Bài giảng Vietnam history and politics

Part I The origins of Vietnam • History mostly recorded by the Chinese and the French.. Part I: Medieval Vietnam • Wars: to defend itself from Northern empire and also to expand to the

Vietnam: History and Politics

By Huyen Nguyen, University of Griffiths, 8/10/2012

What is Vietnam for you?

Your objectives for learning about Vietnam?

Country overview: touring Vietnam

Country

Overview: demographical Introduction

Geo-Important facts:

- S shaped, 3200km coastal, diverse

topography and climate (Tropical)

- UNFPA (2010) 89 mil, projected 111.7 mil in

2050, ranking 14 th in the world S = 330000 km2

- 10 countries, 300 mil

of people depend on the Sea: 5/10 of the main marine roads through or related to East Sea (south china sea) Chinese source:

313 billion of oil barrels yet exploited, only after Arab Saudi (unverified)

- Compared with Norway: 5

mil/385000 km2 and Queensland

4.5/1850000 km2

Objectives of the lecture (3 hours)

• Part I: History; Part II: Political System;

PART I: HISTORY

Part I

The origins of Vietnam

• History mostly recorded by the Chinese and the French Vietnamese themselves have written history until later around 11th century

• Archeology mostly by the French – human remains since Paleolithic era c

10000 BCE

• Dating from:

– 9000-7000 BCE Hoa Binh Culture (stone)

to Bac Son period until 3000 BCE – 2500-1500 BCE Phung Nguyen culture (agri bronze) to Dong Son period until

600 BCE – bronze drum as national symbol

– Then the semi-legendary Hung Kings

• Links: to southern China but also links

in form of customs with South East Asians Of Viet-Muong blend ethnically and culturally

According to Justin Corfield 2008 The

History of Vietnam Greenwood Santa

Barbara, USA

Southern China and Au Lac into a separate Southern Viet (Nam Viet) with the capital at Guangzhou, until 111 BCE

under Han Emperor Wu Ti

• Nationalist uprisings by the Trung sisters (40 AD) and until

938 with Ngo Quyen’s successful independent strive

Blending in ethnic and also

culture – Chinese assimilation

program yet nationalism

remained…

Part I: Medieval Vietnam

• Wars: to defend itself from Northern empire and also to expand to the south Victory made kings

– Ngo Quyen and Bach Dang battle, – Dinh Tien Hoang and the unification, – Ly Thuong Kiet with Nam Quoc Son Ha so-called Vietnam’s first declaration of independence,

– Tran – 3 times defeating Mongols, – Le – retrieving the country back from the Chinese Ming and – Nguyen – against the Chinese Qing and the French

• Peace = intervals of 200-400 years: rebuild, rewrite, law- making (not until Le dynasty in

15th century – Hong Duc law code), trade and develop

• Nguyen dynasty: adoption of Chinese style court organization, Nationalism on with Ao Dai and

so on…

Ngo Quyen set up 1 st dynasty Feudal

Vietnam: Ngo – Dinh – Le – Ly – Tran –

Le – Nguyen until 1958 when French

came and 1945 independence and

modern Vietnamese state

History of Vietnam

2879–258 Hồng Bàng Dynasty

257–207 Thục Dynasty – AN DUONG VUONG

207–111 Triệu Dynasty – controversial

administrative and so on

- 722: Learn 200 from Tang and 17 Ming laws, 178 general while more than 300 rest not from China

- Gender sensitive: inheritance – same for male and female,

protecting the female

- More details especially in marriage relations – sourced by French and South Vietnam

- Lenient, attention to local customs and special circumstances…

- Not as comprehensive and well categorized as the Gia Long law code but contains Vietnam’s own legal ideas

Part I

Medieval Vietnam

• Political economy: changing from feudal lords to centralized hierarchical bureaucracy (mature under Nguyen dynasty)

– Feudal lords – estate like, prominent in Tran and early Le dynasty, each lord has his own estate, army, peasants as nearly serfs

– Centralized hierarchical bureaucracy: examinations to become mandarins Villages as grassroots units of production and security: dividing land among its members, individual household production and tax collection => King’s laws stop at village gate, connoting a typical central-local relationship See also David Marr 2004

– To the south against Champa : Vietnam now in an S-shape

– Village – agricultural customs and practices – water puppetry, Quan Ho folksongs as e.g

• Trade and cultural exchanges: Faifo (Centre), Pho Hien (North):

– Pho Hien: North – Chinese, Netherlands, British traders and

so on… since 15 and peaked in 17 th , 18 th century

Centralized hierarchical feudalist

bureaucracy with King’s laws

stopping at village gates

Education came first, limited

trade and cultural exchanges

• Alexander de Rhodes 1591-1660 French missionary – dictionary of Portuguese – Latin – Vietnamese Using latin to

record spoken Vietnamese

• Pigneau de Behaine supporting the founder king of Nguyen dynasty in his struggle to claim the throne 1787 treaty with French to get soldiers but later French so busy with European conflicts However, the treaty was cited when French finally sent troops to

invade in 1858

The invention of written Vietnamese

through the use of Latin to record

spoken Vietnam

French got a connection point with

Vietnam in late 18 th century

Part I

Vietnam encountered

the West (cont.)

• Gia Long – first king of Nguyen dynasty: set

up his court following Chinese style, Confucianism, Chinese philosophy and legal approach (less on local customs), suspicious

of French towards the end of his reign (1780-1887)

• Minh Mang – chosen for being suspicious of the French, consolidated centralized bureaucracy with 31 provinces under governor or governor general, restricting trader numbers and missionaries Louis XVIII, however, requested French be allowed

to trade in Vietnam

• Tu Duc came to throne when Nguyen dynasty become weak In 1858 French ships came and took Tourane port city (Da Nang), marking the start of French domination Tu Duc ceded land and Vietnam was independent until 1887 when French deposed King Ham Nghi and placed the court under their control

Vietnam encountering the West – illustration:

Tourane battle

3000 French and

Portugese vs 2500 and 2000

• All under governor general with headquarter in Cochinchina and resident superieur in capitals of 4 protectorates A system of civil service was developed: French on top, then VN bureaucrats and Vietnamese educated as minor officials

• French bureaucracy? Tax payers paid for supporting administration while French companies found huge fortunes from rubber and factories in Indochina 1937:

4654 French civil servants/23 million of people of Indochina while same number of Britons over India of

poverty was added by diseases (malaria, cholera )

Differentiated colonialization

Ineffective bureaucracy…

Wealth to France and little improvements

for Vietnam

exploitation, justice, making local people uneducated, the church, local females, the

slaves have been awaken, annex: a call to Vietnamese youth

Pg 43: 1000 villages – 1500 alcohol and drug agents, only

10 schools, 23-24 million of alcohol per year for 12 mil of local people including women and kids – monopolies to

enrich the French

administration

• Phan Boi Chau looked to Japan, taking Vietnamese to Japan to learn

• Phan Chu Trinh went to France, started with renovations of education and life-style

• Nguyen Thai Hoc set up a nationalist party modeled after Chinese Kuomintang

• Ngo Dinh Kha head of Hue Academy, Christian, admired French culture but hated French colonists His son later became first president of South Vietnam

• Ho Chi Minh also from Central Vietnam, travelled to the West, adopted Communism and succeeded => first president of the

modern state of Vietnam (1945)

Traditional ideology failed…

Communism succeeded…

WHAT CAN WE SAY ABOUT WESTERN

IMPRINT ON VIETNAMESE SOCIETY?

Part I

Independence came with

the Wars

• 1945: independence – citing both French and American – The Democratic Republic of Vietnam

• 1946-1954: first Indochinese war Vietnam vs French, only ending upon Dien Bien Phu victory of the DRV Communist Party

consolidated its rule and style

• 1954-1975: Geneva Accord not respected with South Vietnam came under American influence, American intervention (1965-

1973) and final victory of the North in 1975

Independence came with wars: illustration No 1 -

1 st Indochina war

- Dien Bien Phu

- Geneva Conference 1954 – China, USSR, Vietnam Democratic

Republic vs France, US and UK

- Result: partition of Vietnam, 2 years after general election for unification

- North Vietnam: socialist

- South Vietnam: US intervention – Diem as president

Independence came with wars: illustration No 2 – 2nd Indochina war

From 1959 – Rally against Diem-Nhu’s regime

• Distorted and drained

economy, relying on aids

“Numbers can never capture the tears,

anxieties, and repeated losses…”(Kolko

1997, Vietnam: Anatomy of a Peace)

Part I

War again: Third Indochina

War- China, Vietnam and

Cambodia

• 1979-1989

• Vietnam’s intervention into Cambodia against Pol Pot’s genocide regime

• China’s teaching Vietnam a lesson: eviction of Chinese- origin capitalists, boat people

Could Vietnam avoid the 3 rd war?

War again: Illustration - Third

Indochina War- China,

Vietnam and Cambodia

As a result of split between Vietnam (USSR) and China

17/2/1979 – 5/3/1979 Chinese: 300000 troops – to destroy!

Destruction on site, destruction of the relationship and isolation for Vietnam Vietnam lost on the political diplomatic terms

Part I

Reunification and

socio-economic crisis

• Installation of socialist (Stalinist) institutional framework on the South

- political and economic reunification in 1976

• Led to economic shortages, failure in cooperative campaign among others

• By 1985: comprehensive socio-economic crisis:

– Rocketing inflation – Famines, food shortages

=> REFORM OR COLLAPSE

Imposition of Stalinist model on the

South and crisis…

PART II: POLITICS

Part II

Communism came to

Vietnam

Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh: went

to the West instead, touring France, the UK, the USA, Russia, before going back to China, HongKong, Thailand… During the trip he found:

- Socialism – Communism: But it was nationalism that brought him

to Communism (encountered with Lenin’s Thesis on National and Colonial Questions) SAVE US!

- (ed) The Revolutionary Youth League of Vietnam (In Guangchou, about 1924-before 1927)

3/2/1930 establishment of

Vietnam Communist Party

- What did Ho find in Lenin’s thesis that made him

decide to adopt

communism for Vietnam?

Part II

Communism in Vietnam

• The Democratic Republic of Vietnam:

- Declaration of Independence (1945): quotes from French and American on civil and

• A question on the influence of Mao on the organization of Viet Minh especially from

1950 Truong Chinh – The Long March and

Le Duan – to increase his leadership as the soul of the resistance towards the end of this war

• The North was liberated with Geneva Accord and made a showcase of socialism

• America-backed Diem took the South

Vietnam was divided on the verge of a civil war against the backdrop of Cold War

How much were the Vietnamese ready

for democracy?

Could democracy hold?

What did communism bring to

Vietnam?

- Ideology against the enemies

- Brothers, a trail and help

- Organization

- Revolutionary forces (peasants and

workers)

Weighing democracy and communism

Was communism behind Vietnam’s

success in getting out of the wars?

Part II

Communism in Vietnam

(cont.)

• Land reform in 1954-1956: serious mistakes?

• The Nhan Van – Giai Pham controversy (humanity-

dignity): an ideological split between the disillusioned and hardline socialists

• New Constitution promulgated in 1959 to confirm the role of the Communist Party and set Vietnam firm on the Stalinist state model

By design in the 1959 constitution:

- Party-state with monopoly of

power and economy

- No power separation

- Hierarchical state structure

- Centralized bureaucratic planning

- All state owned, subsidized and

managed

Illustration: Centrally planning Vietnam

- State owned, centrally planning, monopoly…

- Shortage, inflation, inefficiency

- Aid dependence

- Closed society – no freedom of speech, thinking and so forth

- Comprehensive crisis

– Economic first and foremost:

• Price – salary – money/SOEs having autonomy in their activities

• Individual agricultural households to get the extra once the due paid

• Market economy: abolition of centrally planning and subsidy, multi-sectored economy with private

enterprises allowed, open door policy – attraction of FDI

– International Relations: multilateral, normalization with China, the USA and the world after withdrawal from Cambodia

– Brief political redirection (from 1986-1989) But 1989: China’s Tianmen, collapse in Eastern Europe, then collapse of the USSR… Decided to leave political reforms untouched

– Ambitious Public Administration Reforms program…

The current system in Vietnam:

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Same underlying power principles:

- power monopoly of the

- Work division between the Party

and the State: reconciliation

- Loss of appeal for socialist

ideology; performance-based

legitimacy

- National Assembly (parliament)

to assume more weight in policy

debate and supervision although

still under party’s sway

- The rule by law (instead of law)

- Grassroots democracy ordinance:

an education campaign?

Part II

Current political system

• Nearest Constitution: 1992, amended in

2001

• People’s = all state powers belong to the

people People to take power through the

National Assembly and People’s Councils

(elected) President is the representative

of the State

• No separation of power Division of power

instead Administrative fusion due to

party’s integration into the state system

Edited from Mai Thi Kim Hue’s draft

Ministries

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

People’s Council

at Provinces

People’s Council

at Districts

People’s Council

at Communes

Supreme People’s Procuracy

President of State

People’s Procuracy at Provinces

People’s Procuracy at Districts

People’s Court

at Provinces

People’s Court

at Provinces

People’s Committee at Communes

People’s Committee at Districts

People’s Committee at Provinces Government

People’s Court

at Provinces

Part II

Current political system (cont.)

More Illustrations…

Vietnam's Political Process : ‪How

education shapes political decision making‪ Casey Lucious 2009 Taylor &

Francis…

Part II

Communism in Vietnam (cont.)

The reasons and justification for Stalinist state model:

- Hierarchical principle of organization within the socialist bloc, the USSR as the model for copying

- Based on Marx’s critiques of

capitalism for private ownership and exploitation, contrasting with

capitalism (as it went extreme)

- One way of explaining the system, according to Janos Kornai (1992) and Maria Csanadi (1997), the system was the result of an evolution from the core of power monopoly of the party-state

- Not the formal hierarchy, the

informal power network counts

Outstanding advantages in time of wars and for protection of the regime: a

politico-social system in which an

individual’s well-being depends on his connection and information

Great sacrifice from those forming the base of the power pyramid required And

political rationality in the place of

efficiency