Vietnam is super Communist? And that's a bad thing?

Political discipline

As one of the few communist countries still under one-party rule, many people know of Vietnam for its communist regime - from the past until now. But especially with the negative stereotypes and biases held against communism, "Communist Vietnam" still has somewhat of a negative connotation nowadays.

I can understand why people still make the association of communism with repression and backwardness, due to the long-standing ingrained prejudices against communism propagated by the media and propaganda, carried throughout generations.

To be honest, I didn’t know much about communism or any other political regimes in general because I didn’t have much of a strong background knowledge of politics, governance, and history before. Therefore, the only thing I remember being taught about communism was that it was a utopia where everyone would live in a fair and equal world. I didn’t dwell much on it until an incident later, during AS-level Sociology class, we were learning about communism when a Korean classmate asked out loud whether communism was as bad as he had heard of or not?

That’s when I started becoming interested: why did he have this preconceived idea of my country and what exactly did people like him think was bad about it? Because I was living my relatively good life in Vietnam, and it wasn’t like we were oppressed or anything like that. In fact, most people around me are happy and thriving.

That being said, it’s important for people to know that the conventional idea of “communism” should not be confused with the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), the sole ruling party. Theoretically, communism is a social doctrine that seeks to replace a capitalist society with one based on equality and the abolishment of private property and means of production.

In reality, communism was experiencing a reformulation within Vietnam's one-party political system. We are no longer focused on the idea of a class struggle or a centrally planned economy, but more on a "market economy with a socialist orientation." It’s interesting to note that private property, which has never been appreciated as highly as it is now, acts as a catalyst for growth. So, how rooted is communism in Vietnam, and what remains of our communist past?

In 1986, the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam recognized the necessity for "reforms" to fix a declining economy and to help the nation escape a hostile international climate. The priority of advancing economic development conflicted with the aim to preserve the balance of power and uplift the political legitimacy of the regime. As a result, the Communist Party has been trying to improve socialism rather than questioning its suitability with the nation. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in February 1990, Vo Van Kiet, the country's prime minister at the time, made the following statement:

“Renovation does not mean a clean sweep of the past, nor does it mean abandoning socialism, but seeking to conceive more clearly a humane, perfected socialism.”

The Sixth Congress of the Democratic Party - the turning point

From then came the series of Doi Moi economic reforms, which I had discussed in my other blog post already. Politically speaking, this meant more political mobilization behind criticism campaigns, but no pluralism. All reforms still remained under the Party's control. The Communist Party of Vietnam’s core values—Marxist-Leninism, democratic centralism, and a monolithic political system—remain unchanged. Even though it was acknowledged that Soviet-style socialism had ended and that "socialism" needed to be reinterpreted, the name "Socialist Republic of Vietnam" was kept.

Essentially, this led to the dilemma of how Vietnam should balance modernization and growth opportunities with maintaining national sovereignty and identity. How can it use capitalism's "positives" to its advantage while still pursuing socialist ideals? In an interview with former US secretary of defense Robert McNamara on November 9, 1995, in Hanoi, General Vo Nguyen Giap reaffirmed Vietnam's resolve not to see its sovereignty weakened by globalization:

“Today, Vietnam is conducting its multilateral foreign policy. It has its own cultural and philosophical identities, but its level of technology and economic management still leaves much to be desired. We intend to benefit from the valuable knowledge and experience of all countries without jeopardising our culture, our spirit of independence and autonomy, and our Vietnamese character traits.”

The overall situation was resolved when the decisions made at the 10th Congress of the Communist Party affirmed the decision that individual prosperity would contribute to collective prosperity. The idea of “individualism” and “capitalism” isn’t completely banned in Vietnam, as many people think.

But, I think one thing will remain: our nationalism, patriotism, and national unity will forever be a characteristic of our nation. And this might be something in common with communism, but as a regular citizen, I'd say that we don't really identify with being communist anymore. And certainly, we don't experience all the negatives people think we do: oppression, restrictions of human rights, low economic performance, or heavy censorship. Vietnam is just as globalized and progressive and we are continuing to develop in this positive direction.

References:

Benoit, H.D (2021). Book excerpt: ‘Misconceptions about Vietnam’. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/book-excerpt-misconceptions-about-vietnam-158074.

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