Most commendable from my perspective as a historian of the Vietnamese communist experience is the inclusion of references to Le Duan and allusions to his role in precipitating the onset of war with the United States in Le Duan is a little-known figure in the United States.
That year, a series of circumstances, including the seminal Battle of Ap Bac expertly described in Episode 2 of the Burns series , prompted a shift in the balance of power in the North Vietnamese capital. For years, Ho had maneuvered to avoid provoking the United States into directly intervening in Vietnam. He understood the potentially catastrophic implication of that contingency.
And that was why, as we see in Episode 1 , Hanoi had trodden so cautiously in the South since the Geneva accords of That all changed after That December, Le Duan, a highly dogmatic, battle-hardened former southern revolutionary who now served as Communist Party Secretary, seized the reins of communist power from Ho in what amounted to a palace coup.
In Stalinist fashion, he purged from Party ranks known and perceived political and ideological rivals, including Ho and Giap. The two men retained their titles, but lost all influence over policymaking. They also lost their power base in Hanoi. By , Le Duan and the hawks exercised supreme control over domestic and foreign policymaking in North Vietnam.
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