"Stalinism" in Vietnam

I'm lacking in knowledge on Asian countries it seems. But anyway, I hear many complaints that "Stalinists" had brutal policies regarding Trots in Vietnam and were supposedly unpopular with the workers, prior to the Vietnam war [as far back as the late 1920s and 1930s]. And so too, in those regards, what role did the Soviet Union under the leadership of Stalin play in Vietnam? [Not the war obviously, since Stalin was dead, but if there was any encouragement or criticism, etc].

Although I lack any knowledge in these events too, the appropriate term would be Marxist-Leninists. Since, after all, that's what so-called "Stalinists" are (in regards to the fact that Stalin considered himself a Marxist-Leninist).

On the history of Trotskyism, there's a clear line of social-democracy, Menshevism/anti-Bolshevism, and their concessions with Fascists against ML communists; i.e. conspiracy against USSR and the Spanish Civil War.

But I, as well, would love to know more of this history in Vietnam when it came to conflicts between ML's and Trots. Thanks for bringing it up.

This review is from: Ho Chi Minh: A Life (Paperback)

Duiker's biography presents a useful portrait of the great patriot and revolutionary, Ho Chi Minh, the founder of modern Vietnam. Despite its predictable anti-communist bias, the book gives us enough evidence to make our own minds up. Duiker gets hung up on the false dilemma - was Ho a nationalist or a Communist? Of course, he was both; there is no incompatibility. It's like asking whether George Washington was a patriot or a revolutionary! Ho's goodness, his morality, his simplicity, modesty and courage shine through the book.
******
I have the book at home, a life well spent, A SKILLED worker too. He worked as the Pastry chef under Escoffier in London, himself a legend to this day amongst chefs and food lovers.

Patriotism and Proletarian Internationalism [Paperback]
Ho Chi Minh (Author)

From the Foreword when this book was originally published in Hanoi in 1979: "The national liberation revolution can only succeed if it accords with the world revolutionary movement and authentic patriotism in our time cannot dissociate itself from internationalism - this leading idea which has inspired the Vietnamese revolution for nearly half a century was introduced into Vietnam by President Ho Chi Minh. While struggling for its independence, the Vietnamese people knows that millions and millions of comrades and friends are fighting by its side and that it's own sacrifices also serve the just cause of other peoples. With this in mind, we have collected writings and speeches of President Ho Chi Minh in the period from 1920 to 1969. In simple terms they gave a well-defined orientation to the Vietnamese revolutionary movement and greatly contributed to its victory."

As soon as the Viet Minh overthrew the government, the Trotskyists were trying to start their own "revolution" in Vietnam. Keep in mind that the Communist party had only recently been united (it had split into about 3 factions), the Viet Minh were still trying to fully overthrow the imperial government and were fighting soldiers from Japan, France, China and reactionary Nationalist Vietnamese forces basically all at once. And in this fragile situation the Trotskyists could think of nothing better to do than sabotage the efforts of Comrade Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese people.

"Stalinists" weren't popular simply because nobody had really heard of Communism. It was against the imperialist law to be a revolutionary which is why Ho Chi Minh has become notorious for the amount of aliases used throughout his life (he frequently changed his name to evade the Sûreté, French secret police).

In Duiker's book, mentioned above by dodger, it is said that Stalin and the SU played little to no role in the first stages of their revolution but Comintern policy did. Ho Chi Minh was of course a Comintern agent and had studied briefly at the "Stalin School" in the Soviet Union. They met several times after the August Revolution: the SU agreed to aid Vietnam against France and was the first to recognize the new revolutionary government.

The brutal policies against Trotskyists are overblown...not least because Trotskyists were not at all common in Vietnam or any Asian country - they only had somewhat of a presence due to imperialism (in the case of Vietnam, French imperialism).

Exoprism is right that the Trotskyists, as per usual, tried to create their own revolution in Vietnam whilst the M-Ls were still fighting. It is pretty much the same story as Spain, though Vietnam was luckily won in the name of Marxism-Leninism.

As soon as the Viet Minh overthrew the government, the Trotskyists were trying to start their own "revolution" in Vietnam. Keep in mind that the Communist party had only recently been united (it had split into about 3 factions), the Viet Minh were still trying to fully overthrow the imperial government and were fighting soldiers from Japan, France, China and reactionary Nationalist Vietnamese forces basically all at once. And in this fragile situation the Trotskyists could think of nothing better to do than sabotage the efforts of Comrade Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese people.

"Stalinists" weren't popular simply because nobody had really heard of Communism. It was against the imperialist law to be a revolutionary which is why Ho Chi Minh has become notorious for the amount of aliases used throughout his life (he frequently changed his name to evade the Sûreté, French secret police).

In Duiker's book, mentioned above by dodger, it is said that Stalin and the SU played little to no role in the first stages of their revolution but Comintern policy did. Ho Chi Minh was of course a Comintern agent and had studied briefly at the "Stalin School" in the Soviet Union. They met several times after the August Revolution: the SU agreed to aid Vietnam against France and was the first to recognize the new revolutionary government.

Yes, the Vietnamese National Liberation Front was mainly fighting for independence from the French and then to get U.S. occupation out and unite the country. "Uncle Ho" is a hero to me. An interesting fact of history is that after WWI, he went to the Versailles conference to request for recognition of Vietnamese "civil rights", modeling after the U.S. declaration of independence. Woodrow Wilson's rhetoric at the time was filled with "democracy" and "freedom" and he talked passionately about an end to war and imperialism and the creation of a world of autonomous free nations, however he was a hypocrite and ignored the pleas of colonial peoples and actually helped prolong U.S. imperialism. The French obviously didn't want to listen either. This actually angered Ho and other Vietnamese radicals and made them even more revolutionary and radical as a result.

Yes, the Vietnamese National Liberation Front was mainly fighting for independence from the French and then to get U.S. occupation out and unite the country. "Uncle Ho" is a hero to me. An interesting fact of history is that after WWI, he went to the Versailles conference to request for recognition of Vietnamese "civil rights", modeling after the U.S. declaration of independence. Woodrow Wilson's rhetoric at the time was filled with "democracy" and "freedom" and he talked passionately about an end to war and imperialism and the creation of a world of autonomous free nations, however he was a hypocrite and ignored the pleas of colonial peoples and actually helped prolong U.S. imperialism. The French obviously didn't want to listen either. This actually angered Ho and other Vietnamese radicals and made them even more revolutionary and radical as a result.

You're right. What interests me about Uncle Ho is that, after reading Duiker's biography of him, it looks as though he stood in the background a lot of the time and never really took a lead role, not even in his own Communist Party, until the August Revolution. Unfortunately his modesty lead to his first revolutionary party being overrun with nationalists and Surete informants and he had to form another party. It's understandable though because, as I said in the last post, the French police were always one step behind him and had condemned him to death in absentia so he was probably cautious about putting himself at the front. He also witnessed many of his close Comrades die who had put themselves out there too much.

Most of his revolutionary activity was actually done outside of Viet Nam and through his writings he had become the undisputed spokesman of their revolution (under his other alias, Nguyen Ai Quoc, of course). Even if you're not a Communist or a Marxist-Leninist, you have to admire the pure will of Ho Chi Minh.

Even if you're not a Communist or a Marxist-Leninist, you have to admire the pure will of Ho Chi Minh.

Even ardent anti-communists express admiration for Ho Chi Minh's modesty in his personal life and his sheer determination in his political endeavors.

Ho was also one of the few post-50's leaders Hoxha praised and supported.

It'd be interesting if one day someone compiled a real collection of Ho Chi Minh's collected works, rather than the bowdlerized version no doubt presented by the CPV.

I'd be interested too, Ismail. Ho Chi Minh is one of the greats and if I had the means I'd produce a complete volume of his works.

I bought quite an old book that only contains selected articles he wrote, it's not a complete collection. Ho Chi Minh had actually written several books during his lifetime but the manuscripts kept getting confiscated in raids by the French police. It would be nice to know whether these manuscripts are still in existence.

"Far away across the ocean,
far beyond the sea’s eastern rim,
lives a man who is father of the Indo-Chinese people,
and his name it is Ho Chi Minh."

I bought quite an old book that only contains selected articles he wrote, it's not a complete collection. Ho Chi Minh had actually written several books during his lifetime but the manuscripts kept getting confiscated in raids by the French police. It would be nice to know whether these manuscripts are still in existence.

I have one, too. It has all of his prison writings, which are inspiring. He was a great poet, too.