Dissens in Nordvietnam: Die 'Anti-Partei-Affäre' und der Krieg (1963-1967)

Abstract The paper analyses internal debates within the North Vietnamese leadership in the 1960s commonly known as the "revisionist/anti-Party affair". It argues that by launching a campaign against dissident Party members who favored a reunification of the country by peaceful means, Party chief Le Duan managed to push through his more militant line and thus paved the way for the war against South Vietnam and the United States. The paper emphasizes that the struggle
between different factions in North Vietnam before the outbreak of the war had
a major domestic dimension although it was closely connected to the Sino-Soviet split. It draws on hitherto untapped East German sources held in the
German Federal National Archives, the Political Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Archives of the Ministry of State Security.