Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng
The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (Vietnamese: [vìət naːm kwə́wk zən ɗa᷉ːŋ]; chữ Hán: 越南國民黨; lit. 'Vietnamese Nationalist Party'), abbreviated VNQDĐ or Việt Quốc, was a nationalist and democratic socialist political party that sought independence from French colonial rule in Vietnam during the early 20th century.[4] Its origins lie in a group of young Hanoi-based intellectuals who began publishing revolutionary material in the mid-1920s. In 1927, after the publishing house failed because of French harassment and censorship, the VNQDĐ was formed under the leadership of Nguyễn Thái Học. Modelling itself on the Kuomintang of Nationalist China (the same three characters in chữ Hán: 國民黨) the VNQDĐ gained a small following among northerners, particularly teachers and intellectuals. The party, which was less successful among peasants and industrial workers, was organised in small clandestine cells.
Vietnamese Nationalist Party Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng
VNQDĐ
December 25, 1927
April 30, 1975 (currently operating in exile)
- Hanoi (1927–1954)
- Saigon (1954–1975)
- Westminster, California (since 1975)
Tiếng dân (People's Voice)[1]
Vietnam
Red, blue, white
"Cờ sao trắng"
"The White Star Flag"
From 1928, the VNQDĐ attracted attention through its assassinations of French officials and Vietnamese collaborators. A turning point came in February 1929 with the Bazin assassination, the killing of a French labour recruiter widely despised by local Vietnamese people. Although the perpetrators' precise affiliation was unclear, the French colonial authorities held the VNQDĐ responsible. Between 300 and 400 of the party's approximately 1,500 members were detained in the resulting crackdown. Many of the leaders were arrested, but Học managed to escape.
In late 1929, the party was weakened by an internal split. Under increasing French pressure, the VNQDĐ leadership switched tactics, replacing a strategy of isolated clandestine attacks against individuals with a plan to expel the French in a single blow with a large-scale popular uprising. After stockpiling home-made weapons, the VNQDĐ launched the Yên Bái mutiny on February 10, 1930, with the aim of sparking a widespread revolt. VNQDĐ forces combined with disaffected Vietnamese troops, who mutinied against the French colonial army. The mutiny was quickly put down, with heavy French retribution. Học and other leading figures were captured and executed and the VNQDĐ never regained its political strength in the country.
Some remaining factions sought peaceful means of struggle, while other groups fled across the border to Kuomintang bases in the Yunnan province of China, where they received arms and training. Meanwhile, during the 1930s, Ho Chi Minh's Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) has a mass following and became the overwhelming bulk of the independence movement. Vietnam was occupied by Japan during World War II and, in the chaos that followed the Japanese surrender in 1945, the VNQDĐ and the ICP briefly joined forces in the fight for Vietnamese independence. However, after a falling out, Ho purged the VNQDĐ, leaving his communist-dominated Viet Minh unchallenged as the foremost anti-colonial militant organisation. As a part of the post-war settlement that ended the First Indochina War, Vietnam was partitioned into two zones. The remnants of the VNQDĐ fled to the capitalist south, where they remained until the Fall of Saigon in 1975 and the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule. Today, the party survives only among overseas Vietnamese.
Origins[edit]
French involvement in Vietnam started in the late 18th century when the Catholic priest Pigneau de Behaine assisted Nguyễn Ánh, to found the Nguyễn dynasty by recruiting French volunteers. In return, Nguyễn Ánh, better known by his era name Gia Long, allowed Catholic missionaries to operate in Vietnam. However, relations became strained under Gia Long's successor Minh Mang as missionaries sought to incite revolts in an attempt to enthrone a Catholic. This prompted anti-Christian edicts, and in 1858, a French invasion of Vietnam was mounted, ostensibly to protect Catholicism, but in reality for colonial purposes. The French steadily made gains and completed the colonization of Vietnam in 1883. Armed revolts against colonial rule occurred regularly, most notably through the Can Vuong movement of the late-1880s. In the early-20th century, the 1916 southern revolts and the Thai Nguyen uprising were notable disruptions to the French administration.
In late 1925, a small group of young Hanoi-based intellectuals, led by a teacher named Pham Tuan Tai and his brother Pham Tuan Lam, started the Nam Dong Thu Xa (Southeast Asia Publishing House). They aimed to promote violent revolution as a means of gaining independence for Vietnam from French colonization, and published books and brochures about Sun Yat-sen and the Chinese Revolution of 1911, as well as opening a free school to teach quoc ngu (Romanised Vietnamese script) to the working class. The group soon attracted the support of other progressive young northerners, including students and teachers led by Nguyen Thai Hoc. Hoc was an alumnus of Hanoi's Commercial School, who had been stripped of a scholarship because of his mediocre academic performance.[5][6] Hoc had previously tried to initiate peaceful reforms by making written submissions to the French authorities, but these were ignored, and his attempt to foster policy change through the publication of a magazine never materialized due to the refusal of a license.[7]
Harassment and censorship imposed by the French colonial authorities led to the commercial failure of the Nam Dong Thu Xa. By the autumn of 1927, the group's priorities turned towards more direct political action, in a bid to appeal to more radical elements in the north. Membership grew to around 200, distributed among 18 cells in 14 provinces across northern and central Vietnam.[8]
At the time, nationalist sentiment had been on the increase in Vietnam. The French colonial authorities were bringing more Vietnamese into the administration, and there was a small but growing proportion who were exposed to western education. As a result, they became aware of French ideals such as Liberté, égalité, fraternité, republicanism and democracy, which sharply contrasted to the racial inequality and stratified system of the colonial elite ruling the masses in Vietnam. There was also an increasing awareness of the political writings of Montesquieu and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which stoked a desire for civil and political rights, combined with the knowledge of the Japanese victory over Russia in 1905, which gave people confidence that Asians could defeat western powers.[9]
Initial activities[edit]
Financial problems compounded the VNQDĐ's difficulties. Money was needed to set up a commercial enterprise, a cover for the revolutionaries to meet and plot, and for raising funds.[21] For this purpose, a hotel-restaurant named the Vietnam Hotel was opened in September 1928. The French colonial authorities were aware of the real purpose of the business, and put it under surveillance without taking further preliminary action.[21] The first notable reorganisation of the VNQDĐ was in December, when Nguyen Khac Nhu replaced Hoc as chairman. Three proto-governmental organs were created, to form the legislative, executive and judicial arms of government. The records of the French secret service estimated that by early 1929, the VNQDĐ consisted of approximately 1,500 members in 120 cells, mostly in areas around the Red River Delta.[21] The intelligence reported that most members were students, minor merchants or low-level bureaucrats in the French administration. The report stated that there were landlords and wealthy peasants among the members, but that few were of scholar-gentry (mandarin) rank.[21] According to the historian Cecil B. Currey, "The VNQDĐ's lower-class origins made it, in many ways, closer to the labouring poor than were the Communists, many of whom…[were] from established middle-class families."[25] At the time, the two other notable nationalist organisations were the communists and the New Vietnam Revolutionary Party, and although they had different visions of a post-independence nation, both competed with the VNQDĐ in attracting the support of the small, educated, urban class. In the late-1920s, around half of the communists were from bourgeoise backgrounds.[26]
Beginning in 1928, the VNQDĐ attracted substantial Vietnamese support, provoking increased attention from the French colonial administration. This came after a VNQDĐ death squad killed several French officials and Vietnamese collaborators who had a reputation for cruelty towards the Vietnamese populace.[4]
Internal split and change in strategy[edit]
In 1929, the VNQDĐ split when a faction led by Nguyen The Nghiep began to disobey party orders and was therefore expelled from the Central Committee. Some sources claim that Nghiep had formed a breakaway party and had begun secret contacts with French authorities.[28]
Perturbed by those who betrayed fellow members to the French and the problems this behaviour caused, Hoc convened a meeting to tighten regulations in mid-1929 at the village of Lac Dao, along the Gia Lam-Haiphong railway.[28] This was also the occasion for a shift in strategy: Hoc argued for a general uprising, citing rising discontent among Vietnamese soldiers in the colonial army. More moderate party leaders believed this move to be premature, and cautioned against it, but Hoc's stature meant he prevailed in shifting the party's orientation towards violent struggle.[28] One of the arguments presented for large-scale violence was that the French response to the Bazin assassination meant that the party's strength could decline in the long term.[29] The plan was to provoke a series of uprisings at military posts around the Red River Delta in early 1930, where VNQDĐ forces would join Vietnamese soldiers in an attack on the two major northern cities of Hanoi and Haiphong. The leaders agreed to restrict their uprisings to Tonkin, because the party was weak elsewhere.[28]
For the remainder of 1929, the party prepared for the revolt. They located and manufactured weapons, storing them in hidden depots. The preparation was hindered by French police, particularly the seizure of arms caches.[30] Recruitment campaigns and grassroots activist drives were put in place, even though the VNQDĐ were realistic and understood that their assault was unlikely to succeed. The village elders were used to mobilise neighbours into the political movement. Their logic was "Even if victory is not achieved, we will fully mature as human beings with our [heroic] efforts".[31]