Imagined Ancestries of Vietnamese Communisim illuminates the real and imagined lives of Ton Duc Thang (1888-1980), a celebrated revolutionary activist and Vietnamese communist icon, but it is much more than a conventional biography. This multifaceted study constitutes the first detailed re-evaluation of the official history of the Vietnamese Communist Part and is a critical analysis of the inner workings of Vietnamese historiography never before undertaken in its scope. In prominence and public visibility second only to Ho Chi Minh, whom he succeeded in the presidency, Ton Duc Thang in fact lacked any real power.Author Christoph Giebel reconciles this seeming contradiction by showingthat it was only Ton Duc Thang who could personify for the Party cruciallegitimizing ancestries: those that linked Vietnamese communism with theRussian October Revolution, highlighted proletarian internationalism amongits ranks, and rooted the Party in Viet Nam's south. The study traces thedecades-lon...