Can Lao Party

The Cần lao Nhân vị Cách Mạng Ðảng, or Personalist Labor Revolutionary Party, was a secret party formed to support the Ngô Đình Diệm regime in South Vietnam, and largely operated by his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu. It was ostensibly based on the French-Catholic theology of personalism, blended with other Eastern and Western philosophies.

However, most observers regarded the party as simply an institution of control, with little effort made to formulate or disseminate an ideology. Instead of unifying the people against the Việt Cộng, it alienated them due to Diệm's corruption, bigotry and favoritism.[1] Upon the overthrow of the Diệm regime in a US-backed 1963 coup, the Cần Lao collapsed.

References

  1. ^ Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958-1960 Volume I: Vietnam, (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1986): 455-6.