Viet Minh

The Việt Minh (Vietnamese: [vîət mīŋ̟] ^ⓘ, chữ Hán: 越盟), officially the League for Independence of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Độc lập Đồng minh or Việt Nam Độc lập Đồng minh Hội, chữ Hán: 越南獨立同盟(會); French: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam), was a communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Ho Chi Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Front (Mặt trận Việt Minh), it was established by the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) as a united front to achieve Vietnamese independence, the first step in a communist revolutionary project. With the collapse of Japanese authority at the close of World War II, the front moved swiftly to proclaim the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), the predecessor of today's Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The ICP presented the Viet Minh as a broad-based coalition comprising various political groups. Accommodation of noncommunists, including the colonial-trained bureaucracy and officials of the Empire of Vietnam, initially helped bring the Viet Minh to power in 1945, but it also blunted the communist core's ability to implement radical socioeconomic policies. After 1950, with the recognition and assistance of communist China and the Soviet Union, the party purged remaining bourgeois elements.

Following the Japanese occupation, the Việt Minh opposed Japan with support from the Republic of China, and later from the US Office of Strategic Services. After World War II, the Việt Minh established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and opposed the re-occupation of Vietnam by the French Union, resulting in the First Indochina War. It also opposed non-communist Vietnamese nationalists, such as the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng, during the civil conflicts, and later opposed the State of Vietnam as well as its successor, the Republic of Vietnam. Until 1948, this organization advocated putting aside the issue of class struggle and dictatorship of the proletariat to focus on gaining sovereignty for Vietnam. However, the organization's stance changed after being recognized by communist China and the Soviet Union in January 1950.

The political leader of Việt Minh was Ho Chi Minh. The military leadership was under the command of Võ Nguyên Giáp. Other founders were Lê Duẩn and Phạm Văn Đồng.

The Việt Nam Độc lập Đồng minh is not to be confused with the Việt Nam Cách mệnh Đồng minh Hội (League for the Vietnamese Revolution, abbreviated as Việt Cách) which was founded by Nguyễn Hải Thần. Việt Cách later briefly joined the Vietnamese National Coalition in 1946.

Today, the Vietnam Fatherland Front – a socio-political coalition led by the Communist Party of Vietnam forming the Vietnamese government – is recognized as the modern incarnation of the Việt Minh front in current Vietnamese politics.