Land Reform

Land Reform: China and North Vietnam

China and Vietnam have gone through many changes over their lifetime. They have had dominant people in power that control what goes on in terms of the amount of land China and Northern Vietnam have gained or lost from their enemies. One major problem that still goes on to this day is land reform. Land reform occurs when the government takes the land from the dominant land lords and redistributes the property that was rightfully owned by the land lords and generously donates it to another individual.
The time frame I looked at about the struggles and problems that 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 China and North 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 an 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. Land Reform had many alterations going on at the same time. It was dealing with the war between the French and ending their rule among the North Vietnamese. While the French was being pushed out the land reform made things even harder. Here we have a society trying to fight off a world leading population to set in stone a new era. They are trying to stick with the motto “out with the old and in with the new”, if the government would have only realized the can of worms they would open with this idea they took from Russia.
It was Russia who rightfully had the first idea or notion of creating a land reform society. It was the idea that if it worked for them maybe it could work for us. This idea brought on a couple other problems the people of North Viet Nam and China faced. They were introduced to a society of where taxation was about to take over. This is another problem why land reform failed the peasants who just received this land had to pay a tax which if a bad harvest came the idea of turning back to the land lords for financial aid was the best thing.

Land Reform in China and North Vietnam, Edwin E. Moise
This book was very intriguing it gave 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 an 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 lose 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.

Sources:
“Forum: Memories of Land Reform; To Hoai’s Three Others”, Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Summer 2007, Vol. 2, No. 2
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. Great deals 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 which 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.
Revolution in the Village, Hy Van Luong
This book I used to better understand a life of an individual living between the time frame of 1954 - 1987 I mainly focused on the years that corresponded with my book. It touched on many sensitive subjects and uncomfortable situations they took on in their life time. It went on to explain when villages were test subject from the government at first the elderly people were against what was going on. Then when it caught negative attention from the whole village and they realized it was hurting them more than helping them, the idea was run out of the village.

David G. Marr, Review, The Business History Review, Vol. 59, No. 2 (summer, 1985), pp. 343-345
I viewed David G. Marrs review to obtain a better understanding of the time period and the situation at hand that is going on. From a student’s perspective to Professor Marr his background on the subject cleared a lot of confusion with me as far as the relationship between North Viet Nam and China. It was also nice to see another person’s opinion on the book. I feel he is a little harsh on the idea of Moise not having direct sources for his book. He brings up the fact that if the government did not have any clue what was going on and how things should be solved then how could Moise. I feel that Moise gave clear cut pieces of information to back up the experiences and the situations that were going on in North Vietnam and in China. Another topic of why land reform was given a test trial Marr try’s to say is to “increase the agricultural production”(Marr, 344). The idea and I think it stands for itself was to build a bridge between the gap of peasants and rich, not the agricultural problem. I can understand that it might have been slow, but that was due to poor harvests or slack on the land owner’s part for not farming correctly. The land was going to be there and producing its crops whether one person ran the land or it was spilt and the land was distributed.