ABSTRACT
The Communists did not share in the atmosphere of unity that followed the outbreak of war in Europe. An editorial in the Party's official journal Dan Chung said that the Party approves the defense of Indochina against fascist aggression. The key to success would be the Party's ability to link the forces of urban nationalism and peasant rebellion in a single coordinated effort to achieve independence and to destroy the power of feudalism and imperialism in colonial Indochina. Planning for the revolt was apparently undertaken by a group of Communists who had recently escaped from Lang Son prison during the Japanese invasion. In Cochin China, however, local Communists were preparing to respond in their own way. The decision to place patriotic concerns before those of revolution meant that the social goals of the Vietminh would have to be muted in order to avoid alienating moderates.
