Portal:Vietnam

South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; Vietnamese: Việt Nam Cộng hòa; VNCH, French: République du Viêt Nam), was a country in Southeast Asia from 1955 to 1975, with first international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam. Its capital was located in Saigon, a city in Southern Vietnam. It was a member of the anti-communist and capitalist Western Bloc during the Cold War, especially after the division of Vietnam on 21 July 1954. South Vietnam was bordered by North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. In 1975, it was succeeded by the Republic of South Vietnam, which was de facto controlled by the communist North. On 2 July 1976, South Vietnam and North Vietnam merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

At the end of the Second World War, the communist Việt Minh of Hồ Chí Minh, started the August Revolution of different political organizations against the Nguyễn dynasty and its Japanese puppet state on 16 August 1945. On August 19, the Việt Minh took control of Hanoi (Northern Vietnam). On August 25, the Nguyễn dynasty collapsed. The Revolution ended when the Việt Minh formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, known as "North Vietnam", in Hanoi on 2 September 1945. The French returned to French Indochina (including Vietnam) to re-establish their colonial rule here on 23 September 1945. French army later clashed with the Việt Minh on 19 December 1946, leading to the First Indochina War. On 8 March 1949, the French formed the State of Vietnam, a rival state of anti-communist Vietnamese politicians in Saigon, led by former Nguyễn emperor Bảo Đại. With this event, the French abolished the old-style colonial regime in Vietnam, France recognized the independence and unification of the State of Vietnam within the French Union, but this state still depended on France as an associated state like other two countries within Indochina. The state was proclaimed on 2 July 1949. The formation of the State of Vietnam on 8 March 1949 made this French colonial war part of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, culminating in the American recognition of Saigon regime in February 1950 and subsequent aid to the French in the war against the communist Việt Minh. The French government agreed to give the State of Vietnam complete independence with the Matignon Accords on 4 June 1954, however they were never completed. After the Việt Minh with the aid of China defeated the French Union in the First Indochina War, an armistice and an accompanying declaration were made in the Geneva Conference on 21 July 1954 (taking effect at 24:00 on July 22), the State of Vietnam was forced to abandon its claims to the North while the Việt Minh's state was recognized by the French and took power in the North. With the American support, a 1955 referendum on the state's future form of government was widely marred by electoral fraud and resulted in the deposal of Bảo Đại by Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm, who proclaimed himself president of the new republic on 26 October 1955. South Vietnam also withdrew from the French Union on 9 December 1955. South Vietnam then held parliamentary elections and subsequently promulgated a constitution on 26 October 1956. After a 1963 coup, Diệm was killed and his dictatorship was overthrown in a CIA-backed military rebellion on November 2, and a series of short-lived military governments followed. General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu then led the country after a civilian presidential election from 1967 until 1975. (Full article...)

Newer entries

• ... that a proposed footbridge connecting the Asian Garden Mall to another Vietnamese-American shopping center met opposition because it was deemed "too Chinese"?
• ... that United States Air Force colonel Virgil K. Meroney flew two combat missions with his son before his son was killed in action in March 1969, during the Vietnam War?
• ... that fourteenth-century Buddhist monk Tuệ Tĩnh is referred to as a founding father of traditional Vietnamese medicine?
• ... that the statue of Trần Hưng Đạo in Mê Linh Square was erected by the South Vietnamese Navy, who regarded him as a patron saint?
• ... that a U.S. soldier who killed a Vietnamese woman after raping her was dubbed a "double veteran"?
• ... that Nothgottes, a pilgrimage destination in the Rheingau since the 14th century, is a monastery of Cistercians from Vietnam?