Communist Party of Vietnam
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| “ | We want to build a new society, a free society where all men are equal, a society where industry, thrift, integrity and uprightness prevail hence we must wipe out all bad habits of the old society. | „ |
| ~ Hồ Chí Minh, 1952 |
The Communist Party of Vietnam (known as the Indochinese Communist Party from 1930 to 1945, then as the Workers' Party of Vietnam from 1950 until 1975) is the founding and ruling communist party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Although nominally exists alongside the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, it maintains a unitary government and has centralized control over the state, military, and media. The supremacy of the Communist Party is guaranteed by Article 4 of the national constitution.
The CPV was founded in 1930; since 1954, it has been the ruling party of North Vietnam and then the Socialist Republic after seizing power in South Vietnam in 1975 following the end of the Vietnam War. It controls the Vietnam People's Armed Forces.
The CPV is arguably one of the most influential Communist political parties in history, as it has played a large role in shaping the politics of the Indochina region for many years (and by extension, continue to do so to the present day.)
Background edit
The CPV is organized on the basis of democratic centralism, a principle conceived by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. The highest institution of CPV is the party's National Congress which elects the Central Committee. In between party congresses, the Central Committee is the supreme organ on party affairs. After a party congress, the Central Committee elects the Politburo and Secretariat and it appoints the First Secretary, the highest party office.
In between sessions of the Central Committee, the Politburo is the supreme organ on party affairs. However, it can only implement decisions based upon the policies which have been approved in advance by either the Central Committee of the party's National Congress. As of 2017, the 12th Politburo comprises 19 members. The current party's leader is Nguyễn Phú Trọng, who holds the titles of General Secretary of the Central Committee, Secretary of the Central Military Commission, and the presidency of Vietnam.
The party is committed to communism and continues to participate in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties each year. It is also known for the advocacy of what it calls a "socialist-oriented market economy" while another ideology of CPV, the Ho Chi Minh Thought, introduced by Ho which combines Vietnamese culture, French revolutionary ideas, liberal ideas, Marxist–Leninist communist ideals, and Ho Chi Minh's personal qualities.
Before the end of Communist rule in Eastern Europe, the party had the command economy until Đổi Mới was introduced in 1986 and was aligned with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact/COMECON states during the Cold War. The Vietnamese public and state media generally refer to the CPV simply as Đảng ("the Party") or Đảng ta ("our Party").
Following the August Revolution organized by the Viet Minh, Hồ Chí Minh became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and issued a Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Although he convinced Emperor Bảo Đại to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any country. He repeatedly petitioned American President Harry S. Truman for support for Vietnamese independence, citing the Atlantic Charter, but Truman did not respond. After the successful establishment of the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam was taken over by Chinese nationalist forces in the north and the French-British joint forces in the south.
In response to French influence and manipulation which tried to destroy unity within Vietminh, the ICP was officially dissolved and downgraded into the Institute for studying Marxism in Indochina as a gesture to unite all nationalist and non-communist factors to fight against French and pro-French forces. In practice, the Viet Minh became the leader of the struggle for independence of Vietnam. The ICP was ostensibly dissolved, but its core was still functioning.
According to the CIA, membership grew to about 400,000 members by 1950. In 1951, during the war for independence, the officially dissolved Communist Party was officially re-established and renamed the Worker's Party of Vietnam, often abbreviated as WPV and nicknamed the Lao Dong Party. The Indochinese war against French forces lasted until 1954 with the Vietnamese victory at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ.
At the Second Party Congress, it was decided that the Communist Party would be split into three; one party for each of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. However, in an official note, it said that the "Vietnamese party reserves the right to supervise the activities of its brother parties in Cambodia and Laos."
Beginning in 1953, the Communist Party of Vietnam launched a campaign for land reform. Hundreds of thousands of citizens were accused of being landlords and were summarily executed or tortured and starved in concentration camps. More than 172,000 people died during the North Vietnam campaign after being classified as landowners and wealthy farmers, official records of the time show.
The Communist Party of Kampuchea was established in April 1951 and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party was formed four years later on 22 March 1955. The third Party Congress, held in Hanoi in 1960, formalized the tasks of constructing socialism in what was by then North Vietnam, or the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), and committed the party to the liberation of South Vietnam. In the south, the United States of America established a pro-American Republic of Vietnam (RVN), commonly known as South Vietnam, in 1955. In 1960 DRV established a military-political front in the south called the National Liberation Front of Southern Vietnam or NLF for short. American side commonly referred to the NLF as the Viet Cong (Việt Cộng) or VC for short.
The Vietnam War (or Second Indochina War) broke out between the communists which included the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and National Liberation Front (Viet Cong), and the anti-communists which included the USA, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and its allies such as Australia, South Korea, Thailand, etc. The communists received support from the Workers' Party of Korea, the Communist Party of China, and the Soviet Union.
The war lasted from 1960 to 1975 and spilled over into Laos and Cambodia. The Cambodian Civil War broke out between the communist Khmer Rouge lead by Pol Pot and the pro-American Khmer Republic lead by Lon Nol. The Laotian Civil War broke out between the communist Pathet Lao and the pro-American Kingdom of Laos. The Cambodian and Laotian communists received training and support from DRV and NLF. During the war, the Worker's Party of Vietnam also established its sub-branch in the south called the People's Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam which aimed to lead the NLF.
After the withdrawal of American troops from Indochina and the collapse of RVN on 30 April 1975, Vietnam was unified under the leadership of communists. At the fourth Party Congress in 1976, the Workers Party of Vietnam was merged with the People's Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam into the Communist Party of Vietnam, commonly abbreviated as CPV.
In its 2004 report on Human Rights Practices, the U.S. State Department characterized Vietnam's human rights record as "poor" and cited the continuation of "serious abuses." According to the report, the government has imposed restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association.
Recent US reports maintain the same observations and international human rights organizations that share these views include Human Rights Watch and the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. The United Nations has highlighted religious persecution.
In 2009, the European Parliament expressed concern about "the growing climate of intolerance in Vietnam towards human rights defenders and members of officially unrecognized religious communities." It called on the government to end repression against freedom of expression, belief, and assembly, and to release its "political prisoners".
The government officially provides for freedom of religion and recognizes Buddhist, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hòa Hảo, Cao Đài, and Muslim denominations. However, the government supervises the clergies of the sanctioned groups (by approving appointments, for example) in the interest of "national unity".
Freedom of expression remains a problem as the Vietnamese authorities continue to use tough national security laws to punish critics of the regime. The official media remained tightly controlled by government censorship and obstruction.
Restrictions on the freedom to assemble remain a problem in Vietnam. There is an effort of the government to delay issuing a law for legalizing demonstration/strike although demonstration is legal as written in Vietnam's Constitution.
As of 2017, Vietnam held over 100 political prisoners for the crime of criticizing the government or participating in religions, protests, activism, or political parties not sanctioned by the government.
According to Human Rights Watch, the government of Vietnam has increased its crackdown on dissidents, human rights activists, and independent journalists, ahead of the 13th party congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam that took place in January 2021. The court has also increased the prison time for dissidents serving detention.