National Social Democratic Front

History

The party was founded as Democratic Party (Vietnamese: Đảng Dân chủ) by Nguyễn Văn Thiệu in 1967. It wasn't linked with his North Vietnam's namesake, aligned with Viet Minh and Communists. The Democratic Party, expression of farmers, workers and small traders, participated to presidential election of 1967, supporting President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and his military rule. The party also adopted the flag of the Vanguard Youth, a youth organization that participated to August Revolution in 1945 against French colonial rule.

Like Vietnam War flared up, the Democratic Party tried to built a coalition with other anti-communist parties. In 1969, finally the Democrats dissolved themselves into a new subject, the National Social Democratic Front. The party became quickly a federation of several organizations and parties, like: persecuted Roman Catholics who fled from North Vietnam; the Vietnam Republic Veterans Association, who sympathyzed with military rule; the Vietnamese Kuomintang, ideologically opposed to communists like its Chinese counterpart; the Democratic Socialist Party, who rejected communists' atheism for Buddhist socialism; the Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam (along with its militant's branch, the National Radical Movement), that desired reunify Vietnam but not under communists; the Personalist Party, heir of Can Lao Party and the Peasants' and Workers' Party, supporting rural interests and opposite to Viet Cong's guerrilla. The parties' federation was functional during Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's tenure as President, also changing his name to Social Democratic Alliance in 1973. However, with the Vietnamization policy adopted by U.S. President Richard Nixon, the South Vietnam inexorably started its collapse. The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 was a turning point in the war, causing the end of American intervention in Vietnam. Despite the peace agreement between communist North Vietnam and capitalist South Vietnam, in 1975 the North Vietnam broke peace and started the takeover of South Vietnam. Like the United States refused another intervention, the South Vietnam collapsed after the Fall of Saigon, causing the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule. Many members of the Front and South Vietnamese government were executed by the new administration, but other fled away from Vietnam. In 1981, many former members of the Front created the Democratic Alliance for Vietnam, a pluralist opposition group based in California who want restore freedom and democracy in Vietnam.

Prominent members