Indochinese Communist Party | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | ICP |
| Founder | Hồ Chí Minh |
| Founded | October 1930 (1930-10) |
| Dissolved | 11 November 1945 (1945-11-11) |
| Preceded by | CPV |
| Succeeded by | |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-left |
| International affiliation | Comintern |
| National fronts |  Viet Minh Pathet Lao Khmer Issarak |
| Colors | Red |
| Party flag | |
 | |
TheIndochinese Communist Party (ICP)[a][1] was apolitical party which was transformed from the oldVietnamese Communist Party (Vietnamese:Đảng Cộng-sản Việt-Nam) in October 1930. It was renamed in line with Comintern directives to reflect its regional mission.
This partyde jure dissolved itself on 11 November 1945. It was the second stage in the history of theCommunist Party of Vietnam.
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TheVietnamese Communist Party was founded on 3 February 1930 by uniting theCommunist Party of Indochina (despite its name, this party was active only inTonkin) and theCommunist Party of Annam (active only inCochinchina). Thereafter, theCommunist League of Indochina (active only incentral Annam) joined the Vietnamese Communist Party. However, theComintern argued that the communist movement should be promoted in the whole ofFrench Indochina (includingCambodia,Laos andVietnam) rather than only in Vietnam, therefore it urged the Vietnamese Communist Party to transform itself into the Indochinese Communist Party. TheCommunist International had a substantial degree of control both over the party's policies and over the composition of its leadership in return of financial aid.
TheLeague for National Salvation of Vietnamese Residents of Kampuchea was a pro-Viet Minh movement ofVietnamese inhabitants inCambodia.
The organization emerged from a network of revolutionary committees formed among Vietnamese residents in the border areas ofCambodia towards the end of 1946. Such groups had emerged in places likeTakéo Province,Prey Veng Province and southernKandal Province. The League for National Salvation of Vietnamese Residents of Kampuchea was set up as afront organization of the Indochinese Communist Party in March 1947, merging the various local revolutionary committees. One of the firstViet Minh documents captured by the French in Cambodia was dated 30 April 1949 and revealed the existence of the League, as well as detailing a proposed Vietnamese-Khmer alliance against the French.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
In 1950, Vietnamese sources claimed the organization had a membership of 50,000.[8]
The ICP was initially tied closely to the Viet Minh, a Vietnamese nationalist and communist resistance group. The organization sought to coordinate revolutionary activity across the entire Indochinese region. In Cambodia, this manifested in the creation of the League for National Salvation of Vietnamese Residents of Kampuchea, which was later transformed into a pro-Viet Minh movement among the Vietnamese diaspora in Cambodia.
The party's influence stretched as far as Laos, where local communist forces formed their own alliances with the ICP. While the Vietnamese leadership, spearheaded by figures likeHồ Chí Minh, maintained the dominant role within the ICP, the organization's members in Cambodia and Laos played crucial roles in shaping the local revolutionary movements, leading to the eventual creation of theCambodian People's Party (CPP) andLao People's Party.
The ICP was deeply influenced by the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which formed the ideological foundation for communist movements across the world in the early 20th century. Marxism-Leninism emphasized the importance of class struggle, the overthrow of capitalist systems, and the creation of a socialist state led by the working class. The ICP, however, adapted these principles to the specific historical and cultural context of Indochina, which was under French colonial rule. The party's major ideological tenets included:[4]
In 1930, as part of its transformation from the Vietnamese Communist Party to the Indochinese Communist Party, the ICP adopted a more inclusive approach that acknowledged the interconnected struggles of the entire Indochinese region. This shift was largely a response to the Comintern's directives, which pushed for an internationalist vision of anti-imperialist struggle.
By the mid-1940s, the political dynamics of Indochina were changing rapidly. World War II had severely weakened the French colonial system, and the Japanese occupation of Indochina from 1940 to 1945 had further destabilized the region. The Viet Minh emerged as the most powerful anti-colonial force in Vietnam, and its dominance was solidified after Japan's defeat in 1945.
The dissolution of the ICP in 1945 was largely the result of the increasing focus on national rather than regional struggles for independence. As the Viet Minh's influence grew in Vietnam, the need for a pan-Indochinese communist organization diminished. The Vietnamese Communist Party, under the leadership of Hồ Chí Minh, gradually took the lead in the independence movement in Vietnam, and the ICP was no longer seen as a viable framework for coordinating resistance in all of Indochina.
Following the dissolution of the ICP, its Vietnamese members went on to form the Workers' Party of Vietnam in 1951, which later became the Communist Party of Vietnam. In Cambodia, the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party was founded, which eventually evolved into the Cambodian People’s Party. Similarly, in Laos, the communist movement solidified into the Lao People’s Party, which played a significant role in the country’s post-independence political developments.[9]
The party program of action was based on 10 points:[10]
On 11 November 1945, the Indochinese Communist Party issued a communique to dissolve itself.[11] Later in 1951, the Vietnamese members of the party founded theWorkers' Party of Vietnam and Cambodian members founded theKampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (now the Cambodian People's Party). Four years later, Laotian members of the party founded theLao People's Party.
The dissolution of the ICP marked the end of its direct influence, but its legacy endured. The ICP’s role in unifying communist resistance movements across Indochina laid the foundations for the Vietnam War, the Khmer Rouge revolution, and the Laotian Civil War, each of which would lead to significant political and social upheaval in Southeast Asia.
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