Read the book "History of Vietnam's foreign relations 1940-2010"

Cover of the book. (Photo: Jackie Chan)

It can be said that the book "History of Vietnam's foreign relations 1940-2010" by Professor Vu Duong Ninh, just published by the National Political Publishing House, is a panoramic picture of 70 years of Vietnam's foreign relations. With a rich source of carefully selected documents, the author has systematically presented the historical process of Vietnam's foreign relations in the period from 1940 to 2010, that is, from the days of preparing for the general uprising and the August Revolution to the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Compared to previously published research works on Vietnam's foreign relations, the highlight and difference of the book that Professor Vu Duong Ninh has devoted his heart and effort to is the historical approach, in which events are presented logically and scientifically, based on diverse, rich and selected historical sources. The historical lessons drawn are very concise, succinct and convincing. This is a basic, systematic, elaborate and valuable research work on Vietnam's foreign relations.

Throughout the entire 462-page work is the vision and viewpoint on international relations research in general, and Vietnam's foreign relations in particular, of a person with extensive research experience, in which the Vietnamese revolution is considered in an international context, with close relationships and external influences.But the deciding subject is still the Vietnamese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the ideology of President Ho Chi Minh.

Up to now, there have been many research works on national history, Party history, and resistance history, but the number of works on the history of Vietnam's international relations is really not much. Therefore, the book "History of Vietnam's foreign relations 1940-2010"meet the needs of a wide range of readers in the context of Vietnam gradually integrating more widely and deeply into regional and world politics.

The book is structured into 9 chapters. Unlike previous studies, the author has devoted the opening chapter to a general assessment of published works domestically and internationally on the topic of Vietnam's foreign relations. The overview of the research situation is presented according to each historical period, helping readers, especially graduate students and postgraduates, grasp the achievements and limitations of previous works, thereby being able to inherit, promote and delve into the research of issues that are still open. The author notes that although many research works have been published, there are still "certain limitations in exploiting original sources" and when referring to other works, especially books by foreign authors, it is very necessary to have "independent thinking"⁽¹⁾of the reader.

The following chapters are presented in a unified logic: the international and domestic contexts lead to major events and developments in Vietnam's foreign relations, highlighting the Party and State's foreign policies and guidelines, from which to draw comments, assessments and historical lessons.

In Chapter I "Foreign relations of the Vietnamese revolution in the period of preparation for the General Uprising 1940-1945", the author successfully analyzed the countermeasures of the Indochinese Communist Party in the extremely complicated context of World War II, when Vietnam had to suffer from "a double yoke" and the collusion of major countries. One of the timely and wise decisions of the Indochinese Communist Party at that time was to mobilize all possible forces, avoiding the situation of having to deal with many enemies at the same time and having to rely mainly on its own strength.

Chapter II is devoted to the analysis of the developments of “Foreign relations in the first year of the democratic republic (September 1945-December 1946)”. Although this period was only one year and three months, what Vietnam’s foreign relations achieved was extremely important to the fate and future of the young republic. It is no coincidence that Professor David Marr, Australian National University, has just published a massive 721-page work on this important period of Vietnam’s history.⁽²⁾. In the context of internal and external enemies and to avoid the situation of having to face many enemies at the same time, the signing of the Preliminary Agreement on March 6, 1946 can be considered one of the exemplary foreign affairs activities, leaving many important lessons about the combination of "between a firm stance and flexible measures, between tactical concessions and strategic determination, between seizing the possibility of peace and preparing for war.”⁽³⁾

“Foreign relations during the national resistance war against French colonialism (1946-1954)” is the main content of chapter III. In this chapter, the author skillfully answered the question of how the Cold War, the bipolar order and the regional situation affected the developments and situation of the war in Vietnam, the peak of which in the field of foreign relations was the Geneva Conference on Indochina in 1954. Because of the ideological confrontation between the major powers, the Cold War in general, the Korean War (1950-1953) and the Indochina War (1946-1954) broke out. It was also the major powers that arranged to organize the Panmunjom Conference to end the Korean War and the Geneva Conference to end the Indochina War. The signing of the Geneva Agreement on July 21, 1954 left many important lessons in Vietnam's foreign relations, as Professor Vu Duong Ninh commented, “The results of the Geneva Conference, although not achieving the ultimate goal of Unification, were nonetheless a necessary stop to prepare for the next struggle.”⁽⁴⁾

Chapters IV and V are devoted to foreign relations during the period of the Resistance War against the US, with two periods: 1954-1968 and 1968-1975. If in the first period, Vietnam's foreign relations were generalized through activities such as the struggle to demand the US and puppet regime to strictly implement the Geneva Agreement, strengthen solidarity with socialist countries, make the people of the world understand the just nature of the struggle against the invasion of the people of the South, and promote the role of the National Liberation Front, then in the second period, the focus of Vietnam's foreign relations was the struggle at the negotiating table at the Paris Conference 1969-1973. Although some foreign scholars have recently argued that the signing of the Paris Agreement was too high a price for Vietnam to pay.⁽⁵⁾Or is it just America's way of withdrawing with honor?⁽⁶⁾, but according to Professor Vu Duong Ninh, it is clear "Vietnamese diplomacy has solved an extremely difficult problem on the basis of maintaining independence and sovereignty, deciding its own foreign policies and guidelines, while maintaining solidarity and effectively seeking aid from socialist allies.”⁽⁷⁾

Chapter VI focuses on analyzing the extremely complicated and tense developments in Vietnam's foreign relations from 1975 to 1995, when the country had to continue the war to protect the southwestern and northern borders, had to fulfill its international obligations to help the Cambodian people overthrow the genocidal regime, and faced isolation, siege, and embargo caused by Western countries. The author frankly pointed out Beijing's real purpose in the war of aggression against Vietnam under the guise of "self-defense counterattack". At the same time, with the spirit of scientific innovation, Professor Vu Duong Ninh raised the question: "Is it possible that, at the height of victory, there was an incorrect assessment, a somewhat illusory view of one's own strength, thus failing to fully see the position and strength of the opponent on the international level and especially failing to clearly see the plots of former "allies"?”⁽⁸⁾American professor William Duiker also believes that the victory in the resistance war against America has made Vietnam suffer from "arrogance" (Arrogance)⁽⁹⁾, which led to mistakes in domestic and foreign policy planning in the following years. However, Vietnam promptly recognized the world's development trends and the urgent need for innovation, so the country did not fall into a state of crisis and collapse like the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries.

On that basis, Chapter 7 of the book continues to analyze the development of Vietnam's foreign relations during the period of peace, national construction and international integration (1995-2010). Unlike before, the guiding ideology of Vietnam's foreign affairs during this period was to maintain a peaceful and stable environment for socio-economic development, successfully building and firmly defending the Fatherland as the highest interests of the entire nation. The process of fighting to preserve sovereignty over seas and islands occupies an important position in the work, thoroughly analyzing the origin, intentions and tricks of external forces and the coordination between diplomacy and national defense in the long and arduous struggle. To achieve this goal, Vietnam's foreign affairs must combine the motto of independence and self-reliance with multilateralization and diversification of foreign relations, grasp both sides of cooperation and struggle, promote regional cooperation with expanding relations with countries around the world, combine Party diplomacy with State diplomacy and people's diplomacy, political diplomacy with economic diplomacy and cultural diplomacy, and promote theoretical and practical research.⁽¹⁰⁾.

The concluding chapter of the book affirms the role, position and contribution of foreign affairs activities in the overall achievements of the country, the fundamental reason of which is the successful application of Ho Chi Minh's thought on foreign relations. Based on the study of the movement of foreign relations over the past 70 years, Professor Vu Duong Ninh has summarized and drawn many valuable lessons. One of those lessons is to combine maintaining strategic goals with flexibility in tactics, between the struggle by reason and the persuasion by emotion.

In short, "History of Vietnam's foreign relations 1940-2010" by Professor Vu Duong Ninh is an indispensable work for those interested in studying Vietnam's foreign relations, because there one can not only find the history of a nation, but also the interactions and exchanges between countries in the region and the world; and the experiences from applying Ho Chi Minh's diplomatic ideology to the practice of foreign affairs struggle for Independence, Unification, Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity of the Fatherland.

December 2014

Note

⁽¹⁾Vu Duong Ninh,History of Vietnam's foreign relations 1940-2010, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi 2014, pp. 40-41.

⁽²⁾David Marr, “Vietnam- State, War, and Revolution (1945-1946)”,University of California Press, Berkeley 2013.

⁽³⁾Vu Duong Ninh,TLD,p. 101.

⁽⁴⁾Vu Duong Ninh, TLD,p.148.

⁽⁵⁾Pierre Asselin,Presentation at the Workshop “Paris Agreement - 40 years in review”organized by the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi in January 2013.

⁽⁶⁾Lien-Hang Nguyen,“Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 2012.

⁽⁷⁾Vu Duong Ninh,TLD,p.260.

⁽⁸⁾Vu Duong Ninh,TLD,p.292

⁽⁹⁾William J. Duiker,“The Arrogance of Victory: Unlearning the Lessons of the War in Vietnam”, in: Kenton J. Clymer (ed.),The Vietnam War: Its History, Literature and Music, Texas Western Press 1998, pp. 39-52.

⁽¹⁰⁾Vu Duong Ninh,TLD,p.303.

References

1. David Marr (2013),Vietnam - State, War, and Revolution (1945-1946),University of California Press, Berkeley.

2. Lien-Hang Nguyen (2012),Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam,University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

3. Pierre Asselin (2013). ,Presentation at the Paris Agreement Workshop - 40 years in review,University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

4. Vu Duong Ninh (2014),History of Vietnam's foreign relations 1940-2010, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi.

5. William J. Duiker (1998),“The Arrogance of Victory: Unlearning the Lessons of the War in Vietnam”, in: Kenton J. Clymer (ed.),The Vietnam War: Its History, Literature and Music,Texas Western Press, pp. 39-52.