| Vietnam
general information |
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| Vietnam
general information |
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The area that is now Vietnam is composed of the historic regions of TONKIN, ANNAM, and COCHIN CHINA. European traders arrived in the early 16th cent. The French captured Saigon in 1859, organized the colony of Cochin China in 1867, and declared protectorates over Tonkin and Annam in 1884. The three were merged with Cambodia in 1887 to form French INDOCHINA. A nationalist movement arose in the early 20th cent., gaining momentum during the Japanese occupation in WORLD WAR II. After the Japanese withdrew in 1945 the VIET MINH, a coalition of nationalists and Communists, established a republic headed by HO CHI MINH. French attempts to reassert control and establish BAO DAI as emperor resulted in the French Indochina War (1946–54), which ended with the French defeat at DIENBIENPHU. At the Geneva Conference of 1954 Vietnam was provisionally divided, pending nationwide free elections, into Communist North Vietnam and nationalist South Vietnam. Fearing a Communist victory, the regime of Ngo Dinh DIEM refused to hold the scheduled elections and declared the south an independent republic in 1955. The VIETNAM WAR ensued, with the U.S. aiding South Vietnam. A cease-fire was signed and U.S. troops withdrawn in 1973, but the Communists overran the south in 1975, reunifying (1976) the country. The regime launched a large-scale resettlement and reeducation program to suppress continued opposition in the south. In 1978–79 it invaded Cambodia, overthrowing the regime of POL POT and provoking a brief invasion of N Vietnam by China. Continued political and social upheaval took its toll on the economy and also prompted the flight of great numbers of refugee BOAT PEOPLE. In the late 1980s economic failure and food shortages, both exacerbated by a U.S. economic embargo, led to decentralization and limited free enterprise, but the party retained tight political control. In 1992 the U.S. began to ease its embargo in response to Vietnam's support for the Cambodian peace process and cooperation in the search for missing American servicemen.
The modern nation of Vietnam encompasses the historic areas of Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin China. More than 400 years of European control disrupted these traditional regions. France colonized Vietnam in stages during the 19th century, and nationalist groups seeking independence created turbulence during much of the 20th century. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Vietnam was the battleground of an extended war and was divided. The northern portion was closely allied with Communist nations, such as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and China, which controlled Vietnam for much of its history. The southern portion was allied with the United States and other democratic nations. The Vietnam War ended in 1975, and political unity was established the next year when the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north and the Republic of Vietnam in the south became one nation.
Land and Resources
Vietnam occupies the easternmost part of the Indochinese Peninsula,
a rugged, elongated S-shaped strip of mountains, coastal plains, and river
deltas.
Physiographic Regions
Vietnam may be divided into four major regions. In the northwest is
the mountainous southerly extension of China's Yunnan Plateau. The
country's highest peak, Fan Si Pan (3143 m/10,312 ft), is located near the
border with China. To the east of the highlands is the Red River (also
known as the Song Hong) delta, a triangularly shaped lowland along the
Gulf of Tonkin (an arm of the South China Sea). To the south the Annamese
Highlands, which run northwest to southeast, and an associated coastal
plain form the backbone of central Vietnam. The fourth and southernmost
region is the Mekong River delta, a depositional area of flat land.
Soils
The soils of the Red River and Mekong River deltas, the two major
deltas of Vietnam, are composed of rich alluvium except where damming for
flood control has altered the stream flow. Soils in the uplands are poor
as a result of leaching of nutrients from the ground by the abundant
rainfall.
Rivers
The Red River in the north and the Mekong River in the south are the
two major freshwater streams. The Red flows almost directly southeast from
the northwestern highlands, whereas the Mekong follows an irregular path
from Cambodia, crosses southernmost Vietnam, and empties in the South
China Sea through a complex network of distributaries. Both rivers have
been leveed to prevent flood damage.
Climate
Three basic climate types are found in Vietnam. In the north,
especially in the interior, the temperatures are subtropical. Shifting
seasonal wind patterns result in dry winters and wet summers. The central
and southeastern areas typify the tropical monsoon climate, with high
temperatures and abundant precipitation. In the southwest, distinct wet
and dry periods are evident, but temperatures are higher than in the
north.
Vegetation and Animal Life
Abundant vegetation exists throughout Vietnam except where the
landscape has been denuded. Typical mixed stands in the rain forests
contain a wide variety of pines, broadleaf trees, vines, and bamboos.
Dense mangroves bordering the distributaries of the deltas often hinder
access to the water's edge. The tropical rain forests are inhabited by
large mammals such as elephants, deer, bears, tigers, and leopards.
Smaller animals, including monkeys, hares, squirrels, and otters, are
found throughout the country. Reptiles such as crocodiles, snakes, and
lizards, as well as many species of birds, are also indigenous.
Mineral Resources
The northern highlands of Vietnam contain valuable minerals,
including iron, anthracite coal, zinc, chromite, tin, and apatite.
Petroleum and natural gas deposits lie offshore.
Population
Vietnamese, related to the southern Chinese, constitute the largest
ethnic group in Vietnam and account for about 88 percent of the total
population; the remainder are members of various ethnic groups. The size
of the Chinese minority has decreased sharply with emigration.
Population Characteristics
The population of Vietnam (1993 estimate) was 71,787,608, yielding a
population density of 217 persons per sq km (563 per sq mi). The majority
live in small villages, though the southern part of the country is more
urbanized than the northern part. Most people live in the delta areas or
along the coast. The population of Vietnam is young: about 39 percent of
all Vietnamese were less than 15 years of age in 1989, when the population
was increasing by about 2.2 percent annually.
Principal Cities
Most of the larger urban centers are located in southern Vietnam. Of
the major cities, only the capital city of Hanoi (population, 1989,
3,056,146) is not located on the coast. Other large cities are Ho Chi Minh
City, formerly Saigon (3,924,435); Haiphong (1,447,523), Hanoi's port; and
Da Nang (369,734), near the ancient city of Hue (260,489). The government
has attempted to reverse the rural-to-urban migration stream by
establishing new economic zones in the countryside and forcing city
residents to relocate to these.
Languages
Vietnamese, the official language, is spoken by the majority of the
population. The use of French, a remnant of colonial times, is declining.
Some Vietnamese people who live in urban areas speak other languages, such
as English and Russian. Khmer, Cham, and Montagnard are spoken primarily
in the interior. With the exodus of the Chinese in recent years, the
once-common use of their language has diminished.
Religion
Historically the country is mostly Buddhist, a reflection of Chinese
influences. To the traditional religions of Mahayana Buddhism,
Confucianism, and Taoism have been added the newer faiths of Cao Dai and
Hoa Hao. There are an estimated 4.5 million Roman Catholics.
Education and Cultural Activity
The long period of military conflict in Vietnam seriously disrupted
educational progress and cultural programs, especially those remnants that
dated from the years of French rule. Emphasis has been placed on the
reeducation of the people in the south to instruct them in the Communist
system.
Education
All schools in Vietnam were nationalized following reunification,
and by the late 1980s more than 12.6 million pupils were in attendance.
Schooling is free and compulsory. Universities in Vietnam are the
University of Hanoi (1956), and the University of Ho Chi Minh City (1917).
More than 90 percent of the adult population is literate.
Culture
The cultural life of Vietnam was strongly flavored by that of China
until French domination in the 19th century. At that time the traditional
culture began to acquire an overlay of Western characteristics. The
postwar government expressed its desire to rid Vietnamese life of
Occidental influences. Two major museums of Vietnamese culture have been
established, in Hanoi in 1958 and in Ho Chi Minh City in 1977. The
National Library was established in Hanoi in 1919; a counterpart was
founded in Ho Chi Minh City in 1976.
Communications
Telecommunications in Vietnam are under the control of the
government or the Vietnamese Communist party. The Voice of Vietnam
broadcasts from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. There are an estimated 6.6
million radios and 2.2 million televisions throughout the country. Of the
four daily newspapers published in Vietnam, Nhan Dan, the official paper
of the Communist party, has the largest circulation (300,000).
Government
A constitution enacted in 1992 assigns to the Communist party a
leading role in Vietnamese government and society. The party acts through
the Vietnam Fatherland Front, which includes representatives of the
nation's political parties, trade unions, and social organizations.
Executive
Under the 1992 constitution, the head of state is a president,
elected by the legislature from among its members; as commander of the
armed forces, the president chairs the Council on National Defense and
Security. The prime minister, who heads the government, appoints a
cabinet, subject to legislative approval.
Legislative
The unicameral National Assembly, composed of a maximum of 400
members, is the highest legislative body in Vietnam. Governmental
appointments are ratified by the legislature, which is elected for a
five-year term.
Judiciary
Judges of the people's courts are elected to their offices. Organs
of Control can initiate lawsuits against governmental bodies or
individuals deemed to be violating the law. The highest court in Vietnam
is the Supreme People's Court.
Local Government
A system of people's councils, each representing a local
jurisdiction, administers local government in Vietnam. Each council has a
people's committee elected from it to serve as an executive. The country
is divided into 50 provinces and three municipalities: Hanoi, Haiphong,
and Ho Chi Minh City.
Political Parties
The Vietnamese Communist party is the leading political institution.
All legislative candidates must be approved by the Fatherland Front.
Social Services
A national social security system is in operation in Vietnam. In the
late 1980s the nation had some 20,100 physicians and dentists and 216,000
hospital beds. The average life expectancy at birth is 66 years for women
and 62 years for men.
Defense
The Vietnamese armed forces totaled 857,000 troops in 1992. From two
to three years of military service are compulsory. Much of the equipment
used by the military consists of abandoned American-made matériel
and arms obtained from Vietnam's allies, particularly the former Soviet
republics.
Economy
Vietnam's modern economy evolved under the burden of military
actions and political upheavals. After partition in 1954, the nations of
North Vietnam and South Vietnam each had developed their own economic
structure, reflecting different economic systems with different resources
and different trading partners. The North operated under a highly
centralized, planned economy, whereas the South maintained a free-market
economy. With the reunification of Vietnam in 1976 came the introduction
of North Vietnam's centrally planned economy into the South.
National Output
In 1992 Vietnam had an estimated annual gross domestic product of
$15.95 billion. To counteract economic stagnation, a development program
in 1990 called for a doubling of per capita income, a 50 percent increase
in the rice crop, and a fivefold increase in the value of exports by the
year 2000. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Vietnam's principal
benefactor, however, sharp cuts in aid intensified the nation's economic
problems.
Labor
The civilian labor force of Vietnam in the late 1980s was estimated
to exceed 30 million people. The only legal labor federation is the
Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, which had a membership of about
3.8 million. The reunification of the country seriously affected the
economic structure of Vietnam in terms of the composition of the labor
force. The ethnic Chinese who left Vietnam were part of the cadre of
trained administrators. Many of the workers in the south who fled or were
sent to reeducation camps and collective farms had been part of the
management of industries and businesses. Inexperienced workers were then
placed in positions of authority, and as a result productivity dropped.
Agriculture
The leading sector of the Vietnamese economy is agriculture, which
employs 72 percent of the labor force. The country's principal crops in
the late 1980s (with annual output in metric tons) included rice, the
staple food, 15.2 million; sugarcane, 6.7 million; fruits, vegetables, and
melons, 7 million; cassava, 3 million; and sweet potatoes, 2.1 million.
Cash crops include coffee, 219,000; tea, 30,000; soybeans, 82,000; and
natural rubber, 51,000. Livestock included 12.1 million pigs, 2.9 million
cattle, and 96 million poultry.
Forestry and Fishing
Although forests cover about 40 percent of Vietnam's total land
area, the growth of commercial forestry has been hindered by a lack of
transportation facilities, as well as by the mixture of different species
of trees, making it uneconomical to harvest a single species. Teak and
bamboo are predominant. Most of the 25.8 million cu m (911 million cu ft)
of roundwood harvested annually in the late 1980s was used for fuel.
Vietnam's extensive coastline and numerous streams are rich fishing sites.
Most fish are taken from the South China Sea. Some fish farming has been
undertaken in flooded areas inland. About 871,400 metric tons of fish,
crabs, shrimps and prawns, and other mollusks were caught annually in the
late 1980s.
Mining
Most mining activities are confined to the northwest, where
anthracite coal, phosphate rock, copper, tin, zinc, iron antimony, and
chromium are extracted. Coal and apatite, a phosphate rock, are
extensively mined. In addition, large petroleum and natural gas deposits
lie offshore. Petroleum has been extracted since 1975 and production,
mostly by a state-owned company, has been increasing. The areas holding
all of the petroleum and natural gas reserves are also claimed by China.
Manufacturing
The major Vietnamese manufacturing plants, concentrated in the
north, have been almost totally restored, but output has not reached
planned levels. Those industries that have dominated Vietnam's economy
manufacture paper, cement, textiles, food products, chemicals,
fertilizers, and electronics.
Energy
Vietnam has not yet fully utilized its considerable hydroelectric
power potential. Coal-powered plants remain the primary source of
electricity. In the late 1980s some 5.3 billion kilowatt-hours of
electricity were generated annually.
Transportation
The war years left a mark on the transport system of Vietnam. Since
the end of the conflict, major efforts have been made to link the south
and the north. Vehicular transportation, easiest along the coast, employs
a network of about 85,700 km (about 53,250 mi) of roads, of which about 11
percent are paved. Railways have about 3220 km (about 2000 mi) of operable
track and are concentrated in the north, except for the 1730-km (1075-mi)
Hanoi-to-Ho Chi Minh City line. The long coastline of the country and the
Mekong and Red rivers, as well as many smaller streams and canals,
facilitate inexpensive transportation. The major ports used for
international shipping are Haiphong, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City.
Domestic flights link several of Vietnam's cities, and Vietnam Airline
operates both internationally and domestically. Ho Chi Minh City and Noi
Bai have international airports. All transport facilities are government
controlled.
Currency and Banking
Following the reunification of Vietnam, the piastre, the currency of
the south, was abolished. The new dông is now the national monetary
unit; the new dông is divided into 100 xu (10,500 new dông
equal U.S.$1; 1992). The State Bank of Vietnam (1951), headquartered in
Hanoi, operates the only banking system within the country. The Bank for
Foreign Trade of Vietnam is authorized to handle foreign currencies.
Commerce and Trade
The industrialized north relies on the south for much of its
agricultural needs, and, since the dismantling of the free-market economy
in the south, the north has provided manufactured goods for the south.
Vietnam's annual exports include unprocessed agricultural products,
petroleum, coal, clothing, footwear, ceramics, gemstones, and silk.
Exports were valued at $2.01 billion in 1991. Imports, dominated by
mineral fuels, tractors, fertilizers, and transportation equipment, were
valued at about $2.05 billion. Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, France, and
Germany are Vietnam's major trading partners. On February 4, 1994, the
United States ended a trade embargo that had been imposed against North
Vietnam in 1964 and extended to all of Vietnam on April 30, 1975, after
the fall of South Vietnam. Restrictions on the sale of weapons and some
high-technology goods were left in place. Diplomatic relations were not
restored, but there were provisions for the opening of liaison offices in
each capital.
Chinese Influence
In 221 BC the Ch'in dynasty in China completed its conquest of
neighboring states and became the first to rule over a united China. The
Ch'in Empire, however, did not long survive the death of its dynamic
founder, Shih Huang Ti, and the impact of its collapse was soon felt in
Vietnam. In the wreckage of the empire, the Chinese commander in the south
built his own kingdom of Nam Viet (South Viet; Chinese, Nan Yüeh);
the young state of Au Lac was included. In 111 BC, Chinese armies
conquered Nam Viet and absorbed it into the growing Han Empire. The
Chinese conquest had fateful consequences for the future course of
Vietnamese history. After briefly ruling through local chieftains, Chinese
rulers attempted to integrate Vietnam politically and culturally into the
Han Empire. Chinese administrators were imported to replace the local
landed nobility. Political institutions patterned after the Chinese model
were imposed, and Confucianism became the official ideology. The Chinese
language was introduced as the medium of official and literary expression,
and Chinese ideographs were adopted as the written form for the Vietnamese
spoken language. Chinese art, architecture, and music exercised a powerful
impact on their Vietnamese counterparts. Vietnamese resistance to rule by
the Chinese was fierce but sporadic. The most famous early revolt took
place in AD 39, when two widows of local aristocrats, the Trung sisters,
led an uprising against foreign rule. The revolt was briefly successful,
and the older sister, Trung Trac, established herself as ruler of an
independent state. Chinese armies returned to the attack, however, and in
AD 43 Vietnam was reconquered.
Independence
The Trung sisters' revolt was only the first in a series of
intermittent uprisings that took place during a thousand years of Chinese
rule in Vietnam. Finally, in 939, Vietnamese forces under Ngo Quyen took
advantage of chaotic conditions in China to defeat local occupation troops
and set up an independent state. Ngo Quyen's death a few years later
ushered in a period of civil strife, but in the early 11th century the
first of the great Vietnamese dynasties was founded. Under the astute
leadership of several dynamic rulers, the Ly dynasty ruled Vietnam for
more than 200 years, from 1010 to 1225. Although the rise of the Ly
reflected the emergence of a lively sense of Vietnamese nationhood, Ly
rulers retained many of the political and social institutions that had
been introduced during the period of Chinese rule. Confucianism continued
to provide the foundation for the political institutions of the state. The
Chinese civil service examination system was retained as the means of
selecting government officials, and although at first only members of the
nobility were permitted to compete in the examinations, eventually the
right was extended to include most males. The educational system also
continued to reflect the Chinese model. Young Vietnamese preparing for the
examinations were schooled in the Confucian classics and grew up
conversant with the great figures and ideas that had shaped Chinese
history. Vietnamese society, however, was more than just a pale reflection
of China. Beneath the veneer of Chinese fashion and thought, popular
mostly among the upper classes, native forms of expression continued to
flourish. Young Vietnamese learned to appreciate the great heroes of the
Vietnamese past, many of whom had built their reputation on resistance to
the Chinese conquest. At the village level, social mores reflected native
forms more than patterns imported from China. Although to the superficial
eye Vietnam looked like a “smaller dragon,” under the tutelage
of the great empire to the north it continued to have a separate culture
with vibrant traditions of its own.
The Economy Under the Ly Dynasty
Like most of its neighbors, Vietnam was primarily an agricultural
state, its survival based above all on the cultivation of wet rice. As in
medieval Europe, much of the land was divided among powerful noble
families, who often owned thousands of serfs or domestic slaves. A class
of landholding farmers also existed, however, and powerful monarchs
frequently attempted to protect this class by limiting the power of feudal
lords and dividing up their large estates. The Vietnamese economy was not
based solely on agriculture. Commerce and manufacturing thrived, and local
crafts appeared in regional markets throughout the area. Vietnam never
developed into a predominantly commercial nation, however, or became a
major participant in regional trade patterns.
Territorial Expansion
Under the rule of the Ly dynasty and its successor, the Tran
(1225-1400), Vietnam became a dynamic force in Southeast Asia. China's
rulers, however, had not abandoned their historic objective of controlling
the Red River delta, and when the Mongol dynasty came to power in the 13th
century, the armies of Kublai Khan attacked Vietnam in an effort to
reincorporate it into the Chinese Empire. The Vietnamese resisted with
vigor, and after several bitter battles they defeated the invaders and
drove them back across the border. While the Vietnamese maintained their
vigilance toward the north, an area of equal and growing concern lay to
the south. For centuries, the Vietnamese state had been restricted to its
heartland in the Red River valley and adjacent hills. Tension between
Vietnam and the kingdom of Champa, a seafaring state along the central
coast, appeared shortly after the restoration of Vietnamese independence.
On several occasions, Cham armies broke through Vietnamese defenses and
occupied the capital near Hanoi. More frequently, Vietnamese troops were
victorious, and they gradually drove Champa to the south. Finally, in the
15th century, Vietnamese forces captured the Cham capital south of
present-day Da Nang and virtually destroyed the kingdom. For the next
several generations, Vietnam continued its historic “march to the
south,” wiping up the remnants of the Cham Kingdom and gradually
approaching the marshy flatlands of the Mekong delta. There it confronted
a new foe, the Khmer Empire, which had once been the most powerful state
in the region. By the late 16th century, however, it had declined, and it
offered little resistance to Vietnamese encroachment. By the end of the
17th century, Vietnam had occupied the lower Mekong delta and began to
advance to the west, threatening to transform the disintegrating Khmer
state into a mere protectorate.
The Le Dynasty
The Vietnamese advance to the south coincided with new challenges in
the north. In 1407 Vietnam was again conquered by Chinese troops. For two
decades, the Ming dynasty attempted to reintegrate Vietnam into the
empire, but in 1428, resistance forces under the rebel leader Le Loi dealt
the Chinese a decisive defeat and restored Vietnamese independence. Le Loi
mounted the throne as the first emperor of the Le dynasty. The new ruling
house retained its vigor for more than a hundred years, but in the 16th
century it began to decline. Power at court was wielded by two rival
aristocratic clans, the Trinh and the Nguyen. When the former became
dominant, the Nguyen were granted a fiefdom in the south, dividing Vietnam
into two separate zones. Rivalry was sharpened by the machinations of
European powers newly arrived in Southeast Asia in pursuit of wealth and
Christian converts. By the late 18th century, the Le dynasty was near
collapse. Vast rice lands were controlled by grasping feudal lords. Angry
peasants—led by the Tay Son brothers—revolted, and in 1789
Nguyen Hue, the ablest of the brothers, briefly restored Vietnam to united
rule. Nguyen Hue died shortly after ascending the throne; a few years
later Nguyen Anh, an heir to the Nguyen house in the south, defeated the
Tay Son armies. As Emperor Gia Long, he established a new dynasty in 1802.
French Intervention
A French missionary, Pierre Pigneau de Behaine, had raised a
mercenary force to help Nguyen Anh seize the throne in the hope that the
new emperor would provide France with trading and missionary privileges,
but his hopes were disappointed. The Nguyen dynasty was suspicious of
French influence. Roman Catholic missionaries and their Vietnamese
converts were persecuted, and a few were executed during the 1830s.
Religious groups in France demanded action from the government in Paris.
When similar pressure was exerted by commercial and military interests,
Emperor Napoleon III approved the launching of a naval expedition in 1858
to punish the Vietnamese and force the court to accept a French
protectorate. The first French attack at Da Nang Harbor failed to achieve
its objectives, but a second farther south was more successful, and in
1862 the court at Hue agreed to cede several provinces in the Mekong delta
(later called Cochin China) to France. In the 1880s the French returned to
the offensive, launching an attack on the north. After severe defeats, the
Vietnamese accepted a French protectorate over the remaining territory of
Vietnam.
Colonial Rule and Resistance
The imposition of French colonial rule had met with little organized
resistance. The national sense of identity, however, had not been crushed,
and anticolonial sentiment soon began to emerge. Poor economic conditions
contributed to native hostility to French rule. Although French occupation
brought improvements in transportation and communications, and contributed
to the growth of commerce and manufacturing, colonialism brought little
improvement in livelihood to the mass of the population. In the
countryside, peasants struggled under heavy taxes and high rents. Workers
in factories, in coal mines, and on rubber plantations labored in abysmal
conditions for low wages. By the early 1920s, nationalist parties began to
demand reform and independence. In 1930 the revolutionary Ho Chi Minh
formed an Indochinese Communist party. Until World War II started in 1939,
such groups labored without success. In 1940, however, Japan demanded and
received the right to place Vietnam under military occupation, restricting
the local French administration to figurehead authority. Seizing the
opportunity, the Communists organized the broad Vietminh Front and
prepared to launch an uprising at the war's end. The Vietminh (short for
Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh, or League for the Independence of Vietnam)
emphasized moderate reform and national independence rather than
specifically Communist aims. When the Japanese surrendered to the Allies
in August 1945, Vietminh forces arose throughout Vietnam and declared the
establishment of an independent republic in Hanoi. The French, however,
were unwilling to concede independence and in October drove the Vietminh
and other nationalist groups out of the south. For more than a year the
French and the Vietminh sought a negotiated solution, but the talks, held
in France, failed to resolve differences, and war broke out in December
1946.
The Expulsion of the French
The conflict lasted for nearly eight years. The Vietminh retreated
into the hills to build up their forces while the French formed a rival
Vietnamese government under Emperor Bao Dai, the last ruler of the Nguyen
dynasty, in populated areas along the coast. Vietminh forces lacked the
strength to defeat the French and generally restricted their activities to
guerrilla warfare. In 1953-1954 the French fortified a base at Dien Bien
Phu. After months of siege and heavy casualties, the Vietminh overran the
fortress in a decisive battle. As a consequence, the French government
could no longer resist pressure from a war-weary populace at home and in
June 1954 agreed to negotiations to end the war. At a conference held in
Geneva the two sides accepted an interim compromise to end the war. They
divided the country at the 17th parallel, with the Vietminh in the North
and the French and their Vietnamese supporters in the South. To avoid
permanent partition, a political protocol was drawn up, calling for
national elections to reunify the country two years after the signing of
the treaty.
Partition
After Geneva, the Viet minh in Hanoi refrained from armed struggle
and began to build a Communist society. In the southern capital, Saigon,
Bao Dai soon gave way to a new regime under the staunch anti-Communist
president Ngo Dinh Diem. With diplomatic support from the United States,
Diem refused to hold elections and attempted to destroy Communist
influence in the South. By 1959, however, Diem was in trouble. His
unwillingness to tolerate domestic opposition, his alleged favoritism of
fellow Roman Catholics, and the failure of his social and economic
programs seriously alienated key groups in the populace and led to rising
unrest. The Communists decided it was time to resume their revolutionary
war.
The Vietnam War
In the fall of 1963, Diem was overthrown and killed in a coup
launched by his own generals. In the political confusion that followed,
the security situation in South Vietnam continued to deteriorate, putting
the Communists within reach of victory. In early 1965, to prevent the
total collapse of the Saigon regime, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson
approved regular intensive bombing of North Vietnam and the dispatch of
U.S. combat troops into the South. The U.S. intervention caused severe
problems for the Communists on the battlefield and compelled them to send
regular units of the North Vietnamese army into the South. It did not
persuade them to abandon the struggle, however, and in 1968, after the
bloody Tet offensive shook the new Saigon regime of President Nguyen Van
Thieu to its foundations, the Johnson administration decided to pursue a
negotiated settlement. Ho Chi Minh died in 1969 and was succeeded by
another leader of the revolution, Le Duan. The new U.S. president, Richard
Nixon, continued Johnson's policy while gradually withdrawing U.S. troops.
In January 1973 the war temporarily came to an end with the signing of a
peace agreement in Paris. The settlement provided for the total removal of
remaining U.S. troops, while Hanoi tacitly agreed to accept the Thieu
regime in preparation for new national elections. The agreement soon fell
apart, however, and in early 1975 the Communists launched a military
offensive. In six weeks, the resistance of the Thieu regime collapsed, and
on April 30 the Communists seized power in Saigon.
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam
In 1976 the South was reunited with the North in a new Socialist
Republic of Vietnam. The conclusion of the war, however, did not end the
violence. Border tension with the Communist government in Cambodia
escalated rapidly after the fall of Saigon, and in early 1979 the
Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and installed a pro-Vietnamese government. A
few weeks later, Vietnam was itself attacked by its Communist neighbor and
erstwhile benefactor, China. In the mid-1980s, about 140,000 Vietnamese
troops were stationed in Cambodia and another 50,000 troops in Laos.
Vietnam substantially reduced its forces in Laos during 1988 and withdrew
virtually all its troops from Cambodia by September 1989. Within Vietnam,
postwar economic and social problems were severe, and reconstruction
proceeded slowly. Efforts to collectivize agriculture and nationalize
business aroused hostility in the south. Disappointing harvests and the
absorption of resources by the military further retarded Vietnam's
recovery. In the early 1990s, the government encouraged foreign investment
and sought to improve relations with the United States.
1994 Funk & Wagnall's
US Service Personnel - Facts/Figures
To give some perspective, included are World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars.
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