Fatherland Front of Vietnam FFV

a patriotic front created in September 1955 out of the Lien Viet to rally the nation for the struggle to implement the Geneva Agreements of 1954 and to unify Vietnam.

The Fatherland Front has embraced all political parties and social organizations in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). Its directing force has become the Workers’ Party of Vietnam. The front’s First (Constituent) Congress, held in Hanoi on Sept. 5–10, 1955, elected its central organs and adopted a program and bylaws. The front’s program outlined the basic strategy of the struggle for a “peaceful, unified, independent, democratic, and flourishing Vietnam” on the basis of the Geneva Agreements of 1954. It envisaged restoration of normal economic, cultural, and social ties between North and South Vietnam and freedom of movement between the two zones. The program also called for holding general elections to a national assembly, the formation of a central coalition government by the assembly, and the gradual unification of the country. The front made a significant contribution to the successful implementation of socialist reforms.

The second Congress, held in April 1961, adopted new bylaws for the front. With the escalation of American aggression in Vietnam in 1964–65, the front appealed to the popular masses of the DRV to defend their socialist homeland and to support the national liberation movement in South Vietnam. Throughout the entire period of aggression, the front united the popular masses in carrying out the tasks necessary to ensure the freedom and independence of the homeland and socialist construction in the DRV.

The Third Congress, held in December 1971, discussed the building of socialism in the DRV and the means of repulsing American aggression. The congress declared its support for the struggle of the people of South Vietnam, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (created in 1960), the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (formed in 1969), and the Union of National, Democratic, and Peace-loving Forces of South Vietnam (established in 1968). After the signing of the Paris Agreement of 1973 On Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam, the front worked for the strict fulfillment of the agreement by all sides and for the peaceful unification of the homeland. It participated in the postwar reconstruction of the national economy and in the building of socialism in the DRV.

Until his death in 1969, Ho Chi Minh was the honorary chairman of the front.

After the creation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1976), the Fatherland Front of Vietnam united in 1977 with the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the Union of National, Democratic, and Peace-loving Forces of South Vietnam into a national united front of Vietnam and retained its original name. The honorary chairman of the FFV is Ton Due Thang, the chairman of the Presidium of the Central Committee is Hoang Quoc Viet, and the general secretary of the Central Committee is Nguyen Van Tien. Its press organ is Cuu quoc.