Communist Party of Vietnam

The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) ; abbr. or . Sometimes translated as the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP).}} has been the sole legal party of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Ho Chi Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of North Vietnam in 1954 after the First Indochina War and all of Vietnam in 1975 after the Vietnam War. Although it nominally exists alongside the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, it maintains a unitary government and has centralized control over the state, military, and media. The supremacy of the CPV is guaranteed by Article 4 of the national constitution. The Vietnamese public generally refer to the CPV as simply "the Party" () or "our Party" ().

The CPV is organized on the basis of democratic centralism, a principle conceived by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. The highest institution of the CPV is the party's National Congress, which elects the Central Committee. The Central Committee is the supreme organ on party affairs in between party congresses. After a party congress, the Central Committee elects the Politburo and Secretariat, and appoints the General Secretary, the highest party office. In between sessions of the Central Committee, the Politburo is the supreme organ on party affairs. However, it can only implement decisions based on the policies which have been approved in advance by either the Central Committee or the party's National Congress. , the 12th Politburo has 19 members.

In history, the party overthrew the monarchy peacefully and clashed with opposing factions during the period 1945–46. It later fought the French Union then South Vietnam for control of the entire country. From 1941 to 1950, the party operated under the non-communist banner. During the Cold War, its power as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was challenged by existence of the pro-Western Saigon regime (State of Vietnam and Republic of Vietnam) from 1949 to 1975, and it was also aligned with the Soviet Union and allies. After taking power in all of Vietnam, the party officially unified the country as the Socialist Republic in 1976. The party had implemented a command economy in North Vietnam and later all of Vietnam since 1954, before introducing economic reforms, known as , in 1986. The party is currently known for its advocacy of what it calls a "socialist-oriented market economy" and Ho Chi Minh Thought.

While continuing to nominally hold to Marxism–Leninism, most independent sources have argued that it has lost its monopolistic ideological and moral legitimacy since the introduction of a mixed economy in the late 1980s and 1990s. In recent years, the party has stopped representing a specific class, but instead the "interests of the entire people", which includes entrepreneurs. The final class barrier was removed in 2006, when party members were allowed to engage in private activities. De-emphasising Marxism–Leninism, the party has placed emphasis on Vietnamese nationalism, developmentalism, and ideas from the American and French Revolutions, along with Ho Chi Minh's personal beliefs. The CPV participates in the annual International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP). The party's current regime is being criticized by the Vietnamese democracy movement, especially anti-communist Overseas Vietnamese.

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