Core Practice: Ho Chi Minh and the Founding of the Communist Party of Indochina

Core Practice: Ho Chi Minh and the Founding of the Communist Party of Indochina World History Name: ______E. Napp Date: ______

Pre-Primary Source Activity:

A Thought to Consider: Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, once said, “If it were necessary to give the briefest possible definition of imperialism, we should have to say that imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism.” Of course, not every individual would agree with Lenin. However, Ho Chi Minh most certainly did agree with Lenin. Indeed it was Lenin’s ideas regarding Marxism and imperialism that inspired Ho Chi Minh to found the Communist Party of Indochina. While living and working in Europe, Ho Chi Minh encountered Marxist ideas. Already dismayed over French imperialism in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh turned to Marxist ideology and particularly Marxist-Leninist ideology in search of solutions for the problems facing the Vietnamese people. In 1930, Ho Chi Minh formed the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP). In 1941, the Indochinese Communist Party formed a guerilla force, the Viet Minh. The Viet Minh fought the Japanese imperialists during the Second World War. In 1945, the Viet Minh announced independence for the nation of Vietnam but the French, displaced by the Japanese imperialists in the Second World War, reclaimed it after the war. A bitter independence struggle ensued and by 1954, with peace talks in Geneva, Vietnam was divided into a North Communist Vietnam and a South Non-Communist Vietnam. However, a civil war erupted in South Vietnam with Communist guerillas in South Vietnam seeking reunification with the Communist North. The United States intervened but even with the military might of the United States, South Vietnam eventually fell to communism and Vietnam was reunified in 1975 as a communist nation. Questions:  Who was Vladimir Lenin and how did he define imperialism? ______ Explain Lenin’s definition of imperialism. ______ State three facts about Ho Chi Minh. ______ Why did Ho Chi Minh form the Indochinese Communist Party? ______ Who were the Viet Minh and what did they do? ______ Describe the changing state of imperialism in Vietnam in the twentieth century. ______ What happened to Vietnam in 1954? ______ What caused a civil war in South Vietnam? ______ What was the outcome of the civil war in the south? ______

The Primary Source: Founding of the Communist Party of Indochina (1930) Ho Chi Minh Source: Selected Writings of Ho Chi Minh (1920-1969) http://voiceseducation.org/node/350

“Workers, peasants, soldiers, youth, and pupils!

Oppressed and exploited compatriots!

Sisters and brothers! Comrades! Imperialist contradictions were the cause of the l9l4-18 World War. After this horrible slaughter, the world was divided into two camps: one is the revolutionary camp including the oppressed colonies and the exploited working class throughout the world. The vanguard force of this camp is the Soviet Union. The other is the counterrevolutionary camp of international capitalism and imperialism whose general staff is the League of Nations.

During this World War, various nations suffered untold losses in property and human lives. The French imperialists were the hardest hit. Therefore, in order to restore the capitalist forces in France, the French imperialists have resorted to every underhand scheme to intensify their capitalist exploitation in Indochina [French Indochina is a historical term that includes the nations of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam]. They set up new factories to exploit the workers with low wages. They plundered the peasants' land to establish plantations and drive them to utter poverty. They levied many heavy taxes. They imposed public loans upon our people. In short, they reduced us to wretchedness. They increased their military forces, firstly to strangle the Vietnamese revolution, secondly to prepare for a new imperialist war in the Pacific aimed at capturing new colonies; thirdly to suppress the Chinese revolution; fourthly to attack the Soviet Union because the latter helps the revolution of the oppressed nations and the exploited working class. World War Two will break out. When it breaks the French imperialists will certainly drive our people to a more horrible slaughter. If we give them a free hand to prepare for this war, suppress the Chinese revolution, and attack the Soviet Union, if we give them a free hand to stifle the Vietnamese revolution, it is tantamount to giving them a free hand to wipe our race off the earth and drown our nation in the Pacific.”

Questions: 1. According to Ho Chi Minh, what was the cause of the First World War? ______2. According to Ho Chi Minh, what two camps was the world divided into after the First World War? ______3. According to Ho Chi Minh, who is the vanguard force of the revolutionary camp? ______4. According to Ho Chi Minh, who is the general staff of the counterrevolutionary camp? ______5. According to Ho Chi Minh, why have the French had to intensify their capitalist exploitation of Vietnam after the First World War? ______6. According to Ho Chi Minh, how have the French intensified their capitalist exploitation of Vietnam after the First World War? ______

7. According to Ho Chi Minh, why have the French increased their military forces? ______8. According to Ho Chi Minh, what must the Vietnamese not do? Why? ______However, the French imperialists' barbarous oppression and ruthless exploitation have awakened our compatriots, who have all realized that revolution is the only road to life; without it they will die out piecemeal. This is the reason why the Vietnamese revolutionary movement has grown ever stronger with each passing day: the workers refuse to work, the peasants demand land, the pupils strike, the traders boycott. Everywhere the masses have risen to oppose the French imperialists.

The Vietnamese revolution has made the French imperialists tremble with fear. On the one hand, they utilize the feudalists and comprador bourgeois in our country to oppress and exploit our people. On the other, they terrorize, arrest, jail, deport, and kill a great number of Vietnamese revolutionaries. If the French imperialists think that they can suppress the Vietnamese revolution by means of terrorist acts, they are utterly mistaken. Firstly, it is because the Vietnamese revolution is not isolated but enjoys the assistance of the world proletarian class in general and of the French working class in particular. Secondly, while the French imperialists are frenziedly carrying out terrorist acts, the Vietnamese Communists, formerly working separately, have now united into a single party, the Communist Party of Indochina, to lead our entire people in their revolution. Questions:

9. According to Ho Chi Minh, what has awakened Vietnamese compatriots? ______10. According to Ho Chi Minh, what have awakened Vietnamese compatriots done? ______11. According to Ho Chi Minh, what has made the French tremble with fear? ______12. According to Ho Chi Minh, what are the French doing to stop revolutionary activity? ______13. According to Ho Chi Minh, why can the French not stop the revolutionary movement in Vietnam? ______Workers, peasants, soldiers, youth, pupils!

Oppressed and exploited compatriots!

The Communist Party of Indochina is founded. It is the party of the working class. It will help the proletarian class lead the revolution in order to struggle for all the oppressed and exploited people. From now on we must join the Party, help it and follow it in order to implement the following slogans:

1. To overthrow French imperialism, feudalism, and the reactionary Vietnamese capitalist class. 2. To make Indochina completely independent. 3. To establish a worker-peasant and soldier government. 4. To confiscate the banks and other enterprises belonging to the imperialists and put them under the control of the worker-peasant and soldier government. 5. To confiscate all of the plantations and property belonging to the imperialists and the Vietnamese reactionary capitalist class and distribute them to poor peasants. 6. To implement the eight hour working day. 7. To abolish public loans and poll tax. To waive unjust taxes hitting the poor people. 8. To bring back all freedom to the masses. 9. To carry out universal education. 10. To implement equality between man and woman.” Questions:

14. According to Ho Chi Minh, what has been founded? ______15. According to Ho Chi Minh, what will this party do? ______16. According to Ho Chi Minh, what are the goals of the party? ______17. What goals of the party are clearly goals of all communist parties? ______18. What goals of the party benefit women? ______19. What goals of the party do you agree with? ______20. What goals of the party do you disagree with? ______Enrichment Activities (To Be Completed on a Separate Piece of Paper): 1. Create a glossary for the article.

2. Write a critique of Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party of Indochina’s goals.

3. How has imperialism changed Ho Chi Minh’s views of France and Vietnam? 4. Cartoon Analysis - Look closely at the following cartoons and write a summary for each: Caption: “The war could be over in no time …… If only the Vietnamese would get out of Vietnam!”

Summary: ______

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