Seeing as all the countries that made up French Indochina were communist at some point after independence, how possible would it be to have all of Indochina be a unified country or Yugoslavia/Soviet Union style country under a one party Communist state?
Communist Indochina?
- Thread starter sirjackalot
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- indochina
There was a unified Indochinese Communist Party during WWII. Ho disbanded it in favour of pursuing a Vietnamese nation. I don't recall his exact reasoning for doing so.
Some things to consider though vis-a-vis Yugoslavia:
-the Vietnamese would be the majority (and in power), unlike the Serbs who were merely a plurality (and a somewhat suppressed one at that)
-The Vietnamese are much more geographically concentrated than the Serbs
-Yugoslavia existed before WWII and had formed via the consent of its constituents, Indochina had merely been a useful grouping of colonies and the only way that would change is if the Vietnamese dominated ICP conquers it all
As a result you have a demographic and political balance that favours centralization, but a demographic distribution which favours substantial decentralization and a population which is liable to see the project as a Vietnamese Empire regardless.
Some things to consider though vis-a-vis Yugoslavia:
-the Vietnamese would be the majority (and in power), unlike the Serbs who were merely a plurality (and a somewhat suppressed one at that)
-The Vietnamese are much more geographically concentrated than the Serbs
-Yugoslavia existed before WWII and had formed via the consent of its constituents, Indochina had merely been a useful grouping of colonies and the only way that would change is if the Vietnamese dominated ICP conquers it all
As a result you have a demographic and political balance that favours centralization, but a demographic distribution which favours substantial decentralization and a population which is liable to see the project as a Vietnamese Empire regardless.
The ICP was always Vietnamese-dominated and had very little strength in Laos and Cambodia--even the few early members from Laos were overwhelmingly Vietnamese. (The first two Lao members did not join the ICP until 1935--and they spent most of their time in Thailand. https://books.google.com/books?id=seglAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA136) With Stalin's increasing emphasis on appeals to national patriotism during and after World War II, it was probably inevitable that separate parties for Laos and Cambodia be formed, though at first they were still dominated by the Vietnamese.
So when does this united communist Indochina form? After France loses the Indochina War around 1954? I wonder how America reacts to this development...
That would butterfly away the Vietnam war away. That has to be a plus atleast.