National Social Democratic Front

For other uses, see NSDF (disambiguation) and SDA.

The National Social Democratic Front (Vietnamese: Mặt trận Quốc gia Dân chủ Xã hội), later named the Social Democratic Alliance (Vietnamese: Liên minh Dân chủ Xã hội), was a South Vietnamese political party which was effectively a federation of different groups, united by their anti-communist stance. Its chairman was Lt. Gen. Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, leader of South Vietnam from 1965–1975.

National Social Democratic Front Mặt trận Quốc gia Dân chủ Xã hội
Leader	Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (honorary) Nguyễn Văn Hiếu (de facto)
Founded	1967 (1967)
Dissolved	1975 (1975)
Merger of	Democratic Progressive Party National Revolutionary Movement National Progressive Movement Alliance of Democratic and Peaceful Forces Vietnamese Nationalist Party Vietnamese Democratic Socialist Party
Preceded by	Democratic Progressive Party[1][2][3]
Headquarters	Saigon
Ideology	Vietnamese nationalism[4] Anti-communism
Political position	Big tent
Colors	Red   White   Yellow
Slogan	"Freedom—Democracy—Progress—Prosperity" (Tự do—Dân chủ—Tiến bộ—Phú cường)
Party flag
Politics of Vietnam Political parties Elections

History

Democratic Progressive Party

The party was founded as the Democratic Progressive Party (Vietnamese: Đảng Dân-chủ Tiến-bộ) or simply Democratic Party (Vietnamese: Đảng Dân-Chủ) by Nguyễn Văn Thiệu in 1967.^[5] It was not linked with its North Vietnam namesake, aligned with the Viet Minh and Communists. The Democratic Party, purportedly representing farmers, workers and small traders, participated in the presidential election of 1967, supporting President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and his military rule. The party also adopted the flag of the National Revolutionary Movement and the Vanguard Youth, a youth organization that participated to August Revolution in 1945 against French colonial rule.^[6]

National Social Democratic Front

As the Vietnam War flared up, the Democratic Party tried to build a coalition with other anti-communist parties. In May 1969, the Democrats finally dissolved and formed a new party, the National Social Democratic Front. The party quickly became a federation of several organizations and parties, such as persecuted Roman Catholics who fled from North Vietnam; the Vietnam Republic Veterans Association, who sympathized with military rule; the Vietnamese Kuomintang, ideologically opposed to communism 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 to reunify Vietnam but not under communists;^[7] the Personalist Revolutionary Party, the heir of Can Lao Party; and the Peasants' and Workers' Party, supporting rural interests and opposed to the Viet Cong's guerrilla.

Social Democratic Alliance

The parties' federation was functional during Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's tenure as president and changed its name to Social Democratic Alliance in 1973. However, with the Vietnamization policy adopted by U.S. President Richard Nixon, 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 North Vietnam broke the peace and started the takeover of South Vietnam. Since the United States refused another intervention, South Vietnam collapsed after the Fall of Saigon, causing the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule.

Democratic Alliance for Vietnam

See also: National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies

Many members of the Front and South Vietnamese government were executed by the new administration, but others fled from Vietnam. In 1981, many former members of the Front created the Democratic Alliance for Vietnam, a pluralist extra-parliamentary opposition group based in California who want restore freedom and democracy in Vietnam.

Prominent members

• Bùi Diễm
• Đỗ Mậu
• Hồ Ngọc Nhuận
• Hoàng Đức Nhã
• Lê Minh Trí
• Nguyễn Bá Cẩn
• Nguyễn Bá Lương
• Nguyễn Cao Kỳ
• Nguyễn Hữu Có
• Nguyễn Ngọc Huy
• Nguyễn Tôn Hoàn
• Nguyễn Văn Hảo
• Nguyễn Văn Hiếu
• Nguyễn Văn Kiểu
• Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
• Nguyễn Xuân Oánh
• Phan Quang Đán
• Tôn Thất Đính
• Trần Thiện Khiêm
• Trần Văn Đỗ
• Trần Văn Đôn
• Trần Văn Hương
• Trần Văn Lắm
• Trần Văn Tuyên
• Trần Văn Chiêu
• Trần Trung Dung
• Trương Đình Dzu
• Võ Long Triều
• Vương Văn Bắc
• [...]

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election	Party candidate	Running mate	Votes	%	Result
1967	Nguyễn Văn Thiệu	Nguyễn Cao Kỳ	1,649,561	34.83%	Elected Y
1971		Trần Văn Hương	5,971,114	100%	Elected Y

Notes and references

Notes

References

1. PRESIDENT THIEU ATTENDS DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONVENTION 1973
2. PRESIDENT NGUYEN VAN THIEU ATTENDS REVIEW PARADE 1973
3. INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT THIEU'S DEMOCRATIC PARTY 1973
4. William J. Duiker. Nationalism and Revolution in Vietnam: The Rise of Nationalism in Vietnam. University of British Columbia Press. pp. 89–90.
5. "TỔNG THỐNG NGUYỄN VĂN THIỆU : CÔNG VÀ TỘI". Ongvove Wordpress. 1973.
6. www.truclamyentu.info/tlls_nguyenduyan/chuyenlaco1.htm
7. Nathalie Huynh; Chau Nguyen (2015). New Perceptions of the Vietnam War: Essays on the War, the South Vietnamese Experience, the Diaspora and the Continuing Impact. McFarland. p. 65.

Further reading

Documents

• Bùi Diễm & David Chanoff, In the Jaws of History, Indiana University Press ; Illustrated edition, April 1, 1999
• Phạm Công Luận, Hồi ức, sưu khảo, ghi chép về văn hóa Sài Gòn, Phuongnam Books & Thegioi Publishing House, Saigon, 2016–2022
• Kiều Chinh, Nghệ sĩ lưu vong : Hồi ký, Văn Học Press, Irvine, California, United States, 2021
• David Chanoff and Doan Van Toai (1986) Vietnam: A Portrait of Its People at War, I.B. Tauris Publishers
• Sharon, Ariel and David Chanoff (1989) Warrior : the autobiography of Ariel Sharon; New York : Simon and Schuster
• Good, Kenneth and David Chanoff (1992) Into the heart : one man's pursuit of love and knowledge among the Yanomami, Ulverscroft
• Crowe, William J and David Chanoff (1993) The line of fire : from Washington to the Gulf, the politics and battles of the new military, Simon & Schuster
• Elders, M Joycelyn and David Chanoff (1996) Joycelyn Elders, M.D. : from sharecropper's daughter to surgeon general of the United States of America, Morrow
• White, Augustus A. and David Chanoff (2011) Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care, Harvard University Press
• Zadman, Felix and David Chanoff (1995) Never the last journey: a Fortune 500 founder's life story from Holocaust survivor to victor on Wall Street, Shocken
• Cao Van Vien (1983). The Final Collapse. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History.
• Dong Van Khuyen (1979). The RVNAF. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History.
• Dougan, Clark; Fulghum, David; et al. (1985). The Fall of the South. Boston: Boston Publishing Company. ISBN 0939526166.
• Dougan, Clark; Weiss, Stephen; et al. (1983). Nineteen Sixty-Eight. Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Publishing Company. ISBN 0939526069.
• Hammer, Ellen J. (1987). A Death in November: America in Vietnam, 1963. New York: E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-24210-4.
• Hoang Ngoc Lung (1978). The General Offensives of 1968–69. McLean, Virginia: General Research Corporation.
• Hosmer, Stephen T.; Konrad Kellen; Jenkins, Brian M. (1980). The fall of South Vietnam : statements by Vietnamese military and civilian leaders. New York: Crane, Russak. ISBN 0844813451.
• Isaacs, Arnold R. (1983). Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801830605.
• Jacobs, Seth (2006). Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam, 1950–1963. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-4447-8.
• Joes, Anthony J. (1990). The War for South Vietnam, 1954–1975. New York: Praeger. ISBN 0275938921.
• Jones, Howard (2003). Death of a Generation: how the assassinations of Diem and JFK prolonged the Vietnam War. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505286-2.
• Kahin, George McT. (1986). Intervention : how America became involved in Vietnam. New York: Knopf. ISBN 039454367X.
• Karnow, Stanley (1997). Vietnam: A history. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-84218-4.
• Langguth, A. J. (2000). Our Vietnam: the war, 1954–1975. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81202-9.
• Le Gro; William E. (1981). From Cease-Fire to Capitulation. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History.
• Lipsman, Samuel; Weiss, Stephen (1985). The False Peace: 1972–74. Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Publishing Company. ISBN 0-939526-15-8.
• McAllister, James (November 2004). ""A Fiasco of Noble Proportions": The Johnson Administration and the South Vietnamese Elections of 1967". The Pacific Historical Review. 73 (4). Berkeley, California: University of California Press: 619–651. doi:10.1525/phr.2004.73.4.619.
• McAllister, James (2008). "'Only Religions Count in Vietnam': Thich Tri Quang and the Vietnam War". Modern Asian Studies. 42 (4). New York: Cambridge University Press: 751–782. doi:10.1017/s0026749x07002855. S2CID 145595067.
• Military History Institute of Vietnam (2002). Victory in Vietnam: A History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975. trans. Pribbenow, Merle. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press. ISBN 0700611754.
• Moyar, Mark (2004). "Political Monks: The Militant Buddhist Movement during the Vietnam War". Modern Asian Studies. 38 (4). New York: Cambridge University Press: 749–784. doi:10.1017/S0026749X04001295. S2CID 145723264.
• Moyar, Mark (2006). Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521869110.
• Nguyen Tien Hung; Schecter, Jerrold L. (1986). The Palace File. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0060156406.
• Penniman, Howard R. (1972). Elections in South Vietnam. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.
• Smedberg, Marco (2008). Vietnamkrigen: 1880–1980. Lund, Scania: Historiska Media. ISBN 978-9185507887.
• Snepp, Frank (1977). Decent Interval: An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the CIA's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam. New York: Random House. ISBN 0394407431.
• Truong Nhu Tang (1986). Journal of a Vietcong. Cape. ISBN 0224028197.
• Willbanks, James H. (2004). Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam Lost Its War. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press. ISBN 0-7006-1331-5.
• Zaffiri, Samuel (1994). Westmoreland. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0688111793.

External links

• (in English) The Constitution of the Republic of Vietnam 1956 (archived from the original on 2009-03-25)
• The Constitution of the Republic of Vietnam 1967
• (in Vietnamese) HIẾN PHÁP VIỆT NAM CỘNG HOÀ 1967
• Timeline of NVA invasion of South Vietnam
• Ông Hoàng Đức Nhã : 45 năm nhìn lại biến cố 30/4 (VOA)
• KIM NHUNG SHOW | SBTN | Cựu Tổng trưởng Hoàng Đức Nhã 1 2 3
• Chương trình Lịch Sử VNCH qua phỏng vấn đặc biệt Cựu Tổng Trưởng Hoàng Đức Nhã
• Nguyên Tổng trưởng Hoàng Đức Nhã và các tổng trưởng VNCH viếng Việt Museum