By contrast, Hanoi's reaction to the third of the trilogy
of programs which dominated the Chinese scene in 1958-1959-?the
formation of people's communes--was more ambiguous and.circumspect.
The fact that the DRV was still in the preliminary
phase of organizing low-level agricultural cooperatives. ruled
out the establishment of communes in North Vietnam within the
foreseeable future,and probably for this reason Hanoi originated
little independent comment on China's commune program in
the fall of 1958. This presumption was confirmed by Ho Chi
Minh in January 1959 when he utilized the medium of a Western
press query to stress that his country had no intention of
organizing communes in the "immediate future.
On the other hand, there were indications at this time
that the Lao Dong party may have been attracted by a number
of commune features and may have looked favorably on this
organization as a logical future step once North Vietnam had
achieved a higher level of "socialist" development. In a 19
December 1958 editorial, the-off icial party organ hailed "the
movements to establish people's communes and develop the national
economy at a leap forward rate" as "of great significance
not only for the Chinese People's Republic $ut also for
the Communist and Workers Movement and peace movement through
the world." A May 1959 report by the Sinophile Truong Chinh
on agricultural cooperatization revealed the future goal of
establishing "large cooperatives" encompassing "all party organizat
ions; administrative services, organs for mobilizing
the people; all economic, cultural and educational activities;
and the building of militia... ." The basic identity between
this comprehensive organization and Mao Tse-tung's concept of
the commune, combining "industry, agriculture, commerce, education
and the militia" plus township government, was unmistakable.
North Vietnam's praise of the Chinese Communist model
reached a peak at the time of the 10th anniversary of the Chinese
People's Republic in October 1959, an occasion honored
in Hanoi, according to a Western observer, as if "a colony
were celebrating the centenary of its mother country." A
significant feature of Vietnamese commentary on this occasion