Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War, 1954-1965

by Asselin, Pierre

  125. Canberra to All Posts: “South Vietnam’s Communist Proposals for an International Conference,” 1–3.

  126. BCGH to SEAD, 23 July 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 1; BCGH to SEAD, 28 February 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 1.

  127. BES, “Notes on History, Organisation and Policy to Date of the Front for the National Liberation of South Vietnam,” 5 September 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 1.

  128. BCGH to BES, 3 September 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 1.

  129. British Embassy, Paris to FO, 15 February 1962, 2.

  130. BCGH to BES, 3 September 1962, 1.

  131. FO to BES, 16 March 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 1.

  132. BES, “Notes on History, Organisation and Policy to Date of the Front for the National Liberation of South Vietnam,” 1.

  133. BCGH to SEAD, 31 October 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 2.

  134. Office of the British Chargé d’Affaires, Beijing, to SEAD, 25 September 1962, FO 371/166713, NAUK, 1.

  135. BCGH to SEAD, 12 March 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 1.

  136. FO to British Embassy, Paris, 14 May 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 1.

  137. BES, “Notes on History, Organisation and Policy to Date of the Front for the National Liberation of South Vietnam,” 3.

  138. FO to British Embassy, Paris, 14 May 1962, 1.

  139. P. H. Roberts (BES), “The Front for the National Liberation of South Vietnam,” August 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 8–9.

  140. BCGH to SEAD, 21 September 1962, FO 371/166737, NAUK, 1.

  141. Mr. Goburdhan’s visit with Ho is summarized in BES to BCGH, 26 September 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 1.

  142. BCGH to SEAD, 6 August 1962, FO 371/166710, NAUK, 1.

  143. Ibid.; BCGH to SEAD, 1 January 1962, 2.

  144. FGDH to MFA, 1 February 1962, #72, AO: VN, ADF, 2–3.

  145. Nguyen Vu Tung, “The 1961–1962 Geneva Conference,” 258.

  146. “Du thao de cuong gioi thieu ve tinh hinh ve duong loi cach mang mien Nam” [Introductory Draft Report on the Situation and Path of the Southern Revolution], undated, Ho so 252: Du thao de cuong ve tinh hinh va duong loi cach mang mien Nam 1962, Phong Uy ban Thong nhat Nha nuoc, VNAC3, 26.

  147. BCGH to SEAD, 21 August 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 1; BCGH to SEAD, 4 December 1962, FO 371/166725, NAUK, 1–2.

  148. “Review of Events in North Vietnam (the D.R.V.) during 1962,” 2.

  149. Edwin E. Moïse, “The Mirage of Negotiations,” in Lloyd C. Gardner and Ted Gittinger, eds., The Search for Peace in Vietnam, 1964–1968 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004), 81.

  150. “Tham luan van de dau tranh thong nhat To quoc, Nghiem-xuan-Yem, dai bieu Dang Dan chu Viet Nam” [Address on the Issue of the Fatherland Reunification Struggle, Nghiem Xuan Yem, Representative of the Democratic Party of Vietnam], 3; and “Tham luan ve van de dau tranh thong nhat cua dai bieu Dang Xa hoi Viet Nam, Hoang Minh Giam” [Address on the Issue of the Reunification Struggle by the Representative of the Vietnamese Socialist Party, Hoang Minh Giam], 6. Both in Ho so 742: Ho so ky hop thu nam cua QH khoa II tu ngay 22–27.10.1962. Tap 4: Phieu hop ngay 27.10.1962: Tham luan cua DBQH ve to chuc HDND va UBHC cac cap, ve tinh hinh mien Nam va thong nhat nuoc, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3.

  151. “Bao cao cua Bo truong Bo Ngoai giao Ung Van Khiem ve ket qua cua Hoi nghi Gio-ne-vo ve Lao,” 5.

  152. Moïse, “Mirage of Negotiations,” 81.

  153. Author conversation with a retired DRVN diplomat who prefers to remain anonymous, Hanoi, Vietnam, July 2006.

  154. “Notes on North Vietnam by J. K. Blackwell, H.M. Consul General, Hanoi,” 22 April 1963, FO 371/170098, NAUK, 3.

  155. “Hanh dong quan su phieu luu cau de quoc My mo rong chien tranh xam luoc o mien Nam Viet Nam,” 13.

  156. BCGH to SEAD, 3 November 1962, FO 371/166712, NAUK, 1.

  157. Sergei Radchenko, Two Suns in the Heavens: The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962–1967 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2009), 44.

  158. Dong’s remarks and the western response to them appear in BCGH to SEAD, 3 November 1962, 1.

  159. “Tham luan ve tinh hinh Lao, dai bieu Pham-ngoc-Que, Phu-yen” [Address on the Situation in Laos by Representative Pham Ngoc Que of Phu Yen], Ho so 749, Ho so ky hop thu sau cua QH khoa II tu ngay 28.4.1963—08.5.1963. Tap 7: Phien hop ngay 08.5.1963: Tham luan cua DBQH ve dau tranh thong nhat dat nuoc o mien Nam, ve tinh hinh Tay Nguyen, ve tang cuong quan ly kinh te tai chinh, Nghi quyet va bao cao cua CP, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 4.

  160. Balazs Szalontai, Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era: Soviet–DPRK Relations and the Roots of North Korean Despotism, 1953–1964 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2005), 192.

  161. BCGH to SEAD, 3 November 1962, 1.

  162. BCGH to SEAD, 9 December 1962, FO 371/166712, NAUK, 1.

  163. “Loi chao mung Quoc hoi VNDCCH cua g.s. Nguyen Van Hien, truong dai bieu MTDTGPMNVN, 23.10.1962 [Welcome Address before the DRVN National Assembly by Professor Nguyen Van Hien, Head Representative of the NLF, 23 October 1962], Ho so 740: Ho so ky hop thu nam cua QH khoa II tu ngay 22.27.10.1962. Tap 2: Phien hop ngay 23.10.1962: Bao cao to trinh, Nghi quyet cua QH UBTVQH, PTT ve cong tac cua UBTVQH, ve tong quyet toan ngan sach Nha nuoc, ket qua Hoi nghi Gionevo ve Lao, ve to chuc HDND va UBHC cac cap, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 4.

  164. “Tuyen bo cua QH nuoc VNDCCH ung ho chu truong cua Hoi nghi nhan dan toi cao nuoc chu nghia dan chu cong hoa Trieu-tien doi de quoc My rut khoi Nam Trieu-tien nham hoa binh thong nhat nuoc Trieu-tien, 27.10.1962 [Declaration by the DRVN National Assembly Supporting the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Demanding the Withdrawal of American Imperialists from South Korea to Bring About the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, 27 October 1962], Ho so 742: Ho so ky hop thu nam cua QH khoa II tu ngay 22–27.10.1962. Tap 4: Phieu hop ngay 27.10.1962: Tham luan cua DBQH ve to chuc HDND va UBHC cac cap, ve tinh hinh mien Nam va thong nhat nuoc, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3.

  165. “Report of Visit to North Vietnam by a Delegation of the South Vietnam Liberation National Front (from Canadian Element of the I.C.C.),” 5 November 1962, FO 371/170115, NAUK, 4–5.

  166. FGDH to MFA, 1 January 1963, #74, AO: VN, ADF, 2.

  6. CHOOSING WAR, 1963

  1. “The Current Position of North Vietnam in the Sino-Soviet Dispute,” 26 February 1963, FO 371/170103, National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew [hereafter NAUK], 1.

  2. Jean Lacouture, Ho Chi Minh: A Political Biography (New York: Random House, 1968), 248. The DRVN had four deputy prime ministers at the time.

  3. Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012), 53.

  4. A party resolution dated 11 February 1963 on the “tasks and direction of the effort to organize and build the party” did not even allude to the existence of tensions within the VWP. See “Nghi quyet cua Ban Bi thu, so 69-NQ/TW, ngay 11 thang 2 nam 1963: Ve nhiem vu va phuong huong cong tac to chuc, xay dung Dang nam 1963” [Secretariat Resolution, no. 69-NQ/TW, 11 February 1963: On the Tasks and Direction of the Effort to Organize, Build the Party in 1963], in Dang Cong san Viet Nam, Van kien Dang—Toan tap, Tap 24: 1963 [Party Documents—Complete Series, Vol. 24: 1963] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Chinh tri quoc gia, 2003) [hereafter VKD: 1963], 82–92.

  5. The comments are reported in French General Delegation, Hanoi [hereafter FGDH], to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris [hereafter MFA], 17 January 1963, #36, Asie-Océanie [hereafter AO]: Vietnam Nord [hereafter VN], Archives Diplomatiques de France, La Courneuve [hereafter ADF], 1.

  6. “Thong tri cua Ban Bi thu, so 112-TT/TW, ngay 28 thang 2 nam 1963: Ve ky niem 80 nam ngay mat cua Cac Mac” [Secretariat Circular, no. 112-TT/TW, 28 February 1963: On the Eightieth Anniversary of the Death of Karl Marx], in VKD: 1963, 178.

  7. Quoted in FGDH to MFA, 18 March 1963, #17, AO: VN, ADF, 2.

  8. The Nguyen Ai Quoc schools were a “comprehensive system of theoretical school
s of the party from the central level to the provinces and districts.” Their mission was “training or giving complementary theoretical courses” to “responsible cadres in various localities.” After 1957, the Nguyen Ai Quoc School (Section I) in Hanoi trained “high- and middle-ranking cadres and political lecturers for the various branches” of the party. It also ran “special courses for elaborate study of problems of Marxism-Leninism applied to the practice of the Vietnamese revolution” organized by the party itself. See Ho Hai, “The Nguyen Ai Quoc Schools,” Vietnam, no. 148 (1970): 9.

  9. “Nguyen Dinh Phuong, “Mot vai ky niem ve Bo truong Xuan Thuy” [Some Memories of Foreign Minister Xuan Thuy], in Bo Ngoai giao, Chan dung nam co Bo truong Ngoai giao [Portraits of Five Foreign Ministers] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Chinh tro quoc gia, 2005), 323–24.

  10. Nguyen Chi Thanh, “Let Us Improve Our Proletarian Stand and Ideology, and Unite and Struggle for New Successes,” Hoc tap, no. 10 (October 1963). Reproduced and translated in Folder 02, Box 25, Douglas Pike Collection [hereafter DPC]: Unit 06—Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University [hereafter VATTU], 19.

  11. “North Vietnam Today,” November 1965, 20-VIET-N-1-4, Vol. 9001, Record Group [hereafter RG] 25, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa [hereafter LAC], 2.

  12. Le Duc Tho, “Let Us Strengthen the Ideological Struggle to Consolidate the Party,” Tuyen huan, no. 4 (April 1964). Reproduced and translated in Folder 03, Box 25, DPC: Unit 06—Democratic Republic of Vietnam, VATTU, 13.

  13. Tran Quoc Tu, “Peace and Revolution,” Hoc tap, no. 1 (January 1964). Reproduced and translated in Folder 03, Box 25, DPC: Unit 06—Democratic Republic of Vietnam, VATTU, 15.

  14. Le Duc Tho, “Let Us Strengthen the Ideological Struggle to Consolidate the Party,” 16. See also “Nghi quyet cua Bo Chinh tri, so 95-NQ/TW, ngay 4 thang 2 nam 1964: Ve nhiem vu cong tac tu tuong trong nam 1964” [Politburo Resolution, no. 95-NQ/TW, 4 February 1964: On the Tasks of Ideological Work in 1964], in Dang Cong san Viet Nam, Van kien Dang—Toan Tap, Tap 25: 1964 [Party Documents—Complete Series, Vol. 25: 1964] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Chinh tri quoc gia, 2003) [hereafter referred to a VKD: 1964], 59.

  15. Nguyen Chi Thanh, “Let Us Improve Our Proletarian Stand and Ideology,” 20. See also “Chi thi cua Bo Chinh tri, so 74-CT/TW, ngay 27 thang 1 nam 1964: Ve viec to chuc hoc tap Nghi quyet Hoi nghi lan thu chin cua Trung uong ve van de quoc te” [Politburo Instruction, no. 74-CT/TW, 27 January 1964: On the Effort to Organize the Ninth Plenum of the Central Committee on International Problems], in VKD: 1964, 59.

  16. Nguyen Chi Thanh, “Let Us Improve Our Proletarian Stand and Ideology,” 6.

  17. Ibid., 10.

  18. British Consulate General, Hanoi [hereafter BCGH], to Southeast Asia Department, London [hereafter SEAD], 14 January 1963, FO 371/170103, NAUK, 1.

  19. FGDH to MFA, 1 January 1963, #74, AO: VN, ADF, 4.

  20. “Dien cua Ban Bi thu giu Trung uong Cuc mien Nam, ngay 24 thang 1 nam 1963: Khen ngoi va dong vien toan the Dang bo va dong bao mien Nam” [Secretariat Cable to the Central Office for Southern Vietnam, 24 January 1963: Praising and Encouraging the Entire Party Branch and Compatriots in the South], in VKD: 1963, 69.

  21. The editorial is translated and reproduced in FGDH to MFA, 31 January 1963, #36, AO: VN, ADF, 2.

  22. “Chi thi cua Ban Bi thu, so 60-CT/TW, ngay 25 thang 2 nam 1963: Ve nhiem vu cong tac tuyen giao trong nam 1963” [Secretariat Instruction, no. 60-CT/TW, 25 February 1963: On the Responsibilities for Carrying Out Propaganda and Education Work], in VKD: 1963, 157–70.

  23. Pierre Brocheux, Ho Chi Minh (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2000), 184; “Nghi quyet cua Trung uong Cuc mien Nam, thang 7 nam 1963: Ve cong tac chong, pha khu, ap chien chien luoc, gom dan” [Central Office for Southern Vietnam Resolution, July 1963: On the Effort to Oppose and Destroy Strategic Hamlets That Imprison People], in VKD: 1963, 878.

  24. “Notes on North Vietnam” by J. K. Blackwell, H. M. Consul General, Hanoi, 22 April 1963, FO 371/170098, NAUK, 3.

  25. BCGH to British Embassy, Moscow, 7 March 1963, FO 371/170108, NAUK, 2.

  26. “Phuong huong, nhiem vu ke hoach phat trien kinh te va van hoa 5 nam lan thu nhat (1961–1965): Bao cao tai Hoi nghi lan thu tam cua Ban Chap hanh Trung uong Dang, ngay 27 thang 3 nam 1963” [Direction, Responsibilities of the First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Cultural Development (1961–1965): Report before the Eighth Plenum of the Central Committee, 27 March 1963], in VKD: 1963, 287–442.

  27. FGDH to MFA, 8 August 1963, #75, AO: VN, ADF, D1.

  28. Roger E. Kanet, “The Soviet Union and the Third World from Khrushchev to Gorbachev: The Place of the Third World in Evolving Soviet Global Strategy,” in Roger E. Kanet, ed., The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the Third World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 7.

  29. Ilya Gaiduk, “Containing the Warriors: Soviet Policy toward the Indochina Conflict, 1960–65,” in Lloyd C. Gardner and Ted Gittinger, eds., International Perspectives on Vietnam (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000), 75.

  30. FGDH to MFA, 14 January 1963, #36, AO: VN, ADF, 3; and FGDH to MFA, 21 January 1963, #36, AO: VN, ADF, 1–2.

  31. “Dien van cua d/c I.V. An-do-ro-pop, 16.1.63” [Address by Comrade I. V. Andropov, 16 January 1963], Ho so 1046: Ho so ve doan dai bieu Xo viet toi cao Lien Xo do ong Andropop lam truong doan sang tham Viet Nam tu ngay 12–20.01.1963. Tap 2: Dien van, dien tu va cac loi phat bieu trong thoi gian doan o Viet Nam, Phong Quoc hoi, Vietnam National Archives Center 3, Hanoi [hereafter VNAC3], 4.

  32. “Bao cao cua Chinh phu do TT Pham Van Dong trinh bay, 29.4.1963” [Government Report by Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, 29 April 1963], Ho so 744: Ho so ky hop thu sau cua QH khoa II tu ngay 28.4.1963—08.5.1963. Tap 2: Phien hop ngay 29.4.1963: Bao cao cua UBTVQH va CP va cong tac cua UBTVQH, ve tinh hinh mien Bac, mien Nam va quoc te, ve du an phat trien kinh te quoc dan 5 nam lan thu 1 (1961–1965) va ke hoach nam 1963, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3. On Dong’s support for moderate policies, see “Factions within the North Vietnamese Regime: Their Bearing, If Any, on Policy Pursued towards South Vietnam,” undated [1960], FO 371/160122, NAUK, 4.

  33. Quoted in “Note: Conversation avec M. de La Boissière,” 25 September 1963, 2.

  34. British Embassy, Paris, to SEAD, 27 March 1963, FO 371/170103, NAUK, 1.

  35. “Chi thi cua Ban Bi thu, so 63-CT/TW, ngay 5 thang 6 nam 1963: Ve viec to chuc mot tuan le dau tranh vao dip 20 thang 7 nam 1963” [Secretariat Instruction, no. 63-CT/TW, 5 June 1963: On the Effort to Organize One Week of Celebration on the Occasion of 20 July 1963], in VKD: 1963, 585–90; and Nguyen Dinh Liem, ed., Quan he Viet Nam—Trung quoc: Nhung su kien 1961–1970 [Vietnam-China Relations: Developments, 1961–1970] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Khoa hoc xa hoi, 2006), 243.

  36. Janos Radvanyi, Delusion and Reality: Gambits, Hoaxes, and Diplomatic One-Upmanship in Vietnam (South Bend, Ind.: Gateway, 1978), 13.

  37. “Loi phat bieu cua Ho Chu tich trong phien hop be mac ngay 8 thang 5 nam 1963” [Presentation by President Ho at the Closing Session, 8 May 1963], Ho so 749: Ho so ky hop thu sau cua QH khoa II tu ngay 28.4.1963—08.5.1963. Tap 7: Phien hop ngay 08.5.1963: Tham luan cua DBQH ve dau tranh thong nhat dat nuoc o mien Nam, ve tinh hinh Tay Nguyen, ve tang cuong quan ly kinh te tai chinh, Nghi quyet va bao cao cua CP, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 4.

  38. “Notes on North Vietnam,” 2.

  39. FGDH to MFA, 1 March 1963, #74, AO: VN, ADF, B3.

  40. Nguyen Chi Thanh, “Let Us Improve Our Proletarian Stand and Ideology,” 12.

  41. FGDH to MFA, 1 April 1963, #74, AO: VN, ADF, 6. The 13 March editorial is translated and reproduced in FGDH to MFA, 21 March 1963, #17, AO: VN, ADF.

  42. Lacouture, Ho Chi Minh, 220.

  43. By a somewhat later official account, Hanoi had by the end of 1963 dispatched to the South approximately 40,000 cadres and troops consisting primarily of southern regroupees. Those forces constituted half of PLAF regulars and 80 percent of cadres and technical personn
el in southern revolutionary organs. See Military Institute of Vietnam, Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People’s Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975, trans. Merle L. Pribbenow (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002), 115.

  44. “The D.R.V. and the Sino-Soviet Dispute,” 1.

  45. David M. Toczek, The Battle of Ap Bac, Vietnam (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2001), 65–108; Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 186–205.

  46. Brève Histoire du Parti des Travailleurs du Viet Nam, 1930–1970 [Brief History of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party] (Hanoi: Éditions en langues étrangères, 1970), 110.

  47. Bo Quoc phong—Vien Lich su quan su Viet Nam, Lich su quan su Viet Nam, Tap 11: Cuoc khang chien chong My, cuu nuoc, 1954–1975 [Military History of Vietnam, Volume 11: The Anti-American Resistance for National Salvation] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Chinh tri quoc gia, 2005), 148.

  48. Military Institute of Vietnam, Victory in Vietnam, 120.

  49. Nguyen Khac Vien, “The Impotence of American Technique in the Face of the People’s War,” Vietnamese Studies 5, no. 12 (1966): 119.

  50. Bo Quoc phong—Vien Lich su quan su Viet Nam, Lich su quan su Viet Nam, Tap 11, 148; from a February 1965 letter reproduced in Le Duan, Thu vao Nam [Letters to the South] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Su that, 1985), 69.

  51. “Nghi quyet Hoi nghi TWC lan thu hai, so 2/NQ, thang 3 nam 1964” [Resolution of the Second Plenum of the Central Office for Southern Vietnam, no. 2/NQ, March 1964], in VKD: 1964, 701–2.

  52. “Tham luan ve phong trao day tranh pha ‘ap chien luoc’ cua dong bao mien Nam d/b Gia-dinh Tran van Nguyen tring bay” [Address on the Movement to Destroy “Strategic Hamlets” of the Southern Compatriots by the Representative from Gia Dinh, Tran Van Nguyen], Ho so 749: Ho so ky hop thu sau cua QH khoa II tu ngay 28.4.1963—08.5.1963. Tap 7: Phien hop ngay 08.5.1963: Tham luan cua DBQH ve dau tranh thong nhat dat nuoc o mien Nam, ve tinh hinh Tay Nguyen, ve tang cuong quan ly kinh te tai chinh, Nghi quyet va bao cao cua CP, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 6–7.