Draft:National communism in Vietnam

There is an argument as of how the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is actually a nationalist group and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is not an actual socialist state. This argument is based on the history of communism in Vietnam, how the CPV uses nationalism to gain support, and the fact that many Vietnamese ultranationalists are also communist sympathizers.

The idea of using communism and nationalism to support each other fits the English description for National Bolshevism (shorten as Nazbol) or National Communism (can be translated as Chủ nghĩa Cộng sản Dân tộc in Vietnamese).

Colonial era
During the French-rulling of Indochina, many struggled and exploited workers would seek to join the Communist, of which there were three factions at the time: Communist Party of Indochina in northern region, Communist League of Indochina in central region, and Communist Party of Annam in southern region. These three would later unify into the Indochinese Communist Party.

Despite being a member of the Comintern and having close collaborations with the French Communist Party, Indochinese Communist Party had been using nationalism as a method to gain the support of the people, claiming to fight for an independent Vietnam instead of just for the working class of French Indochina. This was criticized as a manifestation of nationalism as communism was about creating a classless and stateless society.

War between "brothers"
After three decades of wars, Vietnamese communists came out as the victor and Vietnam was independent and unified under its flag. As the communist allies took power in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and continued to spread into Thailand and Malaysia, relations among communist states, however, started to turn sour as relations between the USSR and the People's Republic of China became worse.

In South East Asia, disagreements and disputes between Vietnam and its neighbors had caused a new war to break out, known as the Third Indochina War. The results were thousand of Chinese being forced to leave Vietnam, a war in Cambodia, and decades long of conflicts between China and Vietnam. Hoàng Văn Hoan, a former member of the Communist Party of Vietnam who took refuge in China, claimed that the government treated the Chinese people "even worse than Hitler's treatment of the Jews."

Usages of nationalism to support communism
Vietnam's current government propaganda is regarded as a synthesis of socialism and nationalism, and both communists and anit-communists use anti-Chinese sentiment as a way to gain support.

For the supporters of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the current regime has proven itself to be "the legitimate representatives of Vietnamese national interests" with resistance wars against many foreign forces. To them, the Republic of Vietnam was weak and pathetic as they lost a national sovereignty to China and had easily been defeated by the Viet Cong just two years after the US forces withdrew.

For the sympathizers of the old South Vietnamese government, Hanoi is just a puppet government of China. South Vietnam might have lost Hoàng Sa, but at least they fought for it while the Northern regime "silently yielded to Bejing". To them, any Vietnamese patriots should fight against the Communist Party of Vietnam as if it is a war against Chinese domination.

Flags
There have been arguements about the flag that should represent for all of the Vietnamese people. Anti-communists claimed that the "Red Flags" is just an imitation version from the flags of the USSR and the PRC. It has no legitimacy compare to the hundred-year-old "Yellow Flags" that had been used as the national flags of the Empire of Vietnam, the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina, the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam, the State of Vietnam, and the Republic of Vietnam.

On the other side, communists pointed out that the listed regimes were just puppet governments, of the Japanese, of the French, and of the American, and that the "Red Flags" has been used since November 1940 during the Nam Kỳ khởi nghĩa, nine years before the Chinese "Five-star Red Flag" was introduced. Meanwhile, the Soviet flag was based on the "symbol of oppressed people, revolutionary movements, and the struggle of working people for their rights" from around the world. Vietnamese communists and communist sympathizers believe that the "Red Flags" is the country's soul, a proud and sacred symbol of Vietnamese national identity.

These arguments often ignore the existence of the traditional and non-political five-color flag of the Vietnamese culture.

The third declarations of independence
The Vietnamese people believe that throughout their country's history, there has been three declarations of independence with the third one was written by communist leader Hồ Chí Minh. Anti-communists object this idea, arguing that Trần Trọng Kim's government had already declared an independent Vietnam before the communist takeover.

This belief is closly resembling the idea of "Third Reich" from Germany, when the Nazi Party claim that their regime was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918).

One people, one party
Some speeches made by Vietnamese communist leaders also have a mix between nationalism and communism: "One people, one party, and every individual, [just because] yesterday [we] were great, [and our work] had great appeal, doesn't necessary means that today and tomorrow [we] will still be loved and praised by everyone, [especially] if your heart is no longer pure, if you fall into individualism." Hồ Chí Minh meant by this speech that he values the "heroic traditions of the nation, the glorious achievements of the Party and of everyone during the national construction and the struggle for national liberation." and he wanted to remind every committee of the State and the Party to fight against self-satisfaction, corruption, and individualism.

"Eternal glory belongs to the civilized and heroic Vietnamese people!

Long live the glorious Communist Party of Vietnam!

Long live the Socialist Republic of Vietnam!

The great President Hồ Chí Minh lives forever in our cause!"

Nguyễn Phú Trọng emphasized the national pride of the Vietnamese people, the existence of the CPV, the socialist regime, and praised the founder of CPV and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in his speech during the Celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Internet culture
Bò Đỏ is a political term used by Vietnamese anti-communist groups to describe a radical communist sympathizer who holds a belief that only the Communist Party of Vietnam can lead the Vietnamese people. These people are known to believe in everything the government media said, overly idolizes communist leader, refuses to hear other political opinions, and has little knowledge about history.

On the Internet, there is a half joke made by Vietnamese ultranationalists about creating an "Indochinese Union" or "Greater Vietnam" with Vietnamese dominance over Laos and Cambodia. However, since Hanoi government normally tries to build an image of a peaceful and harmonic Vietnam, Vietnamese nationalists would use the name Đông Lào when talking and joking about controversial topics in order to not ruin the image. Đông Lào is a slang way of referring to Vietnam based on the fact that Vietnam was the only country that borders Laos to the east.

Anti-Chinese sentiment
Throughout history, the Vietnamese almost always found itself at war with China, which only end in two ways: either the Vietnamese won and maintained their independence, or they lost and had to submit to the Chinese. The fear of being subjugated and enslaved by the Chinese has led to anti-Chinese sentiment among the Vietnamese, regardless of political opinions.

Movements in the Socialist Republic
In 2011, in response to Chinese vessels' attacks on Vietnamese boats, anti-Chinese protests broke out on the streets, Vietnamese hackers committed cyper attacks on Chinese websites and vice versa, and the Government of Vietnam announced that its navy would have a joint exercise with the United States. In 2012, the Chinese government declared the establishment of Sansha City, which erupted new protests in Vietnam but they were quickly crushed by the authorities.

In 2014, China deployed an oil rig in a disputed section of South China Sea of which Vietnam also claims. This enraged the Vietnamese, leading to the 2014 Vietnam anti-China protests. Anti-China demonstrations quickly developed into a full-scale worker riot, where Chinese-owned factories were looted, smashed, or burnt. Swarms of rioters on motorbikes also targeted South Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Singaporean businesses and vandalized them.

In 2016, a water crisis broke out in central region of Vietnam because a Taiwanese business group discharged toxic industrial waste illegally into the ocean through drainage pipes. The disaster disrupted the livelihood of fishermen in four provinces and Vietnamese government had to announce a ban of processing and selling seafood caught within 20 nautical miles of affected areas. The massive marine life destruction led to a number of protests by Vietnamese citizens, which were mentioned by the Vietnamese media as the Fish Revolution (Cách mạng Cá).

In 2018, a series of both violent and nonviolent protests erupted across Vietnam in response to two drafted pieces of legislation: the Special Zone Act and the Cybersecurity Law. The Special Zone Act proposes the opening of three special economic zones (SEZs) across Vietnam, where foreign investors would be allowed to lease land for up to 99 years. Many Vietnamese feared that the SEZs would be dominated by China, leading to worries about the loss of national sovereignty. The Cybersecurity Law seeks to give the government full authority to strictly police the Internet, scrutinize personal information, censor online discussion, and punish or even jail online dissidents. It has been described as “largely a copy-and-paste version” of the Chinese Cybersecurity Law that commenced a year prior.

Movements outside of Vietnam
The national flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is also used by overseas Vietnamese during many nationalist demonstrations outside of Vietnam, mosty in Europe.

Ideology of Hồ Chí Minh
Hồ Chí Minh's owned delcarations "At first, it was patriotism, not communism, that led me to Lenin, to the Third International. But overtime, struggling to study Marxist-Leninist theory along with doing practical work, I gradually understood that only socialism and communism can liberate the oppressed nations and the working class of the world from slavery."