Were the 1954-1957 Land Reforms of North VIetnam the fault of Ho Chi MInh?

Question

I'm not quite sure I understand Ho CHi MInh's involvement in the Land Reform preceding the Vietnam War. Was he wholly responsible for this or was he pressured/influenced by advisors and outside parties? And what did they do afterward once the reform stopped?

Answer 1

The "Land Reforms" in Vietnam were clearly based on those instituted in China by Mao. (Mao's campaigns were in turn modeled on the anti-Kulak campaigns of Stalin.) At this time, China was providing most of the weapons and financial support that made it possible for the Vietnamese to fight, so Mao had considerable power to force the Vietnamese to adopt his methods. In some cases Chinese advisers actually ran the "courts" and passed sentences directly on Vietnamese in Vietnam. This is briefly discussed in Chapter 34 of "Mao: The Untold Story" by Chang and Halliday.

Answer 2

A M Frantz has got it. In addition, some of the land reform was carried out by people in villages, and condoned by people in the government, but not necessarily Ho. He was often flaky on the matter. The people in the villages used what they called land reform to seek revenge on land owners and on anyone else they had a problem with. It was very close to a period of lawlessness.