To what extent did nationalism contribute to the creation and expansion of the Indochinese Communist Party?

Two historical characteristics of Vietnamese nationalism emerged from its geography and people. One was a sense of separate ethnic identity and resistance to outside domination derived from a millennium of resistance to control by powerful Chinese neighbors. The second characteristic was a repeated inability to achieve lasting unity among them. These two characteristics were taken to heart by the Indochinese Communist Party, Vietnam Nationalist Party and the other anti-colonial movements. The successive foreign administrations of Vietnam the Chinese, French and Japanese both military and political only accentuated and elevated the need of a revolution to obtain “home rule and over who will rule at home”. Thus shaping a strong sense of nationalism and a right to national self-determination; to be achieved at any cost. This highlighted the importance of these two principal characteristics in shaping Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, identifying nationalism as central to the creation and expansion of the ICP. This sense of nationalism can easily be resumed in the founding of the Doc-Lap Dong Minh Hoi (Vietminh, June 1941) by Ho Chi Minh (appendix II).

The Impact of China on Vietnamese Nationalism

The foundation of the Doc-Lap Dong Minh Hoi or Vietminh (appendix II) is based on the equality of the Vietnamese whether from one region or the other, the right of national self-determination and the idea that everyone needs to participate to achieve national independence. The Vietminh was a Vietnamese military and political organization led by Ho Chi Minh that first fought the Japanese and then the French (1941-54) to achieve national independence. The ICP was able to harness Vietnamese nationalism and create a united front for independence from it. These sentiments of nationalism were then emphasized and heightened by the impact of successive foreign administrations of Vietnam under the Chinese, French and Japanese. The first external threat and influence on the Vietnamese originally came from the Chinese From 111 B.C. to A.D. 938; the Han dynasty extended its political control over the Vietnamese people. Even though the Vietnamese absorbed many of Chinese culture (Confucianism, ‘Mandate of Heaven’, Chinese-style bureaucratic government and Chinese system of rice cultivation), Vietnam’s own culture remained strong and the “determination to be free of Chinese control never died”. The admission to the mandarin class was open to anyone, rich or poor, male or female, and based on merit rather than inheritance. This stripped away the semi-feudal titles of duke; count etc that had existed in Vietnam for centuries and thus alienated the nobles and upper class from the rest of the population. The always-recalcitrant provinces of the Red River and Mekong River Delta ultimately grew strong enough to break away from China’s grasp. This resulted in Vietnam becoming essentially “a defiant replica of China - a smaller version of China’s large dragon”. However, the end of Chinese authority did not mean a unified Vietnamese state as the Vietnamese faced the challenge of “establishing a stable political structure in their own country” as a consequence of the geography and the Vietnamese’s fierce ethnic and regional independence. The two characteristics of Vietnamese nationalism were seen as major flaws in establishing a central authority, however, this sense of nationalism was always useful in countering any foreign threat. As a result, this flaw left the door open to the French. Thus the Chinese influence on Vietnam was the first in a successive series of events that would accentuate Vietnamese nationalism and lead to the creation and expansion of the ICP.

The Impact of French Colonialism on Vietnamese Nationalism

In 1897, after annexing and acquiring several concessions and conventions in Vietnam, France formally organized the Indochina Union of Cochinchina, Annam, Tonkin, Cambodia and Laos (appendix III). A governor general in Hanoi administered French Indochina establishing it as a French colony. This second external threat and colonization of Vietnam was the most significant event in the escalation of nationalism. French governors gave their policies the name of “mission civilisatrice (civilizing mission)”. However, French colonialism deprived the Vietnamese of their political independence, impoverished the country, brought economic deprivation, weakening of village autonomy, increasing illiteracy rates, and destroyed the middle class leading to social tension. Essentially, to prevent any threat to their jurisdiction and interests the French deprived the country of its native leadership. This was done by keeping in place in the Nguyen monarchy (based in Hue) as an “effete relic” but with no real power. Anyone who tried to defy their will was either imprisoned or executed (appendix IV). In the case of the gentry, most were either silenced or came to collaborate. Overall, the main aim of French Colonialism by socially destabilizing Vietnam was to “make a mercantile profit out of what was largely a subsistence economy”. The destabilization of Vietnam under French rule emphasized and accentuated Vietnamese nationalism to the extent it became a powerful national sentiment, key to the creation and expansion of the ICP.

The consequence of French colonialism was most significant in the development of the Indochinese Communist Party and Vietnamese nationalism. The French managed to bring national unity to Vietnam by destroying the “legal autonomy of the villages and debilitating the Vietnamese social system”.  They had tried to destroy in vain the separate ethnic identities through economic exploitation, low wages, “44 piasters in Tonkin, 47 piasters in Anam and 55 piasters in Cochinchina during the late 1920s, taxes, 37 to 50 % of some workers” earning were taken, and destroying native leadership. However with most oppressed people, the centuries old passion for independence and national unity increased drastically. A “small strata of Vietnamese intellectuals” that had not been silenced provided the main source of resistance turning to China and Japan on how to respond to Western Imperialism while conserving traditional Asian values. Japan and China were in the process of modernization in meeting the accepted standards of 19th century (Self-Strengthening movement and Meiji Modernization), making figureheads of Asian independence.

The Impact of Anti-colonial Movements on the Birth of the ICP

The first main representative figure of Vietnamese resistance to foreign administration before Ho Chi Minh was Phan Boi Chau, a patriot and a nationalist (appendix V). In 1905 he created the Dong-Du (Eastern Studies Movement) and seven years later the Viet-Nam Quang-Phuc Hoi (League for the restoration of Vietnam). He was at first inspired by China’s efforts at Self-Strengthening (1861-94), Japan’s Meiji Modernization (1868-92) and finally Sun Yat-sen’s republican movement in China. One of the other most significant parties was the Vietnam Quoc Dan Dag or Vietnam Nationalist Party created in 1927 soughing to emulate China’s Kuomintang. These radical and anti-colonial movements represented a significant shift away from restoring a monarchy to a Vietnamese democratic government. Most of the nationalist parties either created by Phan Boi Chau looked to foreign powers for support, ideology and political system. This led them to being increasingly disliked by the local population and lower classes since it was not a true nationalist struggle. Essentially the ideology of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party and Phan was flawed. For example, Phan Boi Chau “ambiguous combination of tradition and modernization, and disagreements among its adherents” made him too moderate to be considered a serious threat. Furthermore, most of their recruits were “students, soldiers, low-level bureaucrats, women and small-business owners”. Their members being urban intellectuals had no rural, ethnical, broad or popular support. These two principal weaknesses made it easier for the French to hunt down. Phan Boi Chau was paroled to home confinement in 1940 and by the time of his death he was a relic of the past. Most of the party members were arrested and many were executed after a failed and futile armed rebellion, February 1930. The failures and annihilation of these nationalist parties cleared a pathway for the creation of the Indochinese Communist Party, February 3, 1930. The latter to counter their predecessor mistakes enlisted a broader segment of the population in a more disciplined front specifically adapted to suit Vietnam’s need and nationalistic features. In this case this disciplined front was Marxist-Leninism directed by Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh). Nonetheless, the primary efforts of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) would have not been enough to topple the French colonial system, thus the impact of World War Two and Japanese occupation cannot be neglected when examining the rise of Vietnamese nationalism central to the creation and expansion of the ICP.

Japanese Occupation and the Impact of WW2 on Vietnamese Nationalism

When French Indochina fell in 1940 to the Japanese (appendix VI), Ho Chi Minh quickly came to realize that French rule had been fatally undermined. Japanese occupation was no better then that of the French as Vietnam was still exploited to suit Japan’s own interest and profit through the administration of the Vichy French. To this end, the French collaborationist government of Vichy and the Japanese from 1941-5 used every means necessary to destroy the revolutionary movement. For example, the policy of rice collection was used to cause hunger and starvation among the Vietnamese population “in order to dampen their revolutionary spirit … food supplies for the French themselves and the Japanese”.  This purposefully created famine caused the death of “two million people out of a total population of about eight million in the northern region alone” as mentioned by Jane Franklin and Marylin B. Young.  These ruthless policies threatened the national integrity of Vietnam and served to amplify Vietnamese nationalism, as Japanese rule proved no better then the latter. This was then translated into the creation of a broad front of Vietnamese patriots including all social classes and political parties. This revolutionary movement created in early 1941 in southern China by Ho Chi Minh and Nguyen Vo Giap, two leading communists, had the aim of establishing an independent Vietnam, free from foreign domination. This meant fighting both the Japanese and the French. This was not only the key step of nationalism facilitating the expansion of the Indochinese Communist Party but also establishing Ho Chi Minh as the undisputed leader of the Vietnamese Revolution. Furthermore, the Japanese occupation lost its pretense of legitimacy in 1945 as France was liberated from German occupation. This left the ‘free French’ as the sole claimant of French rule in Indochina. This gave a “historic window of opportunity” as discussed by Jane Franklin for the Vietminh to gain control over larger parts of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh’s declaration of Vietnamese independence on September 2, 1945. Even though nationalism can be identified as a long-term cause and was the centerpiece in creating and thus expanding the base of the Indochinese Communist Party, there are other factors that played decisive roles. Without the role of Ho Chi Minh, the application of Marxist-Leninist ideology and the use of propaganda, nationalism would have not been enough to seize and sustain the independence of Vietnam and thus the expansion of the ICP.

Role of Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh was pivotal in the creation and leadership of the Indochinese Communist Party (appendix VII). Born near Vinh in Northern Annam 1890 as Nguyen Sinh Cung, it would not be until many years later that he would take the name Ho Chi Minh meaning “He Who Enlightens” as translated by Shane Armstrong. The significance of his chosen name is particularly important to the ICP, as he was the one who principally defined the party’s ideology. Being inspired by Lenin’s argument that for colonial people the struggle for independence was part of the universal class struggle of workers against the owners of capital. Nonetheless, knowing that the Vietnamese masses were predominantly rural peasants whose social and economic security had been uprooted by Western Imperialism, Vietnamese communism had to be considered a new form of social community “something like what the old village community had been in the peasant mind” as argued by David Anderson.  This doctrine not only expresses Ho’s humble image only caring to give Vietnam its independence but also the fact that he was a brilliant tactician in adopting a communist doctrine to suit Vietnam. This clarity of purpose was to establish national independence and social equality in Vietnam founded the ICP’s main doctrine. As a student in France during WW1 Ho Chi Minh had tried unsuccessfully to present a petition for Vietnamese independence of the Versailles Peace Conference (appendix VIII) This letter to the American secretary of state and the rebuff he received in return not only marked the need of a true ‘nationalist struggle’ for the independence of Vietnam without foreign aid but also Ho’s coming as a charismatic and legendary political figure. With his “vast amount of revolutionary literature that he penned on a continual basis” as expressed by Thomas Cantwell he gained followers such as Le Duan, Pham Van Dong, Truong Chinh and Mrs Nguyen Thi. This established him both as a symbol and emblem for Vietnamese independence. Ho assumed that the successive revolts demonstrated the revolutionary potential of the peasants but also the importance of proper preparation and the need for broad national support before attempting direct action. Hence, Ho Chi Minh’s charismatic personality with his modified doctrines, and experiences with different communist parties and a developed passion for independence that led him to be a major factor in the creation and expansion of the ICP and the Vietminh.

Ideologies, Organization and Tactics

The organization, ideology, tactics and propaganda of the Indochinese Communist Party were also prime factors in increasing the development of and its broad appeal to all classes of the ICP. The ICP developed associations such as the “workers’ associations, peasant’s associations, Communist Youth League, Women’s Association for Liberation, the Self-Defense Militia, and Anti-Imperialist Alliance” as listed by Jane Franklin. Thousands of party cells were formed all over the country from propaganda to guerilla cells, hundreds of organizations of all types were set up and an average of five demonstrations per year were staged. The ICP was an umbrella organization of all those cells. If one cell was compromised then others could replace it without the ICP being endangered. Moreover numerous cells meant that national operations could be performed and the ICP could take any opportunity arising. Obtaining popular support was never a problem due to the propaganda teams 50000 to 75000 strong only throughout the Tonkin region that exhibited pamphlets, cartoons, posters, slogans and pictures. Furthermore armed propaganda teams reminded the villagers that every Vietnamese regardless of age, occupation or sex, was vital to the new nationalist movement. Thus the organization of the ICP was on a national scale destined to appeal to every class. This led to the expansion of the ICP all throughout Vietnam. However the ideology of the ICP was also relevant to its creation and expansion.

The ideology behind these organizations was designed to gain support from all areas of Vietnamese society where the other anti-colonial movements had failed to gain popular support. Thus the main ideological aim was to restore ‘land to the people for the people’. Thus separate ethnic identities would be united against colonialism and feudalism while still maintaining their own traditions. All would be socially equal. Thus to demonstrate this sense of unity massive peasant demonstrations and workers’ strikes were organized and coordinated by the ICP. Communist principles were purposely ignored to this end, as they were irrelevant to illiterate farmers. Instead, patriotism, nationalism and independence were stressed.  Nationalism was at the center of ICP’s doctrine. This was not the case of small groups of intellectuals fighting for their own idealism but a whole population uniting together under the banner of communism adapted to the local population. As a result “in the southern part peasant struggles broke out in fourteen out of a total twenty-one provinces and, in spite of brutal French repression lasted for over a year” The best demonstration of such nationalism was the declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 2 September 1945 “We hold truths that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” as outlined by Thomas Cantwell. Propaganda teams exploited also natural disasters claiming they were caused by “Vietnam’s mythological dragon king” (Lac Long Quan) because the “people were not resisting the French and Japanese devils!” as conferred by Thomas Cantwell to gain a broad popular support, the ICP used every means possible, from the Japanese and French Occupation to natural disasters. Thus the ideology, organization and tactics of the ICP were indispensable to its increasing expansion thus ultimately led to a disciplined nationalistic front.

Conclusion

In conclusion, nationalism was a key factor in the creation and expansion of the Indochinese Communist Party. Vietnamese nationalism was the result of the geography of Vietnam and a series of successive foreign administrations (Chinese Influence, French Colonialism and Japanese Occupation). Nevertheless, the weaknesses of the anti-colonial movements were also of significance in the expansion of the ICP.

However, other factors contributed to the creation and expansion of the ICP such as the role of Ho Chi Minh in the creation of the ICP. Comparatively, the main reason for the expansion of the ICP was its organization, tactics used and ideology. In the end, the Viet Minh and ICP created a front of national unity and nationalism that represented all Vietnamese classes in their drive for the independence of Vietnam.

Nevertheless, there were some problems concerning the research of my Extended Essay.  Since I could not read Vietnamese, I only had access to Western sources primarily from the United States. These sources could have been biased thus eroding their neutrality in the analysis of the events. Furthermore, the majority of the documents in my research were concentrated on the Vietnam War and the United State’s involvement in Vietnam only giving me scarce information on the totality of Vietnamese history. At the end of this investigation, there is a question that comes to mind regarding how the ICP was so difficult to eradicate and how it managed to have persisted until today.

Analysis of Sources

The origins of all my sources are from Western nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom either in the format of books or websites; written from 1995 to 2005.  The purpose of these sources is to educate and inform the general public on the First Indochina War (1946-54), the Vietnam War (1955-79) and their origins. They also provide a concise background on Vietnamese History before the First Indochina War (1946-1954) usually beginning with French colonial rule over Indochina. Nevertheless, all these sources all have values and limitations with regard to a historian studying this particular time period. The main value of all these documents is that they provide in their appendix a series of documents and official papers dating from the period 1920 to 1979. This provides the historian with precise information of the time as well as an analysis. This allowed for the use of quotations in my Extended Essay and can be used to verify the veracity of the authors’ writings and evaluations. Nonetheless, there are some limitations to all the sources used. They usually only provided extensive and analytical information on the Vietnam War and on the role of the United States, not appropriate to my Extended Essay. All my sources were as such except for Vietnam and America a documented history by Jane Franklin, Contested Spaces Conflict in Indochina by Thomas Cantwell and The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War by David Anderson. They provided documents and information on the totality of Vietnamese History usually starting with Chinese influence over Vietnam. Thomas Cantwell provided a detailed and lengthy account of the whole of Vietnamese History with pictures and other visual illustrations that were of great value to the creation of my appendix and use of quotations. However, Cantwell’s account was limited in conclusions and analyzes whilst relating the events as done by David Anderson. Even if David’s division of themes and topics greatly facilitated my research, his accounts were either too brief or limited in the amount of information given. This only provided a concise historical background with numerous conclusions and limited amount of data. Usually, written by Western authors and not being able to access documents written in Vietnamese, the sources could potentially be biased not adopting a neutral stance whilst relating the events. To be able to analyze correctly to what extent did nationalism contribute the creation and expansion of the Indochinese Communist Party, I would have to use both Western and Vietnamese sources.  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

• Anderson, David L. The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War. New York: Columbia UP, 2002.
• Anderson, David L. The Vietnam War (Twentieth Century Wars). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
• Cantwell, Thomas. Contested Spaces Conflict in Indochina. Ed. Felicity Shea and Tess Hardman. Sydney: McGraw Hill, 2003.
• Gettleman E., Marvin, Jane Franklin, Marylin B. Young, and H. Bruce Franklin, eds. Vietnam and America a documented history. New York: Grove, 1995. Print.
• Hillstrom, Kevin, Laurie Collier Hillstrom, and Diane M. Sawinski. Vietnam War Primary Sources. U·X·L, 2000
• Moïse, Edwin E. A to Z of the Vietnam War. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow P, 2005.
• Neu, Charles E. America's Lost War: Vietnam 1945-1975 (American History Series (Arlington Heights, Ill.).). Wheeling: Harlan Davidson, 2005.
• Shane-Armstrong, R. Great Speeches in History - The Vietnam War (Great Speeches in History). New York: Greenhaven, 2002. Print.

WEBSITES

• "HAT paper 2006." University of Oxford Faculty of History. Oxford Colleges History Aptitude Test: 2006 Paper University of Oxford Faculty of History, 1 Nov. 2006. Web. 11 Oct. 2009.

Appendices

Appendix I:

Geographical map of Vietnam

Appendix II:

Extract from the foundation of the Doc-Lap Dong Minh (Vietminh)

June 1941 in the northern village of Pac Bo, Cao Bang Province, on the Sino-Vietnamese border

By Ho Chi Minh

“Rich people, soldiers, workers, peasants, intellectuals, employees, traders, youth, and women

who warmly love your country! At present time national liberation is the most important problem. Let us unite together!

…

Dear compatriots,

National salvation is the common cause to the whole of our people. Every Vietnamese must take part in it. He who has the money will contribute his money, he who has strength will contribute

his strength, he who has talent will contribute his talent. I pledge to use all my modest abilities to follow you, and am ready for the last sacrifice.

…

Victory to the World’s Revolution”

Appendix III:

French Conquest of Indochina

Appendix IV:

Vietnamese Prisoners of the French

Appendix V:

Phan Boi Chau

Appendix VI:

Japanese troops occupied Vietnam between 1940 and 1945

Appendix VII:

Ho Chi Minh

Appendix VIII:

Extract from the First Appeal to the United States

June 18, 1919* at Versailles Peace Conference in Paris

From Ho Chi Minh to American Secretary of State

“A. Letter of Nguyen Ai Quoc to the American Secretary of State

Paris, 18 June, 1919

To his Excellency, the Secretary of State of the Republic of the United States,

Delegate to the Peace Conference

Excellency,

        We take the liberty of submitting to you the accompanying memorandum setting forth the claims of the Annamite people on the occasion of the Allied victory.

        We count on your great kindness to honor our appeal by your support whenever the opportunity arises.

        We beg your Excellency graciously to accept the expression of our profound respect.

FOR THE GROUP OF ANNAMITE PATRIOTS

[signed] Nguyen Ai Quoc

56, rue Monsieur le Prince⎯Paris

B. Revendications du Peuple Annamite [Claims of the Annamite People]

Since the victory of the allies, all subject peoples are frantic with hope at the prospect of an era of right and justice which should begin for them by virtue of the formal and solemn engagements, made before the whole world by the various powers and the entente8 in the struggle of civilization against barbarism.

While waiting for the principle of national self-determination to pass from ideal to reality through the effective recognition of the sacred right of all peoples to decide their own destiny, the inhabitants of the ancient Empire of Annam, at the present time French Indochina, present to the noble Governments of the entente in general and the honorable French Government the following humble claims:

1) General amnesty for all native people who have been condemned for political activity.

2) Reform of the Indochinese justice system by granting to the native population the same judicial guarantees as the Europeans have and the total suppression of the special courts which are the instruments of terrorization and oppression against the most responsible elements of the Annamite people.

3) Freedom of Press.

4) Freedom to associate freely.

5) Freedom to emigrate and to travel abroad.

6) Freedom of education, and creation in every province of technical and professional schools for the native population.

7) Replacement of the regime of arbitrary decrees by a regime of law.

8) A permanent delegation of native people elected to attend the French parliament in order to keep the latter informed of their needs…”

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