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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011 TOP SECRET – Sensitive The foregoing demonstrates the poverty of Vietnamese nationalist movements in the period 1946–1950; only the Viet Minh can be said to have been a "national" movement at the outset of the war with France, and it built its popularity throughout the years of struggle. The Viet Minh stressed the primacy of political action among the people and the careful preparation of bases as preconditions for military action. Their careful attention to the former included extraordinary efforts to inculcate in their troops attitudes and habits which would win the respect, and eventually the cooperation of the populace. The following extracts from Viet Minh doctrine are dated 1948:


 * "TWELVE RECOMMENDATIONS


 * "The nation has its root in the people.


 * "In the Resistance war and national reconstruction, the main force lies in the people. Therefore, all the people in the army, administration, and mass organizations who are in contact or live with the people, must remember and carry out the following recommendations:


 * "Six forbiddances:


 * 1 – Not to do what is likely to damage the land and crops or spoil the houses and belongings of the people.


 * 2 – Not to insist on buhingbuying [sic] or borrowing what the people are not willing to sell or lend.


 * 3 – Not to bring living hens into mountainous people's houses.


 * 4 – Never to break our word.


 * 5 – Not to give offense to people's faith and customs (such as to lie down before the altar, to raise feet over the hearth, to play music in the house, etc.)


 * 6 – Not to do or speak what is likely to make people believe that we hold them in contempt.


 * "Six permissibles:


 * 1 – To help the people in their daily work (harvesting, fetching firewood, carrying water, sewing, etc.)


 * 2 – Whenever possible to buy commodities for those who live far from markets (knife, salt, needle, thread, pen, paper, etc.)


 * 3 – In spare time, to tell amusing, simple, and short stories useful to the Resistance, but not to betray secrets.

Rh