VIETNAM: PEASANT LAND, PEASANT REVOLUTION : Peasant Land, Peasant Revolution

Patriarchy and Collectivity in the Rural Economy

Nancy Wiegersma Associate Professor Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts

M MACMILLAN PRESS © Nancy A. Wiegersma 1988 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1988 978-0-333-45730-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33--4 Alfred Place, London WClE 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

First published 1988

Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Wiegersma, Nancy A. Vietnam: peasant land, peasant revolution: patriarchy and collectivity in the rural economy. 1. Vietnam-Economic conditions 2. Vietnam-Rural Conditions I. Title 330.597 HC444 ISBN 978-1-349-09972-6 ISBN 978-1-349-09970-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-09970-2 To the memory of Oscar J. Wiegersma, an American farmer Contents

List of Tables and Figures XI Preface xiii Acknowledgements xvi Glossary XVIII I Peasants and Socialism I The Vietnamese 2 The USA Encounters 4 Contemporary Reassessments 10 A Vietnamese View 15 The Vietnamese Village in Transition 17 Colonialism 20 Vietnamese Resistance 22 2 Collective Property and the Rise of the Confucian Patriarchy 26 Pre-Chinese History of the Vietnamese 26 Chinese Rule Ill BC-940AD 28 Post-Independence- The Tenth to the Fifteenth Century 32 The Mandarinate and the Le Code 35 Separation of the Country- The Rise of the Trinh and the Nguyen Dynasties 38 East-West Contact in the Eighteenth Century 40 The Tay Son and the Ascendancy of the Nguyen Dynasty 42 Origin and Development of Communal Land 46 3 Land and Economy in the Traditional Village 51 State and Village Authority 51 The Village Economy 52 The Village Lands 53 The Village Lists 57 A Generalised Description of Land Use in Village Vietnam 58 Production Relations 60 Village Industry 62 Markets, Money and Credit 64 vii viii Contents

4 The Colonial Impact 67 Development of the Infrastructure and Tax Policies 67 Village Administration 69 Land Concessions 71 The Creation of a Land Market 75 The Survey and Land Register 75 French Land Law and the French Courts 77 Money-lending 80 Labour Market 83 Results of Colonialism 84 5 The Nationalist-Communist Resistance 87 Communism and Nationalism in the 1920s 90 The 1930s- Formation of the Communist Party and the Nghe Tinh Soviets 94 The Popular Front 96 Divergent Politics in the South (Cochin China) 99 Japanese Power and the August Revolution 103 The Viet Minh 105 Anti-Colonial War: 1945-54 107

6 The Post-Colonial Village lll The Villages 111 Land Southern Village 113 Central Village 116 Labour 120 Water 122 Village Authority and Control of Production 124 Breakdown of the Traditional Patriarchy- Peasant Women's Status in the South 126 Produce Markets, Money and Credit 128 Accumulation of Capital and Technological Change 131 Contrasts 134 7 Socialism in the North 137 Land Reform 138 Industry 141 Agricultural Collectivisation 145 Family Economy 148 Contents ix

Successes 149 Continuing Problems 152

8 The Revolutionary Village 156 The Village and the Collective 157 Land 158 Labour 161 Control of Production 163 Collective 163 Patriarchal Control of Family Economy 166 Technological Change 167 Local Industry, Handicrafts and Markets 168 Women in the Northern Village 169 Comparisons 171

9 US Intervention 174 Economic Policies 175 Diem's Land Reforms 181 The Landlords and the War 184 The Land-to-the-Tiller Law 189 Economic Results of the US Intervention 196

10 The National Liberation Front 202 National Liberation Front Land Reforms and Programmes (1960-72) 204 Women in the National Liberation Front 209 Economic Change with Rural Revolution 210 Comparisons between the Viet Minh and the National Liberation Front 218

11 Integration of the Country 220 in the Transition Period 221 New Management 224 Integration in the Industrial Sector 225 Economic Planning 227 Vietnamese Allies and Enemies 228 Reforms 232 Successes and Problems 237 Conclusions 240 Southern Differences 240 Accommodating the Patriarchs 242 X Contents

Afterword 247 Notes 251 Bibliography 267 Index 276 List of Tables

Tables

4.1 French concessions 1931 75 4.2 Concentration of land in Vietnam under French occupation 77 4.3 : acreage, yields, production average, 1935/6 to 1939/40 85 6.1 Distribution of public land and private land in selected areas, 1959 118 6.2 Percentage of communal land in villages according to village officials 118 6.3 Distribution of land between residents and non-residents by sex, My Xa hamlet, 1960 120 6.4 Double-cropping in Cochin China in contrast to the Central Lowlands 133 7.1 Investment and consumption shares in national income 144 7.2 Production of staple crops in 150 7.3 Rice production 151 9.1 : indices of total agricultural and total food production, average 1935-39 and 1952-54 (base period) and annually 1957, 1958 and 1959 176 9.2 Rice: area, production and exports, Cochin China, 1934-51 177 9.3 Real per capita income 179 9.4 Regional value of production: rice, secondary crops, , fish, and non-food, 1964 and 1970, 1964 prices 198 10.1 Rural and urban population by region, 1964 and 1970 212 10.2 1964 and 1970 regional cultivated area: rice, secondary food crops, non-food crops 213 10.3 Area, production and yield of rice 215 10.4 Changes in cultivated area in rice, for selected provinces, Upper and Lower Delta, 1964 and 1968 216

XI xii List of Tables

11.1 Grain production in Vietnam 223 11.2 Chronology of events leading to the Vietnam-China war 230 11.3 Main indices of SRV economic development 238

Figures

2.1 Population density Tonkin Delta (schematic map) 48 2.2 The communal lands of the Tonkin Delta 49 3.1 An idealised version of land distribution in the traditional Vietnamese village 59 Preface

On the tenth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, the US Secretary of State George Shultz stated, 'Our goals in Central America are like those we had in Vietnam.' Others have also noticed the many similarities between the US political, economic and military interventions in Vietnam in the 1960s and in Central America in the 1980s. Even some of the details of interventionary policy are the same. Roy Prosterman from Washington State University, for example, wrote the land-to-the-tiller laws for both Vietnam and El Salvador. Because of the current US involvement in Central America, there is renewed interest in understanding issues raised by American intervention in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. Americans are continuing to be concerned about what happened in Vietnam, why we failed (probably because the USA failed) and what has happened there since the US involvement. The Vietnamese revolution was not an aberration and this point becomes clearer as we view similar scenarios in Central America. Despite the continuing importance of understanding Vietnam for an appreciation of contemporary world politics, most Western observers do not understand the development of Vietnamese socialism and the forces behind the Vietnam War. I have tried in Vietnam: Peasant Land, Peasant Revolution, to promote a deep understanding of the development of revolutionary forces in Vietnamese society and the way that US involvement influenced these forces. By focusing on the village community and the peasant family as the fundamental building blocks of Vietnamese society, the book first presents a clear picture of traditional Vietnam and then shows the dynamics of change during French Colonialism, the American Intervention, and the present socialist period. The focus on peasants and on their land brings out the basic differences between the various governments and their policies concerning the great majority of Vietnamese - the peasants. I hope therefore that the reader can find answers to questions about Vietnamese 'hearts and minds' which have been unanswered by the voluminous journalism of the Vietnam War Period. I worked on the Asia desk at the US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, from 1969 until 1972. I xiii XIV Preface travelled to Vietnam in 1972, during my tenure at the Department of Agriculture, and worked with a team of economists on a book published by the US Department of Agriculture entitled Agriculture in Vietnam's Economy. Since 1972, I have published numerous articles on Vietnam and worked on the present book while holding a college faculty position in economics, currently at Fitchburg State College. My interest in rural Vietnam dates from the mid-1960s, prior to my working for the US Department of Agriculture in Vietnam. I began writing on Vietnamese land tenure and economic development while I was a graduate student at the University of Maryland in the mid-1960s. It was in this period, also, that I first joined the peace movement which later became known as the anti-Vietnam War movement. Even as a federal employee in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I continued my active involvement in this movement. Many people who were part of the US anti-war movement in the 1960s have been disillusioned and disappointed in the policies of reunited Vietnam in the post-war period. The Cambodian invasion, the flight of the 'boat people' and the mistakes that the bureaucratic Communist Party has made in are some of the reasons. I hope that the argument in this volume concerning divergence in social, political and economic developments of the northern and southern regions in Vietnam will offer insight into some of these issues. The composition, leadership and policies of the National Liberation Front in the south in the 1960s were very different from those of the northern-dominated Viet Minh in the 1940s and 1950s. The US government in the 1960s and 1970s used arguments about north-south differences to justify US intervention in Vietnam. Probably because of this history, Western intellectuals have shown a tendency to be unwilling to recognise the importance of north-south differences in Vietnam and their impact on contemporary Vietnam. The anti-war activists who expected post-war Vietnam to reflect the mass-based pro-peasant politics of the National Liberation Front were very disappointed. The northern Communists were more bureaucratic, hierarchical and pro-Soviet than their southern contemporaries. These differences, seen in a political-economic context, contribute to an explanation of contemporary policies in Vietnam. In my own personal experience, I have lived through the transition from a family-based mode of production on the farm where I grew Preface XV up, to the marketised capitalist economy, in which I have participated as an adult. From the togetherness, interconnectedness and integration in my background, I have moved to an individualised modern family where each person goes his or her own way in the economic world. In the more individualised modern family, there is more flexibility in gender roles. The sense of wholeness or togetherness which accompanies family-based production, however, is missing in the modern economy. Because of this background, I have not approached the study of Vietnamese peasants from the perspective that they have traditional values and patriarchal family structures and that we, in the West, do not. Rather, I have the perspective that there are profound differences, but also some important similarities, in both the positive and negative aspects of family farms everywhere. Acknowledgements

This work has been considerably influenced by a number of people, none of whom would probably agree with all of my conclusions. Several of my graduate professors at the University of Maryland inspired my work. Professor Robert Bennett first introduced me to the field of economic development and economic research. My graduate advisor, John Q. Adams, first interested me in economic anthropology and directed me toward village study materials in analysing the political economy of rural Vietnam. Professors Allan Gruchy and Dudley Dillard helped me to develop a non-traditional, institutionalist, approach to political economy. Christine White, Institute for Development Studies, Sussex, England, and Cornell University, has aided me considerably in researching Vietnamese sources. She has directed me toward numerous studies and has profoundly influenced my reading of the political economy of North Vietnam. The statistical information and perspective on US intervention which I gained while working for the US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service was invaluable. Individuals who particularly helped me with my research were Rex Daly, Harry Walters and Joseph Willett. Groups of people who have given me considerable help and feedback on parts of the manuscript are the New England Women and Development Group and the New York Women and Develop• ment Group, especially Carmen Diana Deere, Nancy Folbre, Jeanne Henn, Laurie Nissonoff, Jeanne Pyle, Nola Reinhardt and Sharon Stricter. I also benefited from presenting some of this work to the North-east Feminist Scholars' meetings. I received a Professional Development Grant from Fitchburg State College for research expenses pertaining to the last few chapters of this book. I am grateful to Vice-President Patrick Delaney and others at Fitchburg State College who have encouraged me in this work. The patience, understanding and competence of Karen Thatcher of Words-Worth, in Amherst, has been very important to me. I gratefully acknowledge her contribution. Lastly, and very importantly, I benefited from the comments of individual people who read parts of this manuscript. These xvi Acknowledgements xvii individuals are Christine White, Morton Sobell, Robert Sherry, David Dellinger, Daniel Clawson and Peter Bohmer.

NANCY A. WIEGERSMA

Author's Note

Parts of Chapter 3 were first published in an article entitled 'The Asiatic Mode of Production and Vietnam', Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 12, no. 1, 1982. Reprinted by permission of the editors. Parts of Chapter 3 and Chapter 6 were first published in an article entitled 'Women in the Transition to Capitalism: Nineteenth through Mid-twentieth Century Vietnam', Research in Political Economy, ed. Paul Zarembka, vol. 6, 1981. Reprinted with permission of the publisher, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT. Parts of Chapter 11 were first published in an article entitled 'Regional Differences in Socialist Transformation in Vietnam', Economic Forum, vol. 14, Summer 1983. Reprinted with permission of the editors. Glossary

Land Tenure Terms bon thou dien: an endowment to the village from a family with the agreement that the notables would perform certain ceremonial duties. cong dien: communal rice land protected by the state from usurpation or alienation and redistributed periodically to villagers cong tho: communal land other than rice land, lands which were used for crops other than rice and the settlement lands duong loa: a portion of patrimony devoted to care of a living member of the previous generation huang hoa: a part of the family patrimony (in rice fields and other property) which are set aside to pay the expense of maintaining an ancestor's cult khau phan: the individual share in the division of cong dien ky dien: a family worship property to be used to celebrate the anniversary of the death of an ancestor thien back nien chi ke: a property for which a purpose has been designated, literally, 'to make the work last for hundreds of thousands of years' tu dan dien, tu dan tho: communal land over which the central government had no controls; this land was often set aside for ritual purposes tu dien: private rice fields, rice fields which were the patrimony of families tuyet tu: a family worship property, devoted to the cult of a relative who died without heir

Other Terms corvee: public labour obligation, the obligation to devote a certain amount of labour to public purposes, under the direction of village or central government authorities (a French term) dia bo: traditional land taxation list xviii Glossary xix dien co: a credit agreement which gave the use of land as a pledge; not permanent possession dinh: house of the village spirit, housed the spirit of some revered person, usually the founder of the village, meeting house giap: neighbourhood, giap is usually translated as 'Hamlet' but this translation gives the wrong connotation because a hamlet is a small village, a giap is an integral part of a village, a division of a village ho: extended family hoa: Vietnamese term for the Chinese minority hui: a mutual credit society mai-lai-thuc: option to repurchase mau: 0.36 hectare; 0.9 acre nghia thuong: common reserve granary of the village ngoai dinh: non-registered person, a person not registered on the tax list of the village ngu-cu, dan-/au, or dan-ngoai: alien persons who simply reside in the village , those not registered on the village list (so hang xa) sao: one tenth of mau, 0.09 acre so dinh: the list of persons registered in the village who are called upon to pay personal taxes, usually males between the ages of 18 and 60. The right to a share of public land is granted to persons on this list so hang xa, so lang: the village list, the list of persons who are registered in the village thoc: one fifteenth of a sao, 0.006 acre truong toe: the administrator of huong hoa, the family cult land, usually the eldest son xa: village