Misplaced Pages

#578421

231-700: Even before all elements of the RTVR had arrived in South Vietnam , efforts were being made to increase again the size of the Thai contribution. By mid-1967 the Thai government had unilaterally begun consideration of the deployment of additional forces to South Vietnam. On 8 September the Thai government submitted a request for extensive military assistance to the American Embassy in Bangkok. Specific items in

462-540: A communist revolution would put the working class in power, and in turn establish common ownership of property, the primary element in the transformation of society towards a communist mode of production . Communism in its modern form grew out of the socialist movement in 18th-century France , in the aftermath of the French Revolution . Criticism of the idea of private property in the Age of Enlightenment of

693-560: A land reform program restricting rice farm sizes to a maximum of 247 acres per landowner with the excess land to be sold to landless peasants. More than 1.8m acres of farm land would become available for purchase, the US would pay the landowners and receive payment from the purchasers over a six-year period. Land reform was regarded by the US as a crucial step to build support for the nascent South Vietnamese government and undermine communist propaganda. The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved

924-643: A semi-colony to a leading world power, with greatly advanced literacy, women's rights, basic healthcare, primary education, and life expectancy. Its leading role in World War II saw the emergence of the industrialized Soviet Union as a superpower . Marxist–Leninist governments modeled on the Soviet Union took power with Soviet assistance in Bulgaria , Czechoslovakia , East Germany , Poland , Hungary, and Romania . A Marxist–Leninist government

1155-749: A "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959 and this decision was confirmed by the Politburo in March. In May 1959, Group 559 was established to maintain and upgrade the Ho Chi Minh Trail , at this time a six-month mountain trek through Laos. About 500 of the "regroupees" of 1954 were sent south on the trail during its first year of operation. Regarding the relations with communist North Vietnam, Diệm maintained total hostility and never made

1386-560: A 1961 US intelligence estimate reported that "one-half of the entire rural region south and southwest of Saigon, as well as some areas to the north, are under considerable Communist control. Some of these areas are in effect denied to all government authority not immediately backed by substantial armed force. The Việt Cộng's strength encircles Saigon and has recently begun to move closer in the city." The report, later excerpted in The Pentagon Papers , continued: Support for

1617-433: A brief interim military government until General Nguyễn Khánh deposed Minh in a January 1964 coup. Until late 1965, multiple coups and changes of government occurred, with some civilians being allowed to give a semblance of civil rule overseen by a military junta. In 1965, the feuding civilian government voluntarily resigned and handed power back to the nation's military, in the hope this would bring stability and unity to

1848-532: A communist organization but as a neutral and nationalist one to attract or cooperate with non-communists and receive support from the people, however the communists sought to suppress politicians and political organizations who did not submit to them with the goal of establishing a future communist state for Vietnam. The communist Việt Minh even oppressed the Trotskyists , who shared their communist ideological background. The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng

2079-645: A constitution to establish a republic, but not in time due to the progress of the war. However, South Vietnam under Diệm held parliamentary elections and subsequently promulgated a constitution on 26 October 1956. The Geneva Accords promised elections in 1956 to determine a national government for a united Vietnam. In 1957, independent observers from India, Poland, and Canada representing the International Control Commission (ICC) stated that fair, unbiased elections were not possible, reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored

2310-473: A distinct stage between capitalism and communism. This intermediate stage was a concept introduced by Vladimir Lenin as a means to defend the Bolshevik seizure of power against traditional Marxist criticism that Russia's productive forces were not sufficiently developed for socialist revolution . A distinction between communist and socialist as descriptors of political ideologies arose in 1918 after

2541-463: A form of state capitalism . Public memory of 20th-century Communist states has been described as a battleground between anti anti-communism and anti-communism . Many authors have written about mass killings under communist regimes and mortality rates , such as excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin , which remain controversial, polarized, and debated topics in academia, historiography, and politics when discussing communism and

SECTION 10

#1732773344579

2772-526: A form of communism. In their words, the Hutterites "established in their communities a rigorous system of Ordnungen, which were codes of rules and regulations that governed all aspects of life and ensured a unified perspective. As an economic system, communism was attractive to many of the peasants who supported social revolution in sixteenth century central Europe." This link was highlighted in one of Karl Marx 's early writings; Marx stated that "[a]s Christ

3003-455: A greater emphasis on certain aspects of classical Marxism while rejecting or modifying other aspects. Many schools of thought have sought to combine Marxian concepts and non-Marxian concepts, which has then led to contradictory conclusions. There is a movement toward the recognition that historical materialism and dialectical materialism remain the fundamental aspects of all Marxist schools of thought . Marxism–Leninism and its offshoots are

3234-556: A hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base. They were made up only of elite cadres approved by higher members of the party as being reliable and completely subject to party discipline . The Great Purge of 1936–1938 was Joseph Stalin 's attempt to destroy any possible opposition within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . In the Moscow trials , many old Bolsheviks who had played prominent roles during

3465-577: A major second combined-arms conventional offensive in 1975 . Communist forces overran Saigon and South Vietnamese president unconditionally surrendered on the radio on 30 April 1975, marking the end of capitalist South Vietnam and the Vietnam War. In 1976, the North Vietnam-controlled Republic of South Vietnam (PRG) and North Vietnam merged to form the communist Socialist Republic of Vietnam . The official name of

3696-575: A massive invasion of the South, projected for 1976. A gas pipeline would be built from North Vietnam to the Việt Cộng provisional capital in Lộc Ninh , about 60 mi (97 km) north of Saigon. On 15 March 1973, US President Richard Nixon implied that the US would intervene militarily if the communist side violated the ceasefire. Public reaction was unfavorable, and on 4 June 1973 the US Senate passed

3927-540: A matter of debate, but the distinction rests largely on the communists' adherence to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx." In the United States, communism is widely used as a pejorative term as part of a Red Scare , much like socialism , and mainly in reference to authoritarian socialism and Communist states . The emergence of the Soviet Union as the world's first nominally Communist state led to

4158-629: A more libertarian socialist approach of communization , revolutionary spontaneity , and workers' self-management , and a more authoritarian vanguardist or communist party -driven approach through the development of a socialist state , followed by the withering away of the state . As one of the main ideologies on the political spectrum , communist parties and movements have been described as radical left or far-left. Variants of communism have been developed throughout history, including anarchist communism , Marxist schools of thought , and religious communism , among others. Communism encompasses

4389-626: A nominal republic and he was an ally of the US. Based on mass-organizations and secret networks as effective instruments, the Cần Lao Party with the Person Dignity Theory played a considerable role in creating a political groundwork for the power of Diệm's family and helped them to control all political activities in South Vietnam. Throughout this period, the level of US aid and political support increased. In spite of this,

4620-513: A non-communist Vietnam independence and unification. With co-operation between indigenous anti-communists and France, two preliminary treaties at Ha Long Bay recognizing Vietnam's independence and unity were signed between ex-emperor Bao Dai (representative of the anti-communist faction) and France on 7 December 1947 and 5 June 1948, and the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam was established on 27 May 1948 as

4851-425: A particular type of communism. One of the first uses of the word in its modern sense is in a letter sent by Victor d'Hupay to Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne around 1785, in which d'Hupay describes himself as an auteur communiste ("communist author"). In 1793, Restif first used communisme to describe a social order based on egalitarianism and the common ownership of property. Restif would go on to use

SECTION 20

#1732773344579

5082-529: A possible communist or socialist theorist, or as the first author to give communism a serious consideration. The 5th-century Mazdak movement in Persia (modern-day Iran) has been described as communistic for challenging the enormous privileges of the noble classes and the clergy , criticizing the institution of private property , and striving to create an egalitarian society. At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, generally under

5313-531: A post-capitalist society – positive humanism, socialism, Communism, realm of free individuality, free association of producers, etc. He used these terms completely interchangeably. The notion that 'socialism' and 'Communism' are distinct historical stages is alien to his work and only entered the lexicon of Marxism after his death." According to the Encyclopædia Britannica , "Exactly how communism differs from socialism has long been

5544-617: A prerequisite to socialism , were critical of the Bolsheviks from the beginning due to Russia being seen as too backward for a socialist revolution . Council communism and left communism , inspired by the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the wide proletarian revolutionary wave, arose in response to developments in Russia and are critical of self-declared constitutionally socialist states . Some left-wing parties, such as

5775-487: A prominent American "land-rights activist", who the US government of the time recruited within its efforts against communists. Drawing on experiences in other countries (particularly in Latin America), Prosterman proposed a "land-to-the-tiller" program to compete with the communists for the allegiance of the peasants. The plan mimicked the communists' land expropriation strategy, coupled with monetary compensation to

6006-667: A result, Phuoc Long was the first provincial capital to fall to the PAVN. In 1975, the PAVN launched an offensive at Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands . The South Vietnamese unsuccessfully attempted a defence and counterattack but had few reserve forces, as well as a shortage of spare parts and ammunition. As a consequence, Thiệu ordered a withdrawal of key army units from the Central Highlands, which exacerbated an already perilous military situation and undermined

6237-527: A result, all of the above functions were transferred to the State of Vietnam by France. According to the Élysée Accords, France gradually transferred management functions to Bao Dai's government. On 8 December 1950, the State of Vietnam and France signed a military agreement to establish the Vietnamese National Army by placing a number of Vietnamese military units established by France under

6468-579: A serious effort to establish any relations with it. Diệm attempted to stabilise South Vietnam with defending against communist activities by both propaganda and force ( Tố Cộng diệt Cộng ). He also launched military campaigns against three powerful group – the Cao Đài , Hòa Hảo and the Bình Xuyên organised crime syndicate whose military strength combined amounted to approximately 350,000 fighters (see also: Battle of Saigon (1955) ). By 1960

6699-458: A socialist principle of " to each according to his contribution ". Socialism has been described as a philosophy seeking distributive justice, and communism as a subset of socialism that prefers economic equality as its form of distributive justice. In 19th century Europe, the use of the terms communism and socialism eventually accorded with the cultural attitude of adherents and opponents towards religion . In European Christendom , communism

6930-546: A socialist state that is in the process of constructing communism. Terms used by Communist states include national-democratic , people's democratic , socialist-oriented , and workers and peasants' states. According to Richard Pipes , the idea of a classless , egalitarian society first emerged in ancient Greece . Since the 20th century, ancient Rome has been examined in this context, as well as thinkers such as Aristotle , Cicero , Demosthenes , Plato , and Tacitus . Plato, in particular, has been considered as

7161-549: A transitional government partly replacing the French protectorates of Tonkin (Northern Vietnam) and Annam (Central Vietnam), until French Cochinchina (southern part) could be reunited with the rest of the country under a unified French-associated administration. The State of Vietnam was created as an independent and unified country within the French Union by the Élysée Accords signed at the Élysée Palace by Bảo Đại (under

Royal Thai Army Expeditionary Division - Misplaced Pages Continue

7392-439: A variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism , Leninism , and libertarian communism, as well as the political ideologies grouped around those. All of these different ideologies generally share the analysis that the current order of society stems from capitalism , its economic system , and mode of production , that in this system there are two major social classes, that the relationship between these two classes

7623-510: A victory for the communist Việt Minh (who de facto ruled the state and did not say they were communist), which won 182 of the 302 seats, although the distribution of seats between parties had been decided publicly before the elections by the Việt Minh themselves due to Chinese pressure. Most Vietnamese people at that time were illiterate and even the Viet Minh forcing people to vote for them

7854-710: A work about More, whose ideas could be regarded as "the foregleam of Modern Socialism" according to Kautsky. During the October Revolution in Russia, Vladimir Lenin suggested that a monument be dedicated to More, alongside other important Western thinkers. In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, where a Puritan religious group known as the Diggers advocated the abolition of private ownership of land. In his 1895 Cromwell and Communism , Eduard Bernstein stated that several groups during

8085-466: Is a non- idealist attempt at the understanding of material history and society, whereby communism is the expression of a real movement, with parameters that are derived from actual life. According to Marxist theory, class conflict arises in capitalist societies due to contradictions between the material interests of the oppressed and exploited proletariat  – a class of wage laborers employed to produce goods and services – and

8316-424: Is exploitative, and that this situation can only ultimately be resolved through a social revolution . The two classes are the proletariat , who make up the majority of the population within society and must sell their labor power to survive, and the bourgeoisie , a small minority that derives profit from employing the working class through private ownership of the means of production. According to this analysis,

8547-480: Is that of educating voters in what are deemed their true interests rather than in response to the expression of interest by voters themselves. When they have gained control of the state, Leninist communists' main task was preventing other political parties from deceiving the proletariat, such as by running their own independent candidates. This vanguardist approach comes from their commitments to democratic centralism in which communists can only be cadres, i.e. members of

8778-542: Is the intermediary unto whom man unburdens all his divinity, all his religious bonds, so the state is the mediator unto which he transfers all his Godlessness, all his human liberty." Thomas Müntzer led a large Anabaptist communist movement during the German Peasants' War , which Friedrich Engels analyzed in his 1850 work The Peasant War in Germany . The Marxist communist ethos that aims for unity reflects

9009-680: Is viewed overwhelmingly negatively as a mass murderer ; for significant numbers of Russians and Georgians, he is regarded as a great statesman and state-builder. After the Chinese Civil War , Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949 as the Nationalist government headed by the Kuomintang fled to the island of Taiwan. In 1950–1953, China engaged in a large-scale, undeclared war with

9240-614: The 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election , socialist parties totaled well over 70% of the vote. The Bolsheviks were clear winners in the urban centres, and took around two-thirds of the votes of soldiers on the Western Front, obtaining 23.3% of the vote; the Socialist Revolutionaries finished first on the strength of support from the country's rural peasantry, who were for the most part single issue voters , that issue being land reform, obtaining 37.6%, while

9471-490: The 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union . War communism was the first system adopted by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War as a result of the many challenges. Despite communism in the name, it had nothing to do with communism, with strict discipline for workers, strike actions forbidden, obligatory labor duty, and military-style control, and has been described as simple authoritarian control by

Royal Thai Army Expeditionary Division - Misplaced Pages Continue

9702-821: The August Revolution against the Nguyễn dynasty and its Japanese puppet state on 16 August 1945. On August 19, the Việt Minh took control of Hanoi ( Northern Vietnam ). On August 25, the Nguyễn dynasty collapsed. The Revolution ended when the Việt Minh formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), known as "North Vietnam", in Hanoi on 2 September 1945. The French returned to French Indochina (including Vietnam) to re-establish their colonial rule here on 23 September 1945. French army later clashed with

9933-523: The Buddhist crisis , provoking widespread protests and civil resistance . The situation came to a head when the Special Forces were sent to raid Buddhist temples across the country , leaving a death toll estimated to be in the hundreds. However, the people who support Diem's regime claim he sponsored and supported many Buddhist organizations, and Buddhism flourished under his regime. Before Diệm

10164-594: The Case–Church Amendment to prohibit such intervention. The oil price shock of October 1973 caused significant damage to the South Vietnamese economy. A spokesman for Thiệu admitted in a TV interview that the government was being "overwhelmed" by the inflation caused by the oil shock, while an American businessman living in Saigon stated after the oil shock that attempting to make money in South Vietnam

10395-665: The Cheget , to Russian president Boris Yeltsin . That evening at 7:32, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag . Previously, from August to December 1991, all the individual republics, including Russia itself, had seceded from the union. The week before the union's formal dissolution, eleven republics signed the Alma-Ata Protocol , formally establishing

10626-735: The Christian universalist teaching that humankind is one and that there is only one god who does not discriminate among people. Communist thought has also been traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer Thomas More . In his 1516 treatise titled Utopia , More portrayed a society based on common ownership of property, whose rulers administered it through the application of reason and virtue . Marxist communist theoretician Karl Kautsky , who popularized Marxist communism in Western Europe more than any other thinker apart from Engels, published Thomas More and His Utopia ,

10857-558: The Cold War had begun. Stalin himself believed that capitalism was a hollow shell and would crumble under increased non-military pressure exerted through proxies in countries like Italy. He greatly underestimated the economic strength of the West and instead of triumph saw the West build up alliances that were designed to permanently stop or contain Soviet expansion. In early 1950, Stalin gave

11088-841: The Commonwealth of Independent States , and declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. As of 2023, states controlled by Communist parties under a single-party system include the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba , the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , the Lao People's Democratic Republic , and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam . Communist parties, or their descendant parties, remain politically important in several other countries. With

11319-621: The English Civil War (especially the Diggers) espoused clear communistic, agrarianist ideals and that Oliver Cromwell 's attitude towards these groups was at best ambivalent and often hostile. Criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century through such thinkers as Gabriel Bonnot de Mably , Jean Meslier , Étienne-Gabriel Morelly , and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France. During

11550-472: The Geneva Conference provisionally partitioned Vietnam into communist and capitalist parts, one year before the republic was proclaimed in the southern part. Other names of this state were commonly used during its existence such as "Free Vietnam", "Free South", "Republican South", "National Government", "National side", the "Government of Vietnam", or simply "Vietnam". Before World War II ,

11781-650: The Mekong Delta . South Vietnam's time zone was one hour ahead of North Vietnam, belonging to the UTC+8 time zone with the same time as the Philippines , Brunei , Malaysia , Singapore , China , Taiwan and Western Australia . South Vietnam went through many political changes during its short life. Initially, former Emperor Bảo Đại served as Head of State of the State of Vietnam and Emperor of its Domain of

SECTION 50

#1732773344579

12012-498: The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) of North Vietnam and its Việt Cộng broke the traditional truce accompanying the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday. The Tet Offensive failed to spark a national uprising and was militarily disastrous. By bringing the war to South Vietnam's cities, however, and by demonstrating the continued strength of communist forces, it marked a turning point in US support for

12243-524: The Russian Revolution or in Lenin's Soviet government afterwards, including Lev Kamenev , Grigory Zinoviev , Alexei Rykov , and Nikolai Bukharin , were accused, pleaded guilty of conspiracy against the Soviet Union, and were executed. The devastation of World War II resulted in a massive recovery program involving the rebuilding of industrial plants, housing, and transportation as well as

12474-516: The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party renamed itself as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , which resulted in the adjective Communist being used to refer to socialists who supported the politics and theories of Bolshevism, Leninism , and later in the 1920s those of Marxism–Leninism . In spite of this common usage, Communist parties also continued to describe themselves as socialists dedicated to socialism. According to The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx , "Marx used many terms to refer to

12705-415: The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in the October Revolution; after a few weeks of deliberation, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries formed a coalition government with the Bolsheviks from November 1917 to July 1918, while the right-wing faction of the Socialist Revolutionary Party boycotted the soviets and denounced the October Revolution as an illegal coup . In

12936-464: The Socialist Party of Great Britain , boasted of having called the Bolsheviks, and by extension those Communist states which either followed or were inspired by the Soviet Bolshevik model of development, establishing state capitalism in late 1917, as would be described during the 20th century by several academics, economists, and other scholars, or a command economy . Before the Soviet path of development became known as socialism , in reference to

13167-413: The Soviet Union , culminating in the American recognition of Saigon regime in February 1950 and subsequent aid to the French in the war against the communist Việt Minh. The French government agreed to give the State of Vietnam complete independence with the Matignon Accords on 4 June 1954, however they were never nominally completed. After the Việt Minh with the aid of China defeated the French Union in

13398-477: The US Congress voted to reduce assistance to South Vietnam from $ 1 billion a year to $ 700 million. By this time, the Ho Chi Minh trail, once an arduous mountain trek, had been upgraded into a drivable highway with gasoline stations. On 10 December 1974, South Vietnam did recapture a series of hills from communist North Vietnam in the Battle of Phú Lộc , but this was the army's last victory before suffering repeated defeats and collapse. On 12 December 1974,

13629-501: The United States and other Western countries (including Australia , France , West Germany , and Canada ), although the actual number has been variously reported. Morale was low in South Vietnam as the PAVN advanced. A last-ditch defense was made mostly by the ARVN 18th Division led by Brigadier General Lê Minh Đảo at the Battle of Xuân Lộc from 9–21 April. The North Vietnamese communists demanded that Thieu resign so peace negotiations could take place; under pressure from within

13860-427: The bourgeoisie  – the ruling class that owns the means of production and extracts its wealth through appropriation of the surplus product produced by the proletariat in the form of profit . This class struggle that is commonly expressed as the revolt of a society's productive forces against its relations of production , results in a period of short-term crises as the bourgeoisie struggle to manage

14091-400: The common ownership of the means of production, therefore abolishing the bourgeoisie, ultimately abolishing the proletariat itself and ushering the world into communism as a new mode of production . In between capitalism and communism, there is the dictatorship of the proletariat ; it is the defeat of the bourgeois state but not yet of the capitalist mode of production, and at the same time

SECTION 60

#1732773344579

14322-420: The de jure capital of the Viet Minh communist government (DRV) during the war, was taken over by the Viet Minh on 10 October 1954 after the withdrawal of French Union troops. At the time of the conference, it was expected that the South would continue to be a French dependency. However, South Vietnamese Premier Ngô Đình Diệm , who preferred American sponsorship to French, rejected the agreement. North Vietnam of

14553-602: The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Fall of Communism , there was a split between those hardline Communists, sometimes referred to in the media as neo-Stalinists , who remained committed to orthodox Marxism–Leninism , and those, such as The Left in Germany, who work within the liberal-democratic process for a democratic road to socialism; other ruling Communist parties became closer to democratic socialist and social-democratic parties. Outside Communist states, reformed Communist parties have led or been part of left-leaning government or regional coalitions, including in

14784-450: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, several previously Communist governments repudiated or abolished Communist rule altogether. Afterwards, only a small number of nominally Communist governments remained, such as China , Cuba , Laos , North Korea , and Vietnam . With the exception of North Korea, all of these states have started allowing more economic competition while maintaining one-party rule. The decline of communism in

15015-476: The materialist conception of history which holds that the key characteristic of economic systems through history has been the mode of production and that the change between modes of production has been triggered by class struggle. According to this analysis, the Industrial Revolution ushered the world into the new capitalist mode of production . Before capitalism, certain working classes had ownership of instruments used in production; however, because machinery

15246-413: The means of production , distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need. A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes , and ultimately money and the state (or nation state ). Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between

15477-445: The means of production , earning profit via the surplus value generated by the proletariat, who have no ownership of the means of production and therefore no option but to sell its labor to the bourgeoisie. According to the materialist conception of history, it is through the furtherance of its own material interests that the rising bourgeoisie within feudalism captured power and abolished, of all relations of private property, only

15708-401: The productive forces ) is the primary agent of change in the structure of society and of human social relations and that social systems and their relations (e.g. feudalism , capitalism , and so on) become contradictory and inefficient as the productive forces develop, which results in some form of social revolution arising in response to the mounting contradictions. This revolutionary change is

15939-435: The two-stage theory , communists made no major distinction between the socialist mode of production and communism; it is consistent with, and helped to inform, early concepts of socialism in which the law of value no longer directs economic activity. Monetary relations in the form of exchange-value , profit , interest , and wage labor would not operate and apply to Marxist socialism. While Joseph Stalin stated that

16170-408: The yellow flag of the old regime was started to be banned by the communist regimes in Vietnam but was started to be used in anti-communist Vietnamese overseas communities (but not all Vietnamese dissidents ) and started to be recognized by many places in Australia , the US , and Canada . The South was divided into coastal lowlands, the mountainous Central Highlands (Cao-nguyen Trung-phan) and

16401-442: The "Bảo Đại Solution" of France, supported by native anti-communists who wanted to seek an independent and unified Vietnam without communism. The colonial war of France in Vietnam became part of the global Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union with the communist Việt Minh (DRV) being part of the communist Eastern Bloc and the State of Vietnam being part of the anti-communist and capitalist Western Bloc . This state

16632-531: The 18th century through such thinkers as Gabriel Bonnot de Mably , Jean Meslier , Étienne-Gabriel Morelly , Henri de Saint-Simon and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France. During the upheaval of the French Revolution , communism emerged as a political doctrine under the auspices of François-Noël Babeuf , Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne , and Sylvain Maréchal , all of whom can be considered the progenitors of modern communism, according to James H. Billington . In

16863-414: The 20th century, several ostensibly Communist governments espousing Marxism–Leninism and its variants came into power, first in the Soviet Union with the Russian Revolution of 1917, and then in portions of Eastern Europe, Asia, and a few other regions after World War II . As one of the many types of socialism , communism became the dominant political tendency, along with social democracy , within

17094-615: The 20th century. In Western Europe, communist parties were part of several post-war governments, and even when the Cold War forced many of those countries to remove them from government, such as in Italy, they remained part of the liberal-democratic process. There were also many developments in libertarian Marxism, especially during the 1960s with the New Left . By the 1960s and 1970s, many Western communist parties had criticized many of

17325-545: The 2nd Infantry Brigade of 3 infantry battalions, 2 artillery battalions and the remainder of the division combat service support elements. The division was under the operational control of the Commanding General, II Field Force, Vietnam . The third increment was deployed to South Vietnam during July and August to replace the first increment, which returned to Thailand. The last of the third increment arrived at Bearcat on 12 August 1969. The replacement brigade assumed

17556-514: The ARVN and other South Vietnamese who were seen as potential targets for persecution by the Communists. Many of the evacuees were taken directly by helicopter to multiple aircraft carriers waiting off the coast. Following the surrender of Saigon to North Vietnamese armed forces on 30 April 1975; South Vietnam was de facto overthrown, while the communists took power throughout Vietnam and there

17787-514: The Allies on the radio on August 15, with the August Revolution of different political organizations led by communists, Emperor Bảo Đại abdicated on 25 August 1945 and Việt Minh leader Hồ Chí Minh proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in Hanoi ( Northern Vietnam ) on September 2. While the people celebrated their victory in the north, the communist Việt Minh faced various problems in

18018-696: The Bolsheviks to maintain power and control in the Soviet regions, rather than any coherent political ideology . The Soviet Union was established in 1922. Before the broad ban in 1921, there were several factions in the Communist party, more prominently among them the Left Opposition , the Right Opposition , and the Workers' Opposition , which debated on the path of development to follow. The Left and Workers' oppositions were more critical of

18249-422: The Communist ideal. Mao charged that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was the leader of a "revisionist clique" which had turned against Marxism and Leninism and was now setting the stage for the restoration of capitalism. The two nations were at sword's point by 1960. Both began forging alliances with communist supporters around the globe, thereby splitting the worldwide movement into two hostile camps. Rejecting

18480-698: The Constituent Assembly in January 1918. The Draft Decree on the Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was issued by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union , a committee dominated by Lenin, who had previously supported a multi-party system of free elections. After the Bolshevik defeat, Lenin started referring to the assembly as a "deceptive form of bourgeois-democratic parliamentarianism." Some argued this

18711-573: The Crown . He was unpopular however, largely because monarchical leaders were considered collaborators during French rule and because he had spent his reign absent in France. In 1955, Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm held a referendum to decide whether the State of Vietnam would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Under the Elysee Accords and the subsequent legislation that created the State of Vietnam in 1949, Bảo Đại's position as head of state

18942-605: The Division would be withdrawn in July 1971, and the remaining half in February 1972 in line with their earlier proposals. Following its return from South Vietnam the division was renamed the 9th Infantry Division based at (Fort Surasi, Kanchanaburi Province ). South Vietnam South Vietnam , officially the Republic of Vietnam ( RVN ; Vietnamese : Việt Nam Cộng hòa ; VNCH , French : République du Viêt Nam ),

19173-579: The First Indochina War; an armistice and an accompanying declaration were made in the Geneva Conference on 21 July 1954, taking effect at 24:00 on July 22. The State of Vietnam was forced to abandon its claims to the North while the Việt Minh's state was recognized by the French and took power in the North. With the American support, a 1955 referendum on the state's future form of government

19404-528: The Fourierists in France were considered respectable socialists, while working-class movements that "proclaimed the necessity of total social change" denoted themselves communists . This latter branch of socialism produced the communist work of Étienne Cabet in France and Wilhelm Weitling in Germany. While liberal democrats looked to the Revolutions of 1848 as a democratic revolution , which in

19635-535: The French defeated the Việt Minh in Hanoi on 18 February 1947. The Viet Minh government had to withdraw to the North . As part of decolonization , France returned to Vietnam (Tonkin and Annam) but no longer recognized this place as normal colonies but the territories having a high autonomy and democracy. France and the United Kingdom two colonial superpowers won World War II but were seriously weakened while

19866-645: The French High Commissioner in Indochina Léon Pignon exchanged letters at City Hall in Saigon on 14 June 1949. The Accords were completed when they received final ratification by the French National Assembly on 29 January 1950 and were signed by French President Vincent Auriol on 2 February 1950. The State of Vietnam was not completely a sovereign state but an associated state of France. However, in theory,

20097-622: The French government issued a declaration of its intention to complete the independence of three Indochinese countries (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia). After the decisive defeat of the French Union in Điện Biên Phủ , on 4 June 1954, the French government of Prime Minister Joseph Laniel signed the Matignon Accords with the State of Vietnam government of Prime Minister Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lộc in the Hôtel Matignon to recognize

20328-627: The French: 75% support for the NLF, 20% trying to remain neutral and only 5% firmly pro-Saigon government". However, the land reform in communist North Vietnam was also a serious disaster. The Diệm government lost support among the populace, and from the Kennedy administration , due to its repression of Buddhists and military defeats by the Việt Cộng. Notably, the Huế Phật Đản shootings of 8 May 1963 led to

20559-545: The Great Leap was a very expensive disaster." Put in charge of rescuing the economy, Deng adopted pragmatic policies that the idealistic Mao disliked. For a while, Mao was in the shadows but returned to center stage and purged Deng and his allies in the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). The Cultural Revolution was an upheaval that targeted intellectuals and party leaders from 1966 through 1976. Mao's goal

20790-602: The North Vietnam-controlled Viet Cong (NLF/VC) was driven by resentment of Diem's reversal of Viet Minh land reforms in the countryside. The Viet Minh had confiscated large private landholdings, reduced rents and debts, and leased communal lands, mostly to poorer peasants. Diem brought the landlords back, people who had been farming land for years had to return it to landlords and pay years of back rent. Marilyn B. Young wrote that "The divisions within villages reproduced those that had existed against

21021-682: The North Vietnam-controlled Việt Cộng established the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG) to challenge the legitimacy of the South Vietnamese government. What started as a guerrilla war eventually turned into a more conventional fight as the balance of power became equalized. An even larger, armored attack from the North commenced during the 1972 Easter Offensive following US ground-forces withdrawal . Under

21252-474: The North on 4 February 1977. Non- communist party members of the Việt Cộng became dissatisfied with Hanoi after the fall of Saigon due to its conservative and harsh policies in managing the country and treating those who had worked for the old regime. Although the communistization of South Vietnam had taken place before; Vietnamese communists only publicly announced the implementation of communism ( Marxism-Leninism ) nationwide on 20 December 1976, after Vietnam

21483-491: The North, and it was hoped he might be able to negotiate a more favourable settlement to end the war. After that, on 28 April 1975, South Vietnamese president Minh immediately asked the US defense attaché to leave South Vietnam to create conditions for negotiations with Hanoi. The communist North, however, was not interested in negotiations to create a coalition government in the South with anti-communists and neutrals, and its forces attacked Saigon . Minh did not want to evacuate

21714-674: The October Revolution which involved the assault on Petrograd occurred largely without any human casualties . By November 1917, the Russian Provisional Government had been widely discredited by its failure to withdraw from World War I, implement land reform, or convene the Russian Constituent Assembly to draft a constitution, leaving the soviets in de facto control of the country. The Bolsheviks moved to hand power to

21945-481: The PAVN attacked at Phuoc Long as the beginning of the 1975 spring offensive to test the South Vietnamese combat strength and political will and whether the US would respond militarily. With no US military assistance forthcoming, the ARVN were unable to hold and the PAVN successfully captured many of the districts around the provincial capital of Phuoc Long, weakening ARVN resistance in stronghold areas. President Thiệu later abandoned Phuoc Long in early January 1975. As

22176-631: The Republic of Vietnam government to whom land had previously been distributed by the communists. US and South Vietnamese forces launched a series of attacks on PAVN/VC bases in Cambodia in April–July 1970. South Vietnam launched an invasion of North Vietnamese bases in Laos in February/March 1971 and were defeated by the PAVN in what was widely regarded as a setback for Vietnamization. Thiệu

22407-654: The Russian Federation has some supporters, but is reformist rather than revolutionary, aiming to lessen the inequalities of Russia's market economy. Chinese economic reforms were started in 1978 under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping , and since then China has managed to bring down the poverty rate from 53% in the Mao era to just 8% in 2001. After losing Soviet subsidies and support, Vietnam and Cuba have attracted more foreign investment to their countries, with their economies becoming more market-oriented. North Korea,

22638-520: The Saigon government to the Mekong Delta to continue military resistance against the communist faction. Minh unconditionally surrendered to North Vietnam on the radio at 10:24 on 30 April 1975, leading to the end of the Vietnam War and more than 26 years of existence of the Saigon regime. During the hours leading up to the surrender, the United States undertook a massive evacuation of US government personnel as well as high-ranking members of

22869-716: The South China Sea because China was one of two main allies in the Vietnam War. The "Operation Tran Hung Dao 48" was a campaign conducted by the South Vietnamese Navy in February 1974 to station troops on unoccupied islands to assert Vietnam's sovereignty over the Spratly archipelago after the Battle of the Paracel Islands. After communist reunification in 1976, Hanoi started to carefully praised

23100-541: The South Vietnamese forces that took part in the battle, while trying to avoid praising the Saigon regime as always to keep the image of their regime. After the battle, the US refused Saigon's requests for assistance because the US signed the Paris Peace Accords and the US and South Vietnam had no mutual defense treaty. In August 1974, Nixon was forced to resign as a result of the Watergate scandal , and

23331-420: The South Vietnamese state was the "Republic of Vietnam" (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Cộng hòa ; French: République du Viêt Nam ). The "State of Vietnam" (Vietnamese: Quốc gia Việt Nam ; French: État du Viêt Nam ) was the official name of its predecessor state from 1949 to 1955. The communist North was known as the " Democratic Republic of Vietnam ". Việt Nam ( Vietnamese pronunciation: [vjə̀tnam] )

23562-474: The South were permitted to remain in place. According to Finnish historian Jussi Hanhimäki , due to triangular diplomacy which isolated it, South Vietnam was "pressurized into accepting an agreement that virtually ensured its collapse". North Vietnam violated the Paris Peace Accords first on the evening of January 29 when they counterattacked at Cửa Việt Base with the goal of retaking this place from South Vietnam. North Vietnamese leaders had expected that

23793-431: The Soviet Union . The declaration acknowledged the independence of the former Soviet republics and created the Commonwealth of Independent States , although five of the signatories ratified it much later or did not do it at all. On the previous day, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev (the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union ) resigned, declared his office extinct, and handed over its powers, including control of

24024-499: The Soviet Union, East Germany , North Korea , Hungary, Mongolia, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Bulgaria recognised the Việt Minh's state (DRV). As of early 1950, there were 35 non-communist countries recognizing the State of Vietnam; among them were the United States, South Korea , Thailand, Iran, Belgium, New Zealand, Australia , Greece , Spain, and countries in South America. The First Indochina War of France itself

24255-482: The Soviet government of Nikita Khrushchev , who enacted a period of de-Stalinization and re-approached diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia in 1976. The Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong, established the People's Republic of China , which would follow its own ideological path of development following the Sino-Soviet split . Communism was seen as a rival of and a threat to Western capitalism for most of

24486-524: The Soviet model of rapid urbanization, Mao Zedong and his top aide Deng Xiaoping launched the Great Leap Forward in 1957–1961 with the goal of industrializing China overnight, using the peasant villages as the base rather than large cities. Private ownership of land ended and the peasants worked in large collective farms that were now ordered to start up heavy industry operations, such as steel mills. Plants were built in remote locations, due to

24717-555: The Soviets, built the hydrogen bomb , and strengthened the NATO alliance that covered Western Europe . According to Gorlizki and Khlevniuk, Stalin's consistent and overriding goal after 1945 was to consolidate the nation's superpower status and in the face of his growing physical decrepitude, to maintain his own hold on total power. Stalin created a leadership system that reflected historic czarist styles of paternalism and repression yet

24948-655: The US Senate would not release extra money to provide aid to South Vietnam, and had already passed laws to prevent further involvement in Vietnam. In desperation, Thiệu recalled Kỳ from retirement as a military commander, but resisted calls to name his old rival prime minister. On 17 April 1975, Cambodia fell to the communist Khmer Rouge , an ally of North Vietnam. South Vietnam's ally here collapsed. With Operation Babylift from 3 April to 26 April 1945; over 3,300 South Vietnamese infants and children had been airlifted by

25179-536: The US to disguise foreign rule, while Saigon accused its enemy of being anti-free and spreading communism ( Marxism-Leninism ) under nationalist guise. The Vietnam War , a Cold War military conflict between North and South Vietnam, started on 1 November 1955 and escalated in March 1959 when North Vietnam accepted the use of force in the South. North Vietnam de facto established the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam (Việt Cộng)

25410-778: The Ukrainian Socialist Bloc finished a distant third at 12.7%, and the Mensheviks obtained a disappointing fourth place at 3.0%. Most of the Socialist Revolutionary Party's seats went to the right-wing faction. Citing outdated voter-rolls, which did not acknowledge the party split, and the assembly's conflicts with the Congress of Soviets, the Bolshevik–Left Socialist-Revolutionaries government moved to dissolve

25641-465: The United States and the Soviet Union that opposed colonialism and were two main victors became new superpowers and the right to national self-determination was clearly written into the UN Charter as an international legal right, leading to the foundation for the possibility of achieving independence in peace. In 1947, Nguyễn Văn Xuân who was a Vietnamese anti-communist became Prime Minister of

25872-425: The United States did not keep its word. Is an American's word reliable these days? The United States did not keep its promise to help us fight for freedom and it was in the same fight that the United States lost 50,000 of its young men. After only one week in office, the South Vietnamese national assembly voted to hand over the presidency to General Dương Văn Minh . Minh was seen as a more conciliatory figure toward

26103-628: The United States, South Korea, and United Nations forces in the Korean War . While the war ended in a military stalemate, it gave Mao the opportunity to identify and purge elements in China that seemed supportive of capitalism. At first, there was close cooperation with Stalin, who sent in technical experts to aid the industrialization process along the line of the Soviet model of the 1930s. After Stalin's death in 1953, relations with Moscow soured – Mao thought Stalin's successors had betrayed

26334-595: The Viet Minh for control of the south on 23 September 1945, because French sovereignty over French Indochina (including Vietnam) got a legal recognition of the victorious Allies that France was their member. The young Vietnamese state itself was still weak and not recognized by any country. While the Chinese soldiers occupied northern part of Vietnam, the Việt Minh tried to appease the Chinese soldiers. They even had welcome parades in Hanoi and Haiphong, while reassuring

26565-717: The Vietnamese in the North and Central and South, including the paramilitary organization of the Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam in the North. In 1953, Bảo Đại responded to the communist Việt Minh program of land redistribution and rent reduction with a decree declaring that rents for land should not exceed 15 percent of the crop. The decree was unenforceable and rendered null by a failing colonial government and, in any case, contained loopholes that could have been exploited by landlords. Under increasing financial pressure and European defense commitments, on 3 July 1953,

26796-575: The Vietnamese people that China supported Vietnam's independence. The Chinese occupation forces allowed the Viet Minh's state more influence than the British Army occupation authorities in the south, but the Chinese also put pressure to prevent the Viet Minh from monopolizing the new Vietnamese state. National Assembly elections were held in areas controlled by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) but not controlled by France on 6 January 1946. Held under its 1946 constitution , they resulted in

27027-528: The Việt Minh (DRV) agreed at the Geneva Conference with an armistice effective at 24:00 on July 22 accompanied by a declaration that the Viet Minh army withdrew all to the North and the French Union army withdrew all to the South, and Vietnam would be temporarily divided at 17th parallel north and State of Vietnam would rule the territory south of the 17th parallel, pending unification on the basis of supervised elections in 1956. France also re-recognised complete independence of Vietnam with these agreements. Hanoi,

27258-482: The Việt Minh in Hanoi on 19 December 1946, leading to the First Indochina War . The Viet Minh government then had to withdraw to the North . On 8 March 1949, the French formed the State of Vietnam with the Élysée Accords , it was a rival state of anti-communist Vietnamese politicians in Saigon, led by former Nguyễn emperor Bảo Đại . With this event as part of decolonization , the French abolished

27489-411: The Việt Minh itself was also forced to sign the agreement under Chinese pressure. When Vietnam was divided, about 1.2 million North Vietnamese went to the South with Operation Passage to Freedom . About 90,000 Việt Minh were evacuated to the North while 5,000 to 10,000 cadre remained in the South, most of them with orders to refocus on political activity and agitation. The Saigon-Cholon Peace Committee,

27720-479: The abolition of capitalism. For Leninist communism, such goals, including short-term proletarian interests to improve their political and material conditions, can only be achieved through vanguardism , an elitist form of socialism from above that relies on theoretical analysis to identify proletarian interests rather than consulting the proletarians themselves, as is advocated by libertarian communists. When they engage in elections, Leninist communists' main task

27951-499: The actions of communist states, distanced from them, and developed a democratic road to socialism , which became known as Eurocommunism . This development was criticized by more orthodox supporters of the Soviet Union as amounting to social democracy . Since 1957, communists have been frequently voted into power in the Indian state of Kerala . In 1959, Cuban communist revolutionaries overthrew Cuba's previous government under

28182-591: The advance party on 1 July 1968 and was completed on 15 July. The troops quickly followed. The first 5,700-man increment of the division, now known as the Black Panther Division arrived in South Vietnam in late July 1968 and was deployed in the Bearcat Base area. The second increment of 5,704 men began deployment in January 1969 and completed the move on 25 February. This increment contained the division headquarters and headquarters company (rear),

28413-661: The armistice agreement: "The elections were not held. South Vietnam, which had not signed the Geneva Accords, did not believe the Communists in North Vietnam would allow a fair election. In January 1957, the ICC agreed with this perception, reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored the armistice agreement. With the French gone, a return to the traditional power struggle between north and south had begun again." In October 1956, Diệm, with US prodding, launched

28644-462: The army and Mao's wife Jiang Qing . China's youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country. The movement spread into the military, urban workers, and the Communist party leadership itself. It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials who were accused of taking a " capitalist road ", most notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping . During

28875-476: The autonomous republic of French Cochinchina , he renamed the "Provisional Government of the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina" as the "Provisional Government of Southern Vietnam", suggesting that his aim was to reunite all of Vietnam under a non-communist regime. Also in 1947, under a pressure of the domestic left , the French government of Prime Minister Paul Ramadier agreed that it would give

29106-480: The autonomy of the State of Vietnam within the French Union was still higher than that of Malaya within the British Commonwealth from 1948 to 1957. Former emperor Bảo Đại temporarily accepted the position of chief of state ( quốc trưởng ) before it could become a complete republic. In its Domain of the Crown , he was still officially titled as the "Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty". This was known as

29337-483: The candidates were. In many districts, a single candidate ran unopposed. The French army then moved north to replace the Chinese army. The Việt Minh also tried to make peace with France and France recognized the Việt Minh's state as a " Free State " within the French Union with an agreement on 6 March 1946. In June 1946, France declared Cochinchina an autonomous republic, separate from the northern and central parts. The French Indochina War began on 19 December 1946,

29568-549: The ceasefire period. In reality, fighting began almost immediately after the agreement took effect, due to a series of mutual retaliations, and by March 1973, full-fledged war had resumed. The same month, China attacked South Vietnamese forces in the Paracel Islands on the South China Sea , taking control of the islands. Saigon later objected diplomatically. North Vietnam recognized Chinese territorial claims in

29799-405: The ceasefire terms would favour their side. As Saigon began to roll back the Việt Cộng, they found it necessary to adopt a new strategy, hammered out at a series of meetings in Hanoi in March 1973, according to the memoirs of Trần Văn Trà . As the Việt Cộng's top commander, Trà participated in several of these meetings. A plan to improve logistics was prepared so that the PAVN would be able to launch

30030-423: The command of the State of Vietnam. It was expected that this army would include 120,000 soldiers and 4,000 officers. All officers had to be Vietnamese. However, the army of this state was established before. According to the national defense decree of the State of Vietnam dated April 13, 1949; a national military force named the "National Guard" established on the basis of the pro-French autonomous military forces of

30261-413: The communist government in the North created conditions that made a fair election impossible in that region. Dennis J. Duncanson described the circumstances prevailing in 1955 and 1956 as "anarchy among sects and of the retiring Việt Minh in the South, the 1956 campaign of terror from Hanoi's land reform and resultant peasant uprising around Vinh in the North". A victory for communist Ho Chi Minh in

30492-453: The communists themselves felt happy. General Dương Văn Minh became president, but he was ousted in January 1964 by General Nguyễn Khánh . Phan Khắc Sửu was named head of state, but power remained with a junta of generals led by Khánh, which soon fell to infighting. Meanwhile, the Gulf of Tonkin incident of 2 August 1964 led to a dramatic increase in direct US-allied participation in

30723-485: The community"; this semantic constitution has led to numerous usages of the word in its evolution. Prior to becoming associated with its more modern conception of an economic and political organization, it was initially used to designate various social situations. After 1848, communism came to be primarily associated with Marxism , most specifically embodied in The Communist Manifesto , which proposed

30954-526: The complete independence of Vietnam within the French Union. However, the Accords had never been completed because they had never been ratified by the heads of both countries. While the US provided aid to the State of Vietnam and France, China provided massive and abundant aid to the Viet Minh and this was the main factor leading to France's defeat in Indochina. On 21 July 1954, the war ended, France and

31185-516: The confidence of the ARVN soldiers in their leadership. The retreat became a rout exacerbated by poor planning and conflicting orders from Thiệu. PAVN forces also attacked south and from sanctuaries in Laos and Cambodia capturing Huế and Da Nang and advanced southwards. As the military situation deteriorated, ARVN troops began deserting. By early April, the PAVN had overrun almost 3/5th of the South. Thiệu requested aid from US President Gerald Ford , but

31416-403: The country, Thiệu was forced to resign on 21 April 1975, and fled to Taiwan under the name of an envoy of the South Vietnamese president. He nominated his Vice President Trần Văn Hương as his successor. When Thiệu resigned, he accused the U.S. of betrayal in a TV and radio address: At the time of the peace agreement the United States agreed to only replace equipment on a one-by-one basis. But

31647-557: The demobilization and migration of millions of soldiers and civilians. In the midst of this turmoil during the winter of 1946–1947, the Soviet Union experienced the worst natural famine in the 20th century. There was no serious opposition to Stalin as the secret police continued to send possible suspects to the gulag . Relations with the United States and Britain went from friendly to hostile, as they denounced Stalin's political controls over eastern Europe and his Berlin Blockade . By 1947,

31878-400: The designation of 1st Brigade. In addition, the headquarters of the Royal Thai Army Volunteer Force (RTAVF) completed its annual rotation. In November 1970 the Thai government announced it was planning to withdraw its forces from South Vietnam by 1972. The decision was related to the deterioration of security in Laos and Cambodia and the growth of internal insurgency in Thailand, as well as

32109-408: The dictator Fulgencio Batista . The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro , ruled Cuba from 1959 until 2008. With the fall of the Warsaw Pact after the Revolutions of 1989 , which led to the fall of most of the former Eastern Bloc , the Soviet Union was dissolved on 26 December 1991. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of

32340-452: The feudal privilege, thereby taking the feudal ruling class out of existence. This was another key element behind the consolidation of capitalism as the new mode of production, the final expression of class and property relations that has led to a massive expansion of production. It is only in capitalism that private property in itself can be abolished. Similarly, the proletariat would capture political power, abolish bourgeois property through

32571-411: The first communist front, was founded in 1954 to provide leadership for this group. Operation Passage to Freedom was marked by an American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-backed propaganda campaign on behalf of South Vietnam's Roman Catholic Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem . The campaign was usually viewed to exhort Catholics to flee "impending religious persecution" under communism, and around 60% of

32802-477: The former Eastern Bloc. In Nepal, Communists ( CPN UML and Nepal Communist Party ) were part of the 1st Nepalese Constituent Assembly , which abolished the monarchy in 2008 and turned the country into a federal liberal-democratic republic, and have democratically shared power with other communists, Marxist–Leninists, and Maoists ( CPN Maoist ), social democrats ( Nepali Congress ), and others as part of their People's Multiparty Democracy . The Communist Party of

33033-411: The former landowners. On 26 March 1970, with the war still underway, the government of South Vietnam began implementation of the Land-to-the-Tiller program following Prosterman's model. In total, the United States financed 339 million US dollars of the reform's 441 million dollars of expenses. Individual holdings were limited to 15 hectares. Legal titles were extended to peasants in areas under control of

33264-410: The free general election was certain because Ho hid in the name of nationalism and neutrality to fight against the French by force although in the Saigon regime Ngo Dinh Diem had more prestigious than Bao Dai , however the International Control Commission (ICC) held that both North and South Vietnam did not comply with the Geneva armistice agreement (although South Vietnam did not sign it) and neither

33495-415: The go-ahead for North Korea 's invasion of South Korea , expecting a short war. He was stunned when the Americans entered and defeated the North Koreans, putting them almost on the Soviet border. Stalin supported China 's entry into the Korean War , which drove the Americans back to the prewar boundaries, but which escalated tensions. The United States decided to mobilize its economy for a long contest with

33726-415: The government in South Vietnam. The new administration of Richard Nixon introduced a policy of Vietnamization to reduce US combat involvement and began negotiations with the North Vietnamese to end the war. Thiệu used the aftermath of the Tet Offensive to sideline Kỳ, his chief rival. The Land to the Tiller project carried out in South Vietnam from 1970 to 1973 was based on a proposal by Roy Prosterman ,

33957-409: The government. They imposed censorship and suspended civil liberties, and intensified anticommunist efforts. Under pressure from the US, they held elections for president and the legislature in 1967. The Senate election took place on 2 September 1967. The Presidential election took place on 3 September 1967, Thiệu was elected president with 34% of the vote in a widely criticised poll. Like Diệm, Thiệu

34188-452: The historic circumstances in which it finds itself", and stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois rule through the Obshchina . The moderate Mensheviks (minority) opposed Lenin's Bolsheviks (majority) plan for socialist revolution before the capitalist mode of production was more fully developed. The Bolsheviks' successful rise to power was based upon the slogans such as "Peace, Bread, and Land", which tapped into

34419-418: The idea to group together different countries, such as Afghanistan and Hungary , has no adequate explanation. While the term Communist state is used by Western historians, political scientists, and news media to refer to countries ruled by Communist parties, these socialist states themselves did not describe themselves as communist or claim to have achieved communism; they referred to themselves as being

34650-429: The inspiration of religious text . In the medieval Christian Church , some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and their other property. Sects deemed heretical such as the Waldensians preached an early form of Christian communism . As summarized by historians Janzen Rod and Max Stanton, the Hutterites believed in strict adherence to biblical principles, church discipline, and practised

34881-442: The intensifying alienation of labor experienced by the proletariat, albeit with varying degrees of class consciousness . In periods of deep crisis, the resistance of the oppressed can culminate in a proletarian revolution which, if victorious, leads to the establishment of the socialist mode of production based on social ownership of the means of production, " To each according to his contribution ", and production for use . As

35112-442: The international socialist movement by the early 1920s. During most of the 20th century, around one-third of the world's population lived under Communist governments. These governments were characterized by one-party rule by a communist party, the rejection of private property and capitalism, state control of economic activity and mass media , restrictions on freedom of religion , and suppression of opposition and dissent. With

35343-561: The lack of technical experts, managers, transportation, or needed facilities. Industrialization failed, and the main result was a sharp unexpected decline in agricultural output, which led to mass famine and millions of deaths. The years of the Great Leap Forward in fact saw economic regression, with 1958 through 1961 being the only years between 1953 and 1983 in which China's economy saw negative growth. Political economist Dwight Perkins argues: "Enormous amounts of investment produced only modest increases in production or none at all. ... In short,

35574-442: The land reform process had stalled. Diệm had never truly supported reform because many of his biggest supporters were the country's largest landowners. While the US threatened to cut aid unless land reform and other changes were made, Diệm correctly assessed that the US was bluffing. Like Bảo Đại , the Saigon regime under Ngô Đình Diệm was a dictatorship but not a liberal democracy ; although Diệm overthrew Bảo Đại to establish

35805-660: The last Communist country that still practices Soviet-style Communism, is both repressive and isolationist. Communist political thought and theory are diverse but share several core elements. The dominant forms of communism are based on Marxism or Leninism but non-Marxist versions of communism also exist, such as anarcho-communism and Christian communism , which remain partly influenced by Marxist theories, such as libertarian Marxism and humanist Marxism in particular. Common elements include being theoretical rather than ideological, identifying political parties not by ideology but by class and economic interest, and identifying with

36036-422: The late 20th century has been attributed to the inherent inefficiencies of communist economies and the general trend of communist governments towards authoritarianism and bureaucracy . While the emergence of the Soviet Union as the world's first nominally Communist state led to communism's widespread association with the Soviet economic model , several scholars posit that in practice the model functioned as

36267-437: The latter resulting in Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ becoming prime minister and General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu becoming nominal head of state. A regular bombing campaign over North Vietnam was conducted by offshore US Navy airplanes, warships, and aircraft carriers joined by the South Vietnamese and American Air Force squadrons from 1965 to 1968. Kỳ and Thiệu functioned in those roles until 1967, bringing much-desired stability to

36498-430: The law of value would still apply to socialism and that the Soviet Union was socialist under this new definition, which was followed by other Communist leaders, many other communists maintain the original definition and state that Communist states never established socialism in this sense. Lenin described his policies as state capitalism but saw them as necessary for the development of socialism, which left-wing critics say

36729-504: The legacy of Communist states. Communism derives from the French word communisme , a combination of the Latin -rooted word communis (which literally means common ) and the suffix isme ( an act, practice, or process of doing something ) . Semantically, communis can be translated to "of or for the community", while isme is a suffix that indicates the abstraction into a state, condition, action, or doctrine . Communism may be interpreted as "the state of being of or for

36960-446: The long run ensured liberty, equality, and fraternity , Marxists denounced 1848 as a betrayal of working-class ideals by a bourgeoisie indifferent to the legitimate demands of the proletariat . By 1888, Marxists employed the term socialism in place of communism , which had come to be considered an old-fashioned synonym for the former. It was not until 1917, with the October Revolution , that socialism came to be used to refer to

37191-453: The long run, it allowed the communists of Hồ Chí Minh to inherit the status of this organization as the leading anti-colonial revolutionary movement. Communist rebellions against the French colonialists also failed in the 1930-1931 uprising of the Nghệ-Tĩnh soviets and the 1940 Cochinchina uprising . During World War II , French Indochina was administered by Vichy France and occupied by Japan in September 1940. The communist Việt Minh

37422-433: The massive public desire for an end to Russian involvement in World War I , the peasants' demand for land reform , and popular support for the soviets . 50,000 workers had passed a resolution in favour of Bolshevik demand for transfer of power to the soviets Lenin's government also instituted a number of progressive measures such as universal education , healthcare and equal rights for women . The initial stage of

37653-408: The misery of the proletariat  – a new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Engels. In 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto . In 1917, the October Revolution in Russia set the conditions for

37884-417: The most advanced capitalist development; however, the Russian Empire was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry, and a minority of industrial workers. Marx warned against attempts "to transform my historical sketch of the genesis of capitalism in Western Europe into a historico-philosophy theory of the arche générale imposed by fate upon every people, whatever

38115-427: The most well-known of these and have been a driving force in international relations during most of the 20th century. Classical Marxism is the economic, philosophical, and sociological theories expounded by Marx and Engels as contrasted with later developments in Marxism, especially Leninism and Marxism–Leninism. Orthodox Marxism is the body of Marxist thought that emerged after the death of Marx and which became

38346-431: The name of Vietnamese emperor) and French President Vincent Auriol on 8 March 1949. Its capital was in Saigon , Southern Vietnam . On 23 April 1949, the Cochinchinese assembly approved the merger with Vietnam (State of Vietnam), and its decision was in turn approved by the French National Assembly on 20 May 1949. On 4 June 1949, Cochinchina and Vietnam were formally merged. The Élysée Accords took effect when Bao Dai and

38577-450: The nation. An elected constituent assembly including representatives of all the branches of the military decided to switch the nation's system of government to a semi-presidential system. Military rule initially failed to provide much stability however, as internal conflicts and political inexperience caused various factions of the army to launch coups and counter-coups against one another, making leadership very tumultuous. The situation within

38808-447: The new front as the Việt Minh. Later, after communists took power in North Vietnam, the United Front (Việt Minh) changed into the current communist Vietnam Fatherland Front ( Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam ) on 10 September 1955. Before that, in 1951, Vietnamese communists restored their party; with the 1959 Constitution of North Vietnam (DRV), Vietnamese communists formalized their rule and implementation of communism ( Marxism-Leninism ) in

39039-428: The next year. North Vietnam was aided mainly from China and the Soviet Union while South Vietnam was aided mainly from the US. Larger escalation of the insurgency occurred in 1965 with foreign intervention to help South Vietnam ( mostly the U.S. ) and the introduction of regular forces of Marines , followed by Army units to supplement the cadre of military advisors guiding the Southern armed forces . North Vietnam

39270-469: The north's 1.14 million Catholics immigrated. However, the communist Viet Minh also tried to forcefully prevent would-be refugees from leaving, especially in rural areas where there were no French or American military forces. About the communist Việt Minh, on 7 March 1951, it and the communist National United League of Vietnam ( Hội Liên Việt ) merged to form the communist Vietnamese United Front ( Mặt trận Liên Việt ). Nonetheless, people continued to call

39501-441: The north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. In 1975, it was succeeded by the Republic of South Vietnam , which was de facto controlled by the communist North. On 2 July 1976, South Vietnam and North Vietnam merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam . At the end of the Second World War , the communist Việt Minh of Hồ Chí Minh , started

39732-402: The official philosophy of the socialist movement as represented in the Second International until World War I in 1914. Orthodox Marxism aims to simplify, codify, and systematize Marxist method and theory by clarifying the perceived ambiguities and contradictions of classical Marxism. The philosophy of orthodox Marxism includes the understanding that material development (advances in technology in

39963-425: The old-style colonial regime in Vietnam, France recognized the independence and unification of Vietnam within the French Union ; but Vietnam still depended on France as an associated state like other two countries within Indochina. The state was proclaimed on 2 July 1949. The formation of the State of Vietnam on 8 March 1949 made this French colonial war part of the Cold War between the United States (US) and

40194-401: The ongoing U.S. withdrawal of forces. The withdrawal plans were based on a rotational phase-out. The fifth increment would not be replaced after its return to Thailand in August 1971. The sixth increment would deploy as planned in January 1971 and withdraw one year later to complete the redeployment. On 26 March 1971 the Thai government announced to the United States and South Vietnam that half of

40425-484: The ongoing war but no longer in the name of a colonial army but a part of the French Union to help another independent member of this organization. From June to October 1950, the State of Vietnam and France met in Pau (France) to discuss the transfer of management functions on immigration, diplomatic relations, foreign trade, customs and finance for the State of Vietnam. Finance was the most controversial issue including controlling profits from foreign exchange operations. As

40656-413: The party as being reliable and completely subject to party discipline . Trotskyism overtook the left communists as the main dissident communist current, while more libertarian communisms , dating back to the libertarian Marxist current of council communism, remained important dissident communisms outside the Soviet Union. Following Lenin's democratic centralism , the Leninist parties were organized on

40887-401: The party who are full-time professional revolutionaries, as was conceived by Vladimir Lenin . Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism , to understand social class relations and social conflict and a dialectical perspective to view social transformation . It originates from

41118-411: The president of the newly proclaimed Republic of Vietnam. South Vietnam withdrew from the French Union on 9 December 1955. The French, who needed troops to fight in Algeria (then French internal part ) and were increasingly sidelined by the United States, completely withdrew from Vietnam by April 1956. Under Bảo Đại , the State of Vietnam planned to organize parliamentary elections and promulgate

41349-468: The productive forces continued to advance, the communist society , i.e. a classless, stateless, humane society based on common ownership , follows the maxim " From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs ." While it originates from the works of Marx and Engels, Marxism has developed into many different branches and schools of thought, with the result that there is now no single definitive Marxist theory. Different Marxian schools place

41580-440: The proletariat. According to communists, the proletariat can avoid mass unemployment only if capitalism is overthrown; in the short run, state-oriented communists favor state ownership of the commanding heights of the economy as a means to defend the proletariat from capitalist pressure. Some communists are distinguished by other Marxists in seeing peasants and smallholders of property as possible allies in their goal of shortening

41811-530: The ranks of the military stabilised in mid-1965 when the Republic of Vietnam Air Force chief Nguyễn Cao Kỳ became Prime Minister, with General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu as the figurehead chief of state. As Prime Minister, Kỳ consolidated control of the South Vietnamese government and ruled the country with an iron fist. In June 1965, Kỳ's influence over the ruling military government was solidified when he forced civilian prime minister Phan Huy Quát from power. Often praising aspects of Western culture in public, Ky

42042-440: The religious emphasis with a rational and philanthropic basis. Notable among them were Robert Owen , who founded New Harmony, Indiana , in 1825, and Charles Fourier , whose followers organized other settlements in the United States, such as Brook Farm in 1841. In its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for

42273-401: The request were related directly to the provision of an additional army force for South Vietnam. The Thai Prime Minister proposed a one brigade group at a strength of 10,800 men. This organization was to be composed of three infantry battalions, one artillery battalion, one engineer battalion and other supporting units as required. The deployment of the new headquarters began with the arrival of

42504-435: The rise to state power of Vladimir Lenin 's Bolsheviks , which was the first time any avowedly communist party reached that position. The revolution transferred power to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets in which the Bolsheviks had a majority. The event generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement, as Marx stated that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by

42735-404: The same period, Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions. After Mao's death in 1976, the survivors were rehabilitated and many returned to power. Mao's government was responsible for vast numbers of deaths with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims through starvation, persecution, prison labour , and mass executions. Mao has also been praised for transforming China from

42966-422: The south, which was politically more diverse than the north. The communist Việt Minh had been unable to establish the same degree of control in the south as in the north. There were serious divisions in the independence movement in the south, where the Việt Minh, Cao Đài , Hòa Hảo , other nationalist groups and the Trotskyists competed for control. Since its establishment, the Viet Minh had never publicized it as

43197-468: The southern part of present-day Vietnam ( Nam Kỳ ) had been taken over and administered as a complete colony of France since the Treaty of Saigon (1862) between France and the Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty , it was Cochinchina . It had been directly ruled by France and a French governor ( thống đốc ) and even elected a deputy to the French National Assembly ; but unlike Algeria , it was not part of France. The northern part of Vietnam or Tonkin ( Bắc Kỳ )

43428-471: The state-capitalist development and the Workers' in particular was critical of bureaucratization and development from above, while the Right Opposition was more supporting of state-capitalist development and advocated the New Economic Policy . Following Lenin's democratic centralism , the Leninist parties were organized on a hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base. They were made up only of elite cadres approved by higher members of

43659-639: The support of the US air force, the South Vietnamese army successfully stopped the communist attack. In the Second Battle of Quảng Trị , the South Vietnamese army (ARVN) successfully recaptured part of Quang Tri territory from the enemy. However, the Saigon government still lost about 10% of its territory to the communists. Despite a truce agreement under the Paris Peace Accords , signed on 27 January 1973 and taking effect at 8:00 on January 28 after five years of on-and-off negotiations, fighting continued almost immediately afterwards. The regular North Vietnamese army (PAVN) and their Viet Cong auxiliaries launched

43890-465: The term communism fell out of use during this period. An early distinction between communism and socialism was that the latter aimed to only socialize production , whereas the former aimed to socialize both production and consumption (in the form of common access to final goods ). This distinction can be observed in Marx's communism, where the distribution of products is based on the principle of " to each according to his needs ", in contrast to

44121-545: The term frequently in his writing and was the first to describe communism as a form of government . John Goodwyn Barmby is credited with the first use of communism in English, around 1840. Since the 1840s, the term communism has usually been distinguished from socialism . The modern definition and usage of the term socialism was settled by the 1860s, becoming predominant over alternative terms such as associationism ( Fourierism ), mutualism , or co-operative , which had previously been used as synonyms. Meanwhile,

44352-453: The term's widespread association with Marxism–Leninism and the Soviet-type economic planning model. In his essay "Judging Nazism and Communism", Martin Malia defines a "generic Communism" category as any Communist political party movement led by intellectuals ; this umbrella term allows grouping together such different regimes as radical Soviet industrialism and the Khmer Rouge 's anti-urbanism. According to Alexander Dallin ,

44583-511: The territories they controlled. In July 1955, Diệm announced in a broadcast that South Vietnam would not participate in the elections specified in the Geneva Accords. As Saigon's delegation did not sign the Geneva Accords, it was not bound by it, despite having been an associated state but not sovereign state of the French Union , which was itself bound by the Accords because the Matignon Accords that made Saigon gain complete independence from France never took effect legally. He also claimed

44814-399: The two sides and reached an important consensus with the communists. Although the coup was successful in overthrowing the dictatorship; Diệm's removal set off a period of political instability and declining legitimacy of the Saigon government, Saigon's ability to fight communism as well as build and govern the country was seriously weakened after the fall of his dictatorship to the point that

45045-448: The upheaval of the French Revolution , communism emerged as a political doctrine under the auspices of François-Noël Babeuf , Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne , and Sylvain Maréchal , all of whom can be considered the progenitors of modern communism, according to James H. Billington . In the early 19th century, various social reformers founded communities based on common ownership. Unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced

45276-416: The vehicle for fundamental society-wide changes and ultimately leads to the emergence of new economic systems . As a term, orthodox Marxism represents the methods of historical materialism and of dialectical materialism, and not the normative aspects inherent to classical Marxism, without implying dogmatic adherence to the results of Marx's investigations. At the root of Marxism is historical materialism,

45507-456: The war in South Vietnam, with nearly 200,000 American troops deployed by the end of the year. North Vietnam was also helped by foreign armies, mostly Chinese. Khánh sought to capitalize on the crisis with the Vũng Tàu Charter , a new constitution that would have curtailed civil liberties and concentrated his power, but was forced to back down in the face of widespread protests and strikes. Coup attempts followed in September and February 1965 ,

45738-472: The works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . As Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought , no single, definitive Marxist theory exists. Marxism considers itself to be the embodiment of scientific socialism but does not model an ideal society based on the design of intellectuals , whereby communism is seen as a state of affairs to be established based on any intelligent design; rather, it

45969-458: Was "like making love to a corpse". One consequence of the inflation was the South Vietnamese government had increasing difficulty in paying its soldiers and imposed restrictions on fuel and munition usage. After two clashes that left 55 South Vietnamese soldiers dead, President Thiệu announced on 4 January 1974 that the war had restarted and that the Paris Peace Accord was no longer in effect. There were over 25,000 South Vietnamese casualties during

46200-421: Was a country in Southeast Asia from 1955 to 1975, with first international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam . Its capital was located in Saigon , a city in Southern Vietnam . It was a member of the anti-communist and capitalist Western Bloc during the Cold War . With the division of Vietnam on 21 July 1954, South Vietnam was bordered by North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) to

46431-444: Was a great patriot", replied: "All those who do not follow the line which I have laid down will be broken." At his direction, the Việt Minh broke or substantially weakened all rival anti-colonial forces. A Chinese Kuomintang army arrived to occupy Vietnam's north of the 16th parallel north , while a British-led force occupied the south in September. The British-led force facilitated the return of French forces who started to fight

46662-405: Was also created under Josip Broz Tito in Yugoslavia ; Tito's independent policies led to the Tito–Stalin split and expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform in 1948, and Titoism was branded deviationist . Albania also became an independent Marxist–Leninist state following the Albanian–Soviet split in 1960, resulting from an ideological fallout between Enver Hoxha , a Stalinist, and

46893-451: Was also helped by foreign armies, mostly Chinese. A regular bombing campaign over North Vietnam was conducted by offshore US Navy airplanes, warships, and aircraft carriers joined by the South Vietnamese and American Air Force squadrons from 1965 to 1968. Fighting peaked up to that point during the Tet Offensive of February 1968, when there were over a million South Vietnamese soldiers and 500,000 US soldiers in South Vietnam. In 1969,

47124-427: Was also quite modern. At the top, personal loyalty to Stalin counted for everything. Stalin also created powerful committees, elevated younger specialists, and began major institutional innovations. In the teeth of persecution, Stalin's deputies cultivated informal norms and mutual understandings which provided the foundations for collective rule after his death. For most Westerners and anti-communist Russians, Stalin

47355-458: Was also similar to the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) of the British . The arrangement afforded Vietnam a limited degree of internal and external sovereignty (for example, it was allowed to enter into diplomatic relations with a small number of countries), but for the most part reserved for France effective control over foreign relations, as well as military, judicial, administrative, and economic activities. The French army remained to fight in

47586-502: Was among the hardline anti-communists and did not accept a political alliance with the South Vietnamese communists ( de facto controlled by the North ); however, despite the South Vietnamese constitution considering Vietnam a unified country, he advocated a two-state solution with North Vietnam to join the United Nations together and co-exist peacefully to wait for the day of democratic unification. The Parliamentary election took place on 22 October 1967. On 31 January 1968,

47817-416: Was believed to be the atheist way of life. In Protestant England , communism was too phonetically similar to the Roman Catholic communion rite , hence English atheists denoted themselves socialists. Friedrich Engels stated that in 1848, at the time when The Communist Manifesto was first published, socialism was respectable on the continent, while communism was not; the Owenites in England and

48048-489: Was considered biggest enemy by the communists. On 11 November 1945, the communists issued a communique to dissolve their party, but only in name. Nguyen Van Thieu , the future president of anti-communist South Vietnam, joined the Việt Minh in 1945 but quickly left the organization a year later after realizing it was communist. In Paris 1946, asked by Daniel Guerin about the fate of Trotskyist leader Tạ Thu Thâu (executed in September), Hồ Chí Minh, while allowing that "Thâu

48279-403: Was credited with 133% of the vote. Diệm proclaimed himself the president of the newly formed Republic of Vietnam. Despite successes in politics, economics and social change in the first 5 years, Diệm quickly became a dictatorial leader . With the support of the United States government and the CIA , ARVN officers led by General Dương Văn Minh staged a coup and killed him in 1963. The military held

48510-417: Was credited with 98 percent of the votes. In many districts, there were more votes to remove Bảo Đại than there were registered voters (e.g., in Saigon, 133% of the registered population reportedly voted to remove Bảo Đại). His American advisors had recommended a more modest winning margin of "60 to 70 percent". Diệm, however, viewed the election as a test of authority. On 26 October 1955, Diệm declared himself

48741-426: Was discovered. The ballot was not secret and ballot papers were filled out in the presence of aides who were "to help comrades who had difficulty in making out their ballots". Although former emperor Bao Dai was also popular at this time and won a seat in the Assembly, the election did not allow voters to express a preference between Bao Dai and Ho Chi Minh. There was minimal campaigning and most voters had no idea who

48972-458: Was eligible to hold a free general election for Vietnam. The communist Viet Minh still kept a large number of its cadres in the South while the population of the North itself was larger than the population of the South. Diệm held a referendum on 23 October 1955 to determine the future of the country. He asked voters to approve a republic, thus removing Bảo Đại as head of state. The poll was supervised by his younger brother, Ngô Đình Nhu . Diệm

49203-421: Was formed as one of nationalist groups of Vietnam in 1941. After Japanese troops overthrew the Vichy administration on 9 March 1945, Nguyễn Emperor Bảo Đại proclaimed his Vietnam independent and to regain Cochinchina to establish the Empire of Vietnam on 11 March 1945. However, it was a puppet state of Japan within the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere . After the Japanese emperor claimed to surrender to

49434-480: Was killed and his dictatorship was overthrown in a CIA -backed military rebellion on November 2, and a series of short-lived military governments followed. General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu then led the country after a civilian presidential election from 1967 until 1975. During 1949-1975, both Saigon and communist governments coexisted, both claimed to be the representative of Vietnam; the communists accused Saigon of being puppet government ( ngụy quyền ) of France then

49665-415: Was much more efficient, this property became worthless and the mass majority of workers could only survive by selling their labor to make use of someone else's machinery, and making someone else profit. Accordingly, capitalism divided the world between two major classes, namely that of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie . These classes are directly antagonistic as the latter possesses private ownership of

49896-427: Was neither permanent nor indefinite. Sovereignty was presumed to rest solely upon the people, with Bảo Đại being a mere conduit. As a result, the referendum itself was within the law. This referendum was blatantly rigged in favor of a republic. Not only did an implausible 98% vote in favor of deposing Bảo Đại, but over 380,000 more votes were cast than the total number of registered voters; in Saigon , for instance, Diệm

50127-420: Was never established, while some Marxist–Leninists state that it was established only during the Stalin era and Mao era , and then became capitalist states ruled by revisionists ; others state that Maoist China was always state capitalist, and uphold People's Socialist Republic of Albania as the only socialist state after the Soviet Union under Stalin, who first stated to have achieved socialism with

50358-427: Was no place for neutrals and anti-communists. The Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG) of the Việt Cộng ( de facto controlled by the North) officially became the government of South Vietnam, which merged with North Vietnam to create the communist Socialist Republic of Vietnam on 2 July 1976. The North's flag, national anthem, capital, and constitution were still chosen. Saigon

50589-399: Was overthrown, on 3 September 1963, South Vietnamese army (ARVN) also defeated communists in a small battle at Go Cong . Diệm feared the escalation of American military personnel in South Vietnam, which threatened his nationalist credentials and the independence of his government. In 1963, Diệm's government secretly discussed with North Vietnam on the issue of peace and reunification between

50820-415: Was proclaimed on 2 July 1949. France itself was also part of the Western Bloc led by the US. On 1 October 1949, China became a communist state after the Chinese Civil War , the Kuomintang 's government (Republic of China) that was pro-Western later had to withdraw to Taiwan . The victory of Chinese communists was a turning point in the First Indochina War . In 1950; communist countries such as China ,

51051-422: Was reelected unopposed in the Presidential election on 2 October 1971. North Vietnam launched a Easter Offensive in South Vietnam in late March 1972 which was only finally repulsed by October with massive U.S air support. In accordance with the Paris Peace Accords signed on 27 January 1973 (taking effect January 28), US military forces withdrew from South Vietnam at the end of March 1973 while PAVN forces in

51282-406: Was renamed Ho Chi Minh City to honor Ho Chi Minh , the Vietnamese communist leader who died 7 years earlier in Hanoi. After reunification, Hanoi abandoned the policy of neutrality in its relations with the Soviet Union and China to choose to be pro-Soviet, leading to escalating tensions in Indochina. The North Vietnam-controlled Việt Cộng was merged with the Vietnamese Fatherland Front of

51513-431: Was reunited. Many South Vietnamese had to leave the country by boat because they could not stand the harsh conditions of Vietnam under the new regimes, especially since September 1978. With the 1988-1991 revolutions leading to the fall of most communist states and a good relationship with the US, Vietnamese communist government became opener when talking about the old regime. With the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975,

51744-404: Was stronger than in Annam. A French governor-general ( toàn quyền ) administered all the five parts of French Indochina (Tonkin, Annam, Cochinchina, Laos , and Cambodia ). Under French rule, nationalist movements and armed uprisings of Vietnamese people (both communists and non-communists) emerged. After the 1930 Yên Bái mutiny of the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng led by Nguyễn Thái Học failed; in

51975-417: Was supported by the United States and its allied nations, though doubts began to circulate among Western officials by 1966 on whether or not Ky could maintain stability in South Vietnam. A repressive leader, Ky was greatly despised by his fellow countrymen. In early 1966, protesters influenced by popular Buddhist monk Thích Trí Quang attempted an uprising in Quang's hometown of Da Nang. The uprising

52206-407: Was the beginning of the development of vanguardism as an hierarchical party–elite that controls society, which resulted in a split between anarchism and Marxism , and Leninist communism assuming the dominant position for most of the 20th century, excluding rival socialist currents. Other communists and Marxists, especially social democrats who favored the development of liberal democracy as

52437-446: Was the name adopted by Emperor Gia Long in 1804. It is a variation of " Nam Việt " ( 南 越 , Southern Việt ), a name used in ancient times. In 1839, Emperor Minh Mạng renamed the country Đại Nam ("Great South"). In 1945, the nation's official name was changed back to "Vietnam" by the government of Bảo Đại . The name is also sometimes rendered as "Viet Nam" in English. The term "South Vietnam" became common usage in 1954, when

52668-560: Was to purify communism by removing pro-capitalists and traditionalists by imposing Maoist orthodoxy within the Chinese Communist Party . The movement paralyzed China politically and weakened the country economically, culturally, and intellectually for years. Millions of people were accused, humiliated, stripped of power, and either imprisoned, killed, or most often, sent to work as farm laborers. Mao insisted that those he labelled revisionists be removed through violent class struggle . The two most prominent militants were Marshall Lin Biao of

52899-478: Was under a French resident general ( thống sứ ). Between Tonkin in the north and Cochinchina in the south was Annam ( Trung Kỳ ), under a French resident superior ( khâm sứ ). The Nguyễn dynasty emperors of Vietnam, residing in Huế , since the Treaty of Huế (1883) had been the nominal rulers of Annam and Tonkin protectorates , which were French colonies like Cochinchina but had parallel French and Vietnamese systems of administration. French political power in Tonkin

53130-412: Was unsuccessful and Ky's repressive stance towards the nation's Buddhist population continued. Communist Communism (from Latin communis , 'common, universal') is a sociopolitical , philosophical , and economic ideology within the socialist movement , whose goal is the creation of a communist society , a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of

53361-401: Was widely marred by electoral fraud and resulted in the deposal of Bảo Đại by Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm , who proclaimed himself president of the new republic on 26 October 1955. South Vietnam also withdrew from the French Union on 9 December 1955. South Vietnam then held parliamentary elections and subsequently promulgated a constitution on 26 October 1956. After a 1963 coup , Diệm

#578421