The Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the "Third Stage" of the Revolution

Abstract

End the War and Restore Peace in Vietnam, the Central Committee of the Lao Dong Party announced that the Vietnamese Revolution had passed a major turning point and entered a third stage. The earlier turning points were the August Revolution and establishment of the Democratic Republic in 1945; the second was the victory over France. Both were followed by developmental stages with distinctive historic tasks. The latest turning point is the successful conclusion of the Anti-U.S. National Salvation Resistance, the termination of direct American interference in the Vietnamese Revolution. Two weeks after the signing of the Agreement, the broad outlines and historic tasks of the third stage were unveiled, and the details have been emerging slowly ever since. The effort to define the nature of this stage in theory and carry it into practice has been the principle content of internal politics in the DRV in 1973. A Fourth Party Congress to ratify the general line already laid down and to solve peripheral problems probably be held in the near future, barring unforeseen special circumstances.'1 According to the Nhan Dan editorial that first spelled out the contents of the new stage, the Agreement has created unparalleled opportunities in the South.2 Although the revolution there still faces an arduous struggle, it has its own government, army and zones of operation which are solid bases for further progress. Since the American withdrawal, reactionary cannot grow stronger because they do not have an economic or social base worth mentioning. They can only exist with help from outside. Thus the balance of forces was said to have shifted decisively in favor of the Revolution. Meanwhile, the North will advance in the construction of the material and technical bases of socialism, build a new economic base, a new system, and the new man. Such statements have led some analysts to assume that the DRV's choices are limited to allocating resources to socialist construction in the North or