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The Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s (DRV) “Committee for Revising the Constitution” [Ban sửa đổi Hiến pháp] was assembled in early 1957 and comprised of twenty-nine National Assembly members drawn from various areas of DRV political and intellectual life. As Hồ Chí Minh, the chairman of the committee, explained during its first meeting on February 27, 1957: “Our draft constitution must not only reflect the aspirations of the Northern people but also serve as a goal of struggle for our Southern compatriots.” Surely Hồ Chí Minh and other Party heavy-weights who dominated the committee, including politburo members Phạm Văn Đồng, Võ Nguyên Giáp, and Hoàng Văn Hoan, did not expect that revising the 1946 Constitution would involve twenty-seven more meetings (some lasting all day) over a span of two years and ten months. What took the committee so long?
In my essay, I explore this question by looking closely at stenographic transcripts of the committee’s twenty-eight meetings (578 pages of material obtained recently from Vietnam’s National Archives III). The transcripts show that, time and again, the committee was stalled by basic contradictions inherent in the outcomes set for the new constitution. It was supposed to appeal to a broad spectrum of Southerners, yet clearly affirm North Vietnam’s position in the Communist Bloc. It was supposed to look democratic, yet provide no legal avenue for the National Assembly to challenge Communist Party hegemony. And it was supposed to suggest peaceful reunification of the country, yet facilitate the DRV leadership’s mobilization for war.