Robert F. Turner's “Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development” was published by the Hoover Institution in 1975. It's one of many books on the origins and history of the Communist movement in Vietnam, including the North Vietnamese regime and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (the “Viet Cong”). Not being an expert on this kind of literature, I can't say whether Turner's book is better or worse than any other. It is, of course, pro-South Vietnam. But yes, I found the volume adequate for my present purposes.
It should be noted that about half the book contains English translations of key Vietnamese documents, including the programs of the Indochinese Communist Party, the Vietnamese Workers' Party, the NLF and the PRG. There is also a translation of Lenin's theses on the national and colonial questions, adopted by the Communist International in 1920. This is the document that supposedly converted Ho Chi Minh from nationalism to Communism.
Not sure how to rate this (an anti-Communist book stashed with Communist manifestoes?), but in the end, I decided to give it four stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment