The CPV is organized on the basis ofdemocratic centralism, a principle conceived byRussian Marxist revolutionaryVladimir Lenin. The highest institution of the CPV is the party'sNational Congress, which elects theCentral Committee. The Central Committee is the supreme organ on party affairs in between party congresses. After a party congress, the Central Committee elects thePolitburo andSecretariat, and appoints theGeneral Secretary, the highest party office. In between sessions of the Central Committee, the Politburo is the supreme organ on party affairs. However, it can only implement decisions based on the policies which have been approved in advance by either the Central Committee or the party's National Congress. As of 2017[update], the12th Politburo has 19 members.
While continuing to nominally hold toMarxism–Leninism, most independent sources have argued that it has lost its monopolistic ideological and moral legitimacy since the introduction of amixed economy in the late 1980s and 1990s.[3] In recent years, the party has stopped representing a specific class, but instead the "interests of the entire people", which includes entrepreneurs.[3] The final class barrier was removed in 2006, when party members were allowed to engage in private activities.[4] De-emphasising Marxism–Leninism, the party has placed emphasis onVietnamese nationalism,developmentalism, and ideas from theAmerican andFrench Revolutions, along with Ho Chi Minh's personal beliefs.[5] The CPV participates in the annualInternational Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP). In 1988, the party became the sole political party in Vietnam when it abolished its two satellite parties. The party's regime has been opposed by theVietnamese democracy movement, especially anti-communistoverseas Vietnamese.[6][7]
The Communist Party of Vietnam traces its history back to 1925, whenHo Chi Minh established theVietnamese Revolutionary Youth League (Hội Việt Nam Cách mạng Thanh niên), commonly shortened to the Youth League (Hội Thanh niên).[8] The Youth League's goal was to end the colonial occupation of Vietnam by France.[9] The group sought political and social objectives—national independence and the redistribution of land to working peasants.[9] The Youth League's purpose was to prepare the masses for a revolutionary armed struggle against the French occupation.[10] His efforts in laying the groundwork for the party was financially supported by theComintern.[11]
In 1928 the headquarters of the Youth League in Canton (present-dayGuangdong), China, were destroyed by theKuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) and the group was forced underground.[12] This led to a national breakdown within the Youth League,[13] which indirectly led to a split.[14] On 17 June 1929, more than 20 delegates from cells throughout theTonkin (northern) region held a conference inHanoi, where they declared the dissolution of Youth League and the establishment of a new organization called theCommunist Party of Indochina (Đông Dương Cộng sản Đảng).[15] The other faction of the Youth League, based in theCochinchina (southern) region of the country, held a conference inSaigon and declared themselves theCommunist Party of Annam (An Nam Cộng sản Đảng) in late 1929.[15] The two parties spent the rest of 1929 engaged in polemics against one another in an attempt to gain a position of hegemony over the radical Vietnamese liberation movement.[16] A third Vietnamese communist group which did not originate from the Youth League emerged around this time in theAnnam (central) region, calling itself theCommunist League of Indochina (Đông Dương Cộng sản Liên Đoàn).[16] The Communist League of Indochina had its roots in another national liberation group which had existed in parallel with the Youth League, and saw itself as a rival to the latter.[16]
The Communist Party of Indochina and Communist Party of Annam, together with individual members of the Communist League of Indochina, merged to form a united communist organization called the Communist Party of Vietnam (Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam), founded by Ho Chi Minh at a "Unification Conference" held inWah Yan College inKowloon,British Hong Kong, from 3–7 February 1930.[17] At a later conference, per the request of the Comintern, the party changed its name to theIndochinese Communist Party (Đảng Cộng sản Đông Dương), often abbreviated as ICP. During its first five years of existence, the ICP attained a membership of about 1,500 and had a large contingent of sympathizers. Despite the group's small size, it exerted an influence in a turbulent Vietnamese social climate. Poor harvests in 1929 and 1930 and an onerous burden of debt served to radicalize many peasants. In the industrial city ofVinh,May Day demonstrations were organized by ICP activists, which gained critical mass when the families of the semi-peasant workers joined the demonstrations to express their dissatisfaction with the economic circumstances they faced.[18]
As three May Day marches grew into mass rallies, French colonial authorities moved in to quash what they perceived to be dangerous peasant revolts. Government forces fired upon the crowds, killing dozens and enraging the population. In response, councils were organized in villages in an effort to govern themselves locally. Repression by the colonial authorities began in the autumn of 1931; around 1,300 people were eventually killed by the French and many more were imprisoned or deported as government authority was reasserted and the ICP was effectively wiped out in the region.[18] General Secretary Tran Phu and a number of Central Committee members were arrested or killed.Lê Hồng Phong was assigned by the Comintern to restore the movement. The party was restored in 1935, and Lê Hồng Phong was elected its general secretary. In 1936,Hà Huy Tập was appointed general secretary instead of Lê Hồng Phong, who returned to the country to restore the Central Committee. In the mid 1930s the party was forced publicly to abandon much of its opposition to French colonialism as Soviet leaderJoseph Stalin cared more about strengthening a left-inclined government in France. Ho Chi Minh was also removed from the party leadership in the early 1930s.[19] Ho Chi Minh was criticized within the party and by the Communist International for his use of nationalism as a means.[20]
The French colonial apparatus in Vietnam was disrupted duringWorld War II.[21] The fall of France toNazi Germany in June 1940 and the subsequent collaboration ofVichy France with the Axis powers of Germany and Japan served to delegitimize French claims of sovereignty. The European war made colonial governance from France impossible and Indochina was occupied by Japanese forces.[22] As a result, the communists also sought the opportunity to establish a grassroots organization throughout most of the country.[21]
At the beginning of the war, the ICP instructed its members to go into hiding in the countryside. Despite this, more than 2,000 party members, including many of its leaders, were rounded up and arrested.[22] Party activists were particularly hard hit in the southern region ofCochinchina, where the previously strong organization was wiped out by arrests and killings. After an uprising in Cochinchina in 1940, most of the Central Committee, including Nguyễn Văn Cừ (general secretary) and Hà Huy Tập, were arrested and killed, and Lê Hồng Phong was deported toCôn Đảo and later died.[23] A new party leadership, which includedTrường Chinh,Phạm Văn Đồng, andVõ Nguyên Giáp emerged. Together with Ho Chi Minh, these individuals would provide a unified leadership over the next four decades.[24]
Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam in February 1941 and established a military-political front known as the League for the Independence of Vietnam (Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội), commonly known as theViet Minh (Việt Minh).[22] The Viet Minh was a broad organization that included many political parties, military groups, religious organizations and other factions who sought independence for Vietnam. The Viet Minh was heavily influenced by the leadership of the ICP. It was the most uncompromising fighting force against the Japanese occupation and gained popular recognition and legitimacy in an environment that would become a political vacuum.[25] Despite its position as the core of the Viet Minh, the ICP remained very small throughout the war, with an estimated membership of between 2,000 and 3,000 in 1944.[25] In May 1945, the Viet Minh started to operate in the Tonkin provinces bordering China no longer under the banner of the Viet Cach, a pro-Chinese nationalist organization in exile founded in 1942 of which they were then a member.[26]
The party, particularly in the south, was rivalled by other nationalist and left-wing groups, notablyTrotskyist organisations. In November 1931, dissidents emerging from within the party formed the October Left Opposition (Tả Đối Lập Tháng Mười) around the clandestine journalTháng Mười (October). These included Hồ Hữu Tường andPhan Văn Hùm who, protesting a leadership of "Moscow trainees", had formed an Indochinese group within the Communist League (Liên Minh Cộng Sản Đoàn), the French section of the InternationalLeft Opposition, in Paris in July 1930.[27] Once considered "the theoretician of the Vietnamese contingent in Moscow",[28] Tường was calling for a new "mass-based" party arising directly "out of the struggle of the real struggle of the proletariat of the cities and countryside".[29] Tường was joined in endorsingLeon Trotsky's doctrines of "proletarian internationalism" and of "permanent revolution" byTạ Thu Thâu of the Annamite Independence Party (Đảng Việt Nam Độc Lập). Rejecting (in the wake of theShanghai massacre) the Comintern's "Kuomintang line", Thâu argued against a nationalist accommodation with the indigenous bourgeoisie and for immediate "proletarian socialist revolution".[30]
Recognizing the Trotskyists' relative strength in organizing Saigon's factories and waterfront, the ICP cells in the city maintained a unique pact with the Trotskyists for four years in the mid-1930s. The two groups published a common paper,La Lutte ("The Struggle"), and presented joint "workers' lists" for Saigon municipal and colonial-council elections.[31][32][33] After they rallied in August 1945 with other non-Communist forces demanding arms against the French, the Trotskyists were systematically hunted down and eliminated by their former party collaborators under the direction of Tran Van Giau,[34] a fate shared by large numbers ofCaodaists, independent nationalists and their families.[35]
As an effort to alleviate the fears of a communist takeover, the ICP was officially dissolved and was downgraded to the "Institute for Studying Marxism in Indochina" (Hội Nghiên cứu Chủ nghĩa Marx tại Đông Dương) in November 1945. In fact, the party still operated. However, this did not eliminatetensions between communists and nationalists due to the monopoly of Viet Minh. TheFirst Indochina War between the Viet Minh and France broke out in late 1946, ending their negotiations. In practice, the Viet Minh became the leading force in the struggle against the Frenchneo-colonialists and their anti-communist sympathizers. After being recognized byCommunist China and theUSSR in January 1950, the Viet Minh demonstrated a stance ofclass struggle ofcommunism. The ICP was ostensibly dissolved, but its core was still functioning. According to the United States'Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), membership in the Viet Minh grew to about 400,000 members by 1950. In 1951, during the war for independence, the officially dissolved Indochinese Communist Party was officially re-established and renamed theWorker's Party of Vietnam (Đảng lao động Việt Nam), often abbreviated as the WPV. The Soviet Union ofStalin was unhappy with the Vietnamese communists' displays of neutrality in relations between communist and capitalist blocs, their pretense of dissolving the party, and their failure to implement land reform in the past, despite Hồ Chí Minh's explanation that these were only temporary tactics inMoscow in February 1950. They opposed France's granting of independence and unity to theState of Vietnam of anti-communist nationalists as anassociated state within theFrench Union in June 1949. China supported the Viet Minh and the US supported the French Union. At Stalin's urging, the Vietnamese communists implementedland reform under Chinese model and the control from Chinese advisors in 1953, even though they had not yet defeated the French. TheFirst Indochina War against French Union forces lasted until July 1954, two months after the big Viet Minh victory at theBattle of Điện Biên Phủ.[39][40][41][42]
Vietnam was partitioned at 17th parallel following the1954 Geneva Conference, with the communists ruling the northern half of the country. Already in the late stages of the First Indochina War the party's Marxist ideologues had been coming to believe that their party, in its pursuit of national independence, had lost sight of its real Marxist purpose of guiding class struggle, pitting the workers and peasants against the bourgeoisie and the landlords. They launched a campaign to promote personnel with a background in class struggle, at the cost of communists whose claims to authority were based on their leadership in the resistance against the French. This campaign was launched in some areas in 1953; it had its greatest impact in 1955 and 1956.[43][44]
At the second party congress it was decided that the Communist Party would be split into three; one party for each of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. However, in an official note it said that the "Vietnamese party reserves the right to supervise the activities of its brother parties in Cambodia and Laos".[45] TheKhmer People's Revolutionary Party was established in April 1951 and theLao People's Party was formed four years later on 22 March 1955.[46] The third party congress, held in Hanoi in 1960, formalized the tasks of constructing socialism in what was by thenNorth Vietnam, or the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), and committed the party to the "liberation" of South Vietnam.[47] In the south, theUnited States supported an anti-communist state, theRepublic of Vietnam (RVN), successor of theState of Vietnam, established in October 1955. In 1960 the DRV established a military-political front in the south called theNational Liberation Front of Southern Vietnam (Mặt trận Dân tộc Giải phóng Miền Nam Việt Nam) or NLF for short. American soldiers commonly referred to the NLF as the Viet Cong (Việt Cộng) or VC for short.
Aspart of theCold War and due toconflicts between two Vietnamese states, theVietnam War (or Second Indochina War) happened between the communists which included the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong), and the anti-communists which included the United States, the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and their allies, such asAustralia,South Korea, andThailand. The communists received support from thePeople's Republic of China and theSoviet Union. The war lasted from 1960 to 1975 and spilled over into Laos and Cambodia. TheCambodian Civil War broke out between the communistKhmer Rouge andGRUNK, and the pro-AmericanKhmer Republic. TheLaotian Civil War broke out between the communistPathet Lao and the pro-AmericanKingdom of Laos. The Cambodian and Laotian communists received training and support from the DRV and NLF. During the war the Worker's Party of Vietnam also established its sub-branch in the south called thePeople's Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam (Đảng Nhân dân Cách mạng Miền Nam Việt Nam), which aimed to lead the NLF. After the withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam and later thecollapse of the RVN on 30 April 1975, Vietnam wasde facto unified under the leadership of the communists and the South was under theProvisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG), leading to formal reunification under the communistSocialist Republic on 2 July 1976. At the fourth party congress in December 1976, the Workers' Party of Vietnam merged with the People's Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam to create the Communist Party of Vietnam (Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam), commonly abbreviated as CPV.[48] The party explained that the merger and name change was made in light of the "strengthenedproletariat dictatorship, the development of the leadership of theworking class... a worker-peasant alliance".[47][49]
Party emblem sometimes seen on certificates of merit given out by the CPV's internal organizations
The fourth party congress comprised 1,008 delegates who represented 1,553,500 party members, an estimated three per cent of the Vietnamese population. A new line for socialist construction was approved at the congress, theSecond Five-Year Plan (1976–1980) was approved and several amendments were made to the party's constitution. The party's new line emphasized building socialism domestically and supported socialist expansion internationally. The party's economic goal was to build a strong and prosperous socialist country in 20 years.[47] The economic goals set for the Second Five-Year Plan failed to be implemented, and a heated debate about economic reform took place between the fourth and fifth party congresses. The first was at the sixth Central Committee plenum of the fourth party congress in September 1979, but the most revealing one occurred at the tenth Central Committee plenum of the fourth party congress which lasted from 9 October to 3 November 1981. The plenum adopted a reformist line but was forced to moderate its position when several grassroot party chapters rebelled against its resolution. At the fifth party congress, held in March 1982, General SecretaryLê Duẩn said the party had to strive to reach two goals; to construct socialism and to protect Vietnam from Chinese aggression, but priority was given to socialist construction.[50] The party leadership acknowledged the failures of the Second Five-Year Plan, claiming that their failure to grasp the economic and social conditions aggravated the country's economic problems.[51] TheThird Five-Year Plan (1981–1985) emphasized the need to improve living conditions and the need for more industrial construction, but agriculture was given top priority. Other points were to improve the deficiencies in central planning, improve economic trade relations with theCOMECON countries,Laos andKampuchea.[52]
The flag of the CPV and the national flag of Vietnam flying side by side
While Lê Duẩn continued to believe in the goals set in the Third Five-Year Plan,[53] leading members within the Communist Party were losing their trust in the system. It was in this mood that the 1985 price reform was introduced—market prices were introduced, which led to a sudden increase in inflation.[54] By 1985, it became apparent that the Third Five-Year Plan had failed miserably.[55] Attacks against the interests of the well-to-do were part of the Communist ideas of class struggle. The majority of the educated came from well-off families, and the middle and upper classes held education and abilities that were critical to the country's prosperity, but the Communist Party's attitude toward those groups has frequently hampered their effective use of their education and skills.[56] As a result, Vietnam's most pressing needs, such as the rebuilding of a shattered economy and the establishment of long-term economic development, had largely gone unfulfilled. The Communist Party's personnel lacked the skills to tackle these issues, and the Communists' monopolization of power made it impossible for those who did have the skills to put them to use in the decade following the war's end. Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the world during Lê Duẩn's rule.[57] Lê Duẩn died on 10 July 1986, a few months before the sixth party congress.[58] APolitburo meeting held between 25 and 30 August 1986, paved the way for more radical reforms; the new reform movement was led byTrường Chinh.[59] At the sixth party congress,Nguyễn Văn Linh was elected the new general secretary – this was a victory for the party's old guard reformist wing. The new leadership elected at the Congress would later launchĐổi Mới and establish the framework for thesocialist-oriented market economy.[60] The economic reforms were initiated alongside a relaxation of state censorship and freedom of expression.[61] TheChinese Communist Party praised the CPV's economic and political reforms, which continued into the early 2000s.[62]
At the seventh party congress in which Nguyễn Văn Linh retired from politics, he reaffirmed the party's and country's commitment to socialism.[63]Đỗ Mười succeeded Nguyễn Văn Linh as general secretary,Võ Văn Kiệt, the leading reformist communist, was appointed prime minister andLê Đức Anh, was appointedpresident.[64] In 1994, four new members were appointed to theseventh Politburo, all of whom opposed radical reform. At the June 1997 Central Committee meeting, both Lê Đức Anh and Võ Văn Kiệt confirmed their resignations to the ninth National Assembly, which was dissolved in September.Phan Văn Khải was approved as Võ Văn Kiệt's successor, and the relatively unknownTrần Đức Lương succeeded Lê Đức Anh as president.[65] At the fourth Central Committee plenum of the eighth party congress,Lê Khả Phiêu was elected general secretary and Đỗ Mười, Lê Đức Anh and Võ Văn Kiệt officially resigned from politics and were elected Advisory Council of the Central Committee.Nông Đức Mạnh succeeded Lê Khả Phiêu in 2001 as general secretary.[66] Nông Đức Mạnh held the top spot until the11th National Congress in 2011, when he was succeeded byNguyễn Phú Trọng.[67] Trong is seen as a conservative and closer to China.[68] In 2021, General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nguyễn Phú Trọng, was re-elected for his third term in office, becoming Vietnam's most powerful leader in decades.[69] However, in July 19th, 2024, Nguyễn Phú Trọng suddenly died while in office.[70]
After the death of Nguyễn Phú Trọng,Tô Lâm took the office as the Acting General Secretary. In August 3rd, 2024, Tô Lâm was elected unanimously as the 13th General Secretary of the party during the 9th extraordinary plenary session of the13th National Congress.[71]
The National Congress is the party's highest organ,[72] and is held once every five years. Delegates decide the direction of the party and the Government at the National Congress. The Central Committee is elected,[73] delegates vote on policies and candidates are elected to posts within the central party leadership. After decisions taken at the National Congress are ratified, the congress is dissolved. The Central Committee implements the decisions of the National Congress during the five-year period between congresses. When the Central Committee is not in session, the Politburo implements the policies of the National Congress.[72]
The Central Committee is the CPV's most powerful institution.[74] It delegates some of its powers to theSecretariat and thePolitburo when it is not in session.[75] When theVietnam War ended in 1975, the Vietnamese leadership, led byLê Duẩn, began to centralize power. This policy continued until thesixth National Congress, whenNguyễn Văn Linh took power. Linh pursued a policy of economic and political decentralization.[76] The party and state bureaucracy opposed Linh's reform initiatives; because of this, Linh tried to win the support of provincial leaders, causing the powers of the provincial chapters of the CPV to increase in the 1990s. The CPV lost its power to appoint or dismiss provincial-level officials in the 1990s;Võ Văn Kiệt tried to wrestle this power back to the centre during the 1990s without success.
Because of these changes, power in Vietnam has become increasingly devolved.[77] The number of Central Committee members with a provincial background increased from 15.6 per cent in 1982 to 41 per cent in 2001. Because of the devolution of power, the powers of the Central Committee have increased substantially; for example, when a two-thirds majority of the Politburo voted in favour of retainingLê Khả Phiêu as General Secretary, the Central Committee voted against the Politburo's motion and voted unanimously in favour of removing him from his post of General Secretary.[78] The Central Committee did this because most of its members had a provincial background, or were working in the provinces. These members were the first to be affected when the economy began to stagnate during Lê Khả Phiêu's rule.[79] The Central Committee elects the Politburo in the aftermath of the Party Congress.[80]
General SecretaryNguyễn Phú Trọng presided the ceremony welcomingPresidentJoe Bidenstate visit to Vietnam in 2023. The event marked an unprecedented situation when the US government recognized the general secretaryship as the Vietnamese state's top leadership.
The General Secretary of the Central Committee is the highest office within the Communist Party,[81] is elected by the Central Committee, and can remain in post for two five-year terms. The general secretary presides over the work of the Central Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, is responsible for issues such as defence, security and foreign affairs, and chairs meetings with important leaders.[82] The general secretary holds the post of Secretary of theCentral Military Commission, the party's highest military affairs organ.[83]
Before 1991, there was significantly greater concentration of power in the General Secretary.[84]: 131 After the revised constitution was adopted in 1992, power was more distributed between the General Secretary, the President, and the Prime Minister.[84]: 131
The Politburo is the highest organ of the Communist Party between Central Committee meetings, which are held twice a year. The Politburo can implement policies which have been approved by either the previous Party Congress or the Central Committee. It is the duty of the Politburo to ensure that resolutions of the Party Congress and the Central Committee are implemented nationally. It is also responsible for matters related to organization and personnel, and has the right to prepare and convene a Central Committeeplenary session.[82] The Politburo can be overruled by the Central Committee, as happened in 2001 when the Politburo voted in favour of retaining Lê Khả Phiêu as general secretary; the Central Committee overturned the Politburo's decision, dismissed Lê from politics, and forced the Politburo to elect a new general secretary after the ninth National Congress.[78]
The members of the Politburo are elected and given a ranking by the Central Committee immediately after a National Party Congress.[85] According to David Koh, the Politburo ranking from the first plenum of the 10th Central Committee onwards is based upon the number of approval votes by the Central Committee.Lê Hồng Anh, theMinister of Public Security, was ranked second in the10th Politburo because he received the second-highest number of approval votes.Tô Huy Rứa was ranked lowest because he received the lowest approval vote of the 10th Central Committee when he stood for election to the Politburo.[86] The11th Politburo was elected by the Central Committee after the11th National Congress and consists of 16 members. Decisions within the Politburo are made through collective decision-making.[82]
Since 10th Central Committee, the duties and responsibilities of the members of the Politburo and those of the General Secretary, President, Prime Minister, the Chairman of the National Assembly and the Permanent member of the Secretariat have been specified separately.[87]
The Secretariat is headed by the general secretary and decisions within it are made through collective decision-making. The Secretariat is elected and the membership size is decided by the Central Committee immediately after the National Congress.[82] It is responsible for solving organizational problems and implementing the demands of the Central Committee. The Secretariat oversees the work of theDepartments of the Central Committee.[88] It is also responsible for inspecting and supervising the implementation of resolutions and directives on fields regarding the party on economic, social, defence, security and foreign affairs, and it is directly responsible for the coordination of a number of party bodies. The Secretariat supervises the preparation for issues raised at Politburo meetings.[82]
The Central Military Commission is appointed by the Politburo and includes members from the military. The commission is responsible to the Central Committee and between meetings, the Politburo and the Secretariat. The Secretary of the Central Military Commission is the party's general secretary while the post of deputy secretary is held by theMinister of National Defence. The commission can issue guidelines on military and defence policies, and has leadership in all aspects of the military. TheGeneral Political Department is subordinate to the commission.[82]
The Central Inspection Commission is the party organ responsible for combating corruption, disciplining members and wrongdoing in general. It is the only organ within the party which can sentence or condemn party members.[89] The Commission, and its chairman and deputy chairmen, are elected by the first plenum of the Central Committee after a National Party Congress. Due to the party's policy of democratic centralism, a local inspection commission can only investigate a case if the inspection commission directly superior to it consents to the investigation.[82]
The Central Theoretical Council was established on 22 October 1996 by a decision of the Central Committee.[90] The 4th Central Theoretical Council was formed on 7 September 2016, and is currently headed by Politburo memberĐinh Thế Huynh.[91] It functions as an advisory body to the Central Committee, the Politburo and the Secretariat on conceiving and developing party theory in line with Marxism. It is responsible for studying topics put forth by the Politburo and the Secretariat, and topics set forth by its own members.[91]
The state and party are guided by Ho Chi Minh Thought
Vietnam is asocialist republic with a one-party system led by the Communist Party. The CPV espousesMarxism–Leninism andHo Chi Minh Thought, the ideologies of Ho Chi Minh. The two ideologies serve as guidance for the activities of the party and state.[92] According to the Constitution, Vietnam is in a period of transition to socialism.[93] Marxism–Leninism was introduced to Vietnam in the 1920s and 1930s, and Vietnamese culture has been led under the banners of patriotism and Marxism–Leninism.[94] Ho Chi Minh's beliefs were not systematized during his life, nor did this occur quickly following his death.Trường Chinh's 1973 biography of Hồ emphasized his revolutionary policies. The thoughts of Hồ were systematized in 1989 under the leadership ofNguyễn Văn Linh.[95] Ho Chi Minh Thought and Marxism–Leninism became the official ideologies of the CPV and the state in 1991.[96] The CPV's claim to legitimacy was retained after the collapse of communism elsewhere in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 by its commitment to the thoughts of Ho Chi Minh, according to Sophie Quinn-Judge.[97] According to Pierre Brocheux, the current state ideology is Ho Chi Minh Thought, with Marxism–Leninism playing a secondary role.[98] Some claim that Ho Chi Minh Thought is used as a veil for a party leadership that has stopped believing in communism, but others rule this out on the basis that Ho Chi Minh was an avid supporter ofVladimir Lenin and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Still others see Ho Chi Minh Thought as a political umbrella term whose main function is to introduce non-socialist ideas and policies without challenging socialist legality.[96]
Marxism–Leninism has lost its ideological stronghold in Vietnamese politics since the introduction of a mixed economy in the late 1980s and 1990s.[3] Because of the Đổi Mới reforms, the party could not base its rule on defending only the workers and the peasants, which was officially referred to as the "working class-peasant alliance".[99] In the constitution introduced in 1992, the State represented the "workers, peasants and intellectuals".[3] In recent years, the party has stopped representing a specific class, but instead the "interests of the entire people", which includes entrepreneurs.[3] The final class barrier was removed in 2006, when party members were allowed to engage in private activities.[4] In the face of de-emphasising the role of Marxism–Leninism, the party has acquired a broader ideology, laying more emphasis on nationalism,developmentalism and becoming the protector of tradition.[5] Minh himself stated that what originally attracted him to Communism was not its doctrines, which he did not at that time understand, but the simple fact that the Communists supported the independence of countries like Vietnam.[11]
Characters of a new social regime were formed in Ho Chi Minh's thoughts through, first of all, the method of transforming features of old regime into its contrary facets. It was thedialectical thinking method. According to this method, the process of formulating the people's democratic regime in reality was considered the process of wiping out comprehensively fundamental features of colonial-feudal regime.
— Lai Quoc Khanh explaining Ho Chi Minh's way of thinking.[100]
According to Ho Chi Minh, before it becomes socialist, a society must evolve through national liberation and the construction of a people's democratic regime. While national liberation is the means of taking power, the establishment of a people's democratic regime requires the total destruction of thefeudalist, colonialist and imperialist society. Only through this destruction can Vietnam transit to socialism. Lai Quoc Khanh, a journalist in the theoreticalTạp chí Cộng Sản wrote: "The people's democratic regime is an objective necessity in the development course of Vietnamese society".[100] A people's democratic regime, however, is not a socialist regime. For instance, in a people's democratic regime private ownership still exists, while in a communist or socialist stage of development, ownership does not exist. Vietnamese communists consider the distribution of land during Ho Chi Minh's early rule as an example of people's democracy.[100]
However, this is not the only difference. The logic is that difference in the ownership of productions lead to different modes of production. Ho Chi Minh said that the basic economic tenets of a people's democratic regime was state ownership of certain segments of production—considered socialist since the state belongs to the people, cooperatives, which were half-socialist in nature but would develop into fully socialist economic entities, and the personal economics of individual handicraft and peasantry, which would later develop into cooperatives, private capitalism and state capitalism, where the state shares capital with capitalists to develop the country further. Since these economic basics relied on different types of ownership, the economy of the people's democratic regime cannot be considered socialist, hence the regime is not socialist. For example, in the socialist-oriented market economy, the state-owned sector will be the dominant sector, hence the socialist character of the economy dominates.[100] The political platform of thesecond party congress held in 1951 stated: "The people's democratic revolution is neither an old-type capitalist democratic revolution nor socialist revolution, it is a new-type capitalist democratic revolution which will evolve into socialist revolution without experiencing a revolutionary civil war."[100] To be more specific, the people's democratic regime is a substage in capitalist development.[100] While Ho Chi Minh supported the position that Vietnam had entered the stage of transition to socialism in 1954, he held the belief that Vietnam was still "a democratic regime in which people are the masters" and not socialist.[100] To reach the socialist stage of development, the development of the state sector was of utmost importance—the lack of which according to Ho Chi Minh would lead to failure.[100] The platform of the11th National Congress held in January 2011 stated: "This is a profound and thorough revolutionary process and a complicated struggle between the old and the new for qualitative changes in all aspects of social life. It is essential to undergo a long period of transition with several steps of development and several mixed social and economic structures".[101]
According to the party's General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng, during the transition to socialism, socialist factors of development compete with non-socialist factors, which include capitalist factors. Nguyễn said: "Along with positive aspects, there will always be negative aspects and challenges that need to be considered wisely and dealt with timely and effectively. It is a difficult struggle that requires spirit, fresh vision, and creativity. The path to socialism is a process of constantly consolidating and strengthening socialist factors to make them more dominant and irreversible. Success will depend on correct policies, political spirit, leadership capacity, and the fighting strength of the Party".[102]
There has never been a scientific and revolutionary theory than Marxism–Leninism. It is a 'comprehensively and logically tight theory which gives people a total world view' and a theory that not only aims at 'understanding the world, but also changing it'.... Capitalism will certainly be replaced by socialism, because that is the law of human history, which no one can deny.
— Nguyễn Văn Linh, the leader who initiatedĐổi Mới, opposed the view that fundamental principles of Marxism–Leninism were to be changed, or rejected because of the introduction of market-elements into the economy.[103]
CPV propaganda poster commemorating its 80th anniversary and equating the party with "peace, prosperity and happiness"
The Communist Party believes that socialism is superior to other ideologies and state systems. According to Marxism–Leninism, socialism is the second-to-last stage of socio-economic development before pure communism. To build a socialist society, communists have to imagine, outline and study society. The party believes that socialism leads to human liberation from every oppressive situation, exploitation and injustice. While the founders of Marxism–Leninism forecasted the main characteristics of a socialist society, the founders are not considered by the party to hold the whole truth. The main outline of this ideology is upheld by the party—that is, a social mode superior and more advanced:[104]
State socialism is a new kind of democracy, reflecting the nature of the working class and representing the interests, power and will of the working people.
In a socialist society, the relationship between class and ethnicity will be resolved through a combination of international and class solidarity—nationalism will be replaced byinternationalism.
Proponents of thesocialist-oriented market economy claim that the system is neither socialist nor capitalist, but that it is "socialist-oriented". The Communist Party rejects the view that a market economy has to be capitalist. According to the party, "a socialist market-oriented economy is a multi-sectoral commodity economy, which operates in accordance with market mechanisms and a socialist orientation".[102] According to Nguyễn Phú Trọng, "[i]t is a new type of market economy in the history of the market economy's development. It is a kind of economic organization which abides by market economy rules but is based on, led by, and governed by the principles and nature of socialism reflected in its three aspects – ownership, organization, and distribution – for the goal of a prosperous people in a strong nation characterized by democracy, fairness, and civilization".[102] There are multiple forms of ownership in a socialist-oriented market economy. Economic sectors operate in accordance with the law and are equal under the law in the interest of co-existence, cooperation and healthy competition.[102] Nguyễn Phú Trọng said:
The state economy plays a key role; the collective economy is constantly consolidated and developed; the private economy is one of the driving forces of the collective economy; multiple ownership, especially joint-stock enterprises, is encouraged; the state and collective economies provide a firm foundation for the national economy. The relations of distribution ensure fairness, create momentum for growth, and operate a distribution mechanism based on work results, economic efficiency, contributions by other resources, and distribution through the social security and welfare system. The State manages the economy through laws, strategies, plans, policies, and mechanisms to steer, regulate, and stimulate socio-economic development.[102]
Unlike in capitalist countries, a socialist-oriented market economy does not "wait for the economy to reach a high level of development before implementing social progress and fairness, nor 'sacrifice' social progress and fairness to the pursuit of mere economic growth".[102] Policies are enacted for the sole purpose of improving the people's standard of living.[102]
Classical Marxist texts still play a prominent role in the Communist Party's ideological development.The Communist Manifesto, written byKarl Marx andFriedrich Engels, is considered an "immortal work".[105] According to the party, the real value ofThe Communist Manifesto is not that it can provide answers to present revolutionary problems, but the way it explains the gradual liberation of the working class and labourers. It functions as a basis for the most basic theoretical beliefs upheld by the party. According toTô Huy Rứa, currently a member of the11th Politburo: "By participating in the process of globalization complete with its opportunities and challenges, as was predicted by Marx and Engels in theManifesto, the Vietnamese Communist Party and people will further find guidelines for a precious world outlook and methodologies. Sustainable values of this immortal theoretical work and political platform will remain forever".[105]Trần Bạch Đằng wrote:
The reality of Vietnam after the revolution is different from what I imagined when I joined the party... Life has shown us that it is much more complicated. The thing is, we received Marxism in a theoretical sense, not in a full sense, and the information was not very precise. Marxism came to Vietnam through the interpretation ofStalin andMao. It was simplified to a great extent. And now we read the classic works of Marx and other founders, and we find that things were not so simple. Though the social conditions under which Marx wrote his works are not the same as now, the principles are the same. Yet those principles were not interpreted precisely correctly.[106]
The CPV's ideology has been criticized from the left for its supposed departure from communist principles. Critics have argued that thesocialist-oriented market economy is a re-capitalized system which allows massivecapitalistmarkets, enriches thebourgeoisie, and increasesforeign direct investment, at the cost of expandingeconomic inequality and social unrest.[107][108] Leftist dissident Bui Tin opined that "the Communist Party [of Vietnam] is full of opportunists and privileged elites. The morality is lost. All is the search for dollars."[109]
In a resolution of the10th National Party Congress, it was decided to renovate and strengthen the party's foreign policy. As of 2010[update], the Central Committee's Commission for External Relations has good relations with 222 political parties in 115 countries. According to the party, this is an "important contributions to accelerating the renovation process, industrialization and modernization of Vietnam".[110] The party does not only have foreign relations with communist parties; relations with non-communist parties have been established because their countries are economically important to Vietnam. Relations with other communist and workers' parties are very important and built on "solidarity, friendship, mutual support in the struggle for socialism in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism and pure internationalism of the working class".[110] It exchanges views with such parties on theoretical and practical issues regarding socialist construction, party building and current problems.[110] The CPV is active in international communist and workers party gatherings, such as theInternational Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties.[111]
The CPV maintains also friendly relations withLatin American left-wing political parties. A delegation from the CPV participated in the 22nd Meeting ofForo de São Paulo inEl Salvador in June 2016.[113]
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