundamental changes in political and social consciousness among a significant segment of the Vietnamese populace in the period 1920-45.”[2] While these changes are not decisive they serve as a precondition for mass mobilization and successful strategies for a people’s war. One drawback to Marr’s texts is the centralized focus on the communist intelligentsia and the lack of focus on the non-communist intelligentsia. This gap in the history of Vietnamese radicalism has been taken up by Hue-Tam Ho Tai in Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution.

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[1] David G. Marr, Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885-1925, 275.

[2] David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945, 2.

Radicalism: Text

Hue-Tam Ho Tai’s Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution examines the role of radicalism during the early phase of the Vietnamese Revolution and “its eventual displacement by Marxism-Leninism as the dominant force in reshaping anticolonial politics and as the source of language for discussing cultural, social, and political issues.”[1] The author defines radicalism as “an essentially nonideological current of reaction, both to colonial rule and to native accommodation to that rule, whose chief characteristics were iconoclasm and the marriage of the personal and the political.”[2] Radicalism as labeled by Tai emerged during the mid-1920s in a time when many urban Vietnamese youth left home searching for knowledge and freedom overseas in countries such as, France, China, and Japan. Tai demonstrates two intertwining themes evident in a series of student strikes that led to the mass departure of these young students searching for answers: (1) the desire for freedom, in its various forms, by the newly urbanized and Westernized Vietnamese youth and (2) searching for the future of Vietnam and the Vietnamese.

Using a variety of sources, Tai seeks to analyze the relationship between political culture and cultural politics and the relationship between rhetoric and action in the 1920s. Some of the sources Tai utilizes are journals, newspapers, and contemporary fiction written in French and Vietnamese, official records from the French archives, and what she calls personal sources—her father’s unpublished memoirs, his published works, interviews with her parents, other family members and their contemporaries. Being the child of two revolutionaries from the 1920s offers Tai a valuable insight that not many scholars can lay claim to.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai makes Nguyen An Ninh, a non-Marxist intellectual, the central figure of her study in order to challenge the assumption that the Vietnamese Revolution can only be understood in terms of the history of communism. Tai states that Nguyen An Ninh epitomized the experience of exile in France for young Vietnamese during the 1920s. Ninh rejected Governor General Sarraut’s argument that national sovereignty was the end result of a long, slow process of political maturation. He argued that the crisis facing Vietnamese society was not one of tradition versus modernity but rather a crisis of moral knowledge. Ninh wanted “Vietnamese youth to reinvent itself, to create its own destiny; not merely to turn its back on the past but to look forward to the future.”[3] Aside from focusing on Nguyen An Ninh, Tai also looks at other non-Marxist revolutionaries such as Pham Quynh and Bui Quang Chieu.

A central theme of Tai’s monograph is the impact of colonial rule on the education system of Vietnam—a country previously dominated by the Confucian examination system. While the French never succeeded in replacing the Confucian structure with a logical Western alternative, they were successful in creating a demand for non-traditional schools that were geared towards producing modern scholars that would serve in the colonial bureaucracy. A small number of Vietnamese were allowed to attend French-language schools in Vietnam while an even smaller number were allowed to achieve a higher education in France. The French also emphasized the importance of teaching quoc ngu (Romanized Vietnamese script). Through this ‘New Learning’, young Vietnamese began to see parallel struggles in both their national and personal lives—the national struggle for independence from colonial rule and the personal struggle for independence from tradition. Out of these struggles developed the radicalism of the 1920s.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai suggests that Marxism-Leninism triumph over radicalism can be attributed to a “peculiar conjunction of international trends and domestic problems.”[4] The majority of Vietnamese revolutionaries did not convert to Marxism-Leninism until the late 1920s, a time in which other revolutionary organizations were in disorder. Also, as Tai points out, upon the failure of the United Front in China the Comintern adopted a more revolutionary strategy that was directed at agrarian countries going through decolonization.

Upon reading Hue-Tam Ho Tai’s treatment of the non-communist revolutionary movements, it becomes understandable why general histories of Vietnam omit the non-communist anticolonial leaders during this period.[5] It does not make for easy, clean history. Hue-Tam Ho Tai’s Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution is well-researched and received positive reviews across the board, but it is extremely dense and complicated. There existed numerous strands of radicalism throughout this period all supported with their own outlets for propaganda—newspapers, journals, pamphlets, etc. These various strands and thinkers may also have played a large role in the ‘triumph’ of the ICP as the major revolutionary force to come out of this period. Also the Vietnamese communists were more attune with the peasantry whereas the radicals of the 1920s came from the urban, educated elite and were detached from the village, unlike their predecessors Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh.

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[1] Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992, 1.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid, 73.

[4] Ibid, 4.

[5] Excluding of course Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh.

Radicalism: Subtexts

William J. Duiker. Vietnam: Revolution in Transition. 2^nd ed. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995.

Duiker is a former US Foreign Service officer and current professor of History at Penn State University. This work focuses on the Vietnamese revolution, which Duiker states from start to finish “was strongly influenced by the strategy and tactics of Marxism-Leninism.”[1] Aside from Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh, Duiker does not recognize the non-Marxist-Leninist strains of the revolution that evolved during the same time period. The author does mention Hue-Tam Ho Tai’s Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution in the written work as well as an annotated bibliography, but the revolutionary figures that Tai discusses fail to appear in Duiker’s work. This work exemplifies the traditional narrative of tracing the histories of the successful revolutionaries—those that won, the Marxist-Leninists.

Truong Buu Lam. Colonialism Experienced: Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism, 1900-1931. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000.

The author is an associate professor of history at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Truong Buu Lam has collected twenty documents that were written during the late-colonial period of Vietnamese history. The documents vary from propaganda pamphlets, open letters to government officials, manifestos from political or cultural organizations, newspaper columns, poems, and more. These documents have been translated from the original Vietnamese, French, or classical Chinese by the author and given introductions in order to contextualize the documents. This anthology provides a glimpse into the conflicting ideologies and political struggles experienced by various political activists during this time period. Authors include Phan Boi Chau, Phan Chu Trinh, Nguyen An Ninh, Nguyen Thuong Huyen, and Pham Quynh—all of which are discussed by Hue-Tam Ho Tai in Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution. This work serves as a nice companion to Tai’s book because it provides full English translations of documents written by many of the radicals she discusses.

David G. Marr. Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885-1925. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.

Marr, Emeritus Professor and Visiting Fellow in the Division of Pacific and Asian History at the Australian National University, has written extensively on Vietnam—in particular the history of 20^th century Vietnam. This work looks at the anticolonial scholar-gentry of Vietnam between 1885 and 1925, particularly focusing on Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh—two of the more popular and well-known Vietnamese nationalists during this era. Marr points out that these two men, despite their differences in ideology “set the guidelines for most later debate on anticolonial tactics, strategy, and doctrine.”[2] Phan Boi Chau wanted to end foreign exploitation of Vietnam and remove the colonial overlords whereas Phan Chu Trinh was more interested in the modernization of Vietnam, which would eventually lead to Vietnamese independence—both wanted the same end but by different means. While Marr does discuss other radicals during this time period, the majority of this volume focuses on the afore-mentioned figures and how their work influenced Nguyen Ai Quoc, later Ho Chi Minh. Hue-Tam Ho Tai’s work helps to bring Marr’s ‘minor actors’ more to the forefront and paints a much fuller picture of Vietnamese radical thought during the early twentieth century.

David G. Marr. Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.

Marr’s thesis in Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945 is that in order to understand the political and strategic developments of 20^th century Vietnam, one must contextualize the period in relation to the “fundamental changes in political and social consciousness among a significant segment of the Vietnamese populace in the period 1920-45.”[3] Marr points out, as does Hue-Tam Ho Tai, that the intelligentsia of the 1920s faced some of the same problems as the scholar-gentry schooled under the traditional Confucian system, however the social and economic context had changed as did the education and types of thought utilized by the new intelligentsia—one that was a product of the French colonial system. Marr’s Vietnamese Tradition on Trial serves as a supplement to Hue-Tam Ho Tai’s Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution because different aspects of radical thought and thinkers are emphasized—while Marr and Tai discuss some of the same personalities, Marr focuses more on the Marxist-Leninist school of thought as they gave birth to the eventual revolution.

R.B. Smith. “Bui Quang Chieu and the Constitutionalist Party in French Cochinchina, 1917-30.” Modern Asian Studies, 3, no. 2 (1969): 131-150.

Smith (1939-2000), former professor of history at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS), trained in medieval English history before becoming one of the first scholars/historians to focus on Vietnam in the late 1960s. Smith wrote heavily on the Second Indochinese War (American-Vietnam War) and approached it from an internationalist perspective, which is evident in this article. Smith ends his article with suggestions for future studies by pointing out that very few American scholars have shown interest in the Constitutionalist Party led by Bui Quang Chieu, which he labels as the only anti-colonialist/pro-independence group that showed any real interest in developing a truly representative assembly with the power to bring about Vietnam’s eventual modernization. While this article is rather old, it still proves beneficial in supplementing Hue-Tam Ho Tai’s work on the early Vietnamese radicals of the 1920s and 1930s—of which Bui Quang Chieu is one of the subjects of her study.

Nguyen Khac Vien. Tradition and Revolution in Vietnam. Edited by David Marr and Jayne Werner. Translated by Linda Yarr, Jayne Werner, and Tran Tuong Nhu. Berkeley, CA: Indochina Resource Center, 1975 (Orig. pub. 1974).

Vien, the Communist son of a Confucian scholar, brings to light the underpinnings of how Confucianism left its mark on certain aspects of Marxist thought in both China and Vietnam. In translating a selection of Nguyen Khac Vien’s writings, the goal of the editors and translators was to foster a greater understanding of the Vietnamese “enemy” by the Western public [written at a time when the Vietnamese were considered enemies of America]. Hue-Tam Ho Tai mentions Vien in passing, most likely because Vien’s radicalism was of the Marxist-Leninist bent and she is attempting to show the ‘other side’ of Vietnamese radicalism. Tradition and Revolution in Vietnam is part of the traditional narrative of the years preceding the Vietnamese Revolution of the 1940s and alternative modes of thought in the 1920s and 1930s.

Sarah Whitney Womack. “Colonialism and the Collaborationist Agenda: Pham Quynh, Print Culture, and the Politics of Persuasion in Colonial Vietnam.” PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2003.

Pham Quynh thought of himself as a patriot, a visionary, and a social revolutionary, other Vietnamese revolutionaries and historians have not shared this view—labeling him a collaborator of the French colonial period. Pham Quynh was the publisher of Southern Wind, a journal based in Hanoi sponsored by French Indochina’s Governor General Albert Sarraut in an attempt to win over northern neo-traditionalists. In her dissertation, Womack argues that indigenous actors that collaborated with colonial authorities were important negotiators between colonial states and colonial societies and that acts of collaboration arose from the personal agendas of those involved. Using Pham Quynh, the ‘arch-collaborator,’ as an example, Womack explores how accommodation-based models can further our understanding of colonialism and colonial societies. As Pham Quynh’s model was ultimately a failure, Womack also explores “the ways in which even failed histories shape the present, and how parts of them are salvaged and incorporated into other, more successful ones.”[4]

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[1] William J. Duiker, Vietnam: Revolution in Transition, 226.

[2] David G. Marr, Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885-1925, 275.

[3] David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945, 2.

[4] Sarah Whitney Womack, “Colonialism and the Collaborationist Agenda,” 218.