I have heard anecdotal, broad brush commentary over the years that the interests of South Vietnamese Communist and Communist adjacent revolutionaries, the National Liberation Front, aka, VC, and the interest of the North Vietnamese state, were not in perfect alignment and that in many cases their interests were violently opposed, that it was convenient for the North Vietnamese Hanoi government to have the NLF/VC movement face massive attrition fighting South Vietnam and the Americans and this allowed Hanoi and its northern based vision, system and personnel to control and enjoy the fruits of victory and Vietnamese unification.
Significantly, I have heard this from people who both are fans of the NLF/VC, and people who think that a non-communist victory in South Vietnam would have been better at almost any cost.
But while I've heard this North Vietnam versus VC assertion several times, I've never really seen it illustrated with individual instances, or statistical trends, or even anecdotes or vignettes about VC or NLF cadre in South Vietnam having their positions or authority in the south usurped and taken over by new northern carpetbaggers sent by Hanoi.
In fact, my individual, wikipedia deep perusing of Vietnamese Communist leadership history, seems to indicate a reasonably fair north - south balance existed, started even when the Communists only ruled the north, and continued and improved after Vietnamese unification.
Evidence- North Vietnam's Communist Party Secretary General from 1960, and effective leader and national strategist and policymaker after Ho Chi Minh, was South Vietnam born Le Duan. He remained in charge of the Party until 1986. Pham Van Dong, born in another South Vietnamese province, headed the State apparatus as Prime Minister since 1955, and continued to do so through 1987. They were from northern provinces of South Vietnam. Pham Van Dong's successor as Prime Minister, Pham Hung, was from the Deep South Mekong Delta region, and was an NLF official, commander of Central Office of South Vietnam (COSVN) from 1967 to the end of the war. Within a few years after unification, by 1979, he was Minister of the Interior for the reunited country and in 1987 he was Prime Minister. His successor as Prime Minister, Vo Van Kiet, was also born in the Deep South Mekong Delta region, and was a Communist Party stay-behind guy in the south after the French war, never regrouping to the north, - so a quintessential NLF/VC man, and was the first Communist ruler of Saigon after liberation in 1975. He was PM through most of the 1990s.
Now of course the Party leader is even more important in a Communist country. So Le Duan, a southerner who regrouped north, and then led the conquest of the south died in 1986 - the choice of his successor is relevant. It was Truong Chinh, a northerner. Who served a grand total of 6 months in 1986 - the Konstantin Chernenko of Vietnam. Nguyen Van Linh, also northern born, was successor as General Secretary. However, nearly all of his party work was in the south as Sec Gen of the Workers Party in the South and Deputy COSVN. Linh's successor, Đỗ Mười, who served for most of the 90s, was born in the north and mainly served in the north.
Significantly, I have heard this from people who both are fans of the NLF/VC, and people who think that a non-communist victory in South Vietnam would have been better at almost any cost.
But while I've heard this North Vietnam versus VC assertion several times, I've never really seen it illustrated with individual instances, or statistical trends, or even anecdotes or vignettes about VC or NLF cadre in South Vietnam having their positions or authority in the south usurped and taken over by new northern carpetbaggers sent by Hanoi.
In fact, my individual, wikipedia deep perusing of Vietnamese Communist leadership history, seems to indicate a reasonably fair north - south balance existed, started even when the Communists only ruled the north, and continued and improved after Vietnamese unification.
Evidence- North Vietnam's Communist Party Secretary General from 1960, and effective leader and national strategist and policymaker after Ho Chi Minh, was South Vietnam born Le Duan. He remained in charge of the Party until 1986. Pham Van Dong, born in another South Vietnamese province, headed the State apparatus as Prime Minister since 1955, and continued to do so through 1987. They were from northern provinces of South Vietnam. Pham Van Dong's successor as Prime Minister, Pham Hung, was from the Deep South Mekong Delta region, and was an NLF official, commander of Central Office of South Vietnam (COSVN) from 1967 to the end of the war. Within a few years after unification, by 1979, he was Minister of the Interior for the reunited country and in 1987 he was Prime Minister. His successor as Prime Minister, Vo Van Kiet, was also born in the Deep South Mekong Delta region, and was a Communist Party stay-behind guy in the south after the French war, never regrouping to the north, - so a quintessential NLF/VC man, and was the first Communist ruler of Saigon after liberation in 1975. He was PM through most of the 1990s.
Now of course the Party leader is even more important in a Communist country. So Le Duan, a southerner who regrouped north, and then led the conquest of the south died in 1986 - the choice of his successor is relevant. It was Truong Chinh, a northerner. Who served a grand total of 6 months in 1986 - the Konstantin Chernenko of Vietnam. Nguyen Van Linh, also northern born, was successor as General Secretary. However, nearly all of his party work was in the south as Sec Gen of the Workers Party in the South and Deputy COSVN. Linh's successor, Đỗ Mười, who served for most of the 90s, was born in the north and mainly served in the north.