Land reforms in Hai Phong, Kien An revisited

Abstract

In December 1995, the 5th stage of the land reforms is conducted in Kien An and Hai Phong. The Land reform commissions were enforced without the leading of the local Party and Administrative Committee but directly under the Central Government. How was the land reform operation in Hai Phong carried out? In the North in general and Hai Phong in particular, the Commissions committed fatal mistakes. Having not based on the social realities in the North and in Hai Phong, they blindly in finding out the number of landlords which had been already assigned by higher authorities: five landlords out of every 100 peasant. In fact the landlord made only about 0.65% of the rural population in the suburb of Hai Phong. In Kien An, 2,726 persons (out of total number of 3,997) were wrongly classified as "landlord" by the Commissions.

In "The letter to the rural compartriots and Cadres on the Occasion of Accomplishment of the Land Reforms in the North", President Ho Chi Minh pointed out the reasons for the mistakes committed in the Land Reform Campaigns. He also exercised serious self-criticism and acknowledged his mistakes in the 10th plenum. In Hai Phong and Kien An, after the Resolution for Correction almost all party members who had been wrongly classified, have got their interests and party membership restored and allowed to join the local goverment. The corrections were promptly carried out...