The singularity of the Vietnamese revolution cannot be explained entirely by factors such as a racially discriminating colonialism or oppressive landlordism. These factors are to be found in many Asian and African countries which did not produce a Ho Chi Minh or a Vo Nguyen Giap. Vietnam's Confucian past is critically important. It was distinguished by (1) an incompletely centralized monarchy which generated both political and moral expectations that it could never satisfy; (2) a peculiarly bipolar political system in which the monarchy had to share power with a provincial intelligentsia which lived close to the peasantry; and (3) a transcendental neoConfucian philosophy, diffused through civil service examinations, which stressed the writings of the idealist philosopher Mencius. Large peasant rebellions, often advised by Confucian scholars, and bent on punishing rulers who did not exemplify the proper cosmic principles through "benevolent government," recurred in Vietnam before French colonialism. Ho Chi Minh and many of his associates were descendants of the provincial scholar class who might be so involved.
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