Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang - Post World War II

Post World War II

See also: August Revolution and Empire of Vietnam

In March 1945, the VNQDD received a boost, when Imperial Japan, which had occupied Vietnam since 1941, deposed the French administration, and installed the Empire of Vietnam, a puppet regime. This resulted in the release of some anti-French activists, including VNQDD members.

In August 1945, Ho's Vietminh seized power and set up a provisional government in the wake of Japan's withdrawal from Vietnam. This move violated a prior agreement between the member parties of the Viet Nam Cach Mang Dong Minh Hoi (Vietnamese Revolutionary League), which included the VNQDD as well as the Vietminh, and Ho was pressured to broaden his government's appeal by including the VNQDD (now led by Nguyen Tuong Tam). The Vietminh announced that they would abolish the mandarin governance system and hold national elections with universal suffrage in two hold. The VNQDD objected to this, fearing that the communists would perpetrate electoral fraud.

After the seizure of power, hundreds of VNQDD members returned from China, only to be killed at the border by the Vietminh. Nevertheless, the VNQDD arrived in northern Vietnam with arms and supplies from the KMT, in addition to its prestige as a Vietnamese nationalist organisation. Nationalist China backed the VNQDD in the hope of gaining more influence over its southern neighbour. Ho tried to broaden his support in order to strengthen himself, in addition to decreasing Chinese and French power. He hoped that by co-opting VNQDD members, he could shut out the KMT. The communists had no intention of sharing power with anyone in the long term and regarded the move as purely a strategic exercise. Giap, the Vietminh's military chief, called the VNQDD a "group of reactionaries plotting to rely on Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang and their rifle barrels to snatch a few crumbs". The VNQDD dominated the main control lines between northern Vietnam and China near Lao Cay. They funded their operations from the tribute that they levied from the local populace. Once the majority of the non-communist nationalists had returned to Vietnam, the VNQDD banded with them to form an anti-Vietminh alliance. The VNQDD and the Dai Viet Quoc Dan Dang (DVQDD, Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam) started their own military academy at Yen Bai to train their own military recruits. Armed confrontations between the Vietminh and the nationalists occurred regularly in major northern cities. The VNQDD were aided by the KMT, who were in northern Vietnam as the result of an international agreement to stabilise the country. The KMT often disarmed local Vietminh bands.

The VNQDD then established their national headquarters in Hanoi, and began to publish newspapers, expounding their policies and explaining their ideology. The OSS agent Archimedes Patti, who was based in Kunming and northern Vietnam, reported that the VNQDD were "hopelessly disoriented politically" and felt that they had no idea of how to run a government. He speculated that the VNQDD were driven by "desires for personal power and economic gain". Giap accused them of being "bandits". Military and newspaper attacks between the groups occurred regularly, but a power-sharing agreement was put in place until the elections occurred in order to end the attacks and strengthen national unity to further the goal of independence. The communists also allowed the VNQDD to continue printing material.

However, the agreement was ineffective in the meantime. The VNQDD kidnapped Giap and the Propaganda Minister Tran Huy Lieu and held them for three weeks until Ho agreed to remove Giap and Lieu from the cabinet. As a result, the VNQDD's Vu Hong Khanh became defence minister, with Giap as his deputy. What the VNQDD and other non-communist nationalists thought to be an equitable power-sharing agreement turned out to be a ruse. Every non-communist minister had a communist deputy, and if the former refused to approve a decree, the Vietminh official would do so. Many ministers were excluded from knowing the details of their portfolio; Khanh was forbidden to see any military statistics and some were forbidden to attend cabinet meetings. In one case, the Minister of Social Works became a factory worker because he was forced to remain politically idle. Meanwhile, Giap was able to stymie the activities of VNQDD officials of higher rank in the coalition government. Aside from shutting down the ability of the VNQDD officials to disseminate information, he often ordered his men to start riots and street brawls at public VNQDD events.

Ho scheduled elections for December 23, but he made a deal with the VNQDD and the Dong Minh Hoi, which assured them of 50 and 20 seats in the new national assembly respectively, regardless of the poll results. This only temporarily placated the VNQDD, which continued its skirmishes against the Vietminh. Eventually, Chinese pressure on the VNQDD and the Dong Minh Hoi saw them accept a coalition government, in which Tam served as foreign minister. For the communists' part, they accused the KMT of intimidating them into sharing power with the VNQDD, and claimed that VNQDD soldiers had tried to attack polling stations. The VNQDD claimed that the communists had engaged in vote fraud and intimidation, citing Vietminh claims that they had received tallies in excess of 80% in areas controlled by French troops.