Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
TOP SECRET – Sensitive
| Value of DRV Foreign Trade[1] | |||
| (Millions of U.S . Dollars) 55/ | |||
| Total Trade | Imports | Exports | |
| 1955 | 80.4 | 73.6 | 6.8 |
| 1956 | 99.0 | 78.6 | 20.4 |
| 1957 | 140.5 | 99.5 | 41.0 |
| 1958 | 114.5 | 63.5 | 51.2 |
| 1959 | 171.8 | 104.5 | 67.3 |
| 1960 | 207.8 | 127.9 | 79.9 |
| 1961 | 224.2 | 143.7 | 80.5 |
| 1962 | 238.8 | 149.4 | 89.4 |
Ho was explicit in spurning Western assistance for DRV development. In September, 1955, he extolled aid from the "other democracies" and pointed out that:
"This selfless and unconditional aid, beneficial to the people, is completely different from the 'aid' conceived by the imperialists. Through their 'aid' the imperialists always aim at exploiting and enslaving the peoples. The Marshall Plan, which has gradually encroached upon the sovereignty of the recipient countries, is eloquent proof of this." 56/
C. Foreign Policy Objectives
In the aftermath of the Geneva Settlement of 1954, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam pursued beyond its borders national objectives which inevitably drew the DRV into a broader, more direct role in the southern insurgency, and, therefore , into conflict with the United States. The following examination of DRV national interests -- perforce speculative -- probes maximum and minimum objectives to delimit the range of DRV choice, and to determine the approximate apparent timing of those major foreign policy decisions which took it southward.
1. Independence
From the outset, Doc Lap, Independence, had been the battle-cry of Vietnamese of the Resistance, much as "liberty" rings for Americans. For Ho Chi Minh it was sine qua non: in 1946, he told a U.S. writer that "What follows will follow, independence must come first." 57/ Independence of Vietnam from foreign domination -- from colonialism in its political forms, its economic exploitation, its military occupation, its social subservience and racism -- has been the primary goal of the redoubtable
- ↑ Derived from DRV data. Total imports are believed to include all goods imported into the country except grant military assistance materiel.
