Collective Leadership and Factionalism

Book excerpt: This essay goes beyong the legend of Ho Chi Minh and his disciples. Behind the facade of unity, the Vietnamese communist leadership has for years been torn by a prolonged crisis, sustained by two major ideological factions and later amplified by the development of the Sino-Soviet rift. Ho Chi Minh was far from being a dictator the calibre of Tito, for example. Rather, his style of collective leadership has contributed to the institutionalization of factionalism in Hanoi. His policy of equidistance between Moscow and Beijing became more or less a necessity for the leadership's unity. This book addresses itself to the question: Did Ho Chi Minh leave behind a unified party? The book provides an understanding of one of the most enigmatic - and the most long-lasting - leaderships in the communist annals, and examines the current state of the Hanoi regime.