Vietnam

Vietnam, or officially the People’s Republic of Vietnam, is 1 of only 2 leftist states in South East Asia (the other being Laos). It is a relatively new country, rebelling against the Indochinese Republic in 1933. It borders various Chinese warlord states, Laos and Siam.

## **Prelude: French Indochina and communist introduction**

Ever since the region of Vietnam was pacified by French colonial forces in the 1800s, the Vietnamese, oppressed and constantly exploited, began to search for ways out. For decades however, any anti-French rebellions would be quashed followed by reprisal atrocities.

Following the spread of modern communism across the world, Vietnam grew a large number of socialist supporters who supported an independent and free society from colonial rule.

## **1933: Indochinese Revolution and Vietnamese Revolution**

In Saigon, French Indochina, a full scale revolution took place. The leaders of French Indochina quickly fled the country as violence took place, and once the French were fully and quickly pushed out, the Indochinese Republic was declared. The French were pushed out in 1 week, mostly due to how ineffective the French were and what a surprise this revolution brought. In Saigon once it was announced that the Indochinese revolted, thousands swarmed towns and cities against the French and claimed the captured territories as part of the Indochinese Republic. In a panic, the French fleet on the 7th day fled Saigon and left many French soldiers behind as thousands of French men hoping to escape the incoming revolution swarmed any remaining French docks. Many French soldiers surrendered but many were killed. Not to mention, any known French citizens in captured territories were almost immediately slaughtered. All in all, 10,000 soldiers and citizens were killed in 2 weeks. The French fleet retreated to French Polynesia to regroup and organize. Once all territories of indochina were under the revolution, the Indochinese council, the current provisional government proclaimed that new elections would be held for anyone over the age of 21 and who was literate.

The communists and syndicalist in the government agreed to work with the provisionals to push the French out, but the problem was that now that the French were out the communist and syndicalist relations with the provisionals broke down. Not to mention in the election result, many leftists declared the election to be rigged, and to be fair it was. Leftists won 63% of the vote, however due to meddling by the provisionals the result came out to be 30%. This greatly angered the leftists who proclaimed “a new revolution would come”. At the same time, the French fleet, desperately trying to regain their colony were bogged down by the brutality of the Indochinese forces. At one point, the French fleet actually landed in Saigon and retook the city. But as French soldiers spread out of the city, Indochinese forces caught them off guard and massacred the troops. The soldiers encircled Saigon and massacred any French soldier they saw outside of the city, resulting in the entire French division stationed there to surrender to avoid execution. Due to this, the French fleet sailed back to French pacific territories to reorganize once again, but the French would try 5 more times to land in indochina with no success, but for the time being the war would be a stalemate. As relations between the leftists and republicans broke down, northern Vietnam was a hotspot for leftism as well as Saigon, Nguyễn Sinh Cung and Ta Thu Thau organized a new revolution.

In the early months after France was driven back to the sea, Vietnamese Socialists in Hanoi declared the People's Republic of Vietnam. Thanks to the sheer amount of syndicalist and leftist support within Indochina, northern Vietnam quickly came under leftist agitation as the population welcomed the socialist army. The Vietnamese syndicalists clashed with the Indochinese forces. Yet due to the amount of leftist influence in the nation, communist guerrillas rocked Saigon and southern Vietnam. Around the same time, Siam, wanting to expand their influence in Cambodia as well as expand their irredentist claim, invaded Indochina. Although the French had tried to retake Indochina, instead landing in north Vietnam hoping to get the syndicalists off guard, the Vietnamese were prepared and forced the French back out to sea. After 2 months of the Vietnamese invasion and Siamese invasion, the Indochinese Republic collapsed. Around the same time, communist guerillas began to confront Siamese troops and occasional clashes broke out. Not wanting to spark a new war, both sides agreed to peace, and France surrendered soon after that.

## **The Era of an Independent Vietnam**

Through the Singapore Accord, peace came to Indochina. Vietnam and Laos were allowed to stay independent and socialist so long as they recognized the current situation of Cambodia (recognizing Siamese annexation of Cambodia) and the successfully prevented a war between Vietnam and Siam. Peace finally came back to Indochina, but the region would be forever changed.

When peace had come to Indochina, Vietnam underwent massive initiates for changes. For the first time in decades, the Vietnamese were now the people ruling Vietnam and from the successful rebellion Vietnamese pride had been restored. However, Vietnam was still an agricultural peasant state and as a result it made the transition to radicalism harder to achieve. Despite these issues, Vietnam prospered. Free education was given to the masses as a large percentage of the population was uneducated and illiterate. Supplies from the German Syndicalists also arrived, which was welcomed. Lands from the upper classes of Vietnamese society was forcibly taken and given back to the poorest people of Vietnam, while European settlers were either forced to accept Vietnamese independence and Socialism or flee. Most fled from Vietnam and the whole of Indochina, but a few Frenchmen stayed within Vietnam, not wanting to leave. After the war was over a surge of pride from Leftists and nationalists alike swept Vietnam resulting in out-of-control purges across the country. In the first 2 months from the war, many big businesses were looted and destroyed, landlords lynched by the hundreds and massacres of European settlers took place. With peace secured in the region, Vietnamese advisors and the military launched a bloody coup in Laos as a way to expel the current right-wing government. In the capital, spurred on by economic incentives by Saigon, the revolutionaries succeeded in the coup, and Laos soon transformed into a socialist society based on the tenants of Marxism.

From the onset Vietnam became isolated from the rest of the world, knowing too well a war to come. Siam was becoming less and less willing to cooperate with a powerful Socialist state that they bordered, and the Japanese were not too keen on valuable Vietnamese land not already in the hands of the Japanese. The Japanese for their part, had tried to infiltrate Vietnam but failed several times. Japan had tried to force Vietnam to open their borders with trade and tried in vain to promote Japanese settlers in the land. This way Japan could theoretically economically tie itself with Vietnam and slowly incorporate Vietnam into the empire. But the Leftists were unwilling to work with any empire no matter what the repercussions and due to this Japan realized that if they wanted Vietnam, it would have to be through force.

Laos is the biggest importer and exporter of Vietnamese goods, in part due to Laos being socialist but also because it has become a de facto puppet of Vietnam. Vietnam aided in Laos survival and as a result in the peace talks, the Laos delegation was forced to accept Vietnamese hegemony over the country, making Laos strongly integrated in Vietnam and making them a very close ally.

## **Overall Society**

Industry: Vietnamese industry is the biggest weakness of the country. Despite major projects for infrastructure, factory building, and city expansion many of those attempts have been stagnate to say the least. There is endless debate on how to solve this issue, as an agricultural communist state will severely struggle in the coming years. Some say that a more Syndicalist approach is necessary, others thinking direct, Radicalist policies will solve the problem. But it cannot be denied that if Vietnam is not able to lift itself and find a new way to industrialize effectively, it might even mean the republic’s downfall in the coming years of war. The south dominates the Vietnamese economy with Cochinchina harboring many resources and the prize jewel of Vietnam: Saigon. The north is far less developed than the south but from infrastructure projects that were successful the north has been more directly tied to the rest of the south.

Politics: Vietnam as of December of 1935 is an authoritarian Marxist republic. Despite being “democratic” with elections, many of these elections are fraud as the current ruling vanguard party, the Peasant Party has highly discouraged any opposition to Socialism, or even any parties other than orthodox Marxism and has made the move to ban almost every non-Socialist party. Only the Vietnamese Democrat Party, a social democratic Party has been allowed to run but it has barely scrapped by in election and is severely underfunded. Only the Saigon Unionist Party have the ability to rival the Marxists. Although syndicalism is widespread in Vietnam, and many economic issues have been handled with a pro-unionist approach there is still a divide between syndicalists and communists. Because of complications such as the widespread illiteracy rate in Vietnam no elections have actually been held in Vietnam. But Nguyen That Thanh has essentially risen to the top. He had immense power and was one of the first to plan for the rebellion after the war ended there was nothing stopping him and just after 4 months of the war’s end, Nguyen That Thanh became the de facto leader of the republic and has remained ever since 1933.

Military:

Army: the Vietnamese army is vastly under supplied and under equipped for the rest of the world’s standards. Outdated rifles, new yet inexperienced men has made the army feel alienated from the rest of Vietnam. There is an upside however. The Vietnamese government has instead decided to utilize their strengths with whatever they had, and their terrain, much like Makhnovia became very useful. The Vietnamese army has become very experienced and very knowing of their ground and soil, making it quite difficult for any foreign army to invade.