The policy of the Vietnam Worker’s Party (VWP) towards unification of Vietnam after the Geneva Conference in 1954 resulted in the division of Vietnam into North and South to ensure the ceasefire between France and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the intention to hold a general election in 1956. However, the way of asking the general election, stipulated in the Geneva Agreement to unify North and South Vietnam, was a political struggle for the South Vietnamese government. It opposed the general election, which was scheduled for 1956, and began to suppress people who were suspected of being communists. Consequently, the VWP had to reconsider its policy to liberate South Vietnam. It is said that Le Duan, the former SecretaryGeneral of the VWP, played an important role in changing party policy from a political struggle to an armed struggle in South Vietnam, a move that was decided at the 15th Party Plenum in1959. His paper,
Duong Loi Cach Mang Mien Nam (The Line of the Revolution in South Vietnam), had a great impact on cadres in both the North and the South at that time.
Based on published documents in Vietnam, the main purpose of this paper is to examine how
Duong Loi Cach Mang Mien Nam had an impact on VWP policy concerning armed struggle, andhow it is regarded in Vietnam today. The fascination of using the VWP document for this study is its scarcity value. Although
Duong Loi Cach Mang Mien Nam is very popular among scholars, it seems that most non-Vietnamese researchers have been unable to obtain the original document.They usually have to use documents that were captured by the CIA or the US army.
Duong Loi Cach Mang Mien Nam was written when Le Duan was in the South in 1956. At that time the South Vietnamese people were campaigning to ask their government to hold a general election with North Vietnam within the constitution and the laws of South Vietnam. But
Duong Loi Cach Mang Mien Nam in fact outlined a new revolutionary line by which the South Vietnamese people would overthrow their government, not the North Vietnamese, in order to liberate South Vietnam. Additionally, Le Duan suggested that there was a need to organize a new National Liberation Front for South Vietnam not for the whole country. This line was totally different from that of the VWP of Hanoi in that Hanoi had ordered political struggle throughout Vietnam from north to south.
After returning to Hanoi in early 1957, Le Duan tried to change the policy from a political struggle to an armed struggle in South Vietnam. But it was not until 1959 that the VWP admitted that Le Duan’s policy was to liberate South Vietnam.
It is currently considered in Vietnam that
Duong Loi Cach Mang Mien Nam was the most significant factor in the initiation of the armed struggle in South Vietnam and organized the National Front for the liberation of the South.
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