The unknown of the August Revolution
This month marks 75 years of the August Revolution in Viet Nam (Cach Mang Thang Tam). If anyone asks me which time point is the most significant in modern Vietnamese history, my answer is 1945. Not all people would agree with me, and some may say it is 1975.
Growing up in Vietnam, I remember learning about the August Revolution with only Viet Minh and Thanh Nien Tien Phong as the main forces. Was it really the case, I always wondered? Where were Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang, Viet Cach, Dai Viet Quoc Xa, etc? Was the so-called “puppet state” Tran Trong Kim government really evil? By the way, Tran Trong Kim was a respected scholar and historian. He wrote a famous book “Viet Nam Su Luoc” in 1920.
Recently, I started to read a bit more about this era. Up until earlier this year, I have always been more interested in ancient Vietnamese history. Since Biden became the presidential runner, I have seen lots and lots of crazy claims about Vietnam war. Most of the claims come from Vietnamese/ Vietnamese Americans supporting Trump. For instance, they said that the so-called left-wing media such as New York Times and Washington Post were bought by North Vietnam and thus portrayed the war in South Vietnam negatively to change US public opinion on the war. This then led to the anti-war protest to pressure the US government to bring their troops home. They also claimed that after the war ended in 1975, Biden voted against Vietnamese war refugees coming to the US. They totally or conveniently forgot that it was Nixon who messed around with the peace talk and secretly met with North Vietnam without telling the South Vietnam. Indeed, South Vietnam president at the moment Nguyen Van Thieu at first refused to sign the peace agreement in 1973. Nixon then promised to President Thieu that he would punish the North heavily if they were to break the agreement. Of course, the North did not keep their agreement, but Nixon was no where to be helpful because he was busy dealing with the Watergate scandal. Anyway, the story of Vietnam war is complicated, and thus blaming the collapse of South Vietnam entirely on the left and the Democratic Party is blatantly ignorant. These claims, however, created lots of tensions in Vietnamese communities at home and abroad. Then, I decided to look into Vietnam modern history to understand the political climate during Vietnam war. As I read and watched different documents, I soon realized that it is necessary to understand events that led to Vietnam being temporarily divided in 1954 and eventually Vietnam war in the 1960’s. That was how I ended up with the eventful 1945.
The political climate of Vietnam during 1945–1946 was chaotic, and we really don’t know much. As I mentioned above, I remember learning in school the role of Viet Minh and Dang Cong San Viet Nam (or Dang Cong San Dong Duong). Where were other political parties?
- Tran Trong Kim government was portrayed so negatively in history books in Vietnam. Yet, some historians such as Pham Van Son actually gave this government some credits, saying “ nội các Trần Trọng Kim chỉ đứng được 4 tháng, nếu không làm được nhiều việc vĩ đại nhưng ít nhất phải nhận nội các này đã tỏ ra có nhiều thiện chí, tuy nhiên xét về năng lực, ta thấy nội các này chỉ có thể thích hợp cho thời bình” ( a capable government although short-lived, but only appropriate for peaceful time) in his “Viet Su Toan Thu” book.
- In “Viet Nam 1945” book, historian David Marr pointed out that Dang Cong San Viet Nam exaggerated their role in the August revolution. So then what were other parties doing and what happened to them? There are evidences that Democratic Republic of VietNam (DRV) organized “assassination squads, arbitrary arrests, forced confessions, detention camps, and various other forms of physical and psychological intimidation to cow potential rivals and skeptical foot-draggers on the street” (Alec Holcombe, https://doi.org/10.1525/jvs.2016.11.3-4.298). Pham Van Son, in his “Viet Su Toan Thu” book, also pointed out this dark side of DRV. According to this, DRV did sound more like a dictatorship/authoritarian state.
- The controversial history does not stop here. David Marr, in hislater book “Vietnam: State, War, and Revolution (1945–1946)”, argued that Ho Chi Minh actually hold a moderate view and considered democracy seriously in the early stage of DRV. However, it was not the case for many other members in Dang Cong San Viet Nam, and Truong Chinh was one of them. Later on, Ho Chi Minh was pressured by his fellows to move DRV into a more authoritarian state because the France, supported by the US, was determined to colonize Vietnam again. Another sideline here, in one of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)’s writing in 1944, he stated that he was against the re-colonization of France in Vietnam if the Allies were to win WWII. Ho Chi Minh wrote letter to Truman and asked that DRV was included in the Allies talk about the fate of Vietnam, but Truman did not reply. FDR’s writing and Ho Chi Minh’s letter can be read in the US archive. In 1950, Truman decided to support France because of the red scare in South East Asia. I wonder if things would have been different if FDR were still alive. Actually David Marr pressed on that too (I am not sure if he pressed on the possibility of FDR being alive or not). He questioned if DRV would have stayed moderately democratic if the US had not backed France to come back to Vietnam.
- David Marr’s book has definitely created lots of arguments among historians. Some totally disagreed with his argument. Some, such as Tuong Vu, somewhat supported this controversial point. Tuong Vu agreed that the year of 1946 with France planning to re-colonize Vietnam definitely changed the dynamics of the DRV state. He said that even though “there were political assassinations and deportation camps, but there were also freedoms of press and association, at least before the summer of 1946.” (Alec Holcombe, https://doi.org/10.1525/jvs.2016.11.3-4.298)
- Intriguing things do not end here. I also found an article by François Guillemot about other political parties in Vietnam during that era. He showed evidences that those parties embraced Fascist European and publicly celebrated Hitler (https://doi.org/10.1525/vs.2019.14.3.43). Wow! This article really blows my mind. I read through it once, and I am planing to read through it again. Here, he also pointed out that these Nationalists and the Communists hated each other, and they even fought in prison (this part does not surprise me at all).
Finally, what is the take-home-message? The era 1930–1945 and especially 1945–1946 are so significant in Vietnam modern history. There are still lots of the unknowns out there. Historians also don’t agree with each other. Yet, lots of these contexts are still so relevant today. Vietnamese community has been so divided after 1975, and it is now even more divided with Trump. Trust me, I still cannot fathom this. I understand that people have different ideologies, but attacking or cancelling each other because they are different from you is just BAD. What I see from all my history reading the past couple months is that both the Communists and the Nationalists truly wanted independence for Vietnam in 1945. However, they happened to have different ideologies and unfortunately HATED each other. Then came external forces (France and the US) that significantly altered the political climate of Vietnam, which was already chaotic on its own term. The next thing you know is Vietnam war that killed so many people! Now, some people may argue with me that all of these traumatized events were due to the Communists because they were killing their opponents. For the very first time in my life, I would not be too critical of the Communist here. You know why, from lots of what I have seen and read, I am certain that if it was the Nationalists who were the main actors during 1945–1946, they would have done the same thing to their political opponents.
PS: I have not read both of David Marr’s books, so I don’t know all the details how he arrived at such argument. His two books are my next reading project.
