The origins and role of the self-criticism and criticism campaign in the lead up to the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1986

Abstract

In 1986, the Communist Party of Vietnam conducted a wide-ranging self-criticism and criticism campaign. The stated objectives of the campaign were to improve the performance of the Party generally, and of its members in particular. This thesis explores the factors which led the Party to launch the campaign and examines the possible role of the campaign in the context of the upcoming Sixth Party Congress. A key hypothesis of the thesis is that the campaign was a product of, and a response to, a legitimacy crisis. After reviewing the economic situation in Vietnam, the internal challenges facing the Party organisation, and international developments, the author concludes that the Party was, indeed, in crisis. The core of its difficulties lay in its failure to adjust successfully to the economic reconstruction and development tasks of the postwar period. The outcome of this failure was a loss of confidence amongst rank and file Party members and the public in the Party's ability to govern the nation effectively. The thesis shows that the self-criticism and criticism campaign was a vehicle for organisational change and an attempt to restore public confidence. Specifically, research evidence supports the proposition that the campaign was used to bring about significant leadership changes in the Party. It also supports the contention that public involvement in the campaign was encouraged, in part, to channel public hostility against individual cadres and to divert attention from the failings of the regime as a whole. Another key proposition of this thesis is that the campaign mediated an internal party debate about the direction of economic reform, and that it was a forum for achieving a compromise on the issue. Much of the debate on this particular question took place after the release of the Party Central Committee's draft reports to the national congress. The reports were debated at cadre conferences and at Party congresses at the grassroots, district and province levels. Although this part of the campaign was conducted largely behind closed doors, evidence was still found to support the hypothesis. Finally, the self-criticism and criticism campaign is assessed in the light of legitimation theories which hold that a regime experiencing a legitimacy crisis will sometimes respond by changing the way it legitimates itself to its staff and the public. The author finds evidence of such legitimation shifts in Vietnam in the period under study.