ABSTRACT

The situation in China was, in many ways, a model for the Viet­ namese. The Chinese Communists, like the Vietminh, were able to rally the people against an alien force. In so doing the Chinese Com­ munists transferred their limited appeal on social and economic grounds-chiefly affecting the poor tenant farmers and landless peasants of south-east China-into a ‘national’ appeal: that is, it extended ‘vertically’ to other groups and classes as well as ‘hori­ zontally’ over a wider and indeed a different area.