Communist Party of Vietnam

The Communist Party of Vietnam (Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam) is the currently ruling, as well as the only legal political party in Vietnam. It is a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party supported by (and a part of) the Vietnamese Fatherland Front.

History

The Party was founded by Ho Chi Minh and other exiles living in China as the Communist Party of Vietnam (Đảng cộng sản Việt Nam) but soon changed its name to the Communist Party of Indochina (Đảng cộng sản Đông Dương) after its Founding conference held in Hong Kong in February 1930. The Founding Conference is also regarded as the Unification Conference of the three communist organization in Vietnam before 1930, namely the Indochinese Communist Party (Đông Dương cộng sản đảng), An Nam Communist Party (An Nam cộng sản Đảng), and the Indochinese Communist League (Đông Dương cộng sản liên đoàn). The First National Party Congress was held in secret in Macau in 1935. At the same time, a Comintern congress in Moscow adopted a policy towards a popular front against fascism and directed Communist movements around the world to collaborate with anti-fascist forces regardless of their orientation towards socialism. This required the ICP to regard all nationalist parties in Indochina as potential allies.

The party was formally dissolved in 1945 in order to hide its Communist affiliation and its activities were folded into the Marxism Research Association and the Viet Minh, which had been founded four years earlier as a common front for national liberation. The Party was refounded as the Workers' Party of Vietnam (Đảng lao động Việt Nam) at the Second National Party Congress in Tuyen Quang in 1951. The Congress was held in territory in north Vietnam controlled by the Viet Minh during the First Indochina War. The Third National Congress, held in Hanoi in 1960 formalized the tasks of constructing socialism in what was by then North Vietnam, or the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and committed the party to carrying out the revolution of liberation in the South. At the Fourth National Party Congress held in 1976 after the end of Vietnam War with the reunification of Vietnam, the Party's name was changed to the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Organization

The CPV is a Marxist-Leninist party run on democratic centralist lines. The supreme leading body is the Politburo (Political Bureau) headed by the General Secretary. The Politburo is elected by the Central Committee, and the Central Committee is elected by the National Congress. In 1976, as a result of the unification of North and South Vietnam, the Central Committee was expanded to 133 members from 77 and the Politburo grew from 11 to 17 members while the Secretariat increased from seven to nine members.

Membership in the party doubled from 760,000 in 1966 to 1,553,500 in 1976, representing 3.1 percent of the total population of the country, and was close to two million by 1986.

The title President of the Central Committee, existing during 1951 - 1969, was nominated for Ho Chi Minh. This position is considered to be the supreme leader of the Party.

The National Congress of CPV are to be held every five years. Due to the war footing during the wars against French and U.S. troops, the first 4 congresses were not fixed the common time schedule. After the Foundation Conference, 10 national congresses of CPV have been held.

1st Congress, Macau (China), 1935
2nd Congress, Tuyen Quang, 1951
3rd Congress, Hanoi, 1960
4th Congress, Hanoi, 1976
5th Congress, Hanoi, 1982
6th Congress, Hanoi, 1986
7th Congress, Hanoi, 1991
8th Congress, Hanoi, 1996
9th Congress, Hanoi, 2001
10th Congress, Hanoi, 2006

Ten persons have held the First Secretary (1960-1976) and/or General Secretary (1930-1960 and 1976-date) of CPV, namely, Trần Phú (1930-1931), Lê Hồng Phong (1935-1936), Hà Huy Tập (1936-1938), Nguyễn Văn Cừ (1938-1940), Trường Chinh (1941-1946 and 1986), Lê Duẩn (1960-1986), Nguyễn Văn Linh (1986-1991), Đỗ Mười (1991-1997), Lê Khả Phiêu (1997-2001), Nông Đức Mạnh (2001-date).

At the Sixth National Party Congress, held in December 1986, Nguyen Van Linh was elected to be the General Secretary while a Politburo of fourteen members was elected and the Central Committee was expanded to 173 members.

At the Ninth National Party Congress in 2001, Nong Duc Manh became the new General Secretary. He was re-elected for a second term at the Tenth National Party Congress in 2006.

The present 14-member Politburo, elected in April 2006, determines government policy, and its eight-person Secretariat oversees day-to-day policy implementation. Although there has been some effort to discourage membership in overlapping party and state positions, this practice continues. The Party's Central Military Commission, which is composed of select Politburo members and additional military leaders, determines military policy.

A Party Congress, comprising 1,176 delegates at the Tenth Party Congress in April 2006, meets every 5 years to set the direction of the party and the government. The 160-member Central Committee, which is elected by the Party Congress, usually meets at least twice a year, with the Politburo meeting more frequently and the Secretariat being responsible for day to day activities under the direction of the Secretary-General.

Ideology

The Communist Party of Vietnam has claimed Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Ideology to be ideological basis of the Party and the Revolution. Though formally Marxist-Leninist, the Communist Party of Vietnam has moved towards market reforms in the economy (see also Đổi Mới, the Renewal launched by the Sixth Congress of the Party in 1986) and has permitted a growing private sector. However, the Party retains a monopoly on power.

External links

Official web site
Nhân Dân (The People): the official party newspaper
The birth of the Communist Party of Vietnam Article recalling the party's founding in 1930. (This page does not currently load.)

Ruling Communist parties | National liberation movements | Political parties in Vietnam | Single-party system parties | Communist parties in Asia

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History

Organization

Ideology

See also

External links