National Social Democratic Front
National Social Democratic Front Mặt trận Quốc gia Dân chủ Xã hội | |
---|---|
Chairman | Nguyễn Văn Thiệu |
Founded | 1967 |
Dissolved | 1975 |
Merger of | Vietnam Republic Veterans' Association Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng Vietnamese Democratic Socialist Party Personalist Revolutionary Party Peasants' and Workers' Party |
Preceded by | Democratic Party |
Headquarters | Saigon |
Ideology | "Survival nationalism"[1] Anti-communism |
Political position | Big tent |
Colors | Red and Yellow |
Slogan | English: "Freedom - Democracy - Progress - Prosperity" Vietnamese: "Tự do - Dân chủ - Tiến bộ - Phú cường" |
Party flag | |
The National Social Democratic Front (Vietnamese: Mặt trận Quốc gia Dân chủ Xã hội), later named the Social Democratic Alliance (Vietnamese: Liên minh Dân chủ Xã hội), was a South Vietnamese political party which was effectively a federation of different groups, united by their anti-communist stance. Its chairman was Lt. Gen. Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, leader of South Vietnam in 1965–1975.
History[]
The party was founded as the Democratic Party (Vietnamese: Đảng Dân chủ) by Nguyễn Văn Thiệu in 1967.[2] It was not linked with its North Vietnam namesake, aligned with Viet Minh and Communists. The Democratic Party, expressing farmers, workers and small traders, participated to presidential election of 1967, supporting President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and his military rule. The party also adopted the flag of the Vanguard Youth, a youth organization that participated to August Revolution in 1945 against French colonial rule.[3]
As the Vietnam War flared up, the Democratic Party tried to build a coalition with other anti-communist parties. In 1969, the Democrats finally dissolved themselves into a new subject, the National Social Democratic Front. The party became quickly a federation of several organizations and parties, such as: persecuted Roman Catholics who fled from North Vietnam; the Vietnam Republic Veterans Association, who sympathyzed with military rule; the Vietnamese Kuomintang, ideologically opposed to communists like its Chinese counterpart; the Democratic Socialist Party, who rejected communists' atheism for Buddhist socialism; the Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam (along with its militant's branch, the National Radical Movement), that desired to reunify Vietnam but not under communists;[4] the Personalist Revolutionary Party, the heir of Can Lao Party and the Peasants' and Workers' Party, supporting rural interests and opposite to Viet Cong's guerrilla. The parties' federation was functional during Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's tenure as President and changed its name to "Social Democratic Alliance" in 1973. However, with the Vietnamization policy adopted by U.S. President Richard Nixon, South Vietnam inexorably started its collapse. The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 was a turning point in the war, causing the end of American intervention in Vietnam. Despite the peace agreement between communist North Vietnam and capitalist South Vietnam, in 1975 North Vietnam broke the peace and started the takeover of South Vietnam. Since the United States refused another intervention, South Vietnam collapsed after the Fall of Saigon, causing the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule. Many members of the Front and South Vietnamese government were executed by the new administration, but others fled from Vietnam. In 1981, many former members of the Front created the , a pluralist extra-parliamentary opposition group based in California who want restore freedom and democracy in Vietnam.
Prominent members[]
- Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
- Nguyễn Văn Hiếu
- Dương Văn Minh
- Nguyễn Cao Kỳ
- Nguyễn Tôn Hoàn
- Tôn Thất Đính
- Trần Thiện Khiêm
Electoral history[]
Presidential elections[]
Election | Party candidate | Running mate | Votes | % | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1967 | Nguyễn Văn Thiệu | Nguyễn Cao Kỳ | 1,649,561 | 34.8% | Elected |
1971 | Trần Văn Hương | 5,971,114 | 100% | Elected |
References[]
- ^ William J. Duiker. Nationalism and Revolution in Vietnam: The Rise of Nationalism in Vietnam. University of British Columbia Press. pp. 89–90.
- ^ "TỔNG THỐNG NGUYỄN VĂN THIỆU : CÔNG VÀ TỘI". Ongvove Wordpress. 1973.
- ^ www.truclamyentu.info/tlls_nguyenduyan/chuyenlaco1.htm
- ^ Nathalie Huynh; Chau Nguyen (2015). New Perceptions of the Vietnam War: Essays on the War, the South Vietnamese Experience, the Diaspora and the Continuing Impact. McFarland. p. 65.
- 1967 establishments in South Vietnam
- 1970s disestablishments in South Vietnam
- 1975 disestablishments in Vietnam
- 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 1975
- Political parties established in 1967
- Political party alliances in Vietnam