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| | '''Flag:''' Red, with a large yellow five-pointed star in the center. | | '''Flag:''' Red, with a large yellow five-pointed star in the center. |
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| − | == Historical Background ==
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| | * [[Directory:Vietnam/Vietnam Historical Background|Vietnam Historical Background]] | | * [[Directory:Vietnam/Vietnam Historical Background|Vietnam Historical Background]] |
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| − | '''Origins:''' The Vietnamese trace the origins of their culture and nation to the fertile plains of the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam. After centuries of developing a civilization and economy
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| − | based on the cultivation of irrigated rice, in the tenth century the Vietnamese began expanding
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| − | southward in search of new rice lands. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Vietnamese
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| − | gradually moved down the narrow coastal plain of the Indochina Peninsula, ultimately extending
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| − | their reach into the broad Mekong River Delta. Vietnamese history is the story of the struggle to
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| − | develop a sense of nationhood throughout this narrow, 1,500-kilometer stretch of land and to
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| − | maintain it against internal and external pressures.
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| − | China was the chief source of Vietnam's foreign ideas and the earliest threat to its national
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| − | sovereignty. As a result of a millennium of Chinese control beginning in about 111 BC, the
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| − | Vietnamese assimilated Chinese influence in the areas of administration, law, education,
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| − | literature, language, and culture. Even during the following nine centuries of Vietnamese
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| − | independence, lasting from the late tenth century until the second half of the nineteenth century,
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| − | the Chinese exerted considerable cultural, if not political, influence, particularly on the elite.
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| − | '''Colonial Period, Independence, and War:''' After 900 years of independence and following a
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| − | period of disunity and rebellion, the French colonial era began during the 1858–83 period, when
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| − | the French seized control of the nation, dividing it into three parts: the north (Tonkin), the center
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| − | (Annam), and the south (Cochinchina). In 1861 France occupied Saigon, and by 1883 it had
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| − | taken control of all of Vietnam as well as Laos and Cambodia. French colonial rule was, for the
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| − | most part, politically repressive and economically exploitative. The Japanese occupied Vietnam
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| − | during World War II but allowed the French to remain and exert some influence. At the war’s
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| − | end in 1945, Ho Chi Minh, leader of the communist Viet Minh organization, declared Vietnam’s
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| − | independence in a speech that invoked the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the French
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| − | Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. However, the French quickly
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| − | reasserted the control they had ceded to the Japanese, and the First Indochina War (1946–54)
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| − | was underway. French control ended on May 7, 1954, when Vietnamese forces defeated the
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| − | French at Dien Bien Phu. The 1954 Geneva Conference left Vietnam a divided nation, with Ho
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| − | Chi Minh's communist government ruling the North from Hanoi and Ngo Dinh Diem's regime,
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| − | supported by the United States, ruling the South from Saigon (later Ho Chi Minh City).
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| − | As a result of the Second Indochina War (1954–75), Viet Cong—communist forces in South
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| − | Vietnam—and regular People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces from the North unified
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| − | Vietnam under communist rule. In this conflict, the insurgents—with logistical support from
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| − | China and the Soviet Union—ultimately defeated the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, which
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| − | sought to maintain South Vietnamese independence with the support of the U.S. military, whose
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| − | troop strength peaked at 540,000 during the communist-led Tet Offensive in 1968. The North did
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| − | not abide by the terms of the 1973 Paris Agreement, which officially settled the war by calling
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| − | for free elections in the South and peaceful reunification. Two years after the withdrawal of the
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| − | last U.S. forces in 1973, Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, fell to the communists, and on
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| − | April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese army surrendered. In 1976 the government of united
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| − | Vietnam renamed Saigon as Ho Chi Minh City, in honor of the wartime communist leader who
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| − | died in September 1969. The Vietnamese estimate that they lost nearly 3 million lives and
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| − | suffered more than 4 million injuries during the U.S. involvement in the war.
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| − | '''Unified Vietnam:''' In the post-1975 period, it was immediately apparent that the popularity and
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| − | effectiveness of Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) policies did not necessarily extend to the
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| − | party’s peacetime nation-building plans. Having unified North and South politically, the VCP
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| − | still had to integrate them socially and economically. In this task, VCP policy makers were
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| − | confronted with the South’s resistance to communist transformation, as well as traditional
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| − | animosities arising from cultural and historical differences between North and South. More than
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| − | a million Southerners, including about 560,000 “boat people,” fled the country soon after the
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| − | communist takeover, fearing persecution and seizure of their land and businesses. About a
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| − | million Vietnamese were relocated to previously uncultivated land called “new economic zones”
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| − | for reeducation.
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| − | The harsh postwar crackdown on remnants of capitalism in the South led to the collapse of the
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| − | economy during the 1980s. With the economy in shambles, Vietnam’s government altered its
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| − | course and adopted consensus policies that bridged the divergent views of pragmatists and
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| − | communist traditionalists. In 1986 Nguyen Van Linh, who was elevated to VCP general
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| − | secretary the following year, launched a campaign for political and economic renewal (Doi Moi).
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| − | His policies were characterized by political and economic experimentation that was similar to
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| − | simultaneous reform agendas undertaken in China and the Soviet Union. Reflecting the spirit of
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| − | political compromise, Vietnam phased out its reeducation effort. The government also stopped
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| − | promoting agricultural and industrial cooperatives. Farmers were permitted to till private plots
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| − | alongside state-owned land, and in 1990 the government passed a law encouraging the
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| − | establishment of private businesses.
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| − |
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| − | Compounding economic difficulties were new military challenges. In the late 1970s, two
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| − | countries—Cambodia and China—posed threats to Vietnam. Clashes between Vietnamese and
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| − | Cambodian communists on their common border began almost immediately after Vietnam’s
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| − | reunification in 1975. To neutralize the threat, Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December 1978
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| − | and overran Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, driving out the incumbent Khmer Rouge
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| − | communist regime and initiating a prolonged military occupation of the country.
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| − | In February and March 1979, China retaliated against Vietnam's incursion into Cambodia by
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| − | launching a limited invasion of Vietnam, but the Chinese foray was quickly rebuffed. Relations
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| − | between the two countries had been deteriorating for some time. Territorial disagreements along
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| − | the border and in the South China Sea that had remained dormant during the Second Indochina
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| − | War were revived at the war's end, and a postwar campaign engineered by Hanoi to limit the role
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| − | of Vietnam's ethnic Chinese community in domestic commerce elicited a strong protest from
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| − | Beijing. China also was displeased with Vietnam because of its improving relationship with the
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| − | Soviet Union.
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| − | During its incursion into Cambodia in 1978–89, Vietnam’s international isolation extended to
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| − | relations with the United States. The United States, in addition to citing Vietnam's minimal
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| − | cooperation in accounting for Americans who were missing in action (MIAs) as an obstacle to
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| − | normal relations, barred normal ties as long as Vietnamese troops occupied Cambodia.
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| − | Washington also continued to enforce the trade embargo imposed on Hanoi at the conclusion of
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| − | the war in 1975. Soon after the Paris Agreement on Cambodia resolved the conflict in October
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| − | 1991, however, Vietnam established or reestablished diplomatic and economic relations with
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| − | most of Western Europe, China, and other Asian countries. Vietnam normalized relations with
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| − | China in 1991 and with Japan in 1993. In February 1994, the United States lifted its economic
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| − | embargo against Vietnam, and in June 1995, the United States and Vietnam normalized relations.
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| − | In June 2005, a high-level Vietnamese delegation, led by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, visited
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| − | the United States and met with their U.S. counterparts, including President George W. Bush.
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| − | This was the first such visit in 30 years. Relations with China took another step forward after the
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| − | two countries settled their long-standing border dispute in 1999. China is now a major trading
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| − | partner, and Vietnam models its economic policies after China’s.
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| − | As of late 2005, a three-person collective leadership was responsible for governing Vietnam.
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| − | This triumvirate consisted of the VCP general secretary (Nong Duc Manh, April 2001– ), the
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| − | prime minister (Phan Van Khai, September 1997– ), and the president (Tran Duc Luong,
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| − | September 1997– ). General Secretary Manh headed up not only the VCP but also the 15-
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| − | member Politburo. President Luong was chief of state, and Prime Minister Khai was head of
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| − | government. The leadership is promoting a “socialist-oriented market economy” and friendly
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| − | relations with China, Japan, the European Union, Russia, and the United States. Although the
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| − | leadership is presiding over a period of rapid economic growth, official corruption and a
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| − | widening gap between urban wealth and rural poverty remain stubborn problems that are eroding
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| − | the VCP’s authority. A major goal is gaining full membership in the World Trade Organization
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| − | (WTO). Vietnam now hopes to join the WTO by mid-2006, although previously it had hoped to
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| − | achieve this goal by the end of 2005. Vietnam still needs to conclude bilateral agreements with
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| − | the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic in order to
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| − | qualify for membership.
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| | == Geography == | | == Geography == |