National Social Democratic Front

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National Social Democratic Front
Mặt trận Quốc gia Dân chủ Xã hội
Party-Chief[note 1]Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (honorary)
Nguyễn Văn Hiếu (de facto)
Founded1967 (1967)
Dissolved1975 (1975)
Merger ofDemocratic Progressive Party
National Revolutionary Movement
National Progressive Movement
Alliance of Democratic and Peaceful Forces
Vietnamese Nationalist Party
Vietnamese Democratic Socialist Party
Preceded byDemocratic Progressive Party[1][2][3]
HeadquartersSaigon
Ideology"Survival nationalism"[4]
Anti-communism
Political positionBig tent
Colors  Red   White   Yellow
Slogan"Freedom—Democracy—Progress—Prosperity"
(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[edit]

Democratic Progressive Party[edit]

The party was founded as the Democratic Progressive Party (Vietnamese: Đảng Dân-chủ Tiến-bộ) or symply Democratic Party (Vietnamese: Đảng Dân-Chủ) by Nguyễn Văn Thiệu in 1967.[5] 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 in the presidential election of 1967, supporting President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and his military rule. The party also adopted the flag of the National Revolutionary Movement and the Vanguard Youth, a youth organization that participated to August Revolution in 1945 against French colonial rule.[6]

National Social Democratic Front[edit]

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 sympathized 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;[7] 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.

Social Democratic Alliance[edit]

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.

Democratic Alliance for Vietnam[edit]

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 Democratic Alliance for Vietnam, a pluralist extra-parliamentary opposition group based in California who want restore freedom and democracy in Vietnam.

Prominent members[edit]

Electoral history[edit]

Presidential elections[edit]

Election Party candidate Running mate Votes % Result
1967 Nguyễn Văn Thiệu Nguyễn Cao Kỳ 1,649,561 34.83% Elected Green tickY
1971 Trần Văn Hương 5,971,114 100% Elected Green tickY

See also[edit]

Notes and references[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Party-Chief in Vietnamese mean Đảng-trưởng

References[edit]

  1. ^ PRESIDENT THIEU ATTENDS DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONVENTION 1973
  2. ^ PRESIDENT NGUYEN VAN THIEU ATTENDS REVIEW PARADE 1973
  3. ^ INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT THIEU'S DEMOCRATIC PARTY 1973
  4. ^ William J. Duiker. Nationalism and Revolution in Vietnam: The Rise of Nationalism in Vietnam. University of British Columbia Press. pp. 89–90.
  5. ^ "TỔNG THỐNG NGUYỄN VĂN THIỆU : CÔNG VÀ TỘI". Ongvove Wordpress. 1973.
  6. ^ www.truclamyentu.info/tlls_nguyenduyan/chuyenlaco1.htm
  7. ^ 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.

Further reading[edit]

Documents[edit]

External links[edit]