Vietnam Political Saga

Vietnam Political Saga
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Abstract
The main aim of this study is to address Communism as a political ideology in Vietnam and ways in which it has affected the Vietnamese and the country at large. It shows the extent of Vietnam’s involvement in contemporary political ideologies, its political grounds presently, and the likelihood of future political developments. There is comprehensive explanation of all the aspects of communism in Vietnam and the contemporary political ideologies. These aspects include; the origin and history of communism in Vietnam, the process of its implementation, its negative and positive effects, both in the past and currently and changes of communism in the twenty first century.
Introduction
Political ideology is a belief structure that justifies and explains a preferred governmental and economic order for a certain society. In the earlier days, the main components of ideological cover of the use of propaganda and political conduct for obtaining both the international and internal legitimacy may be recorded (United States, 1973). In Vietnam, such system used since the year nineteen thirty is recognized as communism. This is a political theory that was derived from Karl Marx that advocates class war, leading to a kind of society in which all the properties are publicly owned. Ho Chi Minh initiated Communism through a youth revolutionary league of Vietnam that was referred to as ThanhNien. In addition, ThanhNien was formed to organize the platform for radical armed struggle in opposition to the French occupation. Presently, the contemporary political ideologies have changed due to modernization and the practices that were performed earlier only exist in a few countries and historical books. Find herein, the political foundations of communism in Vietnam, its effects upon the Vietnamese, and the way it has changed in the contemporary world of the twenty first century. Moreover, there is an assessment of communism in comparison with other political ideologies and the relationship between social democracy and communism in Vietnam.
The History of Communism
A man known as Ho Chi Minh, before the commencement of Vietnamese War., first introduced Communism in China. Vietnam was a French colony and it was part of Indochina. Ho Chi Minh together with his Viet government, had practiced communists fought in opposition to the French, which led to the defeat of French in the year nineteen fifty four. This finally led to the conference of Geneva that resulted to independence of Vietnam from France. Vietnam was then split into the South and North, by the seventeenth parallel of Geneva Accords. Communism was not immediately embraced in Vietnam as for quite some time, communism only swung between the ‘Vietnam’ and ‘Indochina’ alternatives. The first units of communists was founded in the year nineteen twenty five and bore the Vietnam nature, but the official party was founded at the beginning of nineteen thirty. The party identified itself very quickly by the name Communist Party of Indochina. This was in order to declare its right to the entire regions of French Indochina, which included Annam, Laos, Tonkin, Cambodia and Cochinchina. The exercise of the party’s declaration of possessing the territories did not work because most of the members of the party were Vietnamese. Later, the Vietnamese communists went back to their exact system of references in the year nineteen forty one when they formed Viet-Minh; this meant “league for the liberation of Vietnam.” The sense of reality of the Vietnamese was experienced again in the background of the battle against Japan. This political problem was fundamental. The choice of Indochina meant that regardless of the party being Vietnamese; it was adopting a strategy that is anti-imperialist while starting to adopt more of the similar approach as its opponent, which was the French colonial power. The structure of communist movement was similar to that of its colonial power (Quinn-Judge, 2003). The choice of Vietnam implied that they would give priority to the unity of the Vietnamese, as well as barely trying down the struggle of the revolutionary for the sake of socialism as well as the nationwide renaissance of Vietnam.
Communism process in Vietnam
In the year nineteen fifty four, the armies of Viet Minh had the military strength to defeat the French entirely and dominate the entire Vietnam, both in South and North. However, Dien Bien Phu’s fall reduced doubts of whether the Viet Minh carried unconditional and complete victory in its grasp. There was great confidence that the Viet Minh would conquer against the French. Therefore, the French was left with fewer choices and were required to comply with whichever terms the Viet Minh decided to provide. However, through the negotiations of Geneva truce the delegations of the Viet Minh made allowances to France as well as the West, which were unbelievably great, in consideration of their military standing, which was advantageous (Solheim, 2008). The Viet Minh had initially demanded the eleventh parallel to be the provisional separating line between the French zone occupation and that of the control of Viet Minh. The forces luckily moved away to conciliation at the seventeenth parallel (Sargent, 1990). In addition, they accepted an interim of two years even though they had asked for an agreement that insured general elections after a period of six months. These particular compromises were barely made at out of anyone’s goodness of the heart.
Even though the French may have been defeated, there would be another threat of the American intervention in the incidence of the capitulation of the French that would have been adequate to punctual the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was freshly embarked on a peaceful process in foreign policy, in urging the Viet Minh leader, Ho chi Minh to comply with the compromise of the West. Actually, there was not any likelihood of the United States entering or indulging in the conflicts of any event. The United States had tire out from the Korean war that had taken place shortly before and thus they were not willing to engage in another campaign. There were several invitations of Americans intervention by John Foster Dulles but a number of the famous American Senators turned down the offer.
The Soviet pressure contributed to the giving up of the Viet Minh to pave way for complete victory. However, all the concessions that they made had been regarded as temporary. The final treaty of Geneva indicated that the line of military demarcation is provisional and it is not supposed to be interpreted as comprising a military or political boundary. For the sake of the country’s unification, Geneva elections were scheduled to take place in the year nineteen fifty six. The people, who had observed the scene of Vietnam in the year nineteen fifty four, judged that South Vietnam was in great disaster. This is because President Ngo Dinh Diem was an American endorsement who was pulled out the last minute from the hat. This was in distinction with Ho Chi Minh, the preferred leader of the independence movement of Vietnam. The Viet Minh had massive support during the time of Geneva treaty, as they combined their status as leading nationalists who possessed achievements at social reform around the areas that they controlled in Vietnam. This was an indication that they were bound to win the following general elections. During the control of the communists in the North Vietnam, there was a mass population, yet both sides were not willing to risk defeat between the government of Diem in the South, and the United States. In the year nineteen fifty six, they declined the participation in the general elections (Vincent, 2010). During this time, the grasp of Diem on South Vietnam was powerful mainly because of the aid offered by the military of America and its political support. The Diem regime continues with despotic control regardless of threats by the communists’ guerilla methods as well as those of the no-communist insurgents.
The manner of the ruling in these times was that Diem rules during the day, while Viet Minh guerillas took charge at the countryside. Through the ingenious combination of the agitation of nationalists and social reform with the activities of the terrorists, they have achieved the control of thirty percent of the villages. The guerillas figure themselves as the most profitable and safest allegiance that there is, because of presenting communism as the best team that offers good service to the peasants (Courtois& Kramer, 2004). According to the peasants, their charges of the imperialism of America appear wholly substantiated by the availability of the military personnel of America, in all areas of the country. In addition, in the history of the aid of American military to the French during the war of the Indo-Chinese resulted to quick consideration by the Vietnamese, of America being the heir of the colonialism of French as well as the disliked president Diem who was like a puppet emperor. In the occurrence that most people dwelling in the village were won, the Viet Minh apply terrorist sanction or pressures in order to enlist the others support. They would carefully select the people that they target to assassinate; the Viet Cong guerillas would join both military as well as political maneuvers.
The Viet Cong group of communists had obtained adequate support to handle occasional attacks of troop force in the past number of years. Among the twenty thousand guerillas that are estimated, a minimum of one third of the group are South Vietnamese. The other members either are from northern parts on voluntary basis, or refugees from the south who then lived in the northern areas. A firm pipeline of ammunition and military equipment emerged from northern sides, smuggling through Cambodia and Laos along the trail of Ho Chi Minh. A lot of this equipment is transferred from North Vietnam as the aid of military from East Europe as well as Russia (Sargent, 1996). The North Vietnam defends their participation in a simple way. The communists have always regarded the splitting of the nation temporary since they consider the government of Diem as lack of imperialism. During the entire time of communism, the country of Vietnam as well as the citizens got affected by the exercise either directly of indirectly.
Effects of communism in Vietnam
Communism changed the status of Vietnam a great deal. The introduction of this method of governance by Ho Chi Minh was foreign in the days of Vietnam colonization by France. The fight for independence of Vietnam by the communist leader as well as Geneva conference led to the freedom of the Vietnamese from France. They afterwards started practicing communism, which made the lives of people worse as they were separated from the newly set boarder as well as well as divided political powers. The government of the United States had sent their troops to Vietnam for reinforcement. This was after seeing that communism was likely to spread from Vietnam to the countries that are related in domino theory (Sargent, 1993). Unfortunately, the troops would harm the Southern Vietnam in the process, which led to deaths and torture of innocent citizens. This act really affected the people as they lived in fear of careless killings from the United States troops.
The North Vietnamese government established the re-education camps in so that its citizens may be educated on how to behave like members in the society of the communists. The camps were usually serving as tools of controlling disobedience among the citizens as well as making them accept the rule of the communists. This means that some citizens joined the communists not because of their willing heart but due to dictatorship in the communist society. Moreover, communism led to fear among the people of Vietnam that resulted to fleeing from their own country to escape death and oppression. The re-educational camps were usable in imprisoning numerous South...