Heroes and Revolution in Vietnam 1948–1964 by Benoît de Tréglodé (review)

This book, which was originally published in French in 2001, offers an insight into the phenomenon of the ‘new hero’ created by the state in Vietnam since 1948. It is an account of how the Communist Party of Vietnam strove to create new political and revolutionary elite from the towns and villages of the country to serve as the model for the nation in the time of the war against external aggression.

In Chapter 1, ‘Heroism in Vietnam’, the author examines the role of the Vietnamese heroic figure throughout its history. Vietnam inherited many Chinese cultural traditions. One was the Confucian hierarchical principles, which included the principle of submission such as the submission of the inferior to his superior, which would ensure the cohesion of the social whole. In this social hierarchy, all men were not born equal, and this meant that they also had different duties. As explained by the author in this chapter, a leader’s greatest responsibility was to be a model of virtue to his people. The hero was a sort of barometer of patriotic virtue, and was connected to his nation by a filial link. He represented a certain social order, but not the heart of the system. In Vietnam the hero was created by the ‘fatherland’ and was the best possible servant to his nation, the inferior to a superior being (p. 13). On what the new hero is all about in Vietnam, the author cited Truong Chinh, a well-respected leader of the Communist Party of Vietnam. According to Truong Chinh,

‘the hero is oriented towards the party, dedicated to serving the people. He does not oppress the people and takes part in the liberation of the masses. Most heroes are workers and peasants. For the good of the masses, the hero is a dedicated volunteer, exemplary in production and labour. The hero follows the political line of the Vanguard Party and the government… (p. 28).

The author goes on to explain the criteria of the new man in Vietnam in the political, technical and social aspects. He is loyal to the party, has combative or productivist qualities, and comes from and remains in close contact with the masses. As this was the period of the revolution in Vietnam, and with the Vietnamese remaining strongly attached to their culture and tradition, heroism became a product of a mixture and adaptation of the past idea of Confucian principles and the new conditions in the country. The state needed heroes to carry out the spirit of the revolution as enjoined by the Party. It was against this background that the Vietnamese state proceeded to create the ‘new hero’.

In Chapter 2 the author explains the goals of this programme, known as ‘patriotic emulation’, aimed at creating the new hero or the new man. He is the product of an ‘emulation process’ which connects him to the institutional apparatus of communism. The goals of this patriotic emulation programme, according to Ho Chi Minh and as cited by the author were ‘to fight famine and poverty, to fight ignorance and to fight foreign invaders. The way to do this is to rely upon the people’s forces.’ To introduce the programme to the people, the government carried out intensive activities in the patriotic emulation campaign. In the first campaign, in the spring of 1948, one of the activities was mobilization. But it did not receive much attention from the population and not many turned out to support this programme’s activities. So the state had to devise a strategy to attract the masses to support the Viet Minh. It was called the ‘patriotic emulation competition’, which involved competition with patriotic feeling in everything one does in order to achieve good results (p. 44). The goals of this campaign were fourfold: political, economic, cultural and military. The political goal was to establish and strengthen the party and establish political authority. Economically it would mean...