Marxism-Leninism in Vietnam

In the region of Vietnam there had been many uprisings. All of these uprisings were for one reason, freedom. The Vietnamese were willing to accept Communism in return for what they had been fighting for over 2000 years: self rule.

In 1950 the United States, owing a debt of gratitude towards France, sent several advisors to aid French control in Vietnam. Over the next decade and a half, the United States would send an entire Army and Navy to aid the French in maintaining control in South Vietnam, which had separated from the Communist North Vietnam by treaty in 1954.

Communism is when all property and business is owned by the government and the people work for the government. In turn, the people all get equal shares of the supplies they need to be able to live such as a home, food, health care, and guaranteed employment. Communism is the opposite of capitalism. Capitalism is when property is owned by people or corporations, not the government. Anyway, the U.S. wanted to make all other countries of the world like the U.S. The soviet Union being a communist country would make it harder for us to do that. We became bitter enemies against the Soviet Union.

Communism and capitalism were two great world powers that struggled to get more nations to adopt their ideologies. This eventually became known as the cold war. The U.S. made a policy in 1947. It stated, "America will support, through military and economic aid, all free peoples resisting communism." So in Vietnam, the northern part of Vietnam supported communism and the southern part supported capitalism. The south contained French colonialists and that is how France was involved in this. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of Northern Vietnam's communist country. He had hoped that we would support him but that wouldn't happen. France had been our long time allies and since we were opposed to communism, we wanted to help France fight for freedom. France had ruled Vietnam for more than a century and they had hoped to maintain that rule.

Communism has long been heralded in capitalist countries as the root of all evil. However, as with all phobias, this intrinsic fear of communism comes from a lack of knowledge rather than sound reasoning. It is that same fear that gave the world the Cold War, McCarthy's Red Scare, and the Vietnam War.

Karl Marx is a widely known influence on communism. It was his belief that private property was the cause of the poverty and degradation of the proletariat. Therefore, he came to settle on the idea that no one person should have control over production of good, ownership of land, and management of funds. In that same token then, no one class should be allowed to have control over these things. He went onto comment that the exploitation of the working class must come to an end. That end could be achieved through revolution. Once this was achieved, everybody would work according to their abilities and then be paid accordingly. Soon after; however, technical innovations would create such abundance of goods that "everyone works according to his abilities and receives according to his needs." Soon thereafter, money would have no place in society. People would be able to take what they want and would be lacking nothing. Marx then believed that the pleasure of seeing the fruits of labor would be enough to cause man to work. Countries and people were soon to catch on to this ideology. The most known of which are Russia, China, and Vietnam.

Vietnam already had a long history of peasant insurrection. Most of these uprisings though, were leaderless and highly unorganized. The motives of the rebels were vague and often confused. By the time the government did anything to please the peasants, it was too late.

Ho Chi Minh stepped up and began the voice of the Vietnam people. He was greatly influenced by Marxism and Leninism. Ho loved and admired Lenin because he was a great patriot who liberated his fellow countrymen. At first patriotism, not Communism, led Ho Chi Minh to have confidence in Leninism. But after studying both Marxism and Leninism together, Ho gradually came upon the fact that only Socialism and Communism can liberate the oppressed nations and the working people throughout the world of slavery.

After Ho Chi Minh came, they established a whole new strategy. He formed a group called the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP). The Japanese invaded Vietnam to try to take advantage of the French but the French and Ho Chi Minh teamed up to get rid of the Japanese. Then France and Ho became enemies again. The Vietminh took control of North Vietnam in 1945. France demanded that Ho Chi Minh give back North Vietnam but instead Ho attacked the French in South Vietnam. War went on for nearly a year and a half. There was a French Military base in Dien Bien Phu and Ho attacked it in 1954 and he won. The French and the Vietminh tried to reach agreements and none of them worked so they ended their fighting and the French were forced to begin withdrawal. That terminated their long rule over Vietnam. Many communist moved north and thousands of refugees fled south.

Bibliography Kathlyn Gay, Voices from the Past... Vietnam War, New York, Twenty-First Century Books, 1996

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