Like most of the countries of the global south Vietnam was colonized by the bloodthirsty imperialist west (colonized by France). Vietnamese were subjected to brutal economic exploitation, high taxes, and a harsh legal system that favoured the colonizers. The workers and peasants kept on getting angrier because of the long working hours and bad working conditions. They treated the Vietnamese as slaves.
We cannot talk about the Vietnamese revolution without talking about Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh was the first president in socialist Vietnam. He was born in 1890 as a son of an imperial magistrate. When he was 21 years old, he went to France as a cook’s assistant. Then he travelled to the United States by sea a year later. He witnessed an immense amount of racism and mistreatment of the American Working class. He was further influenced by other socialists around the world. He wrote about this in an article called Lynching. Some Americans claim that Ho Chi Minh was inspired by their nation, mainly because the Vietnamese declaration of independence starts with a quote from the American declaration. But in Reality, Ho Chi Minh knew America is an oligarchy. In fact, Vietnamese declaration of independence calls out how the western material conditions are totally contradictory to its stated ideals. Coming back to our story, he lived in France once again (1919 – 1923) after he lived in England for a few years. There he was influenced by communist and Vietnamese nationalist ideas (By his friend who was a member of the French Section of the Workers’ International). Another Remarkable thing which shaped Ho Chi Minh’s political ideals is when he reached France, He met two nationalist scholars Phan Châu Trinh and Phan Văn Trường after which he joined the Groupe des Patriotes Annamites, a Vietnamese Nationalist group.
In 1923, Ho Chi Minh left Paris for Moscow, where he was employed by the Comintern(soviet organization coordinating socialist revolutions) and studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (A revolutionary Training School for Important revolutionary leaders). He also attended the 3rd international (A meeting that is held by Marxist Leninists to discuss socialism and implement new decisions and strategies in various communist parties around the world for the betterment of the working class and Communism itself) also known as the fifth congress of the Comintern.
After that Ho Chi Minh left for China. He gave revolutionary young Vietnamese people living there some socialist lectures occasionally. After Chiang Kai-shek (discussed here) made China into an anti-capitalist dictatorship that brutally massacred many of the suspected leftists and leftists, Ho Chi Minh had left China and travelled to several other countries in Asia.
Then finally he reached Hong Kong in early 1930 where he chaired a meeting with representatives from two Vietnamese communist parties to merge them into a unified organization, the Communist Party of Vietnam. He also founded the Indochinese Communist Party in June 1931
Later the imperialist French police from Indo-China, scared of a communist revolution, collaborated with the Hong Kong police to capture Ho Chi Minh. Both capitalist forces captured Ho Chi Minh in the same month and deported him to French Indo-China. But eventually he escaped the French Indo-China and went to the Soviet Union once again, disguised as a Chinese Scholar.
In Moscow Ho Chi Minh studied and taught at the Lenin Institute. In this period Ho Chi Minh reportedly lost his positions in the Comintern because of a concern that he had betrayed the organization. Ho Chi Minh was also removed from control of the Party he had founded.
During this, inspired by the Communist Party, peasants in the Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces revolted against the French colonial government and established short-lived “soviets” or local revolutionary governments. The French brutally suppressed these uprisings, but they demonstrated the growing revolutionary mindset among the Vietnamese people.
In 1938 he came to China to give advises to the armed communist revolution on behalf of the Comintern. He was also a Senior Comintern agent in Asian affairs.
An unfortunate thing during this is that period of time was the WWII. The blood thirsty, tyrannic Imperial Japanese took over his homeland leaving the French colonialists for name’s sake.
He returned to his homeland and with the support of the Indochinese communist party formed the Viet Minh, (League for the Independence of Vietnam) in the northern region of Vietnam. The Viet Minh united a broad coalition of forces, including communists and nationalists, with the goal of fighting both Japanese occupiers and the French colonial regime. The Viet Minh was also known as men in black.
The Viet Minh grew in strength by organizing guerrilla warfare against the Japanese and mobilizing the masses. In 1945, a severe famine, worsened by Japanese exploitation, starved over million Vietnamese people to death. The Viet Minh’s efforts to provide relief gained them widespread popular support.
The same year the Japanese were losing the war and Office of Strategic Services of the United States of America helped Viet Minh gain independence. And finally, Vietnam got its independence from the French and the Japanese and declared its independence on September 2 1945
Even during that the Vietnamese had to fight the French who did not fully leave. So was the first Indo Chinese war declared. After four years of endless war the French decided to do something that shocked the revolutionaries. The French collaborated with some Vietnamese French sympathizers and Vietnamese bourgeoise to proclaim a puppet nation inside Vietnam called the “State of Vietnam”. But it did not really gain masses’ support except for a very low extent.
Even though there were a lot of struggles, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), led by Ho Chi Minh, received recognition and support from the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. This strengthened the Viet Minh’s position in the first Indo-Chinese war.
During this Laos which was still gaining independence as in the wake of the Lao Issara’s (free Laos) collapse, a more radical faction, influenced by the Vietnamese Communist Party and the broader communist movement in Indochina, formed the Pathet Lao (Land of Laos) in 1949. The Pathet Lao, led by Prince Souphanouvong and Kaysone Phomvihane, became the primary revolutionary force in Laos, advocating for independence and socialism.
The Pathet Lao also received significant support from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the People’s Republic of China. The Viet Minh, fighting against the French in Vietnam, provided training, arms, and logistical support to the Pathet Lao, strengthening their capacity to wage guerrilla warfare against the French and Royal Lao Government.
This shows the socialist and internationalist unity inside the Indo-China
But coming back to the story of Vietnam, Vietnam got its full independence from the brutal French colonial regime after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in which the Viet Minh forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap defeated the French completely.
The Geneva Accords were signed, ending the First Indochina War. Vietnam was temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, with the North governed by the DRV and the South under the control of the State of Vietnam. The accords called for nationwide elections in 1956 to reunify the country, but these elections were never held due to the refusal of the U.S.-backed southern regime.
In the North, the DRV began building a socialist society under the leadership of the Communist Party. In the South, the U.S.-backed regime of Ngo Dinh Diem refused to hold the reunification elections, leading to increased tensions. Under the south Vietnamese regime peaceful protests were repressed violently.
Okay now the Viet Minh liberated the northern part of Vietnam but who would liberate south of Vietnam, the answer was Viet-Cong or the national liberation front which was created in 1960 with the support of the southern revolutionaries.
The United States escalated its involvement, leading to the Vietnam War (during 1964- 1973). Despite massive U.S. military intervention, the revolutionary forces of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army continued their struggle. During this the Americans were so ruthless that they massacred the Vietnamese people brutally by spraying agent orange, bombing every city to stone age that the Vietnamese had to build everything from the start. They murdered almost everyone because the Vietnamese used guerilla warfare in which the army blended with the people. Some student protests and strikes to stop the war eventually forced the U.S. to withdraw.
On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell to the revolutionary forces, marking the end of the war and the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam was established, fulfilling the revolutionary dream of a united, independent, and socialist Vietnam.
As the revolutionary forces in Vietnam advanced towards victory, the Pathet Lao intensified their efforts in Laos. In May 1975, the Pathet Lao captured key cities, including the capital, Vientiane. By December 2, 1975, the monarchy was abolished, and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) was established under Pathet Lao leadership, with Prince Souphanouvong as the first president.
Now let us see about their ideology, Ho Chi Minh thought
- Ho Chi Minh believed that revolutionary leaders must lead by example. He lived modestly, practiced what he preached, and stressed the importance of personal integrity, humility, and dedication to the cause. His lifestyle and behaviour earned him deep respect and affection from the Vietnamese people.
- Ho Chi Minh stressed the importance of Vietnam achieving independence and self-reliance. He taught that while international solidarity was important, Vietnam should not depend on foreign powers. Instead, the Vietnamese people must rely on their own strength and resources to build their country.
- Ho Chi Minh’s vision of socialism was deeply concerned with economic equality and social justice. He believed that the wealth of the nation should be used to improve the lives of the people, particularly the poor and the working class. Land reform, which redistributed land from landlords to peasants, was a key policy implemented under his leadership.
- Ho Chi Minh thought that the working class and the people should be a main part of the revolution. He believed that the revolution could only succeed if it had the active participation of the people. He emphasized education and organization to raise the political consciousness of the masses and involve them directly in the revolutionary process.
- Ho Chi Minh was a master of people’s war—organizing the masses to fight against a more powerful enemy. He advocated for guerrilla warfare, where small, mobile units of the people’s army could engage in hit-and-run tactics, gradually wearing down the enemy while gaining support from the rural population.
- Ho Chi Minh emphasized the need for broad unity among the people, regardless of social class, in the struggle against imperialism. He believed in building a broad-based front that included workers, peasants, intellectuals, and even patriotic elements from the bourgeoisie in the early stages of the revolution. This unity was essential to defeating the foreign invaders and their collaborators. This shows Ho Chi Minh’s importance for Leninist ideals.
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