A conference to unite Communist organisations in Vietnam, presided over by Nguyen Ai Quoc, took place from February 3-7, 1930 in Kowloon, Hong Kong (China). This was an event of historical significance as the Congress establishing the Communist Party of Vietnam.

The conference passed the Party’s Brief Political Platform, Brief Policy and Brief Statutes and outlined guidelines for national liberation and the advance towards socialism.

The first plenum of the Party Central Committee, which was held in Hong Kong from October 14-31, 1930, decided to rename the Communist Party of Vietnam the Communist Party of Indochina and adopted the political programme and important resolutions on urgent tasks to mobilise particular groups of the masses. The meeting elected the official Party Central Committee with Tran Phu being the General Secretary.

*** The First National Party Congress: consolidating and developing forces to lead the whole nation to fight imperialism and wars.

Immediately after its establishment, the Party led the movement for national liberation to initial victories, with the Soviet-Nghe Tinh movement (1930-1931) being the peak.

Following these victories, the French colonialists suppressed the patriotism movement. Party General Secretary Tran Phu and many other communists were arrested. Following the direction of the Communist International, the Overseas Directing Bureau (Overseas Bureau) of the Communist Party of Indochina was established in early 1934 with Le Hong Phong as the secretary. The bureau played a leading role and restructured the Party Central Committee.

The first National Party Congress took place in Macau, China, from March 27-31, 1935, with the participation of 13 delegates from domestic Party committees as well as overseas Party organisations. The Congress was presided over by Ha Huy Tap.

It reviewed the restoration of the Party organisation and the people’s movement, and mentioned three key tasks: consolidating and developing the Party, intensifying mass mobilisation and increasing public awareness of the anti-imperialism and anti-war cause.

The Congress elected the 13-member Party Central Committee. Leader Nguyen Ai Quoc was nominated the Party representative to the Communist International. Le Hong Phong was elected as Party General Secretary.

The first National Party Congress was an important historical event, marking the fundamental victory of the struggle to preserve and restore the organisational system of the Party from the central to grassroots levels.

A meeting of the Party Central Committee was held in Shanghai, China, in July 1936 to identify the Party’s new guidelines on revolutionary strategy and tactics in Indochina. The meeting elected Ha Huy Tap as General Secretary.

In March 1938, the Party Central Committee met and decided to expand the Indochina Democratic United Front. At the meeting, Nguyen Van Cu was elected to the Party Central Committee’s Standing Board and then the General Secretary.

The Party Central Committee meeting chaired by Cu in November 1939 decided to adjust the strategic directions of the Indochinese revolution making them suitable for the new situation. After that time, the revolutionary movement saw huge support throughout the country, leading the way for the General Uprising. 

*** The second National Party Congress: the Party led the whole nation in resistance and national construction.

Right after the victory of the August Revolution, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam made debut. The nation and regime faced life-threatening challenges: the armed forces of Jiang Jie Shi overflowed North Vietnam together with reactionary parties; and the French army, supported by the UK forces, returned to occupy the South, with the common aim of quelling the first young state of workers and peasants in Southeast Asia.

At the same time, the country coped with three difficulties, outside and inside enemies as well as the consequences of 80 years of suffering from the severe oppression and exploitation of the feudalism and colonialism with the most severe consequence being the famine in 1945 that killed more than 2 million people.

Amid the precarious situation, the Party Central Committee, the Government and President Ho Chi Minh focused on leading the resistance war, cleverly eliminating enemies and preparing conditions and forces for a long-lasting resistance war.

President Ho Chi Minh launched a campaign against hunger, illiteracy, and invaders, and he encouraged all the people to increase production; organised the General Election, elected the first National Assembly, established the Government and promulgated the 1946 Constitution.

To defend peace and national independence, we persistently negotiated with the French colonialists. However, the colonialists determined to re-conquer our country. They provoked incidents in Lang Son, Hai Phong and then Hanoi. The more concessions we made, the more the French colonialists use them to encroach upon our rights, forcing the nation to fight.

On December 19, 1946 President Ho Chi Minh called for a national resistance with the determination: "We would rather sacrifice all than lose our independence and be enslaved."

In order to further develop guidelines for resistance and national construction, the Party Central Committee decided to summon the second National Party Congress.

The congress took place in Chiem Hoa district’s Vinh Quang commune in the northern province of Tuyen Quang from Feb. 11-19, 1951, with the participation of 158 official and 53 alternate delegates, who represented more than 760,000 Party members. The congress was also attended by delegates from the Communist Parties of China and Thailand.

The congress passed a resolution to operate the Party in a public way and renamed it “the Vietnam Workers’ Party” and approved the Party’s Political Platform and its new Declaration and Statutes.

The congress elected a Party Central Committee that consisted of 19 official members and 10 alternate members. Ho Chi Minh was elected as the President of the Party Central Committee and Truong Chinh was re-elected as General Secretary.

The second National Party Congress was an event of great significance, marking a new step-forward of the Party and preparing all conditions to make the resistance war against French colonialists a complete success.

*** The third National Party Congress: Building socialism in the north and struggle for liberation in the South.

The resistance war against French colonialists ended successfully. The Party directed the people in the northern region to restore the economy and build socialism along with strengthened the armed forces to defend the North and give assistance to the South.

Southern people continued to confront with US invaders, who established a dictatorial regime with a plot to turn southern Vietnam into a new-style colony and the US imperialists’ military base, and to partition the country for a long time.

With Bill 10/59, the nepotism regime of Ngo Dinh Diem d ragged the guillotine everywhere and barbarously massacred patriots.

While the revolution in South Vietnam was facing various difficulties, Le Duan in his capacity as member of the Party Politburo and Secretary of the Nam Bo (Southern region) Party Committee wrote the draft of “The Path of Revolution in the South”, which says: “T here is no other path for the people of the South but the path of revolution.”

The resolution of the 15^th Party Central Committee conference (January 1959) clearly defined guidelines of the revolution in the South, which combined political struggle with armed struggle alongside boosting the struggle movement of people in the southern region.

The important resolution created a considerable breakthrough in the revolutionary cause of the people nationwide, helping perfect the Party’s guidelines for the resistance war against US aggressors and national salvation. Since then, the struggle movement of the people in the southern region had spread out, particularly the “general uprising” for destroying the enemy’s grip and seizing power.

The development of the northern and southern regions’ revolution created positive changes for the whole nation. The Party held the third National Congress from Sept. 5-10, 1960 saw the participation of 525 official and 51 alternate delegates who represented more than 500,000 Party members.

Addressing the congress’ opening ceremony, President Ho Chi Minh said: “This is the congress of building socialism in the North and struggling for peace and national reunification.”

The congress elected a Central Committee that consisted of 47 official and 31 alternate members. President Ho Chi Minh was re-elected as the Party’s President (He hold the position until he passed away in September 1969); and Le Duan was elected as First Secretary of the Party Central Committee.

With the Party’s sound revolutionary guidelines coupled with great sacrifice of the heroic Vietnamese people, the nation’s revolution has gained great victories.

*** The fourth National Party Congress: Reviewing the resistance war against the US imperialists for national salvation, and guiding the nation towards socialism.

With the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, with the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign as it peak, under the leadership of the Party, our people made a great victory: completely liberating the South and reunifying the country. Vietnam’s revolution entered a new stage. For the first time, in a peaceful, independent and unified country, the people from all regions were eager to join in the general election, electing a common National Assembly of the entire nation.

In an enthusiastic and hopeful atmosphere, the fourth National Party Congress took place in Hanoi from December 14-20, 1976. As many as 1,008 delegates representing more than 1.55 million Party members nationwide and 29 international delegations attended the congress.

The congress summed up our people’s anti-US resistance war for national salvation, drew up major lessons covering a wide range of diverse and profound contents, and affirmed the entire nation’s revolutionary path towards socialism. Guidelines and policies throughout this period focused on promoting national reconciliation; conducting socialist reforms; healing the wounds of the war; gradually restoring and developing the economy, society, culture and education; building infrastructure of socialism; strengthening national defence, maintaining political security and social order, and strengthening the Party building work to enhance the Party’s leadership and combating capacity during the new period. The congress decided that speeding up the socialist industrialistion was a key task of the entire period of transition to socialism.

The congress decided to rename the Vietnam Workers’ Party the Communist Party of Vietnam and adopted the Party’s new Statutes. The congress restored the post of General Secretary instead of First Secretary and elected a Central Committee, consisting of 101 official and 32 alternate members. The Political Bureau comprised 14 official and three alternate members. Comrade Le Duan was elected as General Secretary.

The fourth National Party Congress was of extremely important significance: It was the congress of the victory of the national liberation and reunification cause that steered the entire nation in the process of socialist construction.

*** The fifth National Party Congress: All for the socialist Fatherland and the people’s happiness.

During the years between the fourth and the fifth National Party Congresses, the Vietnamese revolution shifted to a new stage and the united nation began the construction and protection of a socialist Vietnam . In the light of the fourth National Party Congress’s Resolution, the entire Party, people and army spared no efforts to restore, reform and develop the economy and reaped a broad range of achievements in many fields.

The Resolution adopted at the sixth meeting of the Party Central Committee (fourth tenure) created an impetus for the development of agriculture, forestry, fishery and consumer goods production. Directive 100, which was issued by the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat in October 1981, regarding the products-based payments for groups and labourers in agricultural cooperatives initially created a new momentum in production activities.

The fifth National Party Congress convened in the capital city of Hanoi from March 27-31, 1982. A total of 1,033 delegates representing more than 1.72 million Party members across the country, and 47 international delegations attended the congress.

The congress heard a Political Report of the Party Central Committee and many other important reports. The congress honestly pointed out objective and subjective reasons of the existing difficulties and weaknesses. On that basis, the congress outlined major socio-economic directions, tasks and targets for the 1981-1985 period, and set out two strategic tasks: building socialism and firmly protecting the Fatherland of socialist Vietnam .

The congress adopted the Party’s Statutes (revised) and elected a Central Committee, which included 116 official and 36 alternate members; comrade Le Duan was re-elected as General Secretary by the Central Committee.

After the congress, the economic situation, especially the market and price situation, continued to worsen and real salary kept falling. The 8 th meeting of the Party Central Committee discussed and decided to make one-step reform of price, salary, finance and monetary in order to abolish red tape and subsidy, absolutely shift to socialist-oriented economic accounting and business, and step up production and business.

On July 10, 1986, General Secretary Le Duan passed away. The Party Central Committee convened an extraordinary meeting on July 14, 1986 and elected comrade Truong Chinh to the post of General Secretary.

*** The sixth National Party Congress: Comprehensively renewing the nation for the victory of socialism.

Implementing the Resolutions of the fourth and fifth National Party Congresses and the resolutions of the Party Central Committees during these terms, our people strived to overcome difficulties and record a broad range of important achievements. The socialist reform made a step forwards. However, beside these achievements, the country’s economy and society faced a lot of challenges. We made mistakes in economic restructuring, especially in capital investment and construction during the years from 1976 to 1980, leaving heavy consequences.

The nation’s situation posed big challenges to our Party, which required reform of the leadership method, firstly the way of thinking. The sixth National Party Congress took place in Hanoi from December 15-18, 1986. Attending the congress were 1,129 delegates, who represented almost 1.9 million Party members, and 32 international delegations.

Based on the correct analysis and evaluation of the country’s situation, the sixth National Party Congress outlined the renewal policy. The congress affirmed that the comprehensive renewal in all spheres, firstly focusing on economic policy, and maintaining political stability, were premises to ensure the success of the renewal process.

The congress drew up four major lessons: First, in all of its activities, the Party must thoroughly grasp the idea “The people are the root”, establish and promote the working people’s right to mastery. As the ruling party, the Party must pay special attention to strengthening its linkages with the people. All polices of the Party must originate from the working people’s interests. Second, the Party always proceeds from reality, respects and acts in line with objective rules. Third, it was a must to combine the nation’s strengths with the era’s strengths amid new conditions. Fourth, the Party must be strengthened to be able to perform the political task of a ruling party that leads the people in conducting socialist revolution. The urgent issue was to enhance the Party’s combating and leadership capacity. The principle of concentrated democracy must be maintained in Party activities as well as its leadership of socio-economic development.

The congress decided to supplement and revise a number of specific points in the Party’s Statutes to make them comply with the new situation. The congress elected a Central Committee for the sixth tenure, consisting of 124 official and 49 alternate members. Comrade Nguyen Van Linh was elected as General Secretary.

*** The seventh National Party Congress: Guiding the country in rising above challenges to step by step stabilise and develop in a dynamic and solid manner.

By implementing the sixth National Party Congress’ resolution, the national renewal recorded initial important achievements.

These included political stability and positive changes in the national economy with remarkable progress made in realizing the goals of three economic programmes. A multi-sectoral commodity economy was taking shape that operate with a market mechanism under the State’s management.

Social democracy was increasingly promoted, the people’s living conditions initially stabilised, national defence and security securely maintained and international relations expanded.
However, weaknesses and difficulties still remained in the national economy and a great number of pressing socio-economic problems were yet to be solved.

In addition, the world situation underwent complicated developments, particularly in the Soviet Union and socialist countries in Eastern Europe.

The Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee convened the seventh National Party Congress in Hanoi from June 24 to 27, 1991, which was attended by 1,176 delegates representing 2.1 million Party members nationwide.

The congress examined the implementation of the sixth National Party Congress’s resolution and summed up first-hand experiences drawn from the implementation of renewal.
It concluded that socialist orientations must be maintained in the renewal process, the renewal must be conducted in a comprehensive, simultaneous and thorough manner with appropriate moves, forms and ways, and the development of the multi-sectoral commodity economy must be coupled with enhancing the State’s management over socio-economic affairs.

The congress affirmed that Ho Chi Minh Thought and Marxism-Leninism was the ideological foundation and lodestar for the Party’s activities and Ho Chi Minh Thought was the creative application of Marxism-Leninism to Vietnam’s situation.

The congress elected a 146-member Central Committee of the Party and Do Muoi was elected Party General Secretary.

*** The eighth National Party Congress: Continuing renewal and speeding up industrialisation and modernisation.

The eighth National Party Congress took place in Hanoi from June 28 to July 1, 1996 with the participation of 1,196 delegates representing 2 million Party members nationwide and 40 foreign delegations.

The congress reviewed the renewal in the past decade to draw major lessons and defined the 1996-2000 period as an extremely important phase of the national industrialisation and modernisation.

In the period, the tasks were to mobilise all resources, seize opportunities, surmount challenges, push up the renewal process comprehensively and simultaneously, and continue to promote the development of the multi-sectoral economy that operates in line with the market mechanism under the State management and along socialist orientations.
The congress resolved to strive to achieve and surpass the goals adopted in the socio-economic stabilisation and development strategy to 2000, including posting a fast, highly-effective and sustainable economic growth rate, addressing burning social issues, ensuring national defence and security, improving the people’s living conditions, scaling up accumulation of internal economic strength, thus creating a solid premise for higher development at the beginning of the next century.

The congress elected a 170-member Central Committee, which elected a 19-member Political Bureau.

Do Muoi was re-elected Party General Secretary at this congress.

 *** The ninth National Party Congress: Promoting the strength of the entire nation, continuing the renewal process and speeding up the industrialisation and modernisation cause.

With the slogan of “Intelligence, Democracy, Solidarity and Renovation”, the ninth National Party Congress convened in Hanoi from April 19-22, 2001 with the participation of 1,168 delegates representing more than 2.4 million Party members nationwide, and 35 international delegations.

The congress reviewed the 70-year path of the Vietnamese revolution, five years of implementation of the eighth National Party Congress’s Resolution, 15 years of national renovation and 10 years of implementing the socio-economic strategy.

It also drew deep lessons and experiences, thus developing and completing the revolutionary guidelines for the next period, which was to strive to further improve the leadership and combative capacity of the Party, encourage and bring into play the strength of the entire nation as well as speed up the national industrialisation and modernisation process.

The congress affirmed that in the 20^th century, the success of the August Revolution 1945 with the debut of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the wars for national liberation and defence, the renovation cause and the transitional period to socialism were the great victories.

It also affirmed the country’s great and important achievements obtained during the implementation of the 1991-2000 socio-economic stabilisation and development strategy and the Resolution of the eighth National Party Congress.

The congress frankly pointed out shortcomings and weaknesses that should be repaired.
Regarding the country’s path to socialism, the congress affirmed the Party and people’s determination to build Vietnam into a socialist country on the foundation of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought.

About the socio-economic development direction, the Resolution of the ninth National Party Congress stressed on accelerating the industrialisation and modernisation process and building an independent economy, gradually turning Vietnam into an industrialised country with priorities given to developing productive force, and building a production relationship in line with the socialist orientations.

The country should bring into full play its internal strength and take advantage of external sources as well as actively integrate into the international economy for a rapid, effective and sustainable development, the resolution stated.

The country also should boost economic growth together with cultural development, gradually improving the material and spiritual lives of people, while realising the social equality and advance, protecting and improving the environment, and combining the socio-economic development with defence and security consolidation.

The ninth congress elected a 150-member Central Committee. The Committee elected Nong Duc Manh as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).

*** The tenth National Party Congress: Enhancing the Party’s leadership and combative capacity, bringing into full play the entire nation’s strength, comprehensively boosting the renewal process and delivering the country from its underdeveloped status soon.

The tenth congress took place in Hanoi from April 18-25, 2006. It drew the participation of 1,176 delegates representing more than 3.1 million Party members nationwide.

The congress adopted the Political Report, the Report on Guidelines and Goals for Socio-Economic Development for 2006-2010, and the Report on Party Building, which were submitted by the ninth Party Central Committee.

The congress also approved the full text of the revised Statute of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

The documents adopted at the tenth congress were the result of the intelligence and will of the entire Party and people and the in-depth practical and theoretical summation of 20 years of renovation in order to continue completing and developing the renewal policy and standpoint in the current period of the country’s revolution.

The congress elected a new Party Central Committee for the tenth tenure, including 160 official members and 21 alternative members. Nong Duc Manh was re-elected as the CPV General Secretary.