Land reform in North Vietnam

Land reform in North Vietnam (Vietnamese: Cải cách ruộng đất tại miền Bắc Việt Nam) can be understood as an agrarian reform in northern Vietnam throughout different periods, but in many cases it only refers to the one within the regime of Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in the 1950s. Land reform in North Vietnam is one of the most important economic and political programs launched by Viet Minh government during the years 1953-1956.

The project of land reform in North Vietnam was a product of the interplay of complex internal and external factors. On 9 March 1945, several years after occupation in Indochina, Japan instigated a military coup, threw away the French administration in Indochina and established a puppet indigenous government headed by Tran Trong Kim. However, five months later, Japan unconditionally surrendered. Taking the political vacuum, Viet Minh seized power by launching a nationwide revolution, and founded the DRV in Hanoi in September 2.

Soon after that, Vietnam saw an influx of big power. The Kuomintang Chinese armies accepted the surrender of Japan in Vietnam North of the 17 parallel, with the British in the south. Both of them negotiated and facilitated the French return. After negotiations between Viet Minh and the French broke down, the war between them started from late 1946 until 1954; this is called the First Indochina war (1946-1954).

In the whole of the 1940s, Viet Minh fought solely against the French army. In terms of military capability, Viet Minh was in position of clear-cut disadvantage; this did not change until the establishment and involvement of the People's Republic of China

During this period of time, the DRV government was dominated by Viet Minh who was popular among the indigenous political force; its domestic policy was to unite all possible forces for resistance war. It also embraced peasants, workers, students and some merchants and intellectuals. On 11 November 1945, the ICP declared its dissolution, aiming at downplaying the role of communist ideology by dissolving and forcing the ICP underground for garnering more support from the masses.

In October 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established the People's Republic of China by overtaking its political rivalry with the KMT, which had a major impact on the political landscape of the region in general and Vietnam in particular.

From the CCP’s perspective, the Chinese revolutionary model was intended to be exported to the Asian countries, Vietnam included. Moreover, the increasing influence in its southern periphery was also for national defense and security. From the perspective of the DRV, communist China was a good ally who shared the same ideology and similar approaches to complete communist revolution. They were glad to conduct a binary revolution at the same time: externally anti-colonialism and internally anti-feudalism. Thus Ho Chi Minh plead proactively for Chinese aid After establishing formal diplomatic relations with the PRC in early 1950, Luo Guibo became the first Chinese ambassador to the DRV, and Chinese aid also flooded into the DRV, the most significant of which was the Chinese advisory group, which was later sent to North Vietnam in the same year.

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