WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE
On November 11, 1945, the Vietnamese Stalinists voluntarily dissolved their Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), in order to win the support of right-wing nationalist forces that opposed the occupation of the north of the country by the Chinese Kuomintang, and to lay the grounds for a sordid deal with French imperialism.
In a circular issued to justify the liquidation, the Stalinists stated that they were dissolving the party “in order to destroy all misunderstanding, domestic and foreign, which can hinder the liberation of our country.” The rank-and-file membership was instructed that if they wished to “continue theoretical studies,” they could join the Indochina Association of Marxist Studies.
The dissolution occurred amid immense upheaval. The surrender of the previous Japanese occupiers of Vietnam in the Second World War, in August 1945, had sparked a mass movement against the reintroduction of colonial rule, culminating in a revolution.
The Stalinists, led by Ho Chi Minh, responded by seeking to suppress the movement, including within their own rank-and-file. They had developed extensive dealings with American spies and military officers during the war against Japan. Ho Chi Minh decided to collaborate with the American plan for the entry of a Chinese Kuomintang army into the north of Vietnam, and the formation of a de facto British-French administration in the south.
To cement their dealings with the imperialists, the Stalinists ordered the brutal suppression of the substantial Vietnamese Trotskyist movement, which fought for a revolutionary socialist perspective. This failed to appease the imperialist powers. The Stalinists were repaid for their treachery by a major offensive in October of British and French imperialist forces, aimed at exterminating the Viet Minh independence movement that the ICP led.
It was in response to this onslaught that Ho Chi Minh and the Stalinists liquidated the Communist Party and forged greater ties with right-wing nationalist organizations. In November, they would begin negotiations with the French Commissioner for Tonkin, Jean Sainteny. These talks culminated in a March, 1946 accord between the Stalinists and the French government, which stated that the “Vietnamese Republic” would remain part of the French union and would “welcome amicably the French army.”
The Stalinist betrayals were based upon the two-stage theory of revolution, which rejected the fight for socialist policies in countries of belated capitalist development, and instead sought alliances with sections of the national ruling elite. They served to isolate the Vietnamese working class from the emerging revolutionary upheavals of workers around the world.
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