Vietnam's Communist Revolution The Power and Limits of Ideology

By tracing the evolving worldview of Vietnamese communists over 80 years as they led Vietnam through wars, social revolution, and peaceful development, this book shows the depth and resilience of their commitment to the communist utopia in their foreign policy. Unearthing new material from Vietnamese archives and publications, this book challenges the conventional scholarship and the popular image of the Vietnamese revolution and the Vietnam War as being driven solely by patriotic inspirations. The revolution not only saw successes in defeating foreign intervention, but also failures in bringing peace and development to Vietnam. This was, and is, the real tragedy of Vietnam. Spanning the entire history of the Vietnamese revolution and its aftermath, this book examines its leaders' early rise to power, the tumult of three decades of war with France, the US, and China, and the stubborn legacies left behind which remain in Vietnam today.

Introduction. The Vietnamese Revolution in world history; 1. Revolutionary paths through the mind, 1917–30; 2. The consolidation of a Leninist vision, 1931–40; 3. On the frontline of the Cold War, 1940–51; 4. Patriotism in the service of socialism, 1953–60; 5. From idealistic to realistic internationalism, 1957–63; 6. The rise of vanguard internationalism, 1964–75; 7. From revolutionary vanguard to Soviet client, 1976–9; 8. The crisis and death of utopia, 1980–91; 9. Legacies of ideology, 1990–2010; Epilogue; Appendix 1. Ho Chi Minh's letter to Stalin, October 14, 1950; Appendix 2. Anti-American articles written by Ho Chi Minh, 1951–5; Appendix 3. Methodology and sources.

Tuong Vu is Director of Asian Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon. A native of Vietnam, he has published extensively on Vietnamese politics and history, Cold War history, and East Asian politics. Vu served on the editorial board of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies during 2006–14. His first book, Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia, received a 2011 Bernard Schwartz Award Honorable Mention.