The origins of the National Front for the liberation of South Viet-Nam

Abstract

Any examination of the origins of the National Front for the Liberation of South Viet-Nam must give prominence to the role of the Viet-Nam Workers' Party. During the period 1954-60 the VWP was enveloped in a continuing debate over how to achieve national unification. In 1954, despite disagreement within the VWP's Central Committee, it was decided to accept a negotiated settlement to the war. Accordingly the Party set out a two-year policy of political struggle synchronized with the various provisions of the Geneva Agreements. The VWP saw its tasks in each zone as being fundamentally different: priority was given to socialist construction in the north, while cadres in the south were expected to carry out a people's national democratic revolution. Implementation of this new policy in the south was hampered by the growing strength of the Diem government, and by the failure of VWP diplomacy to secure either French or Russian commitment to general elections. The failure to hold consultations in July 1955 led to growing southern disenchantment. In September 1955 the Fatherland Front was created. Its program in effect recognized the need for a policy of political struggle based on something other than the Geneva Agreements. This policy proved difficult to implement. Although alliances of convenience were forged with the armed forces of the dissident sects, the Diem regime proved successful in meeting and overcoming this challenge. By late 1956 southern pressures for increased use of revolutionary violence coincided with failures in conducting land reform in the north. These circumstances led to leadership changes in which the southern lobby was given an increased voice. The immediate result was the drafting of another long-range policy. Political struggle was given renewed emphasis but a limited policy of "extermination of traitors" was permitted. The prime task was to rebuild the Party organization. This policy was carried out during 1957-58 at which time great efforts were made to consolidate the north and to win international sympathy and support. In 1959 the southern lobby argued convincingly for a new policy sanctioning reunification "by all appropriate means". This meant the use of armed forces. This new policy of combining political and armed struggle was ratified at the VWP's 3rd National Congress in September 1960. The growing influence of the southerners was evident in leadership appointments to the Politburo, Secretariat and Central Committee. Le Duan, the outspoken advocate for armed struggle, became the Party's First Secretary. The 3rd National Congress committed the entire VWP to carrying out the people's national democratic revolution in the south. Southern cadres set about creating a national united front and regroupees in the north began returning south. In December 1960 an organizing committee met and proclaimed the formation of the NFLSVN. Over a year later, after much organizational work, the First Congress of the NFLSVN was held. The origins of this Front lie both in the interaction between contending factions within the VWP leadership and the interaction between the VWP and various southern social forces and personalities on the one hand, and the Diem regime and its American backers on the other.