The Personalist Labor Revolutionary Party ( vi, Cần lao Nhân vị Cách Mạng Ðảng / Đảng Cần lao Nhân vị), often simply called the Cần Lao Party, was a Vietnamese
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
, formed in the early 1950s by the
President of South Vietnam
This is a list of leaders of South Vietnam, since the establishment of the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina in 1946, and the division of Vietnam in 1954 until the fall of the Republic of Vietnam in 1975, and the reunification of Vietnam in 19 ...
Ngô Đình Diệm
Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of ...
and his brother and adviser
Ngô Đình Nhu
Ngô Đình Nhu (; 7 October 19102 November 1963; baptismal name Jacob) was a Vietnamese archivist and politician. He was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm. Although he held ...
. Based on mass-organizations and secret networks as effective instruments, the party played a considerable role in creating a political groundwork for Diệm's power and helped him to control all political activities in
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
.
The doctrine of the party was ostensibly based on
Ngô Đình Nhu
Ngô Đình Nhu (; 7 October 19102 November 1963; baptismal name Jacob) was a Vietnamese archivist and politician. He was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm. Although he held ...
's
Person Dignity Theory (Vietnamese: ''Thuyết Nhân Vị'') and
Emmanuel Mounier
Emmanuel Mounier (; ; 1 April 1905 – 22 March 1950) was a French philosopher, theologian, teacher and essayist.
Biography
Mounier was the guiding spirit in the French personalist movement, and founder and director of '' Esprit'', the magazine ...
's
Personalism
Personalism is an intellectual stance that emphasizes the importance of human persons. Personalism exists in many different versions, and this makes it somewhat difficult to define as a philosophical and theological movement. Friedrich Schleierm ...
.
Formation
According to
Ngo Dinh Nhu
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
, the party was the "fusion" of the groups which were founded by him in the early 1950s. In Northern Vietnam, he collaborated with Trần Trung Dung, a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
activist who then became
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
's deputy minister of defense. In central Vietnam,
Ngô Đình Cẩn's network of loyalists was Nhu's fulcrum. In early 1954, Cẩn established core groups of supporters inside the Army and civil service of the
State of Vietnam
The State of Vietnam ( vi, Quốc gia Việt Nam; Chữ Nôm: 國家越南; french: État du Viêt-Nam) was a governmental entity in Southeast Asia that existed from 1949 until 1955, first as a member of the French Union and later as a country ...
.
In southern Vietnam, Nhu established a group which served mainly as a roundtable for political debates of intellectuals linked to a journal entitled "Spirit" (Vietnamese: ''Tinh Thần''). In 1953, Nhu allied with Trần Quốc Bửu, a trade unionist who headed the Vietnamese Confederation of Christian Workers with tens of thousands of members. They began to publish a journal called "Society" (Vietnamese: ''Xã hội''), which endorsed the creation of
workers' and farmers' cooperatives and unionization rights for industrial laborers in
Saigon
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
. Through the alliance with Bửu, Miller argues that the Cần Lao program follows unionism and advocates the co-management of national
industry by representatives of
capitalists
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private pr ...
and labors, as well as workers' participation in interest and technological development of industries.
[Miller, Edward (2013). ''Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam''. Boston: Harvard University Press, p.46-47.]
According to decree 116/BNV/CT of the Republic of Vietnam, the Cần Lao Party was established on 2 September 1954. Nhu became the
General Secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
of the party. Initially, the Party was named the "Personalist Revolutionary Party of Worker and Peasant" (''Nông Công Nhân vị Cách mạng Đảng''), then this name was replaced by "Personalist Labor Revolutionary Party" (''Cần Lao Nhân vị Cách mạng Đảng''). According to Miller, the name "Cần Lao" shows Nhu's profound concern in political potential of Vietnamese labors which related to French unionist ideology.
The slogan of the Party was: Labor – Revolution – Personalism (''Cần lao - Cách mạng - Nhân vị'').
Guiding ideology
Personalism was the foundation of the Cần Lao Party. Ngô Đình Nhu was the founder of Personalism in South Vietnam and Ngô Đình Diệm applied this doctrine as the national ideology — the backbone of the regime. It was also called "Oriental Personalism" (Vietnamese: ''Chủ nghĩa nhân vị phương Đông'') by researchers of the Republic of Vietnam and "Spiritual Personalism" (Vietnamese: ''Chủ nghĩa Duy linh nhân vị'') by communist researchers.
When he came back from
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, Nhu was passionate about the Personalism of
Emmanuel Mounier
Emmanuel Mounier (; ; 1 April 1905 – 22 March 1950) was a French philosopher, theologian, teacher and essayist.
Biography
Mounier was the guiding spirit in the French personalist movement, and founder and director of '' Esprit'', the magazine ...
, a prominent French Catholic philosopher,
[John Hellman 1981, ''Emmanuel Mounier and the New Catholic Left'', Toronto: University of Toronto Press.] and believed that Mounier's ideology which rejected
Liberalism
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
and
Communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
(materialism) could be a "third path" to be applied for social development (and Spiritualism) in Vietnam. The Ngô brothers also believed that Personalism could go well with their Third Force which was not in line with
French colonialism
The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French Colonial Empire", that existe ...
or the communism of the
Việt Minh
The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Front ...
. For Diệm's regime, Personalism was treated as the only doctrine which restored the best traditional values of Asia and combined them with Western values to innovate the state and serve public interests. It can be a counterbalance to communist doctrine.
[Miller, p. 44–45.]
From April 1952, Nhu's ideas on Personalism were delineated in his speech at Vietnamese National Military Academy in
Đà Lat. He contended that, initially, Personalism was a Catholic ideology, though it had universal relevance and was compatible to Vietnam, which had to suffer from the devastation of wars. For Nhu, Personalism was a form of Revolution which was more transformative than Marxist socialism, and he described himself as an advocate of "personalist revolution". Ngô Đình Diệm also understood the term "Personalism" in the etymology of ''nhân vị'', which could mean either "humanity" or "human being". The Ngô brothers used the term ''Personalist Revolution'' to frame their nation-building programs.
On 26 October 1956, the Republic of Vietnam's Constitution was promulgated. Its preface declared that "Building Politics, Economy, Society, Culture for the people basing on respecting Personalism". Simultaneously, Diệm's regime laid down as a policy the teaching of Personalism in universities and the propaganda of the doctrine in South Vietnam.
Nevertheless, according to some scholars, Nhu's personalism was evaluated as "a vague mish–mash of ideas" or "a hodgepodge" because "it was a mixture of Catholic teachings, Mounier's Personalism, Confucius' humanism, some factors of Capitalism and anti-communist spiritualism" and its actual substance was "maddeningly opaque". Thus, even the Vietnamese intellectuals could not understand Nhu's doctrine; neither could Americans, who spent much time in examining his doctrine and gave up. Lately, the values of Personalism (''Chủ nghĩa nhân vị'') of the Ngô brothers has been revised. According to Nguyễn Ngọc Tấn, their Personalism, along with their Democratic Ethical Regime based on Personalism as a combination of the quintessence of Western values and Asian values, was a contribution to political science, especially in resolving the democratization issue in developing post-colonial countries, such as Vietnam today. Nguyễn Lập Duy, on the other hand, has argued that Personalism can be characterized as a form of Marxist humanism.
Activities
Initially, the party acted secretly, with networks of cells and members only knowing a few members' identities; when necessary, the party could replace the role of the government. It also included any factors that could help its agents to penetrate the army, national assembly, police, educational system and the media. Fall describes the party as "a state within a state" in its own governmental mechanism, which was what a Communist party would do. In the early years of 1950s, Diệm and Nhu used the party to mobilize support for Diệm's political movements. The cadres of the party were Catholic organizations such as the Union of Catholicism, Catholic Youth and Catholic Society, with Catholic dignitaries and followers, officers in the army. Ngô Đình Nhu was the general secretary of the Central Committee Board including Trần Trung Dung, Nguyễn Tăng Nguyên, Lý Trung Dung, Hà Đức Minh, Trần Quốc Bửu, Võ Như Nguyện and Lê Văn Đông.
[Nguyễn Xuân Hoài, p.43.]
The party also declared the goals of struggling for the revolutionary ideology: Personalism; constructing the nation in four aspects: spirit, society, politics and economy. The principle of the party was centralized democracy. In its political manifesto, it criticized both Capitalism and Communism.
In less than a year, the Can Lao had all the key positions in the government, like
national security
National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...
and Ministry of Defence offices. With the military's support, the Can Lao started a
dominant-party
A dominant-party system, or one-party dominant system, is a political occurrence in which a single political party continuously dominates election results over running opposition groups or parties. Any ruling party staying in power for more th ...
rule.
After 1954, the existence of the party was recognized but its activities have been hidden from public view. In 1955, Nhu practiced the governmentized policy which aimed at placing 70% members of the party to important positions in the government. On 6 July 1955, Nhu established an ''Office for social and political studies'' led by Trần Kim Tuyến, the general Secretary of the party, and a ''Special Force'' led by Lê Quang Tung. On 2 October 1955, Nhu established the National Revolutionary Movement (Vietnamese: ''Phong trào cách mạng quốc gia'') including party members and nominated Trần Chánh Thành, Minister of Information, as its president. The organization includes members above 21 years old from different parties and religions. This organization played an important role in drawing up and carrying on policies of South Vietnam, helped Diệm to win in the elections in 1955 and 1959 and the
presidential election in 1961. The Party's activities were represented through those organizations.
On 26 October 1955, Diệm declared the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam. On 29 October 1955, Diệm promulgated the decree 4-TPP to establish the first government, which embraced most of the Can Lao party's members in key positions. The party had 112/123 positions in the National Assembly.
[Nguyễn Xuân Hoài, p.44-46.] In 1956, Diệm and Nhu established the Personalism Training Center in
Vĩnh Long Province, administrated by the bishop
Ngô Đình Thục
Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục () (6 October 1897 – 13 December 1984) was the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Huế, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Huế, South Vietnam, Vietnam, and later a sedevacantist bishop who was excommunicated by the V ...
, to train the key personnel for propagandizing Personalism in South Vietnam.
[Nguyễn Xuân Hoài, p.47.] The administrative and teaching staff included Catholic priests and followers. On 31 December 1957, Diệm forced the administrative and military personnel in the government to join the training on Personalism. From 1956–1963, the Center trained about 25,000 personnel for the government.
In 1958, the party established its youth wing, the "Revolutionary Youth", led by Nhu, that obtained a strong influence in the rural areas. Also, the membership increased: from 10,000 members in 1955 to 1,500,000. In 1962, there were 1,386,757 members active in the party.
[Demery, Monique (2013), ''Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhu'', Hardcover, p. 129] In 1961, the party formed a
women's wing A women's wing is an organisation affiliated with a political party that consists of that party's female membership or acts to promote women within a party. The organisations take different roles and types, with some giving women the option of join ...
, the "Women Solidarity Movement", led by
First Lady
First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...
Madame Nhu
Trần Lệ Xuân (22 August 1924 – 24 April 2011), more popularly known in English as Madame Nhu, was the ''de facto'' First Lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963. She was the wife of Ngô Đình Nhu, who was the brother and chief advisor ...
. The organization formed also military training for women,
and organized
charity
Charity may refer to:
Giving
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing
* Ch ...
initiatives, like
blood donation
A blood donation occurs when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for blood transfusion, transfusions and/or made into biopharmaceutical medications by a process called Blood fractionation, fractionation (separation of whole blood com ...
, distribution of medicines to the village and visits to soldiers on the frontline.
During the
military coup
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such ...
in November 1963,
Diệm and Nhu were assassinated and the party was subsequently banned and dissolved. The party was later rebuilt as in 1965.
Electoral history
Presidential elections
References
{{Vietnamese political parties
1954 establishments in Vietnam
1963 disestablishments in Asia
Anti-communism in Vietnam
Anti-communist parties
Banned political parties in Vietnam
Defunct political parties in Vietnam
History of South Vietnam
Nationalist parties in Vietnam
Political parties disestablished in 1963
Political parties established in 1954