The Indochinese Communist Party's Unfinished Revolution of 1945 and the Origins of Vietnam's 30-Year Civil War

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the genesis and outcomes of the so-called August Revolution undertaken by the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) in 1945. Drawing on Vietnamese archival materials and ICP resolutions, instructions, and assessments, the article shows that the revolution did not culminate in ICP dominance of Vietnamese politics and that Chinese Nationalist occupation authorities in northern Vietnam were neither cordial nor obliging toward the government established by Ho Chi Minh after he declared Vietnam's independence on 2 September 1945. The so-called bourgeois revolution Ho and the ICP instigated that summer faced insurmountable challenges, including domestic fracturing and contestation, that precluded its swift completion. The August Revolution that inspired Ho's declaration of independence marked the beginning of a bloody internal struggle for power in Vietnam, not its culmination.