A memorandum addressed to President George W. Bush

DECOMMUNIZATION AND DEMOCRATIZATION

 NGUYEN HUU THONG, Esq.

          The main issue of Viet Nam today is decommunization and democratization. Achieving this goal requires the active participation of all Vietnamese and the support of the Democratic World.

          In the history of national liberation, no country had enjoyed such favorable conditions as present-day Vietnam. These are the support of over two million overseas Vietnamese who, with one heart, are looking out for their compatriots. This moral support could be reinforced by an annual contribution from five to seven billion dollars, if the country were to regain freedom. On the other hand, when reconstruction takes place, thousands of technicians, engineers and entrepreneurs would return to rebuild the land and restore democracy.

          These moral, financial, and human resources shall motivate the people movement in Vietnam fighting for the right to live, to liberty and to the pursuit of happiness.

Nowadays certain people believe that communism has been dissolved and the Communist Party has become a mafia. Therefore there is no need to disband communism.

This subjective viewpoint shows a lack of understanding of the nature of communism. In fact, through corruption and abuse of power, the communist leaders have taken national possessions valued at billions of US dollars to enrich themselves illegally.

 While mafia is a gang of robbers, communism is a gang that has robbed power. After seizing power the communists have set up a totally dictatorial regime with a government to carry out party policies, a congress to legalize party resolutions, and people - courts to arrest and detain people who had stood up to demand freedom, justice, democracy, and human rights.

          Therefore, as long as the communists detain the monopoly of leadership, of thought and of information, as long as they continue to repress religions, and deprive the citizens of the rights of assembly and of association, our struggle remains unabated.

Beside the argument that communism has dissolved itself, other opinions say that the communist regime cannot be disbanded. This pessimistic viewpoint defies dialectic.

Only religious principles such as Buddha’s compassion, Jesus’ love, or Confucius’ humaneness could be considered absolute truths. Doctrines pertaining to human society have relative values and can change with time and place. In the political field, a regime is established to regulate the relations between citizen and state.  Therefore it should change with the citizens’ level of consciousness and the economic and social conditions of the state and the evolution of history.

          That is why in Europe, in just two years, from 1989 to 1991, 22 countries have decommunized their regimes: 7 behind the Iron Curtain, namely Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania; and 15 belonging to the Soviet Union.

          A domino effect of the collapse of Eastern Europe communism was the breakdown of Afro-Asian communism in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Cambodia, etc.

In this struggle we should exploit communism’s weaknesses and neutralize its weapons. Communism’s weaknesses are dictatorship, corruption, injustice, incompetence, and frequent and gross violations of human rights. Two communism’s strategic weapons are deceitful propaganda and repressive terror.

DECEITFUL PROPAGANDA

          The three strategic propaganda objectives of the communists are independence, freedom and happiness.

1.       Independence

The communists conceal their revolutionary objectives under the label 

of national liberation. They regard national independence as a label, a means, or a tactic to achieve their strategic goal of seizing power. They reject any forms of independence that do not give them the monopoly of leadership. A de facto historic proof: the Communist Party has denied the Elysee Treaty recognizing the independence of Vietnam in 1949 and has launched a 30-year armed war to seize power.

Since 1949 the Vietnam War ceased to be a war for national liberation. It has been an ideological war between the Communist International and the Democratic World, similar to the Korea War.

          In 1949, after taking over Mainland China, the strategic objective of the Communist International was to communize the Indochinese and Korean Peninsulas. In June 1950, supported by the Soviet Union and China, North Korea invaded South Korea. And the ideological warfare broke out. As a result, 3 million people have lost their lives in Korea, 3 million in Vietnam, and 2 million in Cambodia, not for national independence, but for the communists to seize power.

          Since 1919 the Principle of People Self-Determination has been proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson at the League of Nations.  It was confirmed by the United Nations Charter of 1945.  Loyal to this Principle, the following years, former colonial powers such as the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands had renounced imperialism to restore independence to 12 former Asian colonies: the Philippines, Syria, and Lebanon in 1946; India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Palestine in 1947-1948;, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and  Indonesia in 1949.

          On March 8, 1949, in Paris, President Vincent Auriol signed the Elysee Treaty with the Chief of State of Vietnam to restore independence to Vietnam; on July 20, 1949, President Auriol signed a Treaty with the King of Laos to restore independence to Laos, and on November 8, 1949, with the King of Cambodia, President Auriol signed a Treaty restoring independence to Cambodia “in the spirit of the Elysee Treaty.”

          In 1955, in its plan of annexation of South Vietnam, the Communist Party spread the news that the United States sent troops to Vietnam to establish her rule in South Vietnam. That was another deceitful propaganda. In the 50’s and 60’s, the United States sent troops respectively to South Korea and South Vietnam, not to establish rule upon those countries, but for protecting the boundaries of the Democratic World. As declared President Eisenhower in February 1953 before the U.S. Congress: “The French involvement in Vietnam and the American intervention in Korea have the same purpose” [defending the frontiers of the Democratic World].

In sum, in the people movement for national liberation, the Communists have denied the independence obtained in 1949 by the Nationalists in their non-violent struggle. And two Vietnam Wars from 1946 to 1975 were useless, meaningless, and disastrous. 

The great blessing of India was having Gandhi who believed in Nationalism.  The great misfortune of Vietnam was having Ho Chi Minh who believed in International Communism.

2.       Freedom and Democracy

The Communist Party pledged to establish a democratic regime worth one million times that of Western democracy. It is another lie. As a matter of doctrine, the Communist Party never grants freedom and democracy to the people. Their strategic aim is establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat, more precisely, a dictatorship of the Party to rule the proletariat and the people. They never respect any of the 26 human rights stipulated in the Constitution and in the International Bill of Human Rights.

          The result is that, after 60 years of taking power, the Communist Party has made Vietnam one of the most anti-democratic nations in the world, worse than Cambodia. For the latter, relatively, has freedom of religion and a multi-party system. At present, Mongolia has followed a two-party system while Vietnam still has a one-party system with the monopoly of leadership.

3.       Pursuit of Happiness

In the name of social justice, the Communist Party promised land re-

form to give “land to the tiller”. Actually that was a class struggle “to fight landlords”. In the 1950’s, by denouncements and public trials, the communists killed over 200,000 intellectuals and small landowners who had been upgrated to the class of landlords. Any individual in possession of 2 hectares of land but doesn’t cultivate it himself, could be denounced, prosecuted, and have his estate confiscated, including land, house, and personal property. Communist doctrine does not recognize private ownership and would not distribute land to private citizens. Therefore “land to the tiller” is but a deceitful strategic propaganda slogan.

          After 1975, in the campaign of “fighting capitalists”, the communists had confiscated all property from industrialists, merchants, and investors.

REPRESSIVE TERROR

          The second communist strategic weapon is repression. This is one of the two ancient swords that must be brandished concomitantly. If the communists cannot use deceitful propaganda; if the people know the real face of communism, they would not defend the regime, and the regime should collapse.

          History has proven this. In East Germany and Romania in 1989, the communist secret police was fierce, carrying the barbarism of Hitler’s Gestapo and the cruelty of Stalin’s KGB.  But when the people knew the nature of communism and stood up to demand people self-determination, the repressive machine no longer worked.

          The five forms of repression are: (1) assassination, (2) massacre, (3) forced labor camp, (4) court of law, and (5) house arrest.

1) Assassinations aim at leaders of opposition parties the communists deem necessary to eliminate, such as the reformists and the revolutionaries belonging to the Constitutionalist Groups and the New Left, the Great Vietnam Party, the Vietnam  Nationalist Party, the For-the-People Party, the Alliance Association, etc.

          2)   Massacres occurred when the communists killed the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao Sects, and the members and cadres of all Nationalist Parties. They also mass-murdered 200,000 intellectuals and small landowners in the 1950’s, and 5,000 civilians in Hue during the Tet Offensive of 1968.

3)      The third tool of repression is “reeducation camp”.  While

appealing for national reconciliation, since 1975, the Communist Party had detained hundreds of thousand South Vietnamese armed forces members and officials, intellectuals, writers and artists.  The political prisoners were kept 5, 7 years, or 15, 17 years in forced labor camps.

4)  The fourth instrument of repression is a court of law. In a democratic society, the judiciary is an independent branch having the duty to do justice to the people in compliance with the rule of law. Under the communist regime, a court of law is but a tool to persecute all dissidents by thought or deed.  Hundreds of prisoners of conscience were convicted of false crimes as reactionary, anti-revolutionary, anti-regime propagandist, etc.

          5)  The fifth level of repression is house arrest. In 1997, the communists promulgated the system of administrative house arrest, depriving dissidents of their rights to privacy, to work, to move, to contact people, to answer interviews, and to participate in government.

After September 11, 2001, when the United States and her Allies were busy confronting terrorists, the Vietnamese Communists seized the opportunity to escalate repression from the fifth level (administrative house arrest) to the fourth (the court of law).

          In 3 years, from October 2001 to November 2004, they have prosecuted and convicted 18 religious and political defendants with false and ridiculous charges of breaking national unity policy, propaganda against the state, abuse of freedom and democratic rights, and espionage.

          On September 15, 2004, the U.S. Government placed Vietnam on the list of countries “to be scrutinized” for flagrant and systematic violations of freedom of religion. As a detour to avoid religious persecution, last November, the Saigon Court had convicted 6 Protestant minister and missionaries with the charge of “resisting law-enforcement officers”.

A COUNTER-STRATEGY

          Since we have no right to defend the dissidents in court, from 1991 to 2004, on behalf of the California Association of Vietnamese Lawyers and the Lawyers Committee for People’s Rights, we have announced to public opinion our pleadings for 22 prisoners of conscience. During the process, we have made public the Seven Communist Fears.  They represent the seven fronts of our struggle for decommunization and democratization:

1.     The Vietnamese Communist Party is afraid of the Internet, of

information and ideas: We launch the campaign of        communication.

2.     The VCP is afraid of international opinion, of losing face, foreign aids and investments: We launch the campaign of international conversion to our Cause of Freedom and Democracy.

3.     The VCP is afraid of opposition: We launch the movement for organizing, developing, and coordinating democratic forces in Vietnam and abroad.

4.     The VCP fears the truth: We launch the campaign of spreading the truth, restoring the historical truths in order to regain the just cause, popular support, and international support.

5.     The VCP is afraid of freedom: We launch the campaign to demand the implementation and respect of fundamental freedoms stipulated in the Constitution and in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

6.     The VCP is afraid of democracy:  We launch a campaign to spread the principles of democracy, disseminate awareness of democracy, and legal techniques for the establishment of a democratic, multi-party system.

7.     The VCP violates human rights: We launch campaigns to promote observance of human rights, to object human right violations, and to fight for the release of each and every prisoner of conscience.

In addition to the above 7 fronts, we have launched the three following:

8.     A campaign to demand religious freedom, release of religious prisoners, the autonomy for church, and the return to church of all church possessions illegally confiscated.

9.     A campaign to protect territorial integrity, denouncing the communist leaders’ treason by yielding to China the border and territorial waters in the South East Asia Sea (formerly South China Sea).

10.  With the institution of the International Criminal Court, the 3 most barbarous forms of repression - assassination, massacre, and forced labor camp - could become “crimes against humanity” falling under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Therefore the legal and judicial front shall coordinate the other campaigns to neutralize the most usual communist repression tool that is the court of law.

PEACEFUL EVOLUTION

          At present the United States and her Allies are willing to develop diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations with Hanoi for the sake of a peaceful evolution, allowing the integration of Vietnam into the community of democratic nations.

          That is also our wish. Everybody hopes that with the expansion of the market economy, cultural exchange and sharing information and ideas, people’s intellect will be enhanced. Then the people will be freed from any forms of control and restraint by the state, and awakened to the ideals of democracy. Human rights will be respected and everyone shall enjoy a new era of universal progress and prosperity.

          From the East European experience, the world has learned that the Information Era facilitates the understanding of the nature of communism, eradicating lies and myths, causing the fading away and the fall of the repressive regimes.  Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria had dissolved communism by peaceful evolution.

          This kind of analysis hopefully will enlighten the leadership of Vietnam communism. That is why this paper is titled:

“Decommunization and Democratization”.

          I would like to appeal to my compatriots to participate actively in the process, and wish that the three-word phrase above carry a message of belief and faith.

I also appeal to the communist leaders to be aware of the Evolution of History and of the People Power.

Nguyen Huu Thong

                                                          Attorney at Law