The conference to establish the Communist Party of Vietnam in early 1930 was chaired by comrade Nguyen Ai Quoc. Photo: Ho Chi Minh Museum, Hue City

After Marxism-Leninism and Nguyen Ai Quoc's revolutionary ideology were spread to Vietnam, together with the proletarianization movement, it promoted the workers' movement and the patriotic movement in Vietnam to a high level in the years 1925-1929. By the end of 1929, in Vietnam, there were 3 communist organizations established: the Indochinese Communist Party, the Annam Communist Party and the Indochinese Communist Federation. This reflected the inevitable and objective trend of the Vietnamese revolution at that time, meeting the urgent needs of history. In the general situation and requirements of the Indochinese revolution, the Communist International repeatedly expressed its view on the need to quickly establish a unified communist party in this region.

Realizing the division of communist organizations in the process of leading the movement and implementing the directives of the Communist International, Nguyen Ai Quoc left Siam for China on December 23, 1929. For him, the issue of establishing the Party was extremely urgent at this time, because after nearly 10 years of careful preparation, the subjective and objective conditions for the establishment of the Party were ripe, the problem was to resolve the disagreements so that the communist organizations could reach unity and cooperate sincerely. When arriving in China, he decided to convene the Conference on the occasion of the Canh Ngo New Year 1930 to facilitate the delegates' travel and to distract the attention and surveillance of the French secret police. From January 6 to February 7, 1930[1], in Hong Kong (now Hong Kong), China, comrade Nguyen Ai Quoc chaired the Conference to unify communist organizations to establish the Communist Party of Vietnam.

To direct the Conference to achieve the goal of establishing a single political party in Vietnam, Nguyen Ai Quoc clearly identified the most important issue as self-criticism and criticism of the prejudices of communist organizations that led to conflicts and attacks on each other, and to eliminate those shortcomings and honestly cooperate to unify communist organizations. With Nguyen Ai Quoc's ability to persuade and influence people as well as his great prestige, difficult-to-resolve disagreements were quickly reconciled. The organizations frankly criticized and self-criticized to then unify and establish a political party.

The name proposed by Him and approved by the Conference was the Communist Party of Vietnam, different from the directive of the Communist International to establish the Indochinese Communist Party. The creativity of Nguyen Ai Quoc and those attending the Conference to establish the Party was: Although Indochina was a French colony, Indochina consisted of three ethnic groups: Vietnamese - Cambodian - Lao, living together, with a national history of thousands of years, with their own customs and cultures. The workers' movement in each country was also different, so naming the Communist Party of Vietnam was consistent with historical reality and more than that, it was also a thorough understanding and respect for the principle of the right of the nation to self-determination of its own destiny: Must seize power, must build itself into a national class, must become a nation itself [2].

Nguyen Ai Quoc's creativity was also clearly demonstrated in the method of unifying communist organizations to establish the Communist Party of Vietnam, which was the optimal method in the situation at that time. Nguyen Ai Quoc's method ensured speed and maintained solidarity while still maintaining the strictness in the principle of unifying to establish the Party.

Nguyen Ai Quoc drafted the following documents: Brief Platform, Brief Strategy, Brief Program of the Party, Brief Charter of the Party and they were approved on February 7, 1930. All of them were combined into the first Political Platform of the Party, and were also announced to encourage and motivate Party members and the masses to believe and enthusiastically enter a new stage of struggle after the Communist Party of Vietnam was born.

After finding the right path to save the country, realizing the necessity and great role of the Communist Party in the revolutionary cause, in the conditions of a semi-feudal colonial country, with a small working class, a majority peasant class, and low level of education... Vietnam had never had the basic premises for the birth of a Communist Party like Western countries, Nguyen Ai Quoc was creative, combining the national factor (patriotism) with the class factor (Marxism-Leninism and the workers' movement) to establish the Communist Party of Vietnam - a revolutionary party of the working class and the entire Vietnamese nation. The birth of the Communist Party of Vietnam was a process of meticulous preparation, sensitivity and creativity by Nguyen Ai Quoc.

[1] At the Third National Congress of the Party (September 1960), it was resolved that "... from now on, February 3 of each year will be taken as the anniversary of the Party's founding."

[2] Nguyen Dinh Dai (2006), Nguyen Ai Quoc's creativity in founding the Communist Party of Vietnam, Historical and realistic values, National Political Publishing House, p.115.

Le Ha - Van Quynh