Membership numbers for the VNQDĐ and Đại Việt

Nu-Anh Tran tran_n_a at yahoo.com

Tue Nov 24 17:58:51 PST 2015

Dear list, I am looking for estimates for the size of the VNQDĐ in the late 1930s or on the eve of the August Revolution. If that's not possible, I wouldn't mind an estimate for around 1954 either. I've skimmed Hoàng Văn Đào's history of the party, Vũ Hồng Khanh's history as well, and the usual sources: Huỳnh Kim Khánh's Vietnamese Communism, Tai's Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution, etc. I am looking for a secondary source since rooting through French archival materials is not really an option now. Any estimate of the size of the Đại Việt Quốc Dân Đảng in 1945 would be great as well. I have looked in Guillemot's book, but I only found an estimate for around 1954 though I may have missed it. Any lead on either of these queries would be much appreciated.Cheers,Nu-Anh

Nu-Anh Tran tran_n_a at yahoo.com

Tue Nov 24 18:00:17 PST 2015

I apologize for not signing my full name and affiliation.

Nu-Anh Tran, PhD

Assistant ProfessorUniversity of Connecticut

François Guillemot francois.guillemot at ens-lyon.fr

Wed Nov 25 01:14:28 PST 2015

Dear Nu-Anh,

I made a provisional calculation of the number of militants of the Dai

Viet in my book (pp. 562-563, based on a Report of French Security

Services of July 1953).

I must check again my personal notes on French archives to get more

information and even in my book (see for example on the 1946 clash

between Viet Minh and VNQDD-DMH armed forces, pp. 347-354 with several

estimates...).

For the VNQDD in the 1930s see Louis Marty's Report published in 1933,

vol. 3 (http://www.sudoc.fr/125667914). I have also some archival files

on the resurrection of the VNQDD in 1938 but no time to expose it in

details.

The difficulty for estimates on DVQDD in 1945 is due to the existence of

several organizations "stamped Dai Viet" :

Dai Viet Quoc Dan Dang, the most important in terms of troops, the Dai

Viet Dan Chinh (quasi) dismantled in 1941-42, the Dai Viet Duy Dan in

Hoa Binh province, the Dai Viet Quoc Xa mostly in Hanoi and Haiphong and

the Dai Viet Phuc Hung Hoi suppressed in 1944 (a micro organisation).

Most of them (except the latter) with the leaders of the New-VNQDD (Tan

VNQDD) were involved in the Dai Viet National Alliance (Dai Viet Quoc

Gia Lien Minh) of 1945. See my chapter in Imperial Japan and National

Identities (Li Narangoa & Robert Cribb, eds).

On these differents organisations and their confrontation with Viet Minh

forces you have some important monographies published in SRV on what

they call "struggle against reactionary forces". Sometimes there is some

estimates of these "reactionary forces". See David Marr, 1945 The Quest

for Power ; Goscha's and Shawn McHale works on that period... See also

the Gilbert Bodinier (ed.), La guerre d'Indochine, 1945-1954, documents,

Service historique de l'Armée de terre, 1987 and 1989... or more older

sources as Bernard Fall, Philippe Devillers...

I am currently very busy but I'll look in my notes in one or two weeks

so keep in touch.

Best,

F

Shawn McHale mchale at gwu.edu

Wed Nov 25 10:52:09 PST 2015

Good question -- and I would defer to Francois on this, as his book is a

goldmine. Vu Ngu Chieu's dissertation, which you can download, is also very

useful, but it doesn't give overall numbers of Đại Việt membership.

I would simply add that for the south in particular in 1945, it can be

extremely hard to tell how many belonged to various organizations --all the

estimates for all the parties and groups seem unreliable. Not only that,

but it seems to me that southerners had very fluid allegiances, and would

jump from party to party, or into ad hoc coalitions of groups, with great

ease in 1945. The following example is not directly related to Đại Việt,

but it proves this point about fluidity of allegiances in the south . In

mid-1945, Phạm Ngọc Thạch appointed a Trotskyist, Nguyễn Thị Sương, as head

of the Women's section of the Vanguard Youth. (Yes, a Trotskyist. Let that

sink in . . . ) This illustrates a point about Saigon politics -- a

"capaciousness" in bringing nationalists, "Stalinists", "Trotskyists," etc

into parties and fronts in the summer of 1945. Furthermore, people often

wore two hats -- e,g. Đại Việt AND Cao Đài.

This situation would not last, as the Party center was apoplectic with such

collaborations -- Thạch would be summarily commanded to go north by Hoàng

Quốc Việt by late September or October 1945, and Sương would be

assassinated in September or October 1945, along with many other key

nationalists and Trotskyists. Anyhow ---

Shawn McHale