Land Reform in China and North Vietnam

Ben Banasiak
Hist 334
Rough Draft #1

Vietnam has gone through many changes over its lifetime. It has had dominant people in power that control what goes on in terms of the amount of land Vietnam has gained or lost from its enemies. One major problem that still goes on to this day is land reform. Land reform occurs when the government takes it into there own hands and redistributes property that was rightfully owned by one person and gives it to another individual. The time frame I looked at about the struggles and problems land reform brought up was from 1953 – 1957 . This process has caused a great deal of troubles and solved few situations. It has made their main focus worse. This focus consists of the land owners overpowering near by land dwellers, almost establishing a personal work force and maintaining the bridge between the rich and the poor to become greater. With the idea of land reform, it still, in the end, turns to be a slave like atmosphere. When the government gives the land to these poor peasants to work this piece of property, some of them become overwhelmed which could, in turn, lead to a bad harvest season. In return, these poor peasant workers turn back to the powerful original land owners for help and take out loans. Now, the only way for these peasants to pay off these loans is by the land they are harvesting on and sacrificing their only way to make and establish some type of money for themselves. This is an on going situation that always ends up back at the idea of these peasants working for the dominant land owners.
Anther idea the government tried to push with land reform was reestablishing a new social system. This social system was the idea of bridging the large gap between the rich and the poor. With the distribution of land to the poorer portion of Vietnam, the government felt it could bring positive outcomes back to its community, but even more importantly to its country. At first, these dominant land owners were against the idea because they felt they were losing more than they would gain from the twist on a agricultural distribution. The government reassured them they would not have anything to worry about; that this is a way of smothering the idea that even though these land lords had a great deal of power, with the new motion of dispersing land to everyone would accept the fact or idea of having someone in charge of them.
The novel I read, Land Reform in China and North Vietnam, was a very intriguing book that gives the reader an in depth look on a society that was suffering on so many different levels and the government of these people tried to help but in the long run they ended up hurting the people of these countries more that they could have possibly helped. It was sad because these people were like puppets and the different government types were using them as toys to push their type of governing tactics. The book specifically discussed three different tactics they would use to enforce their reforms. The first one was having the new ruler simply take over where the old one left off. This left the Vietnamese with very little fundamental changes on society and their lifestyles. The second was the “Nationalist”. This is when they would “assert themselves against foreign powers”.(Moise 3) They also felt pushing a modernization and economic development would be in their favor. The third tactic involved a rebellion of the poor to overthrow the basic structure of society and favor a egalitarian order. These structures of government were pushed through this time period and each was trial tested and failed at extreme costs of society. This not only hurt the patrons of the country but the country itself as a whole.
The idea to start this out came from Russia. There was an idea of dividing the land is the central element and returning this land to it original owners. It was not an easy idea for the original land owners to swallow. They felt this idea was mainly directed at them, that the old and elite names of the society would loose their power if the government gave their land away to the peasants.
With the idea of land reform, many main points came up; one being that an unnatural outgrowth of village life was happening. With this, it caused a great deal of poverty, making people poor due to a lack venturing out to further better themselves. Participation by local peasants had to be genuine, understanding the rationale of those policies well enough to apply them. These policies put a great deal of burden on the peasants and the land lords. The peasants did not know how to act or what should be done with the idea of government taking one thing from a powerful individual and giving it to a poor peasant. With this going on, the land lords had to express interests in the peasant life. They were not allowed to deceive or look down on them but be heartfelt with their thoughts. This again was hard because it was such a harsh and dramatic change in the usual lifestyle they were used to.
This author of Memories of Land Reform: To Hoai’s: Three Others touches on a lot of resources that are extremely relative to what is mentioned in the Land Reform of China and North Vietnam. It mentions that “the Land Reform had gone terribly awry” that the government finally admitted to that. It is sad to say but this is a part of history that could have been heavily avoided if the idea behind it would be researched and had an outlook on it. All they did, it was said, that the idea of a land reform came from Russia. It is nice to see that with this the government arranged a “Rectification of Errors” where they came together and talked about all the mishaps that had happened. In later meeting the senior leaders in charge were stripped of there roles and replaced immediately. Ho Chi Minh was put in charge and started taking the appropriate steps in evaluating what was necessary and should have happened. A great deal of peasants were released from jail for being wrongly accused of their actions or beliefs on the matter.
Another book that involves Ho Chi Minh a great ruler that was in office for a short time but is heavily noted for his accomplishments and is noted again in a novel called Revolution in the Village, that gives his views on the idea of what Vietnam should be, which is a country where everyone is a equal person. It was noted when Ho Chi Minh gave his famous speech in 1945 about how everyone has the right to keep their right of independence and sacrifice their life when the time was needed and to stand up because they earned their respect and rights by fighting off power house forces such as Japan and France. I feel this action should have waited when the land reform was going on, then people would have stood up and united and realized what was going on in there own country and make smarter moves in perfecting the society they live in. The changes made during the land reform were childish, wrongly provoked, and in the long run hurtful to North Vietnam. Many people lost their lives during the government times of “testing” out new tactics whcih they thought would work for their civilization. It was at this time when their country felt as if they were whole. They realized what was going on and what had been happening, it was one individual who voiced what he saw and had others agree with the mishaps that were corrupting the country they lived in.
Land Reform was an idea that survived its time but not its purpose. The initial intention behind the fact of trying to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor was a heart warming idea, but would never stand in the civilization these peasants and land lords lived in. It was a reoccurring cycle that just stretched out time for the communities to get back to right where they started.