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Vietnam PARTY ORGANIZATION
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Figure 14. Organization of the Vietnamese Communist Party, 1987
The Party Congress and the Central Committee
As stipulated in the party Statute, the National Party
Congress (or National Congress of Party Delegates) is the party's
highest organ. Because of its unwieldy size (the Sixth National
Party Congress held in December 1986 was attended by 1,129
delegates), the infrequency with which it meets (once every 5
years or when a special situation arises), and its de facto
subordinate position to the party's Central Committee, which it
elects, the National Party Congress lacks real power. In theory,
the congress establishes party policy, but in actuality it
functions as a rubber stamp for the policies of the Political
Bureau, the Central Committee's decision-making body. The primary
role of the National Party Congress is to provide a forum for
reports on party programs since the last congress, to ratify
party directives for the future, and to elect a Central
Committee. Once these duties are performed, the congress
adjourns, leaving the Central Committee, which has a term of five
years, to implement the policies of the congress.
The Central Committee--the party organization in which
political power is formally vested--meets more frequently than
the National Party Congress--at least twice annually in forums
called plenums--and is much smaller in size (the Central
Committee elected at the Sixth National Party Congress in
December 1986 numbered 124 full members and 49 alternate
members). Like the National Party Congress, however, it usually
acts to confirm rather than establish policy. In reality, the
creation of policy is the prerogative of the Political Bureau,
which the Central Committee elects and to which it delegates all
decision-making authority.
The Political Bureau, composed of the party's highest ranking
members, is the party's supreme policy-making body; it possesses
unlimited decision- and policy-making powers. At the Sixth
National Party Congress, the Central Committee elected thirteen
full members and one alternate member to the Political Bureau.
Acting in administrative capacities under the direction of
the Political Bureau, are a party Secretariat, a Central Control
Commission, and a Central Military Party Committee. The
Secretariat is the most important of these three bodies,
overseeing the party and day-to-day implementation of policies
set by the Political Bureau. In 1986 the Secretariat, headed by
the party general secretary, was expanded from ten to thirteen
members. Five of the Secretariat's members held concurrent
positions on the Political Bureau: Nguyen Van Linh, Nguyen Duc
Tam, Tran Xuan Bach, Dao Duy Tung, and Do Muoi. Among its roles
are the supervision of Central Committee departments concerned
with party organization, propaganda and training, foreign
affairs, finance, science and education, and industry and
agriculture. In 1986 there existed a seven-member Central Control
Commission, appointed by the Central Committee and charged with
investigating reports of party irregularities. A Central Military
Party Committee with an undisclosed number of members, also
appointed by the Central Committee, controlled the party's
military affairs. In 1987, party committees throughout the armed
forces were under the supervision of the People's Army of
Vietnam's
(
PAVN--see Glossary) Directorate General for Political
Affairs, which, in turn, was responsible to the Central Military
Party Committee. These committees maintained close relationships
with the local civilian party committees
(see
fig. 14).
Data as of December 1987
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