The ‘Sword and Shield of the Party’ (Vietnam)

What is it about?

This paper shows that since the beginning of the reform period in 1986 the regime in Hanoi has taken great pains to create the image of the state having legitimate and, indeed, heroic security organs that acted as the “saviors of the Vietnamese revolution” and still serve as the “shield and sword” of the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP). I argue that while previously the socialist state used to regard the history of its security organs as top secret, over the last few years, a huge amount of resources have been mobilized to actively propagate a sacred and romanticized image of the security apparatus.

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