Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
TOP SECRET – Sensitive
The U.S. is not well informed on how the Lao Dong leaders decided which to pursue of the several policy courses open to them, but there is evidence that the developing of consensus took several turnings. There appeared to be at first a move led by Ho and Giap toward strengthening DRV ties with the Soviets, crowned with some immediate success. On 28 February 1957 the UN General Assembly recommended to the Security Council that South Vietnam (and South Korea) be admitted to the UN. 164/ In early May, Diem paid a state visit to the U.S., where he received assurances of continued strong U.S. support. 165/ Whatever its reasons, the Soviet thereupon took a position against the admission to the UN of South Vietnam, and on 20 May 1957, Marshal Kliment E . Voroshilov, President of the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet, arrived in Hanoi for a state visit billed in DRV newspapers as a "most important event." 166/ It then appears that Truong Chinh and other Sinophile leaders pressed hard for orientation toward Peking. Amid evidence of haste and confusion, Ho left the country to visit East Europe in July, 1957, returning after stops in Moscow and Peking on 30 August 1957. Ho was in Moscow in July when Khrushchev expelled Malenkov, Molotov, and Kaganovich -- the anti-party group -- from the Praesidium of the CPSU, and probably gained some first hand insight into the ideas of the new leaders. 167/ In his absence, the DRV signed a new economic agreement with the CPR, and on his return, he appears to have been plunged into a power struggle of some proportions. Ho Chi Minh issued a statement on 2 September 1957 that the government of South Vietnam had to respect the desire of its people for reunification, and averred that his European trip demonstrated a "complete unity of views" with fraternal countries and that the trip had "splendid" results. lfJ3/ Also in September, Le Duan was formally admitted to the Politburo. In late October or early November, Ho left, somewhat mysteriously, for Moscow. Although Hanoi newspapers had announced a six week long fete in honor of the 40th anniversary of Russia's October Revolution, the actual celebrations were limited to a few, simple events, and handled low-key by the DRV and its press. Such speeches as were recorded had distinct Maoist overtones. Truong Chinh re-emerged from eclipse as the principal party spokesman, while Giap dropped from sight. Le Duan also went to MOSCOW, but returne d without Ho Chi Minh. Then, in late December, amid rumors that Ho and Giap were dead, both reappeared in Hanoi, and resumed their former position. 169/ In 1958, the Soviets replaced the CPR as the DRV's prime aid donor.
In subsequent years, Lao Dong Party historians identified
the meetings in Moscow in the fall of 1957 as one of the pivotal events in the modern history of Vietnam. Western corm:nentators have focused on Khrushchev's speech in which he pointed out that capitalism was doomed but that, "the only correct path in the development of international relations is a policy of peaceful coexistence . . . We work from the premise that wars are not necessary to advance socialism …"
