Vietnam

Vietnam
/vee et'nahm", -nam", vyet'-, vee'it-/, n.
1. Official name, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. a country in SE Asia, comprising the former states of Annam, Tonkin, and Cochin-China: formerly part of French Indochina; divided into North Vietnam and South Vietnam during the Vietnam War but now reunified. 75,123,880; 126,104 sq. mi. (326,609 sq. km). Cap.: Hanoi. Cf. North Vietnam, South Vietnam.
2. See Vietnam War.
Also, Viet Nam.

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Vietnam

Introduction Vietnam
Background: France occupied all of Vietnam by 1884. Independence was declared after World War II, but the French continued to rule until 1954 when they were defeated by Communist forces under Ho Chi MINH, who took control of the north. US economic and military aid to South Vietnam grew through the 1960s in an attempt to bolster the government, but US armed forces were withdrawn following a cease-fire agreement in 1973. Two years later North Vietnamese forces overran the south. Economic reconstruction of the reunited country has proven difficult as aging Communist Party leaders have only grudgingly initiated reforms necessary for a free market. Geography Vietnam -
Location: Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia
Geographic coordinates: 16 00 N, 106 00 E
Map references: Southeast Asia
Area: total: 329,560 sq km land: 325,360 sq km water: 4,200 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly larger than New Mexico
Land boundaries: total: 4,639 km border countries: Cambodia 1,228 km, China 1,281 km, Laos 2,130 km
Coastline: 3,444 km (excludes islands)
Maritime claims: contiguous zone: 24 NM territorial sea: 12 NM continental shelf: 200 NM or to the edge of the continental margin exclusive economic zone: 200 NM
Climate: tropical in south; monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season (mid- May to mid-September) and warm, dry season (mid-October to mid-March)
Terrain: low, flat delta in south and north; central highlands; hilly, mountainous in far north and northwest
Elevation extremes: lowest point: South China Sea 0 m highest point: Ngoc Linh 3,143 m
Natural resources: phosphates, coal, manganese, bauxite, chromate, offshore oil and gas deposits, forests, hydropower
Land use: arable land: 17.41% permanent crops: 4.71% other: 77.87% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land: 30,000 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: occasional typhoons (May to January) with extensive flooding, especially in the Mekong River delta Environment - current issues: logging and slash-and-burn agricultural practices contribute to deforestation and soil degradation; water pollution and overfishing threaten marine life populations; groundwater contamination limits potable water supply; growing urban industrialization and population migration are rapidly degrading environment in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City Environment - international party to: Biodiversity, Climate
agreements: Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Nuclear Test Ban
Geography - note: extending 1,650 km north to south, the country is only 50 km across at its narrowest point People Vietnam
Population: 81,098,416 (July 2002 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 31.6% (male 13,259,152; female 12,392,089) 15-64 years: 62.9% (male 24,938,098; female 26,083,681) 65 years and over: 5.5% (male 1,749,531; female 2,675,865) (2002 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.43% (2002 est.)
Birth rate: 20.89 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate: 6.14 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Net migration rate: -0.47 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.65 male(s)/ female total population: 0.97 male(s)/ female (2002 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 29.34 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.) Life expectancy at birth: total population: 69.86 years female: 72.5 years (2002 est.) male: 67.4 years
Total fertility rate: 2.44 children born/woman (2002 est.) HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.24% (1999 est.) HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/ 100,000 (1999 est.)
AIDS:
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 2,500 (1999 est.)
Nationality: noun: Vietnamese (singular and plural) adjective: Vietnamese
Ethnic groups: Vietnamese 85%-90%, Chinese, Hmong, Thai, Khmer, Cham, mountain groups
Religions: Buddhist, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, Christian (predominantly Roman Catholic, some Protestant), indigenous beliefs, Muslim
Languages: Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favored as a second language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area languages (Mon- Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian)
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 93.7% male: 96.5% female: 91.2% (1995 est.) Government Vietnam
Country name: conventional long form: Socialist Republic of Vietnam conventional short form: Vietnam local short form: Viet Nam abbreviation: SRV local long form: Cong Hoa Xa Hoi Chu Nghia Viet Nam
Government type: Communist state
Capital: Hanoi Administrative divisions: 58 provinces (tinh, singular and plural), and 3 municipalities* (thu do, singular and plural); An Giang, Bac Giang, Bac Kan, Bac Lieu, Bac Ninh, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Ben Tre, Binh Dinh, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Binh Thuan, Ca Mau, Can Tho, Cao Bang, Dac Lak, Da Nang, Dong Nai, Dong Thap, Gia Lai, Ha Giang, Hai Duong, Hai Phong*, Ha Nam, Ha Noi*, Ha Tay, Ha Tinh, Hoa Binh, Ho Chi Minh*, Hung Yen, Khanh Hoa, Kien Giang, Kon Tum, Lai Chau, Lam Dong, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Long An, Nam Dinh, Nghe An, Ninh Binh, Ninh Thuan, Phu Tho, Phu Yen, Quang Binh, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Quang Ninh, Quang Tri, Soc Trang, Son La, Tay Ninh, Thai Binh, Thai Nguyen, Thanh Hoa, Thua Thien- Hue, Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, Tuyen Quang, Vinh Long, Vinh Phuc, Yen Bai
Independence: 2 September 1945 (from France)
National holiday: Independence Day, 2 September (1945)
Constitution: 15 April 1992
Legal system: based on communist legal theory and French civil law system
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Executive branch: chief of state: President Tran Duc LUONG (since 24 September 1997) elections: president elected by the National Assembly from among its members for a five-year term; election last held 24 September 1997 (next to be held when National Assembly meets following legislative elections in May 2002); prime minister appointed by the president from among the members of the National Assembly; deputy prime ministers appointed by the prime minister head of government: Prime Minister Phan Van KHAI (since 25 September 1997); First Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan DUNG (since 29 September 1997); Deputy Prime Ministers Vu KHOAN (since NA) and Pham Gia KHIEM (since 29 September 1997) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the proposal of the prime minister and ratification of the National Assembly election results: Tran Duc LUONG elected president; percent of National Assembly vote - NA%
Legislative branch: unicameral National Assembly or Quoc-Hoi (498 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms) elections: last held 19 May 2002 (next to be held 2007) election results: percent of vote by party - CPV 90%, other 10% (the 10% are not CPV members but are approved by the CPV to stand for election); seats by party - CPV 447, CPV- approved 51
Judicial branch: Supreme People's Court (chief justice is elected for a five-year term by the National Assembly on the recommendation of the president) Political parties and leaders: only party - Communist Party of Vietnam or CPV [Nong Duc MANH, general secretary] Political pressure groups and none
leaders: International organization ACCT, APEC, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, CCC,
participation: ESCAP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, NAM, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO (observer) Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Nguyen Tam CHIEN consulate(s) general: San Francisco FAX: [1] (202) 861-0917 telephone: [1] (202) 861-0737 chancery: 1233 20th Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036 Diplomatic representation from the chief of mission: Ambassador Raymond
US: F. BURGHARDT embassy: 7 Lang Ha Road, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi mailing address: PSC 461, Box 400, FPO AP 96521-0002 telephone: [84] (4) 772-1500 FAX: [84] (4) 772-1510 consulate(s) general: Ho Chi Minh City
Flag description: red with a large yellow five-pointed star in the center Economy Vietnam -
Economy - overview: Vietnam is a poor, densely populated country that has had to recover from the ravages of war, the loss of financial support from the old Soviet Bloc, and the rigidities of a centrally planned economy. Substantial progress was achieved from 1986 to 1996 in moving forward from an extremely low starting point - growth averaged around 9% per year from 1993 to 1997. The 1997 Asian financial crisis highlighted the problems in the Vietnamese economy but, rather than prompting reform, reaffirmed the government's belief that shifting to a market oriented economy leads to disaster. GDP growth of 8.5% in 1997 fell to 6% in 1998 and 5% in 1999. Growth then rose to 6.8% in 2000 and dropped back to 4.7% in 2001 against the background of global recession. These numbers mask some major difficulties in economic performance. Many domestic industries, including coal, cement, steel, and paper, have reported large stockpiles of inventory and tough competition from more efficient foreign producers. Meanwhile, Vietnamese authorities have moved slowly in implementing the structural reforms needed to revitalize the economy and produce more competitive, export-driven industries. The US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement entered into force near the end of 2001 and is expected to significantly increase Vietnam's exports to the US. The US is assisting Vietnam with implementing the legal and structural reforms called for in the agreement.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $168.1 billion (2001 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 4.7% (2001 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $2,100 (2001 est.) GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 25% industry: 35% services: 40% (2000 est.) Population below poverty line: 37% (1998 est.) Household income or consumption by lowest 10%: 3.6%
percentage share: highest 10%: 29.9% (1998) Distribution of family income - Gini 36.1 (1998)
index: Inflation rate (consumer prices): -0.3% (2001 est.)
Labor force: 38.2 million (1998 est.) Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 67%, industry and services 33% (1997 est.)
Unemployment rate: 25% (1995 est.)
Budget: revenues: $5.3 billion expenditures: $5.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $1.8 billion (1999 est.)
Industries: food processing, garments, shoes, machine building, mining, cement, chemical fertilizer, glass, tires, oil, coal, steel, paper Industrial production growth rate: 10.4% (2001 est.) Electricity - production: 25.775 billion kWh (2000) Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 40.74% hydro: 59.26% other: 0% (2000) nuclear: 0% Electricity - consumption: 23.97 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2000)
Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2000)
Agriculture - products: paddy rice, corn, potatoes, rubber, soybeans, coffee, tea, bananas, sugar; poultry, pigs; fish
Exports: $15.1 billion (f.o.b., 2001 est.)
Exports - commodities: crude oil, marine products, rice, coffee, rubber, tea, garments, shoes
Exports - partners: Japan 18.1%, China 10.6%, Australia 8.8%, Singapore 6.1%, Taiwan 5.2%, Germany 5.1%, US 5.1% (2000)
Imports: $15.3 billion (f.o.b., 2001 est.)
Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, petroleum products, fertilizer, steel products, raw cotton, grain, cement, motorcycles
Imports - partners: Singapore 17.7%, Japan 14.4%, Taiwan 12.1%, South Korea 11.1%, China 9.1%, Thailand 5.2%, Hong Kong 3.9% (2000)
Debt - external: $13.2 billion (2000) Economic aid - recipient: $2.1 billion in credits and grants pledged by international donors for 2000
Currency: dong (VND)
Currency code: VND
Exchange rates: dong per US dollar - 15,085 (January 2002), 14,725 (2001), 14,168 (2000), 13,943 (1999), 13,268 (1998), 11,683 (1997)
Fiscal year: calendar year Communications Vietnam Telephones - main lines in use: 2.6 million (2000) Telephones - mobile cellular: 730,155 (2000)
Telephone system: general assessment: Vietnam is putting considerable effort into modernization and expansion of its telecommunication system, but its performance continues to lag behind that of its more modern neighbors domestic: all provincial exchanges are digitalized and connected to Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City by fiber-optic cable or microwave radio relay networks; since 1991, main lines in use have been substantially increased and the use of mobile telephones is growing rapidly international: satellite earth stations - 2 Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region) Radio broadcast stations: AM 65, FM 7, shortwave 29 (1999)
Radios: 8.2 million (1997) Television broadcast stations: at least 7 (plus 13 repeaters) (1998)
Televisions: 3.57 million (1997)
Internet country code: .vn Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 5 (2000)
Internet users: 160,000 (2001) Transportation Vietnam
Railways: total: 3,142 km standard gauge: 209 km 1.435-m gauge narrow gauge: 2,625 km 1.000-m gauge dual gauge: 308 km three-rail track combining 1.435-m and 1.000-m gauges (2001)
Highways: total: 93,300 km paved: 23,418 km unpaved: 69,882 km (1996)
Waterways: 17,702 km note: more than 5,149 km are navigable at all times by vessels up to 1.8 m draft
Pipelines: petroleum products 150 km
Ports and harbors: Cam Ranh, Da Nang, Haiphong, Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Long, Quy Nhon, Nha Trang, Vinh, Vung Tau
Merchant marine: total: 153 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 782,912 GRT/1,173,186 DWT note: includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of convenience: Cambodia 1, Japan 1, Singapore 1, United Kingdom 2 (2002 est.) ships by type: bulk 9, cargo 113, chemical tanker 1, combination bulk 1, container 5, liquefied gas 2, petroleum tanker 20, refrigerated cargo 2
Airports: 34 (2001) Airports - with paved runways: total: 17 over 3,047 m: 8 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 1,524 to 2,437 m: 4 under 914 m: 2 (2001) Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 17 over 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 7 under 914 m: 8 (2001) Military Vietnam
Military branches: People's Army of Vietnam (includes Ground Forces, People's Navy Command [including Naval Infantry], Air and Air Defense Force, Coast Guard) Military manpower - military age: 17 years of age (2002 est.) Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 22,220,891 (2002 est.) Military manpower - fit for military males age 15-49: 13,978,653 (2002
service: est.) Military manpower - reaching males: 961,124 (2002 est.)
military age annually: Military expenditures - dollar $650 million (FY98)
figure: Military expenditures - percent of 2.5% (FY98)
GDP: Transnational Issues Vietnam Disputes - international: Vietnam disputes several offshore islands with Cambodia, preventing delimitation of a maritime boundary; Cambodia accuses Vietnam of territorial encroachments and initiating armed border incidents in seven provinces; demarcation of boundaries with Laos is nearing completion, but Laos protests Vietnamese squatters; involved in a complex dispute over the Spratly Islands with China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and possibly Brunei; maritime boundary with China in the Gulf of Tonkin still awaits ratification; Paracel Islands occupied by China but claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam; demarcation of the land boundary with China has commenced, but details of the alignment have not been made public
Illicit drugs: minor producer of opium poppy with 2,300 hectares cultivated in 2001, capable of producing 15 metric tons of opium; probable minor transit point for Southeast Asian heroin; domestic opium/heroin/ methamphetamine addiction problems

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I
officially Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Country, Southeast Asia.

Area: 127,816 sq mi (331,041 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 80,200,000. Capital: Hanoi. Almost 90% of the total population is Vietnamese; minorities include Chinese, Hmong, Thai, Khmer, and Chan. Languages: Vietnamese (official), French, Chinese, English, Khmer. Religions: Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Roman Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism. Currency: new dong. Vietnam is about 1,025 mi (1,650 km) long, 210–340 mi (340–550 km) wide at its widest parts, and 35 mi (56 km) wide at its narrowest part. Northern Vietnam is mountainous where Fan-si-pan, the country's highest peak, rises to 10,306 ft (3,141 m). The Red River is the principal river. Southern Vietnam is dominated by the Mekong River delta. A low-lying, narrow coastal plain about 620 mi (1,000 km) long connects the two major river deltas. The densely forested Annamese Cordillera extends through west-central Vietnam and covers two-thirds of the total land area. Northern Vietnam is rich in mineral resources, especially anthracite and lignite coal. Some petroleum deposits exist off the southern coast. Significant food crops include rice, sugarcane, coffee, tea, and bananas. Food processing and fishing are important industries, as are the manufacture of steel and phosphates. Vietnam is a socialist republic with one legislative house; its chief of state is the president, and its head of government is the prime minister. A distinct Vietnamese group began to emerge с 200 BC in the independent kingdom of Nam Viet, which was later annexed to China in the 1st century BC. The Vietnamese were under continuous Chinese control until the 10th century AD. The southern region was gradually overrun by Vietnamese from the north in the late 15th century. The area was divided into two parts in the early 17th century, with the northern part known as Tonkin and the southern part as Cochin China. In 1802 the northern and southern parts of Vietnam were unified under a single dynasty. Following several years of attempted French colonial expansion in the region, the French captured Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in 1859 and later the rest of the area, controlling it until World War II (see French Indochina). The Japanese occupied Vietnam in 1940–45 and declared it independent at the end of World War II, a move the French opposed. The First Indochina War ensued and lasted until French forces with U.S. financial backing were defeated by the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu in 1954; evacuation of French troops followed. After an international conference at Geneva (April–July 1954), Vietnam was partitioned along latitude 17° N, with the northern part under the communist leadership of Ho Chi Minh and the southern part under the U.S.-supported former emperor Bao Dai; the partition was to be temporary, but the reunification elections scheduled for 1956 were never held. Bao Dai declared the independence of South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam), while the communists established North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam). The activities of North Vietnamese guerrillas and pro-communist rebels in South Vietnam led to U.S. intervention and the Vietnam War. A cease-fire agreement was signed in 1973, and U.S. troops were withdrawn; but the civil war soon resumed, and in 1975 North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam, and the South Vietnamese government collapsed. In 1976 the two Vietnams were united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. From the mid-1980s the government enacted a series of economic reforms and began to open up to Asian and Western nations. In 1995 the U.S. officially normalized relations with Vietnam.
II
(as used in expressions)
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
League for the Independence of Vietnam

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▪ 2009

Area:
331,212 sq km (127,882 sq mi)
Population
(2008 est.): 88,537,000
Capital:
Hanoi
Chief of state:
President Nguyen Minh Triet
Head of government:
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung

      Domestic politics in Vietnam in 2008 were shaped largely by economic issues and concern over rising social unrest. In February inflation began to rise, reaching a high of 28.3% in August. By year's end Vietnam's economy had begun to feel the impact of the global financial crisis.

      The Central Committee of the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) met three times during the year to address these issues. The first of these meetings (the sixth plenum), held in January, focused on reform of the legal system in order to create institutions compatible with Vietnam's “socialist-oriented market economy.” The plenum also raised salaries and social welfare for those who had rendered service to the country in the past.

      Accelerated inflation resulted in more than 500 strikes in the first half of the year by workers who could not subsist on their wages. Three-fourths of the strikes took place in foreign-invested enterprises, mainly in Ho Chi Minh City and the surrounding provinces. Most strikes were relatively short-lived and resulted in pay increases and modest improvements in working conditions. In early April the Politburo directed the cabinet to draw up a list of eight major measures to control inflation, stabilize the economy, and ensure social welfare.

      In other news, social unrest broke out in the Central Highlands in mid-April when long-festering grievances by the Degar ethnic minority over land rights, religious persecution, and police brutality led to mass demonstrations in Dak Lak and Gia Lai provinces. Later that month police launched a preemptive crackdown against pro-democracy dissidents to prevent any disruption to the Beijing Olympic torch relay as it passed through Ho Chi Minh City. In May security officials responded to growing media assertiveness in reporting high-level corruption by arresting two leading journalists and their police informants. The detainees later were convicted. In August the press credentials of seven journalists and editors from four newspapers were revoked, and in October two more editors were dismissed. Meanwhile, the seventh plenum met in July and adopted three far-reaching policy resolutions on youth, intellectuals, and farmers in an effort to ensure the loyalty of these groups to the Communist Party in the period up to 2020.

      Over the course of the year, the Roman Catholic Church and local authorities in Hanoi became embroiled in a dispute over ownership of two pieces of property that the church claimed had been illegally taken from it. Catholics were vilified in the state media. Tensions rose in August and September when the police, bolstered by army veterans and revolutionary youth, intervened to break up peaceful prayer vigils. Local authorities attempted to end the matter by converting the disputed land into public parks.

      The Politburo's economic assessment, issued on August 12, lowered Vietnam's official growth target to 6.5% (from an 8% growth average in each of the previous three years). The Politburo also raised interest rates, curbed government expenditures, reduced imports, and adjusted the currency exchange rate. In October the Central Committee met for the third time at the eighth plenum; top priority was assigned to reducing the rate of inflation to a single digit by 2010.

      In 2008 all of Vietnam's top leaders visited Beijing: party Secretary-General Nong Duc Manh in May–June, Pres. Nguyen Minh Triet in August, and Prime Minster Nguyen Tan Dung in October. Bilateral relations reached a new high on June 1 with the joint declaration of a comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and China. On December 31, just hours before the midnight deadline, Vietnam and China settled the demarcation boundary for a long-standing border dispute. A maritime dispute was still unsettled, however. Vietnam's relations with the United States also were strengthened in June with the first official visit to the country by Prime Minister Dung, who met with Pres. George W. Bush in the White House.

Carlyle A. Thayer

▪ 2008

Area:
331,212 sq km (127,882 sq mi)
Population
(2007 est.): 87,375,000
Capital:
Hanoi
Chief of state:
President Nguyen Minh Triet
Head of government:
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung

      The year 2007 was marked in Vietnam by two significant foreign-policy achievements. In January Vietnam became the World Trade Organization's 150th member, and in October the country was elected to nonpermanent membership on the UN Security Council. These two events set the context for an intense year of diplomacy. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem traveled in March to the U.S. and China to pave the way for visits by Pres. Nguyen Minh Triet in May and June, respectively. Khiem opened negotiations on a trade and investment framework agreement while in Washington, and he also paid an official visit to Japan in May to promote investment.

      Triet's visit to Beijing resulted in a joint communiqué that stressed long-term trade and economic cooperation and addressed territorial issues. Friction arose in bilateral relations arising from Vietnam's political relations with Taiwan and development plans in the South China Sea. Shortly after the summit, a Chinese naval vessel fired on Vietnamese fishermen in disputed waters. Triet's trip to Washington was clouded by Hanoi's crackdown on pro-democracy activists earlier in the year. Pres. George W. Bush pointedly received a delegation of Vietnamese American community leaders prior to Triet's visit. In a speech delivered in California, Triet promoted bilateral trade and investment and reached out to the Vietnamese-American community.

 In May, Vietnam Communist Party Secretary-General Nong Duc Manh journeyed to Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, and Cuba. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited India in July to cement a strategic partnership. During his whirlwind trip the following month to Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar (Burma), and Brunei, he focused on trade and investment. In September Dung made stops in Russia, Poland, and the Czech Republic before addressing the UN General Assembly on September 27. He then flew to Paris. Meanwhile, President Triet attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Australia and made a side visit to New Zealand.

      In March Vietnam hosted diplomatic talks between North Korea and Japan aimed at normalizing relations. In October Secretary-General Manh made a pathbreaking trip to Pyongyang, N.Kor., that was immediately reciprocated by Prime Minister Kim Jong Il.

      On the domestic front, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Communist Party held two meetings. At the fourth plenum in January, the number of Central Committee commissions was reduced from 11 to 6; a directive was issued for the party, army, police, and mass organizations to divest themselves of commercial enterprises; and a resolution was made to draw up a national maritime strategy forward to 2020. During the fifth plenum in July, resolutions were approved on ideology, control of the media, inspection work, and party leadership over the political system.

      The National Assembly met (July 19–August 2) and approved a cabinet reshuffle that increased the number of deputy prime ministers from three to five but decreased the number of ministerial positions from 26 to 22. The five-year term of the National Assembly was cut by one year to bring it into alignment with the scheduling of national party congresses.

Carlyle A. Thayer

▪ 2007

Area:
329,315 sq km (127,149 sq mi)
Population
(2006 est.): 83,458,000
Capital:
Hanoi
Chief of state:
Presidents Tran Duc Luong and, from June 27, Nguyen Minh Triet
Head of government:
Prime Ministers Phan Van Khai and, from June 27, Nguyen Tan Dung

      The year 2006 marked the 20th anniversary of Vietnam's adoption of its economic-reform program known as doi moi (“renovation”) and the convening of the 10th National Congress of the Vietnam Communist Party. Vietnamese citizens responded in an unprecedented fashion to the invitation to comment on the draft policy documents prepared for the congress. A robust debate broke out in the state-owned media, including Internet chat rooms, over sensitive political issues such as corruption in government and the party's monopoly on power.

      As the National Congress drew near, public attention became riveted on a major corruption scandal involving officials in Project Management Unit (PMU) 18 of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The head of PMU 18 was charged with having misappropriated $7 million, which he lost gambling on the outcomes of European association football (soccer) matches. The media fueled public interest by its frank accounts of an extensive network of corrupt officials that involved the police and allegedly extended to high levels of government. The head of PMU 18 and the deputy minister of transport were arrested, and the minister of transport was forced to resign.

      The 10th congress, held April 18–25, was attended by 1,176 delegates representing 3.1 million party members. For the first time, no foreign delegates were invited to attend. The congress adopted a socioeconomic-development plan for 2006–10 with the objective of maintaining annual GDP growth rates of 7.5–8%, lowering urban unemployment to less than 5%, and reducing poverty to 10–11%. Party Secretary-General Nong Duc Manh noted in his opening speech that corruption was “one of the major dangers that threaten the survival of our regime.” For the first time in party history, delegates were given the opportunity to cast a nonbinding vote of confidence for candidates for the post of secretary-general. Three candidates emerged from this process. The final selection was left to the newly elected Central Committee, but it voted overwhelmingly to renew Manh's mandate for another five-year term. The congress voted to amend party statutes to allow members to engage in private enterprise but only under strict party supervision.

      In June the National Assembly brought sweeping changes to the cabinet. Two reformist southerners, Nguyen Tan Dung and Nguyen Minh Triet, were elected prime minister and president, respectively. Nguyen Phu Trong assumed the position of chair of the National Assembly. Three deputy prime ministers were appointed (Pham Gia Khiem, Nguyen Sinh Hung, and Truong Vinh Trong), and seven cabinet vacancies were filled. Prime Minister Dung quickly set his mark by appointing a 10-member Anti-Corruption Central Steering Committee to deal with this high-profile issue.

      Vietnam continued to pursue a foreign policy of “diversification and multilateralization.” In August Secretary-General Manh made his first visit abroad, to China, where agreement was reached to demarcate the border by 2008 and cooperate in developing energy resources. Vietnam hosted visits by the Chinese defense minister in April and the U.S. secretary of defense in June. The following month Vietnam also received a visit by the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command. Vietnam inaugurated joint naval patrols with China in the Gulf of Tonkin in April and received the fourth visit by U.S. naval warships in July.

 In October the World Trade Organization recommended that Vietnam be admitted as its 150th member, and the following month the country hosted the 14th meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Vietnam received separate visits from four heads of state during the summit, including U.S. Pres. George W. Bush and Chinese Pres. Hu Jintao.

Carlyle A. Thayer

▪ 2006

Area:
329,241 sq km (127,121 sq mi)
Population
(2005 est.): 82,628,000
Capital:
Hanoi
Chief of state:
President Tran Duc Luong
Head of government:
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

      The year 2005 commenced with the convening in January of the 11th plenum of the Vietnam Communist Party's Central Committee. The plenum focused on development strategies, the strengthening of party leadership, and preparations for the 10th national congress, scheduled for mid-2006. In preparation for the congress, party committees from the grassroots level and above were to review and offer comments on major draft policy documents. Provincial party congresses were to select delegates to the national congress, and these delegates would also have the responsibility of electing the new party leadership.

      Reports from Vietnam emerged during the year that there was intense and often heated intraparty debate over policy matters and political leadership. Following the 11th plenum, the Politburo held three off-the-record meetings to hear the opinions of various focus groups. At one such meeting, Le Dang Doanh, who had served as economic adviser to former prime minister Pham Van Dong, offered this blunt assessment: “The Party clings to power, its members are corrupt and wasteful, leading to a huge gap between rich and poor and cruel injustice everywhere.”

      Former prime minister Vo Van Kiet privately circulated a document that was highly critical of the party's leadership-selection process. While at another meeting held in Ho Chi Minh City, senior retired officials voiced criticism of the leadership style of the party secretary-general, Nong Duc Manh.

      The Central Committee took stock of the situation at its 12th plenum in July. This meeting was primarily concerned with determining how to accelerate economic growth and strengthen party leadership and with carrying out the final editing of draft documents for the national congress. The plenum resolved to achieve an annual growth rate of between 7.5% and 8% of GDP in order to end Vietnam's status as a less-developed state by 2010. Press accounts revealed that the draft party statutes included a provision to permit individuals working in the private sector to join the party for the first time. Also under discussion was a proposal to combine the offices of state president and party secretary-general, as had been done in China. In light of backroom bickering, the plenum “severely condemned…factionalism, opportunism, [and] individualism.” The plenum also adopted measures “to combat ‘the plot of peaceful evolution' and schemes to incite unrest and overthrow, as well as distortions by hostile forces.”

      Vietnam continued carefully to balance its external relations. Nong Duc Manh visited France in early June on the eve of a working visit to the U.S. later that month by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. Khai was received at the White House by Pres. George W. Bush and at the Pentagon by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Khai pleased his hosts by agreeing to Vietnam's participation in the U.S. Defense Department's International Military and Education Program. In October Vietnam dispatched its defense minister to Beijing, where he signed an agreement with his counterpart on joint naval patrols in the Gulf of Tonkin. Later that month Vietnam hosted a visit by Chinese Pres. Hu Jintao.

Carlyle A. Thayer

▪ 2005

Area:
332,501 sq km (128,379 sq mi)
Population
(2004 est.): 81,839,000
Capital:
Hanoi
Chief of state:
President Tran Duc Luong
Head of government:
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

      On Feb. 3, 2004, the Vietnam Communist Party's (VCP's) Central Committee declared, “International reactionary forces are likely to intensify their schemes of using issues related to ‘democracy,' ‘human rights,' ethnicity, and religion while aiding and abetting reactionaries and extremists at home to cause sociopolitical instability as a pretext for intervention.” This dire assessment was seemingly borne out on April 10–11 when a demonstration of more than 10,000 ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands turned violent. Western human rights organizations claimed that dozens of highlanders were killed and hundreds injured by security forces who reportedly responded in a heavy-handed fashion. Vietnamese authorities were quick to accuse the South Carolina-based Montagnard Foundation of having instigated unrest.

      In January the ninth plenum of the VCP Central Committee reprimanded Ksor Phuoc, the secretary of the Gia Lai province party committee and chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Area Affairs, for having failed to deal effectively with similar ethnic-minority unrest in February 2001. The plenum conducted a midterm review of socioeconomic policies that had been adopted by the ninth national party congress in April 2001 and identified six priority goals: accelerating economic growth; developing capital, real estate, and labour markets; reducing poverty; gaining membership in the World Trade Organization; party building; and enhancing national defense and security. The plenum acknowledged that not all of Vietnam's domestic problems could be attributed to international reactionary forces. The plenum identified corruption, financial irresponsibility, and bureaucracy as serious problems. Two other senior provincial-party officials were reprimanded for fraud and “internal party discord.” The plenum also issued a warning to Le Huy Ngo, minister of agriculture and rural development, for failing to prevent large-scale embezzlement by his employees.

      The issues of corruption and administrative incompetence were featured at the fifth session (11th legislature) of the National Assembly, which met May 11–June 15. On the advice of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, Ngo was summarily dismissed from the cabinet. Deputies grilled the ministers responsible for public health, planning and investment, transport and communications, natural resources and environment, culture and information, education and training, and physical training and sport for mismanaging their portfolios. Each minister conceded shortcomings and was spared a no-confidence vote.

      In midyear the VCP was rocked by allegations of abuse of power by the military-intelligence service and political factionalism within the party itself. These charges were contained in a letter written by a retired major general, Nguyen Nam Khanh, a pillar of the establishment. Khanh was the former head of the Central Committee's Propaganda and Training Department, political officer for Military Region 5, and deputy head of the army's General Political Department.

      Khanh's letter was timed to influence the deliberations of the Central Committee's 10th plenum that met July 5–10. Secretary General Nong Duc Manh, in his address to this meeting, noted that there was “degradation of ideological thinking, morality, and lifestyle among some officials, party members, and people and the gravity of red tape, corruption, wastefulness, social evils, and other negative phenomena.” Manh concluded that the people were losing confidence in the party and the state. In an effort to rectify this unwelcome trend, the Central Committee adopted a policy resolution on dealing with ideological and cultural issues. The plenum also initiated preparations for the holding of the 10th national party congress, scheduled for the second quarter of 2006.

      On June 15 the National Assembly ratified the China-Vietnam agreement that had been signed in December 2000 on demarcation of the territorial sea, exclusive economic zones, and the continental shelf in the Gulf of Tonkin. In October Vietnam hosted the fifth Asia-Europe Summit Meeting after skillful diplomacy averted a threatened boycott by European countries over Myanmar's (Burma's) presence at the table.

Carlyle A. Thayer

▪ 2004

Area:
332,501 sq km (128,379 sq mi)
Population
(2003 est.): 81,377,000
Capital:
Hanoi
Chief of state:
President Tran Duc Luong
Head of government:
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

      Domestic affairs were dominated in 2003 by the largest corruption trial in postunification Vietnam. Court proceedings revealed that organized crime had infiltrated the Ho Chi Minh City police force and spread its influence to senior state and party officials. The scandal, known as the “Nam Cam” affair, took its name from the nickname of crime boss Truong Van Cam, its central figure.

      In January the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) Central Committee held its seventh plenum (second session). At the meeting Politburo member Truong Tan Sang was disciplined in connection with the Nam Cam affair, and Minister of Public Security Le Hong Anh was dismissed as director of the Inspection Commission. The plenum adopted four resolutions pertaining to strengthening national unity, ethnic minorities, religion, and legislative land reform.

      In February Nam Cam and 154 of his associates went to trial on a range of charges including gambling, bribery, and murder. The proceedings were given wide coverage in the local media. In June Nam Cam and five associates were found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad. Two others, expelled VCP Central Committee members Bui Quoc Huy and Tran Mai Hanh, were given prison terms of 4 and 10 years, respectively.

      Sixty-nine defendants, including Nam Cam, appealed. The judges upheld five of the six death sentences, including that of Nam Cam. The court upheld the sentences of all former senior officials except for Tran Mai Hanh, whose 10-year sentence was reduced by one year.

      In April the VCP reaffirmed its commitment to a policy that called for the rotation of officials after they had served three years in a post. Deputy ministers and their party equivalents were to be sent to provincial posts, and lower-level officials would be given assignments at district level. The purpose of this policy was to increase practical experience and to prevent cliques from forming. In October, in a move to clear deadwood from the VCP, it was announced that all party membership cards would have to be renewed. The eighth plenum of the Central Committee met in July and adopted a national-defense strategy and a salary-reform package.

      During the year Vietnamese security forces continued their crackdown on political dissidents. Tran Dung Tien was arrested in January after urging the release of political prisoners. Nguyen Dan Que, a leading pro-democracy activist, and Pham Hong Son were arrested in March and June, respectively, for using the Internet to propagate their ideas. Son was later convicted on charges of espionage and sentenced to 13 years in prison, but an appeals court reduced the term to 5 years.

      In April, as a conciliatory gesture, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai publicly met with Thich Huyen Quang, the aged leader of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV). In midyear the regime released from house arrest Thich Quang Do, the head of the Institute for the Propagation of the Dharma. Government officials approached Quang with an offer of a position in the state-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church, but Quang turned it down.

      In October Quang convened a public meeting of the UBCV and announced plans to restructure the organization to include representatives from the overseas Vietnamese community. These resolutions were conveyed to UBCV supporters meeting in Australia. When Quang and a group of monks attempted to travel from Binh Dinh province to Ho Chi Minh City, provincial security police intervened. Quang was returned to exile, and Do was again placed under house arrest. Police officials charged them with undermining national unity and illegally seeking assistance from abroad.

      Relations with the United States took an unexpected turn during the year when Vietnam signaled its interest in expanding military relations. Gen. Pham Van Tra, the minister of national defense, visited Washington in November to discuss future cooperation with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Carlyle A. Thayer

▪ 2003

Area:
332,501 sq km (128,379 sq mi)
Population
(2002 est.): 79,939,000
Capital:
Hanoi
Chief of state:
President Tran Duc Luong
Head of government:
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

      The December 2001 arrest of Nam Cam—a Ho Chi Minh City-based crime boss, whose criminal network was found to implicate more than 150 persons, including police, party cadres, and government officials—attracted such widespread media and public interest that in June 2002 a senior party leader ordered the media to curb its coverage to prevent further leaks and damaging speculation about the identity of others who might be involved.

      The Vietnam Communist Party's (VCP) top decision-making body, the Central Committee, met in executive session three times during the year. At its first meeting in February–March, the fifth plenum (numbered consecutively from the last national party congress) adopted policies to boost the role of the private sector and to permit party members to engage in private business for the first time.

      On May 19 Vietnamese voters went to the polls to elect deputies to the 11th legislature of the National Assembly. A record 759 candidates were certified as eligible to contest 498 seats. Election proceedings were marred when three candidates were disqualified for corruption, including Tran Mai Hanh, who was head of Voice of Vietnam Radio, secretary-general of the Vietnam Journalists' Association, and a member of the VCP Central Committee. At the Central Committee's sixth plenum in July, Hanh and a deputy minister of public security were expelled for involvement in the Nam Cam scandal. The Central Committee also adopted a number of policy initiatives designed to spur the information technology sector.

      The new National Assembly convened immediately after the plenum. Nearly 90% of the deputies were VCP members. The National Assembly reelected Tran Duc Luong and Phan Van Khai for another five-year term as president and prime minister, respectively. Deputies also endorsed Nguyen Van An as chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee, but not before 99 legislators had taken the unprecedented step of voting against An. On the eve of the vote, rumours circulated that members of An's family had accepted gifts from Nam Cam. National Assembly deputies unsuccessfully challenged the prime minister's proposal to create three new ministries, and they rejected his candidate for minister of public security. The deputies chose instead to bring in an outsider to head this corruption-tainted body. All other ministerial nominations were approved.

      In November the Central Committee's seventh plenum adopted an economic development plan for 2003 that included two controversial projects, the Son La hydroelectric power plant and the Cau Mau fertilizer complex.

      During the year Vietnam hosted visits by China's president and party leader (February), the prime ministers of South Korea (April) and Japan (April), and the president of the Philippines (November). All of these visits focused on trade, investment, and business and technology cooperation. In May Russia completed its withdrawal from Cam Ranh Bay and turned over its naval facilities to Vietnam.

      Prime Minister Phan Van Khai attended the Asia-Europe Meeting in Denmark in September, the APEC forum in Mexico with a side trip to Cuba and Chile in October, and the eighth ASEAN summit in Cambodia in November. Party Secretary-General Nong Duc Manh ventured abroad in October to visit Japan, Belarus, and Russia. Pres. Tran Duc Luong traveled to Myanmar (Burma) in May and attended the Francophone summit in Beirut, Lebanon, in October, after which he visited France, Iran, and several African countries.

      Vietnam's relations with the United States underwent strains as American lobby groups charged Vietnam with dumping catfish and shrimp on the American market. Vietnam's human rights and religious practices also attracted official criticism.

Carlyle A. Thayer

▪ 2002

Area:
331,041 sq km (127,816 sq mi)
Population
(2001 est.): 79,939,000
Capital:
Hanoi
Chief of state:
President Tran Duc Luong
Head of government:
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

      In February 2001 a wave of protests among ethnic minorities swept through the central highlands of Vietnam. The demonstrators were angry over government corruption and encroachment on their ancestral lands by members of the Vietnamese majority. These developments quickly had an impact on political maneuvering prior to the ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The stewardship of Secretary-General Le Kha Phieu came under challenge by senior retired leaders. Phieu also was implicated in a wiretapping scandal involving the military intelligence service.

      Prior to the National Congress, party delegates decided to select Nong Duc Manh as party leader. Manh, a member of the Tay ethnic minority group, was respected for his considerable legislative experience as chairman of the National Assembly.

      The National Congress was held on April 19–22. The party set a goal of doubling the country's gross domestic product by 2010 and achieving an annual growth rate of 7.5% for the first five years. Secretary-General Manh quickly stamped his authority on Vietnam's ongoing reform program. He immediately reshuffled key party and military leadership posts. He then ordered the implementation of a directive requiring all party and state officials to publicly declare their assets in an effort to curb corruption.

      In June Manh obtained approval from the party's Central Committee for controversial plans to construct a costly hydroelectric scheme at Son La in the north. This project was designed to provide future energy for industry and to control flooding. It would also displace 100,000 persons who would need to be resettled. In August Manh received party endorsement to carry out a thorough reform of the state-owned enterprise sector. In September he personally addressed the problem of ethnic minority grievances by visiting the central highlands. He directed government officials to work closely with local elders, ordered a step-up in the recruitment of ethnic minorities for government service, and offered financial support for the ailing coffee-growing industry.

      The National Congress reaffirmed Vietnam's commitment to a policy aimed at diversifying foreign relations. In March Vietnam hosted a visit by Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin. The two countries agreed to form a “strategic partnership” involving long-term economic cooperation and Russian arms sales. In October Russia announced that it would withdraw the last of its military forces from the Cam Ranh Bay naval station. Vietnam received visits by a number of Chinese officials, including Defense Minister Chi Haotian in February, Vice Pres. Hu Jintao in April, and National People's Congress Chairman Li Peng in September. In midyear Vietnam, as chairman of the Standing Committee of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), hosted the annual meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers, a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, and a meeting of the “ASEAN Plus Three” (China, Japan, and South Korea). In July Vietnam hosted a groundbreaking visit by Kim Yong Nam, president of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, and in October the two countries agreed to expand bilateral trade and investment. Vietnam responded to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. by offering sympathy and condemning terrorism but warned against “overreacting” to the attacks. In the final quarter of the year, Vietnam and the U.S. ratified the Bilateral Trade Agreement, which meant that Vietnamese exports would be subject to much lower tariffs.

Carlyle A. Thayer

▪ 2001

Area:
331,041 sq km (127,816 sq mi)
Population
(2000 est.): 78,774,000
Capital:
Hanoi
Chief of state:
President Tran Duc Luong
Head of government:
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

      On April 30, 2000, Vietnam celebrated the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Parades and other public festivities commemorated the event. A day before, however, the nation had lost Pham Van Dong (see Obituaries (Pham Van Dong )), one of its last revolutionary leaders and an architect of Vietnam's independence and reunification movements.

      Throughout the year, reconciliation with the U.S. was a major theme in Vietnam. In mid-July a landmark trade agreement was reached with the U.S. Vietnam gave the U.S. access to its protected domestic economy in exchange for lower tariffs on Vietnamese goods entering American markets. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai marked the historic event with a nationwide address. For the country's more than 5,000 state-owned companies, the agreement was interpreted as the beginning of the end of substantial subsidies for the sector.

      Economically, much potential remained unrealized for the nation. Partly because of the great number of deaths during the war, Vietnam had a mostly young citizenry. More than 30% of Vietnamese were under the age of 15, and 60% were 30 years old and under. Even with a literacy rate of over 90%, however, well-paying jobs remained scarce. An estimated 1.2 million Vietnamese were entering the workforce each year. All but 10% of the country's workers were on farms or in small cottage industries. Some 12 million to 15 million Vietnamese were without jobs or underemployed. Echoing movements in the rest of Asia, a burgeoning low-end Internet-related sector sputtered to life.

      At the end of July, the much-awaited opening of Vietnam's first stock exchange finally occurred. The Securities Trading Centre in Ho Chi Minh City had all of two companies listed when it began operations. Even so, on opening day more than 2,000 people thronged the building to purchase shares. Given Vietnam's continuing stringent controls on financial matters and the lacklustre pace of economic growth, the development of the local market proceeded cautiously. Much remained to be done to put Vietnam on the map for international investors.

      The one obviously bright spot was tourism. Some two million people visited the country during the year, 20% more than in 1999. Among the visitors were a stream of top-ranked American government officials. In March William Cohen became the first U.S. defense secretary to travel to Vietnam since the end of the war. U.S. Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war and an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2000, made a much-publicized visit. Pres. Bill Clinton made a historic trip in November to help promote stronger cultural and business ties. He was accompanied by his wife, Hillary, on her first trip abroad since her election to the Senate.

Alexandra A. Seno

▪ 2000

Area:
331,041 sq km (127,816 sq mi)
Population
(1999 est.): 77,311,000
Capital:
Hanoi
Chief of state:
President Tran Duc Luong
Head of government:
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

      From the beginning of 1999, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party had to deal with dissent among its ranks. In January former military ideologue Gen. Tran Do was ousted from the party after criticizing it in a series of open letters. Months later Do applied to publish a newspaper but was refused. In February another senior military figure, Lieut. Gen. Pham Hong Son, openly criticized the party for corruption and lack of democracy, while Hoang Huu Nhan, a former party official in Haiphong, wrote top leaders urging political reforms. In August Le Kha Phieu, the party's secretary-general, declared that the party's rule had to be reinforced and that no power sharing would ever be permitted.

      An official anticorruption drive led to death sentences in August for six people implicated in the country's largest-ever corruption scandal. Six other defendants were given life imprisonment at the conclusion of a nationally broadcast trial. In December the National Assembly sacked Deputy Premier Ngo Xuan Loc for mismanagement, though he was not directly accused of graft.

      The economy continued to suffer from the Asian financial crisis and the growing disenchantment of foreign investors put off by red tape and the slow pace of reform. Still, growth came in at 4.8%, in line with official forecasts. During the National Assembly's second biannual meeting in December, the leadership set a gross domestic product target for 2000 of between 5.5% and 6% growth. Foreign investment dropped to about $600 million in 1999, the lowest level since 1992. The government conducted a series of meetings with investors to boost their confidence and insisted that it was pressing ahead with necessary reforms. In July Hanoi decided that it would allow foreigners to own 30% of domestic shareholding companies. Such ownership had previously been approved on a case-by-case basis.

      Late in the year persistent heavy rains caused severe flooding in central Vietnam, destroying rice crops and threatening a food crisis. (See Disasters.) Other parts of the country had faced severe food shortages from drought. Tourism remained buoyant, however. Vietnam received more than 1.7 million foreign tourists, up 11.8% from 1998. Visa-on-arrival services were offered for the first time at certain entry points, including the airports at Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

      Vietnam continued its efforts to improve foreign relations. In August Pres. Tran Duc Luong visited Russia and received pledges to expand arms sales and to help build an oil refinery and electric power plants. At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations informal summit in Manila in November, Vietnam's insistence on including the Paracel Islands along with the Spratlys under a proposed code of conduct in the South China Sea led in part to China's refusal to sign on to the agreement. That same month Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand agreed to a landmark Asian Development Bank-brokered customs cooperation scheme designed to boost trade between the three nations. In December Hanoi and Beijing signed a land-border treaty to settle territorial disputes. Ties with the U.S. appeared to improve over the year, though disputes over human rights caused strains. After agreeing in principle to a bilateral trade pact with the U.S. in September, Hanoi backed away from a final deal that would have been a major step in normalizing economic relations with Washington. The U.S. strongly protested the detention for two months of dissident academic Nguyen Thanh Giang. On December 2 U.S. Embassy Second Secretary David Young met Thich Huyen Quang, patriarch of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. Young became the first Westerner in 17 years to see the detained monk.

Alejandro Reyes

▪ 1999

      Area: 331,041 sq km (127,816 sq mi)

      Population (1998 est.): 76,236,000

      Capital: Hanoi

      Chief of state: President Tran Duc Luong

      Head of government: Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

      Vietnam began 1998 with a new political leader. Hard-liner Gen. Le Kha Phieu became chief of the Communist Party on Dec. 29, 1997. During his first months as the country's most powerful figure, he showed little enthusiasm for reform. Soon after his elevation he shuffled the ruling Politburo, dropping pragmatist Nguyen Tan Dung in favour of conservative soulmate Pham The Duyet. Phieu also expanded the Politburo by adding four new members.

      The East Asian financial crisis began to affect Vietnam during 1998, but the nation was spared the worst of it and turned in one of the best performances of any East Asian economy. Early in the year it became clear that Vietnam would not be able to meet its 9% growth target. Output was expected to expand by 6.1%, down from 8.8% in 1997, and was forecast to fall to a gain of about 5% in 1999. In the first nine months of 1998, exports rose by less than 5%, after having averaged 25-30% annually the previous five years. Vietnam devalued the dong twice to maintain export competitiveness.

      Bad weather, including a major typhoon in the central part of the country in November, disrupted agricultural production. Inflation, meanwhile, crept up to 8.2% during the first 10 months of the year. Saddled with an estimated $11 billion in foreign debt, Vietnam faced a serious balance of payments problem. In December international donors pledged additional loans and aid totaling $2.7 billion. Foreign direct investment—already slowing when the financial crisis broke—declined to about 60% of the 1997 total. Investors continued to complain about bureaucratic interference and also about the limited implementation and lax enforcement of laws and regulations. The National Assembly in November approved new mechanisms to deal with the growing number of public complaints.

      In September Vietnam allowed jailed dissident Doan Viet Hoat to leave for the U.S. 5 years into his 15-year sentence for publishing a pro-democracy newsletter. Former top military leader and party ideologue Gen. Tran Do continued to rile Communist bosses. In a letter from him addressed to Phieu, Tran Do denounced the lack of democracy in the country and the concentration of power in the ruling party.

      On the diplomatic front, Vietnam took significant steps during the year. Pres. Tran Duc Luong visited Moscow in August. Russia pledged to expand arms sales to Vietnam and help the nation build an oil refinery and electric power plants. In October Phan Van Khai made the first visit to China by a prime minister since ties with Beijing were normalized in 1991. Both sides agreed to accelerate negotiations over lingering territorial disputes, aiming for a resolution by 2000. The following month Vietnam joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organization at APEC's annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In December Vietnam was host of the sixth summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional organization that it joined in 1995.

      A military plane crash in Laos in May killed 14 senior officers, including 5 generals. During the year two former senior officials died: Nguyen Van Linh, who served as Communist Party general secretary from 1986 to 1991 (see OBITUARIES (Nguyen Van Linh )), and Nguyen Co Thach, who was foreign minister from 1980 to 1991. In August Roman Catholics celebrated the 200th anniversary of an apparition of the Virgin Mary in the village of La Vang. The gathering was the largest-ever Catholic event to take place in Vietnam.

ALEJANDRO REYES

▪ 1998

      Area: 331,041 sq km (127,816 sq mi)

      Population (1997 est.): 75,124,000

      Capital: Hanoi

      Chief of state: Presidents Le Duc Anh and, from September 17, Tran Duc Luong

      Head of government: Prime Ministers Vo Van Kiet and, from September 25, Phan Van Khai

      As expected, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party replaced the national leadership in 1997. The government used the closely controlled National Assembly elections on July 20 to bring new blood into the legislature, which over the years had become more vocal in challenging official policy. Although it was no surprise that the Communist Party remained dominant, taking 381 of the 450 seats, three independent candidates—including a former soldier in the South Vietnamese army—were unexpected victors. All but 108 of the legislators were elected for the first time. Women won 117 seats, and ethnic minority groups took 78.

      The political highlight of 1997 was, however, the long-awaited appointment of a new president and prime minister. When the National Assembly convened in September, among its first acts was to appoint Phan Van Khai prime minister to replace Vo Van Kiet. Khai, a Russian-trained technocrat and a dominant force behind Hanoi's economic reforms, had long been expected to succeed Kiet. In a surprising move, the National Assembly also chose Tran Duc Luong to take over from ailing Pres. Le Duc Anh. A Russian-trained geologist from central Vietnam, Luong was ranked only 12th in the 18-member Politburo. At a special plenum in late December, the Communist Party's Central Committee named military political commissar Le Kha Phieu, a conservative northerner who ranked fifth in the Politburo, to succeed Do Muoi as the ruling party's general secretary. Phieu thereby became Vietnam's most powerful politician.

      While the drama on the political stage unfolded, the Vietnamese government faced daunting economic challenges. Despite official forecasts of another strong year and for annual growth to continue at between 9% and 10% through 2000, independent analysts indicated that growth was slowing and could fall to between 7% and 8% in 1997 and to 5% in 1998. Inflation for the first six months of the year stood at just 1.1%. Exports maintained solid growth, though the electronics sector slowed sharply. Because it was not freely convertible, the local currency was largely shielded from the Asian currency crisis. During the year, however, central bank authorities at least twice effectively devalued the dong. Serious worries about the banking system emerged after several banks, including the largest state-owned commercial bank, Vietcombank, defaulted on letters of credit. As a mark of its concern, the National Assembly in September rejected the nomination of Cao Si Kiem to remain as governor of the central bank. Disenchantment continued to grow among foreign investors, dismayed by Vietnam's bureaucratic red tape, corruption, flagging zeal for reform, and the lack of an adequate legal infrastructure. Unprofitable government-owned firms remained a major drain on the economy.

      On the diplomatic front, Vietnam experienced substantial progress. Adm. Joseph Prueher, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, visited Hanoi in March, followed three months later by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. (See BIOGRAPHIES. (Albright, Madeleine )) Do Muoi traveled to China in July. The next month China and Vietnam held talks on their simmering maritime and border disputes, including conflicting claims on the Spratly Islands. In November French Pres. Jacques Chirac paid a state visit to Vietnam, which preceded a summit of French-speaking nations and territories in Hanoi. Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin also visited the nation in November. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, held in Vancouver, B.C., November 21-25, Vietnam, Russia, and Peru were admitted as APEC members from 1998.

      An era came to a close on July 31 when the last reigning emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai (see OBITUARIES (Bao Dai )), died in exile in Paris at the age of 83.

ALEJANDRO REYES
      This article updates vietnam, history of (Vietnam).

▪ 1997

      The socialist republic of Vietnam occupies the eastern part of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia and is bounded on the south and east by the South China Sea. Area: 331,041 sq km (127,816 sq mi). Pop. (1996 est.): 76,161,000. Cap.: Hanoi. Monetary unit: dong, with (Oct. 11, 1996) a free rate of 11,057 dong to U.S. $1 (17,418 dong = £ 1 sterling). President in 1996, Le Duc Anh; prime minister, Vo Van Kiet.

      The political highlight of 1996 was the eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam from June 28 to July 1. Held every five years, the party conference brought together top cadres and officials to consider policy and select leaders. The 1996 gathering was preceded by intense speculation about the futures of the nation's top three leaders: Pres. Le Duc Anh, Communist Party General Secretary Do Muoi, and Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet. All in their 70s, the three were confirmed in their posts by the congress, despite talk that they would make way for younger figures. There were indications, however, that all three may step down before the next congress in 2001. In late November Anh was reported to be seriously ill.

      The retention of the senior leadership eased investors' fears, which had been raised in April when the Communist Party's Central Committee released a report that called for an expanded government-operated sector of the economy that would generate 60% of gross domestic product by 2020. Already disillusioned by an overbearing bureaucracy that was slow to act, many investors were stung by the implications of the report, which left them wondering whether the reform movement was in jeopardy. At the party congress the final draft was watered down, and the 60% state-sector goal was dropped. The "state capitalist economy," which included joint ventures with foreign companies, was moved from fifth to third position on the list of priority sectors of the economy.

      Perhaps the most welcome news to investors was that Kiet remained in power. The leading southerner in the top echelon of government, he was widely regarded as the prime mover of the economic reforms. Political jockeying among reformists and conservatives resulted in the dismissal of the army chief of staff, Gen. Dao Dinh Luyen, which was announced in January, and of Politburo member Nguyen Ha Phan, which was announced two months before the party congress. Infighting among the leadership took place amid a government campaign against "social evils" such as alcoholism, "cultural pollution," and even advertising.

      The showdown at the congress resulted in a seemingly balanced 19-seat Politburo. The goal was clearly to bring in younger people. Eight new members were included in the powerful policy-making body, and there were also a number of key promotions. Nong Duc Manh, the National Assembly chairman and a political moderate, rose from the 10th position in the government to the 4th, directly behind Kiet. Deputy Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, a Kiet protégé, rose to seventh.

      The National Assembly passed amendments to the foreign investment law in an attempt to reverse the downturn in investor interest. The first half of 1996 saw a decline of about 20% in overseas investment from the same period a year earlier. Nonetheless, Vietnam's economy roared ahead, with growth of over 9%. Inflation moderated to just 3%.

      In the international arena, the once-closed nation continued to expand its links with the outside world. In March Kiet visited Cambodia to cool a border dispute. Vietnam completed its first year as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, serving as host of ASEAN meetings and participating in the July ministerial conference and the November informal summit in Indonesia. U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton in May nominated Douglas Peterson, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, to be the first U.S. ambassador to Hanoi since the North Vietnamese army took over the U.S. embassy in Saigon in 1975.

      (ALEJANDRO REYES)

      This article updates vietnam, history of (Vietnam).

▪ 1996

      The socialist republic of Vietnam occupies the eastern part of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia and is bounded on the south and east by the South China Sea. Area: 331,041 sq km (127,816 sq mi). Pop. (1995 est.): 74,545,000. Cap.: Hanoi. Monetary unit: dong, with (Oct. 6, 1995) a free rate of 11,014 dong to U.S. $1 (17,412 dong = £ 1 sterling). President in 1995, Le Duc Anh; prime minister, Vo Van Kiet.

      A series of milestones made 1995 a pivotal year for Vietnam as it continued to undo its decades of isolation. On January 28 Vietnam and the U.S. opened liaison offices in each other's capital, and on August 5 they formally established diplomatic relations. Warren Christopher, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Hanoi, attended the opening of the U.S. embassy. This was a clear sign that the former adversaries were putting some 40 years of animosity behind them. Pres. Bill Clinton, however, reiterated the U.S. concern that about 2,200 American soldiers still considered missing in action in Southeast Asia had not yet been accounted for.

      Perhaps of greater immediate significance to the nation was Vietnam's admission as a full member into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on July 28. Ironically, the all-capitalist grouping of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand was formed in 1967 partly to counter what were perceived to be expansionist threats posed by the communist nation. Vietnam was expected to have enhanced opportunities for investment and trade with ASEAN, which already accounted for about a quarter of its trade. Vietnam also signed a historic multilateral pact on the management of the Mekong River. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand—with China and Myanmar (Burma) as observers—signed the Agreement on Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin in April. Among other things, the 42-clause accord outlined mechanisms for settling disputes on how to develop and share the resources of the strategically located river.

      Vietnam marked two important anniversaries. The country looked back to April 30, 1975, when communist forces from the north marched into Saigon, effectively ending the Vietnam War, in which millions of Vietnamese died. Former U.S. defense secretary Robert McNamara said in his 1995 memoirs that he and other U.S. officials had been "terribly wrong" in key decisions affecting the war. The Vietnamese government, however, placed far greater emphasis on the nation's 50th anniversary of independence. On September 2 the country commemorated nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh's 1945 declaration of independence. During the celebration Pres. Le Duc Anh remarked, "All of our great victories in the wars of resistance and all important achievements of the reform process demonstrate that our way is right and our future is bright."

      The economy continued on its expansionist path, growing at a 9.5% annual rate. Among new joint ventures, the largest was a $1.2 billion pledge by the South Korean conglomerate Daewoo to build an industrial park near Hanoi. Still, business complaints about official corruption and complicated bureaucracy became so widespread they were reported to have scared potential investors away. In one typical case in September, Total SA of France said it would pull out of a proposed oil-refinery project north of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly called Saigon. Businessmen, however, saw the adoption of a landmark civil code as an indication that Vietnam was moving away from government by decree and toward the rule of law. The code was due to come into effect on July 1, 1996.

      Though the country had taken huge strides toward liberalizing its central-command economy since it began the doi moi (economic renovation) process in 1986, there was no complementary movement toward political reform. The Communist Party, which remained the only legal political entity, continued to crack down on individuals who openly supported political or religious pluralism. While calling for more openness, President Anh remarked that "hostile forces" compelled the party to strengthen its leadership over the "government, over the entire political system, and over the renovation process." One of the high-profile instances in which the government demonstrated its iron grip was the case of Thich Quang Do, a leader of the outlawed United Buddhist Church of Vietnam. He and five others were arrested in January and later sentenced to as much as five years in prison for "sabotaging religious solidarity" by organizing a flood-relief mission without government permission. (STEVEN FRANK)

      This updates the article vietnam, history of (Vietnam).

▪ 1995

      The socialist republic of Vietnam occupies the eastern part of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia and is bounded on the south and east by the South China Sea. Area: 331,041 sq km (127,816 sq mi). Pop. (1994 est.): 72,342,000. Cap.: Hanoi. Monetary unit: dong, with (Oct. 7, 1994) a free rate of 11,053 dong to U.S. $1 (17,581 dong = £ 1 sterling). President in 1994, Le Duc Anh; prime minister, Vo Van Kiet.

      Two of Vietnam's major policies seemed in conflict in 1994. One was its push to reform and open up the economy, especially after the U.S. lifted its trade embargo in February. The other was the Communist Party's refusal to liberalize politics—a position it reiterated at conferences in January and July. Officials had long feared that ending the embargo would increase contacts with Westerners and returning émigrés. Even so, in August Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet urged officials to learn foreign languages, preferably English, because "in coming years contacts with foreigners will become more and more necessary and popular."

      In January Do Muoi, general secretary of the Communist Party, stressed the importance of economic reforms and continued opposition to political pluralism. He warned of "hostile forces" advocating democracy and encouraged efforts to combat corruption and improve social services—two problems that could undermine popular support for the party. Only one of the four new members promoted to the Politburo had any reform experience. Nguyen Ha Phan, director of the party's economic commission and vice-chairman of the National Assembly, was viewed as a possible successor to Vo Van Kiet. Although he came from the enterprising south, he was not seen as an advocate of reform.

      PepsiCo, Inc., and American Express were among the first companies to act when the United States ended its embargo. Over 40 U.S. firms had set up local offices by mid-1994, many of which had earlier worked out deals for implementation as soon as the embargo ended. In March the U.S. Agency for International Development set up an orphanage and a training centre for disadvantaged children in Dalat. In April came the first postembargo shipment of Vietnamese rice to the U.S., and in May came the first U.S. commercial loan—Bank of America's $5 million share in a $100 million Thai-led syndication. There was no sudden surge in trade, however. Because the U.S. had not yet granted most-favoured-nation status to Vietnam, it was limiting big-ticket imports.

      Hanoi took steps to remedy social ills and lessen its dependence on other nations. In February it jailed a corrupt former minister of energy. Later in the year Vo Van Kiet, who had called for tougher graft penalties in 1993, sacked two top officials in Ba Ria-Vung Tau. In July the government threatened civil servants with substantial fines and possible loss of jobs for gambling, drunkenness, or prostitution. An official report in October said corruption was rampant, but smuggling and tax evasion were also commonplace. In August regulations to curb the widespread use of U.S. dollars were announced, but many establishments ignored them. That same month party chief Do Muoi warned against excessive reliance on foreign capital.

      Eight years after Vietnam had launched doi moi (economic renewal), it appeared to be repeating the progress China had experienced after adopting reforms in 1978. Overseas investment and a new north-south power line helped fuel Vietnam's overall economic expansion of 8.5%. The increase was 13% in industry and 20% in exports, but agriculture, which supported 80% of the population, grew only 3-4%. Some 90% of the poor, however, lived in rural areas, and two-thirds of the affluent resided in cities. For Do Muoi the key was to promote rural industry and ally "peasantry and intelligentsia." Two things helped: an inflation rate of less than 10% and a budget deficit down to 7% of the gross national product. Only food prices rose by double digits, and that increase was helpful to farmers.

      In June Do Muoi confirmed that Vietnam was prepared to establish full diplomatic relations with the U.S.—but not with human rights conditions. In the following month, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord expressed appreciation in Hanoi for its cooperation in helping to determine the fate of U.S. military personnel still officially listed as missing in action. The prime ministers of Japan, South Korea, and Canada subsequently visited Hanoi. Late in the year Vietnam formally applied for membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with acceptance expected in 1995. China, which had fought a brief war with Vietnam in 1979, improved ties between the two countries in November with the visit of Pres. Jiang Zemin (Chiang Tse-min). (RICARDO L. SALUDO)

      This updates the article vietnam, history of (Vietnam).

▪ 1994

      The socialist republic of Vietnam occupies the eastern part of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia and is bounded on the south and east by the South China Sea. Area: 329,566 sq km (127,246 sq mi). Pop. (1993 est.): 70,902,000. Cap.: Hanoi. Monetary unit: dong, with (Oct. 4, 1993) a free rate of 10,672 dong to U.S. $1 (16,168 dong = £ 1 sterling). President, Le Duc Anh; prime minister, Vo Van Kiet.

      The pace of economic growth accelerated during 1993. The value of the dong stabilized, and inflation fell to an annual rate of 4%. Compared with the same period a year earlier, foreign investment more than doubled in value during the first five months of the year. Most important of all was a July 2 decision by the U.S. to no longer stand in the way of International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans to Vietnam. This change in policy led to new grants and loans by the IMF, other international bodies, and bilateral donors. A series of visits abroad by Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet and other Vietnamese officials also improved bilateral relations. At the same time, however, authorities had difficulty coping with domestic corruption and dissidence.

      The U.S. decision in late 1992 to allow American companies to set up offices in Vietnam was a signal from Washington that it would eventually end its embargo. A number of U.S. enterprises carried forward or completed plans for joint ventures with the Vietnamese even though direct investments and direct trade were still forbidden by U.S. law. The largest foreign investor remained Taiwan, which counted among its new projects a $300 million joint venture with Ho Chi Minh City authorities in September to build a new town. In the first five months of the year, however, Hong Kong headed the list of investors in Vietnam with a total of $423.9 million; Taiwan was second with $284.1 million and South Korea third with $221.4 million. Between 1987 and October 1993, Vietnam had approved a total of 747 foreign investment projects worth $6.6 billion. Altogether, the government would need $15 billion-$20 billion from overseas investors over the next decade as part of its overall capital requirement of $40 billion-$50 billion.

      After careful deliberations, a group of nations headed by France and Japan arranged a $55 million grant and $85 million in loans to Vietnam, which it then used to pay off its arrears to the IMF. In October the IMF announced that it was granting new loans of $223 million. A short time later, the World Bank announced $320 million in loans from the International Development Agency. Vietnam also paid off its $13.5 million debt to the Asian Development Bank, which later announced that it had approved a grant of $568,000 for technical assistance and a loan of $76 million. After talks with the international lending bodies, Vietnam began selling off some of its state-owned enterprises and closed down others that were incurring mounting losses. In April the government began to implement a new pay scale for civil servants, who would as a consequence receive higher salaries in cash. The change was expected to increase the budget deficit from 3.8 trillion dong in 1992 to 9 trillion dong in 1993. Meanwhile, the country's industrial output increased 10-11% over the previous year. The unprecedented $20 million trade surplus in 1992 turned into a $200 million deficit in 1993.

      French Pres. François Mitterrand's visit to Hanoi in February was the first by a Western leader since 1975. Mitterrand announced that French aid would reach $65 million in 1993, twice the amount France had provided in 1992. Relations with Laos were strengthened during Laotian leader Khamtai Siphandon's visit to Hanoi in March. In May, Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet visited South Korea. Before departing, Kiet was informed that South Korea would provide Vietnam with $50 million worth of low-interest loans. The two countries had normalized relations in late 1992. Kiet then went to Australia, where he was promised $A 100 million in aid. In June and July he visited Germany, France, and Britain, where he received additional pledges of aid. Kiet also made a trip to Cuba.

      Vietnam established relations with Israel in July and with Venezuela in August. Late that month the two co-equal prime ministers of Cambodia visited Hanoi. The two countries strengthened their bonds by setting up commissions on border demarcation and immigration. In November Pres. Le Duc Anh became the first Vietnamese head of state since 1955 to visit China. Economic issues were the principal topic of conversation between the president and the Chinese prime minister. Relations with the U.S. improved, in great part because Vietnam assisted U.S. personnel in six new searches for the remains of U.S. soldiers still listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War. In July, Winston Lord, an assistant secretary of state, led the highest-level U.S. delegation to Vietnam since the end of the war. A reciprocal visit to Washington was undertaken by Deputy Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in October. Relations with China remained prickly. Beijing (Peking) reacted to Vietnam's 1992 limits on trade with China by placing retaliatory restrictions on imports from Vietnam. Vietnam then eased tensions by removing the restrictions, imposing higher taxes, and tightening border controls. Early in the year China detained a number of Vietnamese ships off Hong Kong, and in September the two countries exchanged complaints over a Chinese oil rig in the Gulf of Tonkin. In October China and Vietnam formally agreed to speed up border negotiations and not to use force in their border disputes. In 1993 more Vietnamese returned than left the country. Late in the year there were still some 73,000 Vietnamese in Asian camps even though 50,000 had been voluntarily repatriated since 1989.

      During the January plenum of the Communist Party of Vietnam, wide disagreements surfaced over how to deal with declining recruitment. The number of new members had dropped to 36,000 in 1991 from a regular enrollment of about 100,000 a year up to 1987. The delegates also discussed such "negative phenomena" as party and official corruption, opposition groups, and writers. Events during the year showed how serious these problems were. In August the party called for the trial of the former energy minister, who had been dismissed in October 1992 for corruption, and in September the marine products minister was charged with corruption. In March a group of dissidents led by intellectual Doan Viet Hoat received long jail sentences for publishing a newspaper that advocated multiparty democracy. In Ho Chi Minh City police foiled a plot or plots to set off bombs in February and March. Four overseas Vietnamese were given long jail sentences, while 6 others and 10 local residents received shorter sentences. Disputes between the government and Buddhist monks who opposed an officially sponsored church flared into violent protests in Hue and Vung Tau, and several monks were arrested. Four Buddhist monks and five others were sentenced to prison terms of six months to four years in mid-November for the Hue disturbances. (JUDITH L. CLARKE)

      This updates the article vietnam, history of (Vietnam).

* * *

Introduction
Vietnam, flag of   country occupying the eastern portion of mainland Southeast Asia.

      Tribal Viets inhabiting the Red River delta entered written history when China's southward expansion reached them in the 3rd century BC. From that time onward, a dominant theme of Vietnam's history has been interaction with China, the source of most of Vietnam's high culture. As a tribute-paying state after throwing off Chinese rule in AD 938, Vietnam sent lacquerware, animal skins, ivory, and tropical products to the Chinese emperor and received scrolls on philosophy, administration, and literature in return. Sinic culture seeped deeply into society, but it shaped the aristocracy and mandarinal families more than it did the peasantry, which preserved distinctive customs, beliefs, vocabulary, lifeways, and gender relations. Modeling themselves on Chinese emperors, Vietnam's kings exacted tribute from ethnic minorities on the periphery of the Vietnamese state and called themselves emperors when not addressing the Chinese court. Although cultural and spatial gaps between the Vietnamese court and the farthest reaches of society were not as great as they were in China (Vietnam is about the size of a Chinese province, with a comparable population), the Vietnamese state's capacity to rule diminished with distance from the capital. The refractory character of bamboo-hedged peasant communes was captured in the cliché, "The emperor's writ stops at the village gate."

      Vietnam has a long history of affiliating with a dominant civilization and adapting that civilization's ideas, institutions, and technology to Vietnamese purposes. This pattern of affiliating and adapting was already evident in Vietnam's historical relations with China, and it reappeared as descendants of mandarins responded to the challenge of the West by rejecting tradition and becoming communists to combat colonialism. The pattern was evident again as it animated 20th-century artistic movements that employed Western forms to promote social renovation; and since the 1980s it has been the driving force behind the Vietnam Communist Party's embrace of economic liberalization and integration into the world economy. Such strategic absorption and adaptation have helped propel Vietnam to become one of the world's most populous countries, with one of the most rapidly expanding market economies.

      The capital, Hanoi, is located in the north, while the country's largest city, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), is in the south. Vietnam experienced a period of prolonged warfare in the mid-20th century, and a partitioning (1954–75), first militarily and later politically, into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, better known as North Vietnam, and the Republic of Vietnam, usually called South Vietnam. Following reunification in April 1975, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was established in July 1976.

Land
      With an area and configuration similar to those of Norway, Vietnam extends about 1,025 miles (1,650 km) from north to south and is about 30 miles (50 km) wide east to west at its narrowest part. It is bordered by China to the north, the South China Sea to the east and south, the Gulf of Thailand (Thailand, Gulf of) (Gulf of Siam) to the southwest, and Cambodia and Laos to the west.

Relief
 Vietnam's (Vietnam) principal physiographic features are the Annamese Cordillera (French: Chaîne Annamitique; Vietnamese: Nui Truong Son), extending generally from northwest to southeast in central Vietnam and dominating the interior, and two extensive alluvial deltas formed by the Red (Hong) River (Red River) in the north and the Mekong (Cuu Long) River (Mekong River) in the south. Between these two deltas is a long, relatively narrow coastal plain.

      From north to south the uplands of northern Vietnam can be divided into two distinct regions—the area north of the Red River and the massif that extends south of the Red River into neighbouring Laos. The Red River forms a deep, relatively wide valley that runs in a straight northwest-southeast direction for much of its course from the Chinese border to the edge of its delta. North of the Red River the relief is moderate, with the highest elevations occurring between the Red and Lo (Clear) rivers; there is a marked depression from Cao Bang to the sea. In the Red River delta and in the valleys of the region's other major rivers are found wide limestone terraces, extensive alluvial plains, and low hills. The northeast coast is dotted with hundreds of islands composed mostly of limestone.

      Compared with the area north of the Red River, the vast massif extending southwest across Laos to the Mekong River is of considerably higher elevation. Among its outstanding topographic features is Fan Si Peak, which at 10,312 feet (3,143 metres) is the highest point in Vietnam. South of the Black (Da) River (Black River) are the Ta P'ing, Son La, and Moc Chau plateaus, which are separated by deep valleys.

      In central Vietnam the Annamese Cordillera runs parallel to the coast, with several peaks rising to elevations above 6,000 feet (1,800 metres). Several spurs jut into the South China Sea, forming sections of the coast isolated from one another. Communication across the central ranges is difficult. The southern portion of the Annamese Cordillera has two identifiable regions. One consists of plateaus of approximately 1,700 feet (520 metres) in elevation that have experienced little erosion, as in the Dac Lac Plateau near Buon Me Thuot. The second region is characterized by heavily eroded plateaus: in the vicinity of Pleiku, the Kontum Plateau is about 2,500 feet (760 metres) above sea level; and in the Da Lat area, the Di Linh Plateau is about 4,900 feet (1,500 metres).

Drainage
 Roughly triangular in shape, with its northeast and southwest sides bounded by the northern uplands, the Red River delta extends inland some 150 miles (240 km) and runs some 75 miles (120 km) along the Gulf of Tonkin (Tonkin, Gulf of). The delta can be divided into four subregions. The northwestern section has the highest and most broken terrain, and its extensive natural levees invite settlement despite frequent flooding. The low-lying eastern portion is less than seven feet (two metres) above sea level in the vicinity of Bac Ninh. Rivers there form small valleys only slightly lower than the general surface level, and they are subject to flooding by the area's unusually high tides. The third and fourth subregions consist, respectively, of the poorly drained lowlands in the west and the coastal area, which is marked by the remains of former beach ridges left as the delta expanded.

      The Annamese Cordillera forms a drainage divide, with rivers to the east flowing to the South China Sea and those to the west to the Mekong River. South of the mountain range there is an identifiable terrace region that gives way to the Mekong delta. The terrace region includes the alluvial plains along the Saigon (Saigon River) and Dong Nai (Dong Nai River) rivers. The lowlands of southern Vietnam are dominated by alluvial plains, the most extensive of which is the Mekong delta, covering an area of 15,400 square miles (39,900 square km) in Vietnam. Smaller deltaic plains also occur along the south-central coast facing the South China Sea.

Soils
      In northern Vietnam the heavy monsoonal rains wash away rich humus from the highlands, leaving slow-dissolving alumina and iron oxides that give the soil its characteristic reddish colour. The soils of the Red River delta vary: some are fertile and suitable for intense cultivation, while others lack soluble bases. Nonetheless, the delta soils are easily worked. The diking of the Red River to prevent flooding has deprived the delta's rice fields of enriching silts they once received, and it has been necessary to apply chemical fertilizers.

      There are some two dozen soil associations, but certain soil types predominate. Among these are red and yellow podzolic soils (podzolic soil) (i.e., soils that are heavily leached in their upper layers, with a resulting accumulation of materials in the lower layers), which occupy nearly half of the land area, and lateritic (laterite) soils (reddish brown, leached tropical soils), which constitute another one-tenth more. These soil types dominate the central highlands.

      Alluvial soils account for about one-fourth of the land in the south and are concentrated in the Mekong delta, as are peat and muck soils. Gray podzolic soils are found in parts of the central highlands and in old terraces along the Mekong, while regurs (rich black loams) and lateritic soils occur in both the central highlands and the terrace zone. Along the coast of central Vietnam are regosols (soft, undeveloped soils) and noncalcic brown soils.

Climate
      The northern part of Vietnam is on the edge of the tropical climatic zone. During January, the coldest month of the year, Hanoi has a mean temperature of 63 °F (17 °C), while the annual average temperature is 74 °F (23 °C). Farther south, the average annual temperature in Hue is 77 °F (25 °C) and in Ho Chi Minh City is 81 °F (27 °C); in the highland city of Da Lat, it drops to 70 °F (21 °C). The winter season in northern Vietnam lasts from November to April; from early February to the end of March there is a persistent drizzle, and March and April are sometimes considered to be a transitional period. The summer in northern Vietnam lasts from April or May to October and is characterized by heat, heavy rainfall, and occasional typhoons. In central and southern Vietnam the southwest monsoon winds between June and November bring rains and typhoons to the eastern slopes of the mountains and the lowland plains. The period between December and April is drier and is characterized by the winds of the northeast monsoon and, in the south, by high temperatures.

Plant and animal life
      Vietnam's vegetation is rich and diversified, reflecting the country's great range of climate, topography, and soils and the varying effects of human habitation. The forests of Vietnam can be divided into two broad categories: evergreen forests, which include conifers, and deciduous forests. There are more than 1,500 species of woody plants in the country, ranging from commercially important hardwoods, such as ebony and teak, to palms, mangroves, and bamboos. There also are numerous species of woody vines (lianas) and herbaceous plants. In the aggregate, the dense and open forests, savannas, brushland, and bamboo cover approximately half of the country's total area.

      In most areas the forests are mixed, containing a great variety of species within a given area. Rainforests are relatively limited, and pure stands are few. The nearest to pure forest types are the pines—the three-needled Pinus khasya and the two-needled P. merkusii found in the uplands—and the mangrove forests of the coastal areas. In the mountainous regions are subtropical species from such genera as Quercus (oak), Castanopsis, Pinus (pine), and Podocarpus. Brushwood, bamboo, weeds, and tall grasses invade logged areas and grow around settlements and along arterial highways and railroads. Between the logged areas and the upland forests are other mixtures of forest types.

      A large part of the forest in the central highlands is dense and rich in broad-leaved evergreens and semievergreens, some of which yield valuable timbers. Some of this region is still composed of undisturbed (primary) forests. Other types of forests there include secondary forests; open forests, which typically have trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae and species from the genus Lagerstroemia (crape myrtle); mangrove forests; and barren lands of sand dunes with eucalyptus and small, thorny deciduous trees and species from the Casuarina genus of flowering plants. cogon grass (Imperata cylindrica) is commonly found in the open forests, and savanna vegetation occupies large areas formerly covered by forests. Grass and sedge swamps are characteristic of the Thap Muoi Plain (Plain of Reeds), a depression in the Mekong delta.

      During the Vietnam War, herbicides were used by the U.S. Army to defoliate large areas of forest in southern Vietnam. Most of these forests have been regenerating, but resettlement programs and illegal logging appear to have created longer lasting damage.

 The most common domesticated animals in Vietnam are water buffalo, cattle, dogs, cats, pigs, goats, ducks, and chickens. Wild game in the central highlands includes elephants and tapirs; Sumatran rhinoceroses, believed to have become extinct by the 1960s, were sighted in the 1990s. Also found in the forests are large cats, including tigers, leopards, and ounces (snow leopards); several kinds of wild oxen, including gaurs and koupreys; and various types of bears, among them black bears and sun bears (honey bears). Deer are plentiful and include the small musk deer and muntjac (barking deer). Other common wild animals are wild pigs, porcupines, jackals, otters, mongooses, hares, skunks, and squirrels, including flying squirrels.

      There are also small wild cats, binturongs, and palm civets. Primates such as langurs, macaques, gibbons, and rhesus monkeys live in the forests. Three species of hoofed mammals—the saola, giant muntjac, and Truong Son muntjac—were discovered in the 1990s. Crocodiles are found on the edges of some lakes and along riverbanks; other reptiles include several kinds of lizards, pythons, and cobras. Of the wide variety of land and water birds, some 600 species have been identified in southern Vietnam alone.

People
 Diverse cultural traditions, geographies, and historical events have created distinct regions within the country. The lowlands generally have been occupied by ethnic Vietnamese, while the highlands have been home to numerous smaller ethnic groups that differ culturally and linguistically from the Vietnamese. The highland peoples can be divided into the northern ethnic groups, who have affinities with peoples in southern China who speak Tai languages; and the southern highland populations, who have ties with peoples in Cambodia, who speak Mon-Khmer languages (Austroasiatic (Austroasiatic languages) family), and peoples in Indonesia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, who speak Austronesian (Austronesian languages) languages. A north-south variation has also emerged among the ethnic Vietnamese as they have expanded southward from the Red River delta along the coastal plain and into the Mekong delta. The Vietnamese have long made a distinction between the northern region, with Hanoi as its cultural centre; the central region, where the Nguyen Dynasty established a capital at Hue; and the southern region, with Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) as its urban centre. After the mid-19th century, Vietnam was similarly divided by the French into Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and Cochinchina in the south.

Ethnic groups
       Vietnam has one of the most complex ethnolinguistic patterns in Asia. The Vietnamese (Vietnamese language) majority was significantly Sinicized during a millennium of Chinese rule, which ended in AD 939. Indian influence is most evident among the Cham and Khmer minorities. The Cham formed the majority population in the Indianized kingdom of Champa in what is now central Vietnam from the 2nd to the late 15th century AD. Small numbers of Cham remain in the south-central coastal plain and in the Mekong delta near the Cambodian border. The Khmer (Cambodians) are scattered throughout the Mekong delta.

      Many other ethnic groups inhabit the highlands. While cultures vary considerably in the central region, shared characteristics include a way of life still largely oriented toward kin groups and small communities. Known collectively by the French as Montagnards (Montagnard) (“highlanders” or, literally, “mountain people”), these central highlanders have affinities with other Southeast Asians and have exhibited an intense desire to preserve their own cultural identities. In the northern uplands, the various groups have ethnolinguistic affiliations with peoples in Thailand, Laos, and southern China.

      Highland groups in general have experienced little Chinese or Indian influence, although they absorbed some Western (French and then American) cultural traits, primarily between the late 19th century and the early 1970s. By the early 21st century, however, the active promotion of tourism, as well as increased availability of products from foreign markets, brought new international influences into the highland communities.

Languages
 Vietnamese (Vietnamese language) is the official language of Vietnam. Although one of the Mon-Khmer languages of the Austroasiatic family, Vietnamese exhibits strong influences from Chinese (Chinese languages). The language of the Khmer minority also belongs to the Mon-Khmer group, whereas Cham belongs to the Austronesian (Austronesian languages) family.

 Many Montagnard peoples—such as the Rade (Rhade), Jarai, Chru, and Roglai—speak Austronesian languages, linking them to the Cham, Malay, and Indonesian peoples; others—including the Bru, Pacoh, Katu, Cua, Hre, Rengao, Sedang, Bahnar, Mnong, Mang (Maa), Muong, and Stieng—speak Mon-Khmer languages, connecting them with the Khmer. French missionaries and administrators provided Roman script for some of the Montagnard languages, and additional orthographies have since been devised.

      The largest of the northern highland groups speak languages belonging to the Tai language (Tai languages) family and generally live in upland valleys. Thai (Thai language), the national language of Thailand, also belongs to this language family. Hmong ( Miao) and Mien groups, who speak Sino-Tibetan languages, are scattered at higher elevations.

Religion
       Confucianism, Daoism, and Mahayana Buddhism entered Vietnam over many centuries. Gradually they became intertwined, simplified, and Vietnamized to constitute, along with vestiges of earlier local beliefs, an indigenous religion that came to be shared to some considerable extent by all Vietnamese, regardless of region or social class. It is largely this religious amalgam that is practiced by the roughly half of the population that identifies itself as being Buddhist. The religion of Cao Dai, a synthesis of Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Roman Catholicism, appeared during the 1920s, and in the 1930s the Hoa Hao neo-Buddhist sect spread through parts of the Mekong delta. Cao Dai has about twice as many adherents as Hoa Hao, but both congregations are growing. Together, the two new-religionist movements have embraced a significant minority of the population. Local religions involving numerous spirits predominate in many upland communities, and most Cham are adherents of Islam.

       Roman Catholicism was introduced into Vietnam in the 16th century by Portuguese explorers and Dominican missionaries and spread rapidly following the French conquest in the mid-19th century. The heaviest concentrations of Roman Catholics in Vietnam were in the north until 1954, when, after the partition of the country, many of them to fled to the south. Protestantism (Protestant Heritage) came to Vietnam in 1911 and spread mainly among small segments of the urban population in the central and southern regions.

      In 1954 all foreign Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy were expelled from North Vietnam, leaving only the native clergy. The North Vietnamese government tried to supplant the existing structures of organized religion with its own patriotic Buddhist, Cao Dai, Catholic, and Protestant religious organizations. Catholic clergy and believers were forced to renounce their allegiance to Rome. With the conquest of South Vietnam by North Vietnam in 1975, northern institutions of control over churches and clergies were extended to the south as well. The country's constitution, promulgated in 1992, guarantees freedom of religion, but in practice government controls have been relaxed only gradually. Performance of religious services by foreign missionaries without government approval continues to be illegal. Similarly, faith-based non-governmental organizations must register with the government, and may not proselytize.

Settlement patterns
 There are several distinct rural settlement patterns in Vietnam. Especially in northern and central Vietnam, geomantic principles influence the orientation of houses and community buildings. In central Vietnam, many of these structures face the sea. In the densely populated Red River delta in the north, village buildings are often grouped closely together and are enclosed by a bamboo hedge or an earthen wall. Those along rivers, canals, or roads often abut each other, forming a single elongated settlement. Lowland Vietnamese villages on the central coastal plain are characteristically close-knit, small clusters of farmsteads near watercourses, and fishing villages are often situated in sheltered inlets. In the Mekong delta in the south many settlements are strung out along waterways and roads; most are loose-knit clusters of farmsteads, with some of them scattered among the rice fields. The settlements of the Cham and Khmer minorities closely resemble those of the Vietnamese. Most highland peoples build their houses on pilings.

 Historically, Vietnam's major cities have been Hanoi, Hue, and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Throughout Vietnamese history the Hanoi area has been important and was the site of several early capitals. Hanoi also served as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 until 1954, and the city has retained the architecture of that era. The city's port of Haiphong was developed by the French in the late 19th century as a trade and banking centre. Hue was the seat of the Nguyen family, which controlled central and southern Vietnam from the late 17th to the late 19th century. Located on the Huong (Perfume) River, it was laid out in the early 19th century as a political and religious centre, and its economic functions were ancillary. Saigon was built largely by the French in the second half of the 19th century as the administrative capital and principal port of Cochinchina. The city's architecture recalls towns and cities in southern France. The adjoining city of Cholon has long been a major centre for ethnic Chinese.

Demographic trends
      Vietnam's population experienced rapid growth in the decade following reunification in 1975. Throughout the 1980s, roughly two-fifths of the population was under age 15. Toward the end of the decade, however, birth rates began to decline, dropping from well above to notably below the world average over the next 20 years. Life expectancy simultaneously increased by nearly 15 years over that period. Consequently, the median age of Vietnam's population has been rising steadily.

      Migrations have historically been predominantly from north to south; more recently there have also been migrations from the lowlands to higher elevations and from rural to urban areas. Following the partition of Vietnam in 1954, nearly one million people moved from the north to the south. In the late 1950s, the governments in both the north and the south sought to resettle ethnic Vietnamese from the lowlands to the uplands. While these efforts were abandoned in the south in 1963, they continued in the north. In the five years immediately following reunification, the government reinstituted resettlement programs in the south and intensified its activities in implementing them throughout the country, with a significant number of people moving from the southern lowlands to the central highlands. Since then, however, there has been an ongoing flow of migrants into Ho Chi Minh City and its environs and into the central highlands. The greatest migration outflow has been from parts of the northeast and the central coastal plain.

      Emigration was substantial following reunification. Between 1975 and 1990 hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese left the country, both legally and illegally; these refugees became known as “ boat people,” and an unknown number of them died at sea. Many remained in refugee camps in Thailand and other countries, but a large number emigrated, especially to the United States. By the late 1980s, several countries had begun to refuse Vietnamese refugees' automatic resettlement. Throughout the subsequent decade, large-scale repatriation programs were implemented by the broader international community. The last refugee camp for Vietnamese boat people, in Hong Kong, closed in 2000.

Economy
      Vietnam's greatest economic resource is its literate and energetic population. Its long coastline provides excellent harbours, access to marine resources, and many attractive beaches and areas of scenic beauty that are well suited to the development of tourism. Since the late 1990s, the country's economy has been on a vigorous upswing. Tourism has expanded, manufacturing and export earnings have increased, and the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) has grown rapidly. Early in the 21st century, state markets were opened to foreign competition, and Vietnam became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This surge followed two decades of post-reunification economic instability, during which a slowly developing infrastructure, excessive population growth, environmental degradation, and a rising domestic demand (that was increasingly difficult to meet) impeded economic development.

      During the period 1954–75, when the country was divided, there were three layers to the economies in both the north and the south: a bottom layer based on the cultivation of rice, a middle layer dominated by mining in the north and rubber plantations in the south, and a third wartime layer that relied on Soviet and Chinese aid in the north and American aid in the south. In the north, land reform in 1955–56 was followed by rapid collectivization of agriculture and handicrafts. Government investment favoured heavy industry at the expense of agriculture, handicrafts, and light industry, the traditional mainstays of the economy. Heavy industry grew, but efficiency was low, quality was poor, and further progress was hampered by deficiencies in agriculture and light industry. Economic aid from socialist countries masked many economic weaknesses. In the south, although a substantial proportion of manufacturing was conducted by state-owned enterprises, other sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, trade, and transport, were characterized by private ownership and private enterprise. Agriculture flourished in the Mekong delta, and the standard of living was significantly higher in the south than it was in the north.

      After reunification, the northern model of development was imposed on the entire country. Efforts to socialize the commercial sector and to collectivize agriculture met with resistance, especially in urban centres and in the rich Mekong delta, where the majority of farmers in the 1970s were self-sufficient, middle-income peasants. The south also underwent a severe drain of human resources. Many well-educated people fled Vietnam after 1975. Hundreds of thousands more, mainly those who had been associated with the former government or the Americans and had not been able to leave the country, were placed in jails or reeducation centres, while other skilled but politically suspect people were forced to resettle in remote areas. The government's efforts to abolish private enterprise and private property in the south and its deteriorating political relations with China affected Vietnam's ethnic Chinese more than any other group and precipitated their flight from the country. The Chinese exodus was most intense in 1978–79, but it continued at a slower pace with sponsorship from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Office of the) into the early 1990s. Large police and military expenditures further strained the budget and diverted resources from productive enterprises.

      These factors, combined with poor management of state-run economic programs, led to a severe economic crisis. Food production and per capita income dropped, and consumer goods were shoddy, expensive, and in short supply. The government responded with minor changes in 1979, and initiated a program of more basic reforms known as doi moi (“renovation”) beginning in 1986. While maintaining state ownership in many sectors and overall government control of the economy, Vietnam moved away from a centrally planned, subsidized economy toward one that utilizes market forces and incentives and tolerates private enterprise in some areas. The quality and variety of food, consumer goods, and exports subsequently improved.

      The pace of reform slowed during the 1990s, and the economy continued to be more cumbersome and bureaucratic than the dynamic market economies of Vietnam's more successful Southeast Asian neighbours. Although manufacturing and especially services grew in importance after the reforms were introduced, agriculture remained a major component of the economy. After 1998, however, the economy began to rebound. Exports diversified, and per capita income started to climb, nearly doubling in less than a decade.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
 Agriculture is fading as the most important economic sector in Vietnam. Although agriculture still employs more than half of the population and manufacturing accounts for a mere 8 percent of all employment, the output value of both manufacturing and services surpassed that of agriculture in the early 1990s. Yet, agriculture is the main source of raw materials for the processing industries and a major contributor to exports; by the late 1980s Vietnam was again exporting rice after years of shortages. Permanent cultivation covers large areas of the country's lowlands and smaller portions of the highlands. The primary agricultural areas are the Red River delta, the Mekong River delta, and the southern terrace region. The central coastal land, which is subject to destructive typhoons, is a region of low productivity. The central highlands area, traditionally one of low productivity, has been intensively cultivated since 1975, but with mixed results.

  rice is the most important crop. It is grown principally in the Red and Mekong river deltas. Other major food crops are sugarcane, cassava (manioc), corn (maize), sweet potatoes, and nuts. Agriculture is highly labour-intensive in Vietnam, and much plowing is still done by water buffalo. There are many plantations of banana, coconut, and citrus trees, most of them found in the Mekong delta and the southern terrace regions. Coffee and tea are grown in the central highlands. The production of rubber was disrupted by the war but has been restored in the central highlands and southern terrace regions. Fields, groves, and kitchen gardens throughout Vietnam include a wide variety of fruit trees (banana, orange, mango, jackfruit, and coconut) and vegetables. Kapok trees are found in many villages, and the Vietnamese cultivate areca palms and betel peppers for their nuts and leaves and mulberry bushes to feed silkworms.

 The export of such seafood as shrimp, squid, crab, and lobster has become a major source of foreign exchange. There also has been an increase in the number of commercial shrimp farms. The most important freshwater fisheries are located on the plains of the Mekong and Champasak (Bassac) rivers.

      Forestry is of major importance, primarily serving the domestic market. Charcoal production is widespread, and a number of factories produce furniture, pulp, and paper. Plywood, lumber, and rattan products also contribute to the economy. Deforestation and soil degradation, however, threaten the viability of the industry, especially as domestic demand for forest products rises.

Resources and power
      Mineral deposits, mainly in the north, include large reserves of anthracite coal, lime, phosphates, iron ore, barite, chromium ore, tin, zinc, lead, and gold. Coal production is the most important sector of the mining industry. International loans for equipment upgrades enabled Vietnam's coal production to expand rapidly in the early years of the 21st century.

      A number of offshore oil deposits have been discovered in the South China Sea, mainly off Vietnam's southern coast. Although these reserves have yet to be exploited fully, they have propelled a rapid increase in crude petroleum production. Construction of a natural-gas pipeline in 1995 also allowed considerable growth in gas production. In 2004 Vietnam National Petroleum Company aggressively launched several projects aimed to take full advantage of the country's petroleum resources, including construction of a large oil refinery, a gas-electricity-fertilizer plant, a petrochemical and oil refining plant, and a major oil pipeline.

      By the mid-1990s domestic demand for electricity had surpassed Vietnam's energy output. Production was subsequently boosted from existing gas-fired thermal generators and hydroelectric stations, new hydroelectric plants were constructed, and a power line was completed to connect the country's northern and southern regions. Over the next decade, electricity production nearly quadrupled. Vietnam's rural electrification programs have also been highly successful, supplying the great bulk of households with electricity by the early 21st century.

Manufacturing
 Following reunification and the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976, the government made a concerted effort rapidly to transform the privately owned, capitalist industry in the south into a state-owned, state-run sector. Many industrial operations there were nationalized or forced to become joint state-private enterprises. For industry as a whole, the productivity of both capital and labour declined, and gross output slumped. Heavy industry—plagued by waste and inefficiency, lack of spare parts and raw materials, energy shortages, and poor quality control—led the decline.

      Reform measures in the 1980s, which included reducing subsidies to inefficient state-run operations, introducing incentives, and gradually accepting limited market mechanisms, initiated Vietnam's conversion from a collective to market economy. Light industry registered significant gains, while heavy industry responded more sluggishly but showed some improvement. With encouragement from the government, private enterprise grew, albeit somewhat at the expense of the state sector. Throughout the 1990s the government further implemented an array of successful policies to control inflation, lower interest rates, decrease the budget deficit, and ultimately stimulate production.

      Food and beverage processing is the largest industrial activity in Vietnam. Seafood is processed for export, while coffee and tea are processed both for export and for domestic consumption. Other beverages and a variety of condiments also are produced in significant quantities. Vietnam has long been a major producer of cement. The chemical industry has been growing, with fertilizer being its most important product. Steel is a major part of Vietnam's heavy industry. Because of their high prices, cement, fertilizer, and steel are among the greatest contributors to the country's economic sector. Garments and textiles are of increasing importance; silk production revived in the 1990s after a period of decline. Production of electronic equipment and motorcycles has similarly expanded, and in the early years of the 21st century automobile manufacturing has been Vietnam's fastest growing industry. Other important manufactures include footwear, tobacco products, paints, soaps, and pharmaceuticals.

Finance
      The State Bank of Vietnam, the central bank, issues the national currency, the dong, and oversees the country's banking system. Known until 1975 as the National Bank of Vietnam in the north, the State Bank of Vietnam formerly functioned as a government monopoly in the banking sector. With the economic reforms of the late 1980s, however, the government recognized that this structure was inadequate to attract badly needed foreign trade and investment. Consequently, in a series of systemic changes from 1988–91, four state-owned commercial banks were created from preexisting institutions, and several joint venture banks were established. As international investment gradually increased in the 1990s, foreign commercial banks were allowed to establish branch offices in Vietnam. In 2004 branches of foreign and joint-venture banks were allowed to join the Viet Nam Bank Association, and two years later, foreign banks were permitted to offer a full array of banking services.

Trade
      Both parts of Vietnam experienced trade deficits during the war, and deficits continued after reunification. A trade embargo imposed by the United States exacerbated problems of low efficiency and poor quality control that hampered exports. In the first decade after reunification, the value of exports was only one-third that of imports. The Soviet Union and the communist countries of eastern Europe came to be Vietnam's most important trading partners.

      Vietnam's move to broaden trade relations as part of its larger program of economic reforms took on added urgency in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the demise of the communist governments in eastern Europe. Because trade with these areas was drastically reduced, Vietnam shifted its orientation more heavily toward Asia, and was admitted to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) in 1995. Shortly thereafter, Singapore, along with Japan and China, emerged as Vietnam's major bidirectional trading partners. South Korea (Korea, South) and Taiwan also became significant suppliers of imports. Non-Asian countries figured more prominently as recipients of Vietnamese exports. The United States quickly rose as Vietnam's primary export destination, following a trade agreement between the two countries in 2001. Other important non-Asian recipients of Vietnamese goods have included Australia, Germany, and France.

      Vietnam's aggressive reform measures increased exports and narrowed the trade deficit considerably. However, rapid industrialization fueled by foreign direct investment caused the deficit to begin growing again. In 2001 the country opened its state markets to foreign competitors, and in January 2007 it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although the government maintains some restrictions on foreign exchange and upholds various bans, quotas, and surcharges, its efforts to liberalize its markets have had an overwhelmingly positive effect on the country's economy.

      Machinery, petroleum products, iron, steel, garments, and leather account for the bulk of Vietnam's imports. Most of these products fuel the country's expanding industrial sector. The majority of Vietnam's export revenues are generated by crude petroleum, garments, footwear, and seafood, and electronic products are of growing importance. Coffee, once among Vietnam's primary generators of export revenue, has begun to rebound after a damaging decline in prices at the end of the 20th century.

Services
      Formerly a neglected sector under central planning, services began to boom at the end of the 20th century. Since the early 1990s, the contribution of services to GDP has surpassed that of agriculture and matched or exceeded that of industry. By the early 21st century, services accounted for roughly one-fourth of total employment. The focus of the sector was processing and assembly; scientific research and design, marketing and market research, finance, and telecommunications were still in their infancy but growing. Although hundreds of thousands of service jobs were added to Vietnam's employment market in 2006, sectoral growth continued to lag behind demand, posing a threat to broader economic development. Pressure from the U.S.-Vietnam bilateral trade agreement and the WTO resulted in a liberalization of the rules governing foreign participation in banking, telecommunications, and insurance that was expected to accelerate the service sector's growth. Tourism has become increasingly important.

Labour and taxation
      At the beginning of the 21st century, women accounted for about half of the active workforce, and highland ethnic minorities were more likely than the lowland Vietnamese to be unemployed or working in agriculture and forestry. Ethnic Chinese, despite the persecution and exodus of the late 1970s, have capitalized on liberalizing reforms and contacts with the Chinese diaspora to recover an important role in business, commerce, and trade.

      The government is motivated by its socialist identity to be more rigorous than most developing countries in enforcing workers' rights. In one celebrated case, the government in 1997 sentenced the foreign floor manager of a foreign contractor of a multinational corporation to six months in jail for compelling workers to run laps if they did not wear regulation shoes. In numerous similar incidents, particularly involving foreign-owned firms, labour unions have displayed a subdued but real determination to defend the interests of workers.

      Workers' rights do not extend to organizing independent labour unions, however. The Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) is the sole legal national trade union, and all unions must affiliate with it. The confederation is a constituent of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, a communist party coalition, and is under the party's firm control. The president of the VGCL is usually a member of the party central committee. Unions may press the government to enforce laws and regulations as well as to organize strikes, albeit within strict legal limits. Direct action by workers and the formation of alternative unions, however, are forbidden. A wave of worker unrest in 2006 was largely a protest against the failure of basic wages to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living, especially in Ho Chi Minh City.

      Vietnamese citizens and resident foreigners are subject to progressive taxation, while nonresident foreigners are taxed at a fixed rate on income earned in Vietnam. A law on corporate income tax adopted in 2003 lowered the standard tax rate for all legal entities, including foreign-invested firms. Another law makes it possible to grant lower, time-limited preferential rates as incentives for investment in certain projects, particularly those involving high technology. In addition, there are special sales taxes—some quite high—on various goods and activities, such as tobacco, alcohol, playing cards, automobiles, gasoline, certain air conditioners, massage services, and casinos. A value-added tax (VAT) was introduced in 1999. Import and export tariffs began to fall in 2006 to comply with the requirements of the ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement and WTO membership.

Transportation and telecommunications
      The topography of Vietnam renders land transportation between the north and the south difficult, with traffic limited to the narrow coastal corridor. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are connected by rail and highway through this passage. Two railways connect northern Vietnam to southern China; one track leads to Yunnan province, the other terminates in the Guangxi autonomous region. Construction of a new line between Yen Vien, near Hanoi, and the northern Vietnamese port of Cai Lan began in 2004.

      Vietnam's road network is extensive and growing. Heavy government investment in highway construction and upgrades, especially since the late 1990s, has allowed the country's total road length to increase rapidly—by nearly half between 1999 and 2004. This expansion, however, has come somewhat at the expense of road maintenance, which has posed a perennial challenge to the Vietnamese government. Some half of the country's roads remain unpaved, and many paved ones need repair.

      In the two large delta regions, where most of the population is concentrated, a vast network of navigable rivers and canals is integral to local transportation. These waterways are generally inaccessible to larger vessels and their cargoes, as are the numerous seaports that dot Vietnam's coasts. Larger ships operate through the country's major ports, which include Haiphong in the north, Ho Chi Minh City in the south, and Da Nang in central Vietnam. There are several other good ports, including Cam Ranh, a superb natural harbour developed extensively by the Americans during the war. At the turn of the 21st century, the government inaugurated a plan to improve the seaport system by upgrading the shipping fleet, improving existing ports and constructing new ones (especially deep-sea facilities), and further developing the shipbuilding industry. Several ports in the Mekong delta are scheduled for expansion to accommodate ocean-going vessels. Progress on all these projects, however, has been slow.

      Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi have international airports. In addition, a number of smaller cities are connected by domestic air routes. The state-owned airline, Viet Nam Airlines, has been growing steadily and substantially since the early 1990s, serving both domestic and international travelers. In addition, the company has acquired several long-range aircraft to handle more direct flights to Europe and North America.

      Market reforms of the 1980s and '90s brought exponential growth in Vietnam's telecommunications sector. By the early 21st century the number of main line telephones per capita was among the highest in Southeast Asia. Internet and cellular phone services were officially absorbed into Vietnam's infrastructure in 2002, a few years after their arrival in the country, and subscriptions for both have nearly doubled each year since then.

Government and society

Constitutional framework
 The first constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, adopted in 1980, established a Council of State as a collective presidency and a Council of Ministers. In 1992 this document was superseded by a second constitution, which, in addition to replacing the Council of State with an elected president and otherwise reforming Vietnam's government and political structure, also outlined major shifts in foreign policy and economic doctrine. In particular, it stressed the development of all economic sectors, permitted private enterprise, and granted foreign investors the right to legal ownership of their capital and assets while guaranteeing that their property would not be nationalized by the state.

      A unicameral, popularly elected National Assembly is the supreme organ of the government. It elects the president, who is head of state, and the vice president, who is nominated by the president. The cabinet consists of the prime minister, who is nominated by the president and approved by the National Assembly, and deputy prime ministers and the heads of government ministries and various state organizations, who are named by the prime minister and confirmed by the Assembly. The cabinet (which superseded the earlier Council of Ministers) coordinates and directs the ministries and various state organizations of the central government and supervises the administrative committees at the local government level.

      Initially, administrative responsibilities were divided along narrow functional lines among many ministries; there were, for example, numerous economic ministries concerned with agriculture and the food industry, marine products, forestry, and water conservancy. In the mid-1980s, such smaller ministries were consolidated to streamline the system. Larger ministries now tend to be relatively self-sufficient, with their own colleges, training institutions, and health, social, and cultural facilities. There are also several commissions under the cabinet, such as the State Inspectorate. The prime minister's office oversees a number of general departments beneath the ministerial level and committees that are formed to supervise major projects which involve more than one ministry.

Local government
      The country is divided administratively into more than 64 provinces (tinh), of which Hanoi, Haiphong, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Can Tho are municipalities (thanh pho). These are further subdivided into several dozen urban districts (quan) and hundreds of rural districts (huyen). Nearly 10,000 communes (xa) comprise Vietnam's lowest level of local administration. At the provincial, district, and commune levels, the highest government authority is an elected People's Council, the actual work of which is carried out by a People's Committee elected by the council.

Justice
      The judicial system consists of courts and tribunals at various levels and the Supreme People's Procuracy. The National Assembly supervises the work of the Supreme People's Court, which is the highest court of appeal and the court of first instance for special cases (such as treason). This court, in turn, supervises the judicial work of both the local People's Courts, which are responsible to their corresponding People's Councils, and the Military Tribunals. The People's Courts function at all levels of government except the commune, where the commune administrative committee functions as a primary court.

      The Supreme People's Procuracy, with its local and military subdivisions, acts as a watchdog for the state. It monitors the performance of government agencies, maintains vast powers of surveillance, and acts as a prosecutor before the People's Courts. The Supreme People's Procuracy is responsible to the National Assembly, or to its Standing Committee, when the Assembly is not in session.

Political process
      Both the 1980 and 1992 constitutions institutionalized the Vietnamese Communist Party as the sole source of leadership for the state and society. The 1992 document, however, delegated much more authority to the president and to the cabinet; they were given the task of running the government, while the party became responsible for overall policy decisions. These changes reduced the role of the party. Notably affected were the Politburo and the larger Central Committee, which previously had been the major decision-making bodies of both the party and the state. Also impacted were the Secretariat and its presiding general secretary, which, through their control over party administration and their implementation of the resolutions of the Central Committee and the Politburo, had effectively governed the country.

      Nonetheless, the Vietnamese Communist Party remains the dominant political institution within Vietnam. It leads the Vietnam Fatherland Front, a coalition of numerous popular political and social associations that disseminates party policies, serves as a training ground for potential party members, and submits lists of candidates for seats in the National Assembly. The Vietnam Fatherland Front embraces such important and active organizations as the Vietnam Women's Union, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, which is largely responsible for the Vietnam Youth Union, and local party units and agricultural cooperatives that assume leadership over the Farmers' Union. The Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, also a member of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, has the responsibility of safeguarding workers' welfare. It does not function as a Western-style bargaining unit, operating instead as a party organization responsible for labour matters.

      Members of the National Assembly are chosen through direct election in their individual electoral units. All Vietnamese citizens age 18 and older and not deemed mentally incompetent are eligible to vote. Although voting is not compulsory, voter turnout is nearly universal. The majority of the seats are filled by male members of the Vietnamese Communist Party. There has, however, long been a notable and growing female presence in the National Assembly, as well as a small minority of nonparty representatives.

Security
      The People's Armed Forces include the People's Army of Vietnam, various paramilitary regional and provincial forces, the militia, and the reserves. The People's Army encompasses not only the army, but also the People's Navy Command (infantry and coast guard), the Air and Defense Force, and the Border Defense Command. The army is by far the most substantial segment of Vietnam's military, followed by the air force and the navy. With separate commands in Hanoi, Haiphong, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's military is certainly among the largest and most powerful in Southeast Asia. Two years of active duty are compulsory for men; women's service is voluntary. Both men and women must be at least 18 years old to serve. Paramilitary units include People's Public Security Forces and Self-Defense Forces.

      The Vietnamese military carries considerable prestige and political influence within the country. It is second in power only to the Communist Party and to the government. Many senior military officers have held positions of authority within the Politburo and Central Committee, important policy-making arms of the Communist Party.

Health and welfare
      Before reunification, health services were underdeveloped in the rural areas of the south but were well-developed in the north. After 1975 the northern system was extended to the south, and there was a general increase in health facilities and personnel. Although the health care system is one of the socialist state's greatest achievements, like all other programs in Vietnam it has been severely hampered by a lack of funds since the late 1970s. The numbers of hospital beds and facilities have not kept pace with population growth, and upgrades to water supplies and sewerage systems have proceeded more slowly than anticipated. Much responsibility for health care was transferred to provincial governments in the late 1980s, and patients started to be charged for many medical services.

      Despite financial challenges, government spending as a percentage of GDP more than doubled between the mid-1990s and the early years of the 21st century. As a result, clean water was made accessible to some three-fourths of the population, malaria was largely brought under control, and the country's general bill of health improved considerably. There was simultaneously a sharp increase in the number of physicians, and a substantial drop in infant mortality.

      The prevalence of tuberculosis has been a continuing concern. With international assistance, the government has taken aggressive steps to combat the disease, and it has achieved some of its goals ahead of schedule. Another concern has been avian influenza ( bird flu), Vietnam being the epicentre of a major outbreak in the early 21st century. HIV infection and cases of AIDS have risen in the country, but they have not reached epidemic levels. The government has striven to contain the disease near the world average with help from international sources. Because carriers of HIV and victims of AIDS have been subject to severe discrimination in Vietnam, it is suspected that many cases have not been reported.

      The country's welfare system has largely focused on the victims of the Vietnam War (1954–75) and their families. Government insurance programs provide for old age, invalidity, work injury, sickness, maternity, and death.

Education
      The Vietnamese, with their Confucian (Confucianism) traditions, have always placed great importance on education. Rural education in the south was badly disrupted during the war years, and all religious and private schools were nationalized after 1975. The government subsequently pursued a policy of educational reform. Nine years of schooling are mandatory and are divided into five years of primary and four years of lower-secondary school. Continuing students are enrolled either in an academic or a vocational upper-secondary program, which lasts three years. A major restructuring of higher education occurred in the mid-1990s. During that time, the University of Hanoi (founded by the French in 1906 and refounded in 1956) was combined with other institutions and faculties to become Vietnam National University, the largest multidisciplinary institution of higher learning in the country, with campuses in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Other new universities were established in the 1990s, and the number of faculty members grew substantially. Although such changes have significantly increased opportunities for advanced education in Vietnam, expansion of the network has not been in proportion to the increase in the number of students.

      Literacy rates are high. Emphasis is placed on training in science and technology and, with the advent of market reforms, on economics and business. Several thousand students are sent abroad each year. While most students once went to the Soviet Union and the countries of eastern Europe, increasing numbers are now studying in Western countries (including the United States) or in Japan, especially since admission of Vietnam into the WTO in 2007.

Cultural life
      Chinese influence permeated all aspects of traditional Vietnamese culture, while Western influences became strong in the 20th century. Since the loosening of economic and political controls in the late 1980s, Vietnam has experienced both increased exposure to the lifestyles of the capitalist world and a resurfacing of old cultural practices. Folk traditions such as shamanism and soothsaying have experienced a revival despite official disapproval.

Daily life and social customs
 Vietnam's Confucian heritage is evident in the importance the Vietnamese give to the family. Families are essentially patrilineal, but Vietnamese women work alongside men in many jobs and play a major role in raising children and managing family finances. When possible, the Vietnamese prefer to work from early morning until early evening, with an extended rest period during the midday heat. In rural areas, both men and women wear trousers and shirts or blouses. On formal occasions and in urban areas, Western-style clothing is common, including skirts and blouses for women. Women still sometimes wear a form of the traditional ao dai, a long, slit tunic worn over pants.

      Rice is the staple food. Vietnamese cuisine incorporates elements of both Chinese cooking and the cuisines of other Southeast Asian countries. Noodle soup with chicken or beef broth (pho), a distinctive kind of spring roll (cha gio), and the use of fermented fish sauce (nuoc mam) for dipping and seasoning are among the many noteworthy dishes. In the cities elaborate meals are available in expensive air-conditioned restaurants, but Vietnamese take delight in snacking at street stalls and entertaining friends in open-air establishments. The most important holiday, the lunar new year celebration known as Tet, is a time of feasting, visiting, and exchanging gifts.

The arts
      Vietnamese poetry was written exclusively in Chinese until the end of the 13th century. By the 15th century, however, a demotic script called Chu Nom, or “the southern script,” had evolved into a vehicle for writing in vernacular Vietnamese. The Chinese heritage of the elite merged with local oral tradition, producing a truly Vietnamese literature. A distinctively Vietnamese long narrative poem in verse developed, culminating in the masterpiece of national literature, Kim Van Kieu (The Tale of Kieu), by Nguyen Du (1765–1820). In the 20th century, Vietnamese literature came to be written in a Roman alphabetical script ( Quoc-ngu). In the 1930s a modern Vietnamese literature developed under French influence, featuring poetry, novels, and short stories. Between 1954 and 1975 a cosmopolitan literature stressing creativity and individual freedom flourished in the south, while a state-sponsored literature of Socialist Realism was promoted in the north. After 1975 Socialist Realism became a national orthodoxy, although in the 1980s literature became more lively and diverse in content. During the 1990s writers tested the limits of their literary freedom, and since the start of the 21st century authors have continued to be bound by both explicit and tacit limitations and generally have practiced self-censorship. Politics has remained a taboo topic.

      Initially, under communist rule the theatre was strictly controlled, and all professional performers and other technical staff became employees of the state. A government policy inaugurated in the 1990s, however, was designed to dissolve the state monopoly on the arts and other areas of cultural production. By the early 21st century, many small, for-profit theatre groups were operating across the country, especially in urban areas. Women have figured prominently in all aspects of these new artistic ventures since their inception. Although scripts continue to be monitored, censorship is much less harsh than it was in earlier years of the communist regime. In addition to many new plays, which have aesthetic roots in western European dramatic tradition, the indigenous cai luong, a satirical musical comedy genre that emerged in the south in the early 20th century, is still enormously popular. There also are theatrical troupes specializing in a genre of Chinese opera adaptations (called hat tuong in the north and hat boi in the south), popular operettas (hat cheo) of indigenous origin, circus performances, and mua roi nuoc, a distinct form of Vietnamese puppetry, in which performances take place on a pool or pond. The water animates the puppets and covers the manipulating apparatuses, which are operated by puppeteers, who stand in the water, hidden behind a screen. A separate group of musicians and singers follows the movement of the puppets closely, providing voices for them in the style of the hat cheo theatre. Water puppetry began to experience a resurgence toward the end of the 20th century, with growth in the number of national competitions and internationally touring troupes.

      During the Second Indochina War, the Communist Party attempted to shape the development of modern popular music, promoting "revolutionary" tunes and themes as alternatives to the Western romantic and rock-inspired forms that had developed in the south. Following reunification in 1975, the government confiscated sheet music and cassette tapes of music it deemed depressing, defeatist, or licentious, yet this music continued to be played in private and spread to the north as well. Tapes and compact discs of Western-style rock bands and popular singers who fled the south in the 1970s, as well as recordings made by Western artists, have been smuggled into the country from abroad, reproduced by the thousands, and sold in the streets. Music the authorities generally judge to be "alien," "decadent," or "noxious," but seem powerless to suppress, may be heard in coffee shops and karaoke bars.

      As has been the case with other areas in the arts, however, restrictions loosened somewhat toward the end of the 20th century. Increasing numbers of artists began cultivating new sounds that blended elements of jazz, gospel, Motown, and other Western genres with Vietnamese language and musical sensibilities. Western popular music, once the primary fare of Vietnam's youth, has begun to yield to local popular styles.

      Despite the prevalence of popular forms, traditional music has maintained an important place, politically and culturally, in Vietnamese society. The government has long advocated a "traditional but modern" approach to Vietnamese music. This has ultimately entailed the recasting of traditional repertoire into a Western harmonic and stylistic framework, and the structural adjustment of Vietnamese instruments to accommodate the changes. Although the resultant music, called cai bien, is of relatively recent origin, it is often presented officially as the Vietnamese music of antiquity.

      Cai bien has been created primarily by Vietnamese composers trained solidly, if not solely, in the Western classical music tradition. Western classical music is well-established in Vietnamese music education. The country has several conservatories, largely staffed by musicians who have studied music in prestigious schools of Russia and eastern Europe. Although it is possible in Vietnam to specialize in either Vietnamese or Western traditions, Western music fundamentals serve as the point of departure for all formal music study.

      Painting has developed slowly and unevenly, bound first by traditional Chinese forms, then by a style imitative of French Impressionism, and more recently by Socialist Realism. High-quality lacquerware, however, continues to be produced. Unique local arts persist among the peoples of the central highlands. Women weave blankets and clothing, while men weave baskets and mats. Crossbows and figures are carved from hardwoods. The Hmong are especially recognized for their needlework, and although the Cham and Khmer minorities retain some idiosyncratic arts, their traditions seem to be losing practitioners.

      Artists have enjoyed increased freedom to express themselves under doi moi, and the contemporary art scene has often been described as "vibrant." The preeminent institution of art education is Hanoi University of Fine Arts. Several graduates of this state institution known as the "Gang of Five" (Viet Dung, Ha Tri Hieu, Tran Luong, Pham Quang Vinh, and Dang Xuan Ha) were influenced by mainstream Modernism, ignored social commentary in their work, and achieved considerable success in art galleries around the Pacific Rim during the mid-1990s. Most artists of Modernist bent have sold their work through private galleries, and government censors have occasionally forced galleries to remove works they consider too bold. An example was the removal in 1997 of paintings on themes of homosexuality by Truong Tan. One of the few female artists, Dinh Y Nhi, is noted for paintings of women in traditional dress and poses but done in untraditional shades of gray and black. A modern take on traditional themes is common, an abstract one rare. Dinh Quan, Trinh Tuan, and Cong Kim Hoa, however, have focused on the traditional medium of lacquer to experiment with Abstract Expressionism. Nguyen Bao Ha has also worked in the Abstract Expressionist genre.

      The small domestic film industry that emerged in Saigon during the 1950s produced a steady fare of romances, costume dramas, and adaptations of cai luong operettas until 1975. Hanoi produced its first motion picture in 1959 and used the medium primarily for propaganda. From reunification until 1989, the state held a monopoly over the production and distribution of motion pictures, subsidizing a handful of state-owned film studios and companies. A few movies made in this period experimented with themes and perspectives that tested the boundaries of official tolerance, but economic reform has done more to change the industry. Faced with budget cutbacks, cinematographers in the 1990s abandoned celluloid for video to make money on the open market. Numerous private companies sprang up to churn out cheap videos featuring kung fu fights, car chases, and romance. Pirated videotapes and later, video compact discs (VCDs), from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States also enjoyed popularity. In an effort to encourage production and competition in the film industry, and to draw people back into the cinemas, the Ministry of Culture and Information in 2002 ended mandatory review (and censorship) of scripts prior to filming, allowed the establishment of private film studios, and opened the industry as a whole to private and international investment. Since that time, filmmakers have been treating topics that were untouchable under earlier government regulations, motivated by the possibility of presenting a realistic image of contemporary Vietnamese society. Ha Dong Silk Dress and Bride of Silence, both released in 2005, are products of the liberalized industry and champions of the new aesthetic, and are among the growing number of Vietnamese films to have won international acclaim.

Cultural institutions
      Vietnam abounds with a variety of historical sites. Hanoi contains the 11th-century Temple of Literature, the One Pillar Pagoda, and many other ancient structures. The country's political and military past is on display in the capital at the Vietnam Revolution Museum, the Army Museum, and a large complex that includes Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, the house he lived in as president, and the Ho Chi Minh Museum. Hanoi is also home to the Vietnam History Museum, the National Art Gallery, and the National Library. More recent Hanoi institutions include the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, devoted to the research, documentation, preservation, and display of the country's ethnic diversity, and the Hanoi Women's Museum, dedicated to illuminating the public and private lives of the Vietnamese women. In Vietnam's central region, Hue and its environs contain the royal citadel of the last dynasty and numerous royal mausoleums and tombs, as well as many Buddhist pagodas. A number of these structures collectively were designated a World Heritage site in 1993. Hoi An, a port city just south of Da Nang that flourished between the 15th and 19th centuries, was added to the World Heritage list in 1999, along with the nearby 4th–13th-century Hindu ruins at My Son Sanctuary. Ho Chi Minh City in the south has a noteworthy zoo and botanical garden on the edge of the downtown area.

Sports and recreation
      Football (soccer) is exceedingly popular in Vietnam, and volleyball, badminton, wrestling, bicycling, chess, and dominoes are also widely enjoyed. Since 1952, the country has participated in the Olympic Games, with competitors in swimming and water sports, martial arts, rowing and canoeing, weightlifting, table tennis, and track. Tran Hieu Ngan won Vietnam's first Olympic medal at the 2000 Summer Games (in women's tae kwon do). The Vietnamese game of sepak takraw is a volleyball-like sport played with a rattan ball, a net, and the feet; Vietnam's women's team has been a formidable competitor at the Asian Games and the Southeast Asian Games, as have the country's entrants in men's and women's martial arts, including, wushu, karate, and tae kwon do. billiards are also broadly popular in Vietnam, and the country's top players compete internationally. In noncompetitive contexts, urban Vietnamese stroll in great numbers on evenings and weekends, especially in the parks and along the banks of lakes and rivers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Media and publishing
      Radio and television services are owned and operated by the state and managed by the Ministry of Culture and Information. Radio reaches more of the population than television, as many rural families are located beyond the range of television transmitters or cannot afford sets. Most daily newspapers are in Vietnamese, but there are also several editions in English, and one in French. An array of periodicals is also available in these languages, as well as in Chinese. Newspapers and magazines operate under the supervision of particular state, party, and mass organizations. Although publishing is regulated by the government, the strict controls of earlier years were somewhat relaxed during the 1980s. Glossy magazines catering to the business community and tabloids of a sensationalist nature began to appear in the 1990s. Despite the loosening of government regulations, criticism of the political system, its leadership, and Marxist-Leninist ideology remains forbidden. Vietnam acquired a connection to the Internet in the late 1990s. At first, the government discouraged widespread access by charging high user fees. Early in the 21st century, fees were allowed to drop, and since then Internet use has been growing exponentially. Much foreign information, however, continues to be screened out by the government.

Gerald C. Hickey Neil L. Jamieson William S. Turley

History

Origins of the Vietnamese people
      Relatively little is known about the origins of the Vietnamese. They first appeared in history as the so-called “Lac” peoples, who lived in the Red River delta region, in what is now northern Vietnam. Some scholars have suggested that the Lac were closely related to other peoples, known as the Viet (called the Yue by the Chinese), who inhabited the coastal region of East Asia from the Yangtze River to the Red River delta during the 1st millennium BC. Others have questioned this view, noting that modern-day Vietnamese share many cultural and linguistic traits with other non-Chinese peoples living in neighbouring areas of Southeast Asia.

      Linguistic research, which offers a relatively reliable way of distinguishing the various ethnic groups of Southeast Asia, supports the mixed ethnic and cultural provenance of the Vietnamese people. Modern linguistics places the origin of Vietnamese in the Austronesian language group on the basis of similarities in morphology and consonant clusters. It is largely this linguistic link that has led scholars to speculate that Austronesians formed at least a part of the Lac population. However, like Tai (Tai languages), Vietnamese evolved away from the Austronesian language group as it acquired tones as part of its phonemic structure. This may have been the consequence of interaction with Chinese languages, to which Vietnamese (again, like Tai) bears some similarity of tones, but it is also possible that elements of tonality and grammar might have been adopted directly from Tai. From the monotonic Mon-Khmer (Mon-Khmer languages) language family, Vietnamese derived its fundamental structure and many of its basic words. Early script—as well as much political, literary, philosophical, and technical vocabulary—again trace to the Chinese, who at that time were more culturally advanced than the peoples of the Red River delta.

      Ethnographic study also reveals the degree to which ancient Vietnamese culture combined elements found among many other peoples within the region. totemism, animism, tattooing, the chewing of betel nuts, teeth blackening, and many marriage rituals and seasonal festivals indicate the relationship between the Vietnamese and the neighbouring peoples in Southeast Asia. Although Chinese civilization later became the main force in shaping Vietnamese culture, the failure of the Chinese to assimilate the Vietnamese people underscores the fact that strong elements of an authentic local culture must have emerged in the Red River valley long before china established its millennium of rule over Vietnam.

Legends and early history of Vietnam
Legendary kingdoms
      According to legend, the first ruler of the Vietnamese people was King De Minh, a descendant of a mythical Chinese ruler who was the father of Chinese agriculture. De Minh and an immortal fairy of the mountains produced Kinh Duong, ruler of the Land of Red Demons, who married the daughter of the Dragon Lord of the Sea. Their son, Lac Long Quan (“Dragon Lord of Lac”), was, according to legend, the first truly Vietnamese king. To make peace with the Chinese, Lac Long Quan married Au Co, a Chinese immortal, who bore him 100 eggs, from which sprang 100 sons. Later, the king and queen separated; Au Co moved with 50 of her sons into the mountains, and Lac Long Quan kept the other 50 sons and continued to rule over the lowlands. Lac Long Quan's eldest son succeeded him as the first of the Hung (or Hong Bang) kings (vuong) of Vietnam's first dynasty; as such, he is regarded as the founder of the Vietnamese nation.

      This legend and other related legends, most of which received their literary form only after AD 1200, describe in mythical terms the fusion, conflicts, and separation of peoples from the north and south and of peoples from the mountains and the coastal lowlands. The legends show the immortals as mountain dwellers, while the people along the coast are descendants of the dragon lords—a division found in many legends throughout Southeast Asia. The retreat of Au Co and 50 of her sons into the mountains may well be a mythical record of the separation into distinct groups of the proto-Vietnamese in the Red River delta. Those who left the lowlands could be the ancestors of the Muong, who still live in the hills surrounding the delta and are the only ethnic minority of Vietnam closely related in language and customs to the Vietnamese.

      According to legend, the Hung dynasty had 18 kings, each of whom ruled for about 150 years. Their country, called Van Lang (“Land of the Tattooed Men”), is said to have included not only the Red River delta but also much of southern China. The last of the Hung kings was overthrown in 258 or 257 BC by a neighbouring warlord, Thuc Phan, who invaded and conquered Van Lang, united it with his kingdom, and called the new state Au Lac, which he then ruled under the name An Duong. Au Lac existed only until 207 BC, when it was incorporated by a former Chinese general, Trieu Da (Chao T'o in Chinese), into the kingdom of Nam Viet (Nan Yue in Chinese).

      This kingdom covered much of southern China and was ruled by Trieu Da from his capital near the present site of Guangzhou (Canton) (Canton). Its population consisted chiefly of the Viet who had earlier been driven by the Chinese from their kingdoms south of the Yangtze River. Trieu Da, after ending Chinese domination and killing all officials loyal to the Chinese emperor, adopted the customs of the Viet and made himself the ruler of a vast non-Chinese empire. After it had incorporated Au Lac, Nam Viet included not only the Red River delta but also the coastal lands as far south as modern-day Da Nang. The end of Au Lac in 207 BC marks the end of Vietnamese legend and the beginning of Vietnamese history, as recorded in Chinese historical annals.

      After almost 100 years of diplomatic and military duels between the Han dynasty of China and Trieu Da and his successors, Nam Viet was conquered (111 BC) by the Chinese under the Han emperor Wudi. Thus, the territories occupied by the ancestors of the Vietnamese fell under Chinese rule. Nam Viet was divided into nine military districts with Chinese names, the three southernmost of which, later called Giao Chau, covered the northern half of what is now Vietnam.

Early society
      When China extended its rule over Vietnam, the people of the Red River delta were in transition from the Bronze (Bronze Age) to the Iron (Iron Age) Age, although some stone implements were also still in use. These ancestors of the Vietnamese were already experienced at cultivating rice. They had learned how to irrigate their rice fields by using the waters from rivers that were backed up by the tides. Plows and water buffalo were still unknown (the land was prepared for cultivation with polished stone hoes), but the proto-Vietnamese are thought to have been able to produce two rice crops annually. They supplemented their diet by fishing and hunting. Their weapons were mainly bows and arrows; the bronze heads of their arrows often were dipped in poison to facilitate killing such larger animals as elephants, whose tusks were traded for iron from China.

      The social organization of the early Vietnamese, before Chinese rule, was hierarchical, forming a kind of feudal (feudalism) society that until the mid-20th century existed among the Tai and Muong minority populations of northern Vietnam. Power was held by tribal chiefs at the head of one or several communities. These chiefs were civil, religious, and military leaders, and their power was hereditary; they were large landowners who kept the mass of the people in virtual serfdom. At the head of this aristocracy stood the king, probably the most powerful of the tribal chiefs.

      Archaeological work and, to a lesser extent, ancient Chinese records have revealed that religion was characterized by propitiation of numerous supernatural beings and spirits. Some spirits were those of dangerous animals; while others were those of deceased rulers or other important persons. A great religious festival, almost a carnival, was held at the beginning of spring and was marked by abandon and promiscuity.

      In all these respects, the inhabitants of the Red River delta, prior to their subjugation by the Chinese, showed numerous affinities with most of the people of mainland and insular Southeast Asia. It was not until several centuries after the imposition of Chinese rule that the Vietnamese developed more distinct ethnic characteristics.

Vietnam under Chinese rule
      The history of the Vietnamese people during more than a millennium under Chinese rule reveals an evolution toward national identity, which apparently came about as the result of two related developments. The first of these was the introduction into the Red River delta of the more advanced civilization of China, including technical and administrative innovations and the more sophisticated level of Chinese learning, which made the Vietnamese the most advanced people of mainland Southeast Asia. This process was abetted by the efforts of Chinese governors to achieve complete Sinicization (acculturation) through the imposition of Chinese language, culture, customs, and political institutions. The second development during this period was the Vietnamese people's resistance to total assimilation and their use, at the same time, of the benefits of Chinese civilization in their struggle against Chinese political rule.

      Soon after extending their domination over what is now northern Vietnam, the Chinese constructed roads, waterways, and harbours to improve access to the region and to ensure that they maintained administrative and military control over it. They improved local agriculture by introducing better methods of irrigation as well as metal plows and draft animals. They brought with them new tools and weapons, advanced forms of pottery, and new mining techniques. For more than a century after annexing Nam Viet, however, the Chinese refrained from interfering with local administration. In the province of Giao Chau, one of the administrative units into which the Han Chinese rulers had divided the Vietnamese kingdom, local hereditary lords exercised control over the peasant population, just as they had while part of Nam Viet. Thus, although Vietnamese territory was divided into military districts headed by Chinese governors, it remained, in fact, a leniently governed Chinese protectorate.

      This form of government changed in the 1st century AD, when an energetic governor realized that the continuing rule of the local Viet lords over the population was an obstacle to Sinicization. The desire to exploit the fertile Red River delta and its mountainous backcountry was certainly one reason why the expansionist Han dynasty wanted to hold on to Vietnam: there were vast forests and precious metals in the mountains, pearls in the sea, elephants with tusks of ivory, and a peasantry that could be taxed and recruited for forced labour. China's main interest in controlling the Red River delta, however, was to use it as a stopover for ships engaged in the Han dynasty's nascent maritime trade with the East Indies (i.e., present-day Indonesia), India, and even the Middle East. Vessels from many countries with which China developed commercial relations docked at the harbours along the Vietnamese coast, not only bringing new goods but also establishing contacts with a wider world and thus promoting the development of the country. In this process, which began early in the 1st century AD, economic, political, and cultural functions emerged that the hereditary local lords were unable to discharge—another reason why direct rule by Chinese officials became increasingly important.

      As in all regions conquered by the Chinese during the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 221, with a brief interruption in AD 8–23), the establishment of direct Chinese rule was accompanied by efforts to transform the people of the Red River delta into Chinese. Local customs were suppressed, and Chinese customs, rites, and institutions were imposed by force. Daoist and Confucian teachings were pressed upon the local people, together with instruction in the Chinese language; even Chinese clothing and hairstyles became obligatory. Many of these elements of Chinese civilization were readily integrated into the indigenous local culture and ultimately benefited the Vietnamese people, but Sinicization never succeeded in reconciling them, especially their leaders, with Chinese political domination. Even the educated Vietnamese who knew Chinese and wrote only in Chinese continued to use the local spoken language.

      The first major rebellion against Chinese rule broke out in AD 40, led by the Trung Sisters. Trung Trac (Trung Sisters) was a noblewoman whose husband, a tribal lord, had been executed by the Chinese. She and her sister, Trung Nhi, gathered together the tribal chiefs and their armed followers, attacked and overwhelmed the Chinese strongholds, and had themselves proclaimed queens of an independent Vietnamese kingdom. Three years later a powerful army sent by the Han emperor reestablished Chinese rule; the local aristocracy was deprived of all power, Vietnam was given a centralized Chinese administration, and Sinicization was resumed with increased intensity. The Trung sisters were apparently put to death by their conquerors.

      Chinese rule, although challenged several more times, remained secure so long as China itself was effectively controlled by its own emperors. When the T'ang dynasty (Tang dynasty) (618–907) went into decline in the early 10th century, a series of uprisings broke out in Vietnam, which led in 939 to the restoration of Vietnamese independence.

The first period of independence
The Ly dynasty
       Ngo Quyen, a Vietnamese commander who defeated the Chinese in 939, became the first head of the new independent Vietnamese province. For more than a half century, however, independence brought neither peace nor political stability. In the early 11th century, the Vietnamese province was finally unified under a centralized administration by Ly Thai To, the founder of the Ly dynasty (sometimes called the Later Ly dynasty; 1009–1225). The Ly rulers established their capital at Thang Long ( Hanoi), in the heart of the Red River delta, modernized the agricultural system, and in 1076 replaced the divisive local lords with a system of administrative officials trained in a civil service institute based on the Chinese model.

      Although the new kingdom, now called Dai Viet (replacing the Chinese name, Annam), made considerable political, economic, and cultural progress, it soon encountered problems with its neighbours to the south. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Dai Viet fought several wars against the Islamic, Indianized kingdom of Champa on the central coast. It also clashed with the Khmer (Cambodian) empire, with its capital at Angkor, then the greatest power in mainland Southeast Asia.

      By the time of its conflicts with Champa and the Khmer, the Ly dynasty was already in decline. It was succeeded, after a period of civil strife, by a new dynasty called the Tran (Tran Dynasty), which reigned from 1225 to 1400. For most of their rule, the Tran kings pursued the same policies that had made the country strong under the Ly. The Tran rulers continued to clash with Champa, but they were also able to maintain several periods of peaceful coexistence. The primary challenge to the independence of Da Viet, however, came from the north. The Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (Yuan dynasty), which had come to power in China in 1279, sent armies estimated at more than 300,000 soldiers to restore the Red River delta to Chinese rule. The Tran resisted stubbornly and were eventually able to drive out the invaders. The general who commanded the Vietnamese forces, Tran Hung Dao, is still venerated as one of the great heroes of Vietnamese history.

      The drain of these wars on Dai Viet's resources, together with the declining vigour of its rulers, precipitated a deep economic and social crisis and led to the overthrow of the Tran dynasty in 1400. The deposed Tran ruler appealed to China to help him regain the throne. China, by then ruled by emperors of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), seized this opportunity to invade Dai Viet again in 1407. The Ming rulers reestablished direct Chinese administrationand resumed the assimilation policies begun by their predecessors. Dai Viet became Annam once more.

Expansion, division, and reunification
      By the beginning of the 15th century, any attempt to force the Vietnamese people to become Chinese served only to strengthen their nationalist sentiments and their determination to throw off the Chinese yoke. Le Loi, a wealthy landowner in the province of Thanh Hoa, located south of the Red River delta, launched a movement of national resistance in 1418; after a 10-year struggle, the Chinese were forced to withdraw. Le Loi, who shortly thereafter declared himself emperor under the name of Le Thai To, became the founder of the third great Vietnamese dynasty, the Later Le (Later Le Dynasty) (sometimes simply referred to as the Le). Although the rulers of the Later Le were no longer in power after 1600, they nominally headed the kingdom until 1788.

      Like the better rulers of the Ly and Tran dynasties, Le Thai To and some of his successors introduced many reforms. They gave Dai Viet a highly sophisticated legal code; promoted art, literature, and education; advanced agriculture; protected communal lands against the greed of large landowners; and even enforced a general redistribution of land among the entire population at the expense of the large landowners. The problem of landlessness remained acute, however, because of population increases and the limited amount of land available in the north. The lack of land was one of the reasons rulers during the Le dynasty pursued a policy of territorial expansion, which was aimed initially at driving the Chams (of Champa) from the small but fertile deltas to the south. Most of Champa was conquered in 1471 under the leadership of Le Thanh Tong (ruled 1460–97). Soldiers in the advancing Vietnamese army settled in newly established villages from Da Nang to the neighbourhood of Nha Trang, in what became the first great Vietnamese push to the south. The elimination of Champa was followed by incursions into the Cambodian territory of the Mekong River delta, which the declining Khmer empire was no longer able to defend. Saigon ( Ho Chi Minh City) became Vietnamese shortly before 1700, and the rest of the south followed during the next 60 years. With the exception of the southern province of Soc Trang, which was not annexed until 1840, Vietnam had reached its present size by 1757.

      The extension of Dai Viet to the south, ultimately reaching a length of some 1,000 miles (1,600 km), altered the historical evolution of the Vietnam. Before the conquest of Champa at the end of the 15th century, Dai Viet's chief characteristic had been the existence of a strong central power at the head of a unified administration. The Vietnamese kingdom was subsequently divided twice during the next 150 years, and its partitioned governments were in each case at war with each other for decades.

Two divisions of Dai Viet
      The first and shorter division of the country occurred soon after the elimination of Champa. The Mac Family, led by Mac Dang Dung, the governor of Thang Long (Hanoi), made themselves masters of Dai Viet in 1527. The deposed Le rulers and the generals loyal to them regained control of the lands south of the Red River delta in 1545, but only after nearly 50 years of civil war were they able to reconquer Thang Long and the north.

      Of much longer duration and greater historical significance was the second division of Dai Viet, which occurred about 1620, when the noble Nguyen (Nguyen Dynasty) family, who had governed the country's growing southern provinces from Hue since 1558, rejected Thang Long's suzerainty. After the country was reunited following its first division, the Le monarchs in Thang Long were rulers in name only; all real power was in the hands of the Trinh Family, who had made themselves hereditary princes in charge of the government. For 50 years the Trinh rulers tried in vain to regain control of the southern half of the kingdom by military means. The failure of their last campaign in 1673 was followed by a 100-year truce, during which both the Nguyen and the Trinh paid lip service to Vietnamese unity under the Le dynasty but maintained separate governments in the two halves of the country.

      Unity was reestablished only after a 30-year period of revolution, political chaos, and civil war (1772–1802). Although the revolution started in the south, it was directed against the ruling houses of both south and north. It was led by three brothers, whose name in history—Tay Son (Tay Son Brothers)—was that of their native village. The Tay Sons (Tay Son Brothers) overthrew the southern regime in 1777 and killed the ruling family. While the Tay Sons waged war against the north, one member of the southern royal family—Nguyen Anh (Gia Long), who had escaped the massacre—regained control of Saigon and the deep south in 1778, but he was driven out again by the Tay Sons in 1783. When the Tay Sons also defeated the Trinh in 1786 and occupied Thang Long, Dai Viet was briefly reunited under Tay Son rule. In 1788 the Chinese tried to exploit the Vietnamese crisis, but the Tay Son rulers—who had abolished the Later Le dynasty—were able to defeat the Chinese invaders. During that same year, however, Nguyen Anh succeeded, with French military assistance, in occupying Saigon and the Mekong delta. In a series of campaigns that lasted 14 years, Nguyen Anh defeated the Tay Sons and gained control of the entire kingdom. When Hue and Thang Long fell to his armies in 1802, he proclaimed himself emperor, under the name Gia Long, of a reunited Da Viet, which he renamed Vietnam.

State and society in precolonial Vietnam
      The rule of Gia Long and his successors until the conquest of Vietnam by France in the late 19th century brought no innovations in the organization of the state, the basic character of which had already been firmly established by the Ly emperors (emperor) during the 11th century. The Ly rulers had successfully fought the revival of local feudalism, which was rooted in the powers exercised by tribal chiefs before the coming of the Chinese. From the 11th century, Dai Viet remained a centralized kingdom headed by a monarch whose absolute powers were said to derive from a mandate from heaven—one aspect of the thoroughly Confucian character of the Vietnamese state. The Ly rulers, following the Chinese model, established a fixed hierarchy with a ranking system of nine grades for all public officials. mandarins assigned to civil and military positions were appointed by the emperor and were responsible only to him. All mandarins—those at the very top at the imperial court as well as those in the lowest ranks of the provincial and local administration—were recruited and assigned to one of the nine grades in the official hierarchy in only one way: through civil service examinations taken after years of study. As a rule, only the wealthy could spend the time required for these studies. Nevertheless, except in periods of dynastic decline when offices were sometimes for sale, the road to positions of power was through scholarship, not wealth.

      The concept of a division of powers was alien to the precolonial rulers. The emperor, with the help of high court mandarins, was not only the supreme lawmaker and head of all civil and military institutions but also the dispenser of justice in both criminal and civil cases, and he delegated his powers to the hierarchy of mandarins in the provinces and villages. Even public functions of a religious character were the sole prerogative of the emperor and his representatives at the lower levels of the administration. No military caste ever exercised control over the state, no religious hierarchy existed outside the mandarins, and no aristocracy with political influence was allowed to arise. Titles of nobility, bestowed as honours, were not hereditary.

      The economic policies of the great Vietnamese dynasties also favoured the maintenance of imperial and mandarin power. Through the 900 years of independence, from the end of Chinese domination until the beginning of French colonial rule, the Vietnamese economy remained almost exclusively agricultural. Artisan and fishing villages existed, and there was some mining; but the mass of people were engaged in the cultivation of rice, and neither domestic nor international trade was systematically promoted. No property-owning middle class of merchants ever threatened the authority of the scholar mandarins, and the rising power of great landowners was periodically diminished through the redistribution of land. Gia Long and his successor, Minh Mang, actually abolished all huge landholdings during the first half of the 19th century. Theoretically, the emperor owned all the land, and it was by imperial decree that the settlers on newly conquered territories received their plots in the villages that sprang up from the Red River delta south to the Mekong delta.

      Vietnam's rigid absolutism was limited to a certain extent by the importance given to the family in accordance with the Confucian concept that the family is the basic unit of civilized society; submission to the authority of the family head thus was the foremost moral obligation of every citizen, even more important than obedience to the ruler. The autocratic character of society was also eased slightly by the limited authority granted to the village administration; local affairs were handled by a council of notables elected, as a rule, from the more prosperous or otherwise prominent citizens. Among the duties of these notables were the enforcement of law, the conscription of army and forced-labour recruits, and the assessment of taxes. Next to devotion to family, loyalty to the village was the duty of every Vietnamese.

Western penetration of Vietnam
      In 1516 Portuguese adventurers arriving by sea inaugurated the era of Western penetration of Vietnam. They were followed in 1527 by Dominican missionaries (mission), and eight years later a Portuguese port and trading centre were established at Faifo (modern Hoi An), south of present-day Da Nang. More Portuguese missionaries arrived later in the 16th century, and they were followed by other Europeans. The best-known of these was the French Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes (Rhodes, Alexandre de), who completed a transcription of the Vietnamese language into Roman script that later was adopted by modern Vietnamese as their official writing system, Quoc-ngu (“national language”).

      By the end of the 17th century, however, the two rival Vietnamese domains (under the Nguyen family in the south, and the Trinh family in the north) had lost interest in maintaining relations with European countries; the only window left open to the West was at Faifo, where the Portuguese retained a trading mission. For decades the French had tried without success to retain some influence in the area. Only at the end of the 18th century was a missionary named Pigneau de Béhaine (Pigneau de Béhaine, Pierre-Joseph-Georges) able to restore a French presence by assisting Nguyen Anh (Gia Long) in wresting control of Dai Viet from the Tay Sons.

      Upon becoming emperor, however, Nguyen Anh (now Gia Long) did not favour Christianity. Under his strongly anti-Western successor, Minh Mang (ruled 1820–41), all French advisers were dismissed, while seven French missionaries and an unknown number of Vietnamese Christians were executed. After 1840 French Roman Catholic interests openly demanded military intervention to prevent the persecution of missionaries. In 1847 the French took reprisals against Vietnam for expelling additional missionaries, but 10 years passed before Paris prepared a military expedition against Vietnam.

The conquest of Vietnam by France
      The decision to invade Vietnam was made by Napoleon III in July 1857. It was the result not only of missionary propaganda but also, after 1850, of the upsurge of French capitalism, which generated the need for overseas markets and the desire for a larger French share of the Asian territories conquered by the West. The naval commander in East Asia, Rigault de Genouilly (Rigault de Genouilly, Charles), long an advocate of French military action against Vietnam, was ordered to attack the harbour and city of Tourane ( Da Nang) and to turn it into a French military base. Genouilly arrived at Tourane in August 1858 with 14 vessels and 2,500 men; the French stormed the harbour defenses on September 1 and occupied the town a day later. Genouilly soon recognized, however, that he could make no further progress around Tourane and decided to attack Saigon. Leaving a small garrison behind to hold Tourane, he sailed southward in February 1859 and seized Saigon two weeks later.

      Vietnamese resistance prevented the French from advancing beyond Saigon, and it took French troops, under new command, until 1861 to occupy the three adjacent provinces. The Vietnamese, unable to mount effective resistance to the invaders and their advanced weapons, concluded a peace treaty in June 1862, which ceded the conquered territories to France. Five years later additional territories in the south were placed under French rule. The entire colony was named Cochinchina.

      It had taken the French slightly more than eight years to make themselves masters of Cochinchina (a protectorate already had been imposed on Cambodia in 1863). It took them 16 more years to extend their control over the rest of the country. They made a first attempt to enter the Red River delta in 1873, after a French naval officer and explorer named Francis Garnier (Garnier, Francis) had shown, in a hazardous expedition, that the Mekong River could not serve as a trade route into southwestern China. Garnier had some support from the French governor of Cochinchina, but when he was killed in a battle with Chinese pirates near Hanoi, the attempt to conquer the north collapsed.

      Within a decade, France had returned to the challenge. In April 1882, with the blessing of Paris, the administration at Saigon sent a force of 250 men to Hanoi under Capt. Henri Rivière. When Rivière was killed in a skirmish, Paris moved to impose its rule by force over the entire Red River delta. In August 1883 the Vietnamese court signed a treaty that turned northern Vietnam (named Tonkin by the French) and central Vietnam (named Annam, based on an early Chinese name for the region) into French protectorates. Ten years later the French annexed Laos and added it to the so-called Indochinese Union, which the French created in 1887. The union consisted of the colony of Cochinchina and the four protectorates of Annam, Tonkin, Cambodia, and Laos.

Colonial (colonialism, Western) Vietnam
French administration
      The French now moved to impose a Western-style administration on their colonial territories and to open them to economic exploitation. Under Gov.-Gen. Paul Doumer (Doumer, Paul), who arrived in 1897, French rule was imposed directly at all levels of administration, leaving the Vietnamese bureaucracy without any real power. Even Vietnamese emperors were deposed at will and replaced by others willing to serve the French. All important positions within the bureaucracy were staffed with officials imported from France; even in the 1930s, after several periods of reforms and concessions to local nationalist sentiment, Vietnamese officials were employed only in minor positions and at very low salaries, and the country was still administered along the lines laid down by Doumer.

      Doumer's economic and social policies also determined, for the entire period of French rule, the development of French Indochina (Indochina), as the colony became known in the 20th century. The railroads, highways, harbours, bridges, canals, and other public works built by the French were almost all started under Doumer, whose aim was a rapid and systematic exploitation of Indochina's potential wealth for the benefit of France; Vietnam was to become a source of raw materials and a market for tariff-protected goods produced by French industries. The exploitation of natural resources for direct export was the chief purpose of all French investments, with rice, coal, rare minerals, and later also rubber as the main products. Doumer and his successors up to the eve of World War II were not interested in promoting industry there, the development of which was limited to the production of goods for immediate local consumption. Among these enterprises—located chiefly in Saigon, Hanoi, and Haiphong (the outport for Hanoi)—were breweries, distilleries, small sugar refineries, rice and paper mills, and glass and cement factories. The greatest industrial establishment was a textile factory at Nam Dinh, which employed more than 5,000 workers. The total number of workers employed by all industries and mines in Vietnam was some 100,000 in 1930. Because the aim of all investments was not the systematic economic development of the colony but the attainment of immediate high returns for investors, only a small fraction of the profits was reinvested.

Effects of French colonial rule
      Whatever economic progress Vietnam made under the French after 1900 benefited only the French and the small class of wealthy Vietnamese created by the colonial regime. The masses of the Vietnamese people were deprived of such benefits by the social policies inaugurated by Doumer and maintained even by his more liberal successors, such as Paul Beau (1902–07), Albert Sarraut (Sarraut, Albert) (1911–14 and 1917–19), and Alexandre Varenne (1925–28). Through the construction of irrigation works, chiefly in the Mekong delta, the area of land devoted to rice cultivation quadrupled between 1880 and 1930. During the same period, however, the individual peasant's rice consumption decreased without the substitution of other foods. The new lands were not distributed among the landless and the peasants but were sold to the highest bidder or given away at nominal prices to Vietnamese collaborators and French speculators. These policies created a new class of Vietnamese landlords and a class of landless tenants (tenant farming) who worked the fields of the landlords for rents of up to 60 percent of the crop, which was sold by the landlords at the Saigon export market. The mounting export figures for rice resulted not only from the increase in cultivable land but also from the growing exploitation of the peasantry.

      The peasants who owned their land were rarely better off than the landless tenants. The peasants' share of the price of rice sold at the Saigon export market was less than 25 percent. Peasants continually lost their land to the large owners because they were unable to repay loans given them by the landlords and other moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates. As a result, the large landowners of Cochinchina (less than 3 percent of the total number of landowners) owned 45 percent of the land, while the small peasants (who accounted for about 70 percent of the owners) owned only about 15 percent of the land. The number of landless families in Vietnam before World War II was estimated at half of the population.

      The peasants' share of the crop—after the landlords, the moneylenders, and the middlemen (mostly Chinese) between producer and exporter had taken their share—was still more drastically reduced by the direct and indirect taxes the French had imposed to finance their ambitious program of public works. Other ways of making the Vietnamese pay for the projects undertaken for the benefit of the French were the recruitment of forced labour for public works and the absence of any protection against exploitation in the mines and rubber plantations, although the scandalous working conditions, the low salaries, and the lack of medical care were frequently attacked in the French Chamber of Deputies in Paris. The mild social legislation decreed in the late 1920s was never adequately enforced.

      Apologists for the colonial regime claimed that French rule led to vast improvements in medical care, education, transport, and communications. The statistics kept by the French, however, appear to cast doubt on such assertions. In 1939, for example, no more than 15 percent of all school-age children received any kind of schooling, and about 80 percent of the population was illiterate, in contrast to precolonial times when the majority of the people possessed some degree of literacy. With its more than 20 million inhabitants in 1939, Vietnam had but one university, with fewer than 700 students. Only a small number of Vietnamese children were admitted to the lycées (secondary schools) for the children of the French. Medical care was well organized for the French in the cities, but in 1939 there were only 2 physicians for every 100,000 Vietnamese, compared with 76 per 100,000 in Japan and 25 per 100,000 in the Philippines.

      Two other aspects of French colonial policy are significant when considering the attitude of the Vietnamese people, especially their educated minority, toward the colonial regime: one was the absence of any kind of civil liberties for the native population, and the other was the exclusion of the Vietnamese from the modern sector of the economy, especially industry and trade. Not only were rubber plantations, mines, and industrial enterprises in foreign hands—French, where the business was substantial, and Chinese at the lower levels—but all other business was as well, from local trade to the great export-import houses. The social consequence of this policy was that, apart from the landlords, no property-owning indigenous middle class developed in colonial Vietnam. Thus, capitalism appeared to the Vietnamese to be a part of foreign rule; this view, together with the lack of any Vietnamese participation in government, profoundly influenced the nature and orientation of the national resistance movements.

Movements of national liberation
      The anticolonial movement in Vietnam can be said to have started with the establishment of French rule. Many local officials of Cochinchina refused to collaborate with the French. Some led guerrilla groups, composed of the remnants of the defeated armies, in attacks on French outposts. A much broader resistance movement developed in Annam in 1885, led by the great scholar Phan Dinh Phung, whose rebellion collapsed only after his death in 1895.

      The main characteristic of the national movement during this first phase of resistance, however, was its political orientation toward the past. Filled with ideas of precolonial Vietnam, its leaders wanted to be rid of the French in order to reestablish the old imperial order. Because this aspiration had little meaning for the generation that came to maturity after 1900, this first stage of anticolonial resistance did not survive the death of its leader.

      A new national movement arose in the early 20th century. Its most prominent spokesman was Phan Boi Chau, with whose rise the old traditionalist opposition gave way to a modern nationalist leadership that rejected French rule but not Western ideas, science, and technology. In 1905 Chau went to Japan. His plan, mildly encouraged by some Japanese statesmen, was to free Vietnam with Japanese help. Chau smuggled hundreds of young Vietnamese into Japan, where they studied the sciences and underwent training for clandestine organization, political propaganda, and terrorist action. Inspired by Chau's writings, nationalist intellectuals in Hanoi opened the Free School of Tonkin in 1907, which soon became a centre of anti-French agitation and consequently was suppressed after a few months. Also, under the inspiration and guidance of Chau's followers, mass demonstrations demanding a reduction of high taxes took place in many cities in 1908. Hundreds of demonstrators and suspected organizers were arrested—some were condemned to death, while others were sent to Con Son (Poulo Condore) Island (Con Son) in the South China Sea, which the French turned into a penal camp for Vietnamese nationalists.

      Phan Boi Chau went to China in 1910, where a revolution had broken out against the Qing (Manchu) dynasty (Qing dynasty). There he set up a republican government-in-exile to attract the support of nationalist groups. After the French arranged his arrest and imprisonment in China (1914–17), however, his movement began to decline. In 1925 Chau was seized by French agents in Shanghai and brought back to Vietnam for trial; he died under house arrest in 1940.

      After World War I the movement for national liberation intensified. A number of prominent intellectuals sought to achieve reforms by obtaining political concessions from the colonial regime through collaboration with the French. The failure of such reformist efforts led to a revival of clandestine and revolutionary groups, especially in Annam and Tonkin; among these was the Vietnamese Nationalist Party ( Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang, founded in 1927 and usually referred to as the VNQDD). The VNQDD preached terrorist action and penetrated the garrisons of indigenous troops with a plan to oust the French in a military uprising. On the night of Feb. 9–10, 1930, the troops of one garrison in Tonkin killed their French officers, but they were overwhelmed a day later and summarily executed. A wave of repression followed that took hundreds of lives and sent thousands to prison camps. The VNQDD was virtually destroyed, and for the next 15 years it existed mainly as a group of exiles in China supported by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang).

Vietnamese communism
 The year 1930 was important in the history of Vietnam for yet another reason. Five years earlier, a new figure, destined to become the most prominent leader in the national movement, had appeared on the scene as an expatriate revolutionary in South China. He was Nguyen Ai Quoc, better known by his later pseudonym of Ho Chi Minh. In June 1925 Ho Chi Minh had founded the Revolutionary Youth League of Vietnam, the predecessor of the Indochinese Communist Party.

      Ho Chi Minh had left Vietnam as a young seaman in 1911 and traveled widely before settling in Paris in 1917. He joined the Communist Party of France in 1920 and later spent several years in Moscow and China in the service of the international communist movement. After making his Revolutionary Youth League the most influential of all clandestine resistance groups, he succeeded in early 1930 in forming the Vietnamese Communist Party—from late 1930 called the Indochinese Communist Party—from a number of competing communist organizations. In May of that year the communists exploited conditions of near starvation over large areas of central Vietnam by staging a broad peasant uprising, during which numerous Vietnamese officials and many landlords were killed, and “Soviet” administrations were set up in several provinces of Annam. It took the French until the spring of 1931 to suppress this movement and, in an unparalleled wave of terror, to reestablish control.

      Unlike the dispersed and disoriented leadership of the VNQDD and some smaller nationalist groups, the Indochinese Communist Party recovered quickly from the setback of 1931, relying on cadres trained in the Soviet Union and China. After 1936, when the French extended some political freedoms to the colonies, the party skillfully exploited all opportunities for the creation of legal front organizations, through which it extended its influence among intellectuals, workers, and peasants. When political freedoms were again curtailed at the outbreak of World War II, the Communist Party, now a well-disciplined organization, was forced back into hiding.

World War II and independence
      For five years during World War II, Indochina was a French-administered possession of Japan. On Sept. 22, 1940, Jean Decoux (Decoux, Jean), the French governor-general appointed by the Vichy government after the fall of France to the Nazis, concluded an agreement with the Japanese that permitted the stationing of 30,000 Japanese troops in Indochina and the use of all major Vietnamese airports by the Japanese military. The agreement made Indochina the most important staging area for all Japanese military operations in Southeast Asia. The French administration cooperated with the Japanese occupation forces and was ousted only toward the end of the war (in March 1945), when the Japanese began to fear that the French forces might turn against them as defeat approached. After the French had been disarmed, Bao Dai, the last French-appointed emperor of Vietnam, was allowed to proclaim the independence of his country and to appoint a Vietnamese national government at Hue; however, all real power remained in the hands of the Japanese military commanders.

      Meanwhile, in May 1941, at Ho Chi Minh's urging, the Communist Party formed a broad nationalist alliance under its leadership called the League for the Independence of Vietnam, which subsequently became known as the Viet Minh. Ho, returning to China to seek assistance, was arrested and imprisoned there by the Nationalist government. After his release he returned to Vietnam and began to cooperate with Allied forces by providing information on Japanese troop movements in Indochina. At the same time, he sought recognition of the Viet Minh as the legitimate representative of Vietnamese nationalist aspirations. When the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the communist-led Viet Minh ordered a general uprising, and, with no one organized to oppose them, they were able to seize power in Hanoi. Bao Dai, the Vietnamese emperor, abdicated a few days later and declared his fealty to the newly proclaimed Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

      The Communist Party had clearly gained the upper hand in its struggle to outmaneuver its disorganized rivals, such as the noncommunist VNQDD. The French, however, were determined to restore their colonial presence in Indochina and, with the aid of British occupation forces, seized control of Cochinchina. Thus, at the beginning of 1946, there were two Vietnams: a communist north and a noncommunist south.

Joseph Buttinger William J. Duiker William S. Turley

The First Indochina War
 Negotiations between the French and Ho Chi Minh led to an agreement in March 1946 that appeared to promise a peaceful solution. Under the agreement France would recognize the Viet Minh government and give Vietnam the status of a free state within the French Union. French troops were to remain in Vietnam, but they would be withdrawn progressively over five years. For a period in early 1946 the French cooperated with Ho Chi Minh as he consolidated the Viet Minh's dominance over other nationalist groups, in particular those politicians who were backed by the Chinese Nationalist Party.

      Despite tactical cooperation between the French and the Viet Minh, their policies were irreconcilable: the French aimed to reestablish colonial rule, while Hanoi wanted total independence. French intentions were revealed in the decision of Georges-Thierry d'Argenlieu, the high commissioner for Indochina, to proclaim Cochinchina an autonomous republic in June 1946. Further negotiations did not resolve the basic differences between the French and the Viet Minh. In late November 1946 French naval vessels bombarded Haiphong, causing several thousand civilian casualties; the subsequent Viet Minh attempt to overwhelm French troops in Hanoi in December is generally considered to be the beginning of the First Indochina War.

      Initially confident of victory, the French long ignored the real political cause of the war—the desire of the Vietnamese people, including their anticommunist leaders, to achieve unity and independence for their country. French efforts to deal with those issues were devious and ineffective. The French reunited Cochinchina with the rest of Vietnam in 1949, proclaiming the Associated State of Vietnam, and appointed the former emperor Bao Dai as chief of state. Most nationalists, however, denounced these maneuvers, and leadership in the struggle for independence from the French remained with the Viet Minh.

 Meanwhile, the Viet Minh waged an increasingly successful guerrilla war, aided after 1949 by the new communist government of China. The United States, fearful of the spread of communism in Asia, sent large amounts of aid to the French. The French, however, were shaken by the fall of their garrison at Dien Bien Phu (Dien Bien Phu, Battle of) in May 1954 and agreed to negotiate an end to the war at an international conference in Geneva.

The two Vietnams (1954–65)
      The agreements concluded in Geneva between April and July 1954 (collectively called the Geneva Accords) were signed by French and Viet Minh representatives and provided for a cease-fire and temporary division of the country into two military zones at latitude 17 °N (popularly called the 17th parallel). All Viet Minh forces were to withdraw north of that line, and all French and Associated State of Vietnam troops were to remain south of it; permission was granted for refugees to move from one zone to the other during a limited time period. An international commission was established, composed of Canadian, Polish, and Indian members under an Indian chairman, to supervise the execution of the agreement.

      This agreement left the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (henceforth called North Vietnam) in control of only the northern half of the country. The last of the Geneva Accords—called the Final Declaration—provided for elections, supervised by the commission, to be held throughout Vietnam in July 1956 in order to unify the country. Viet Minh leaders appeared certain to win these elections, and the United States and the leaders in the south would not approve or sign the Final Declaration; elections were never held.

 In the midst of a mass migration of nearly one million people from the north to the south, the two Vietnams began to reconstruct their war-ravaged land. With assistance from the Soviet Union and China, the Hanoi government in the north embarked on an ambitious program of socialist industrialization; they also began to collectivize agriculture in earnest in 1958. In the south a new government appointed by Bao Dai began to build a new country. Ngo Dinh Diem, a Roman Catholic, was named prime minister and succeeded with American support in stabilizing the anticommunist regime in Saigon. He eliminated pro-French elements in the military and abolished the local autonomy of several religious-political groups. Then, in a government-controlled referendum in October 1955, Diem removed Bao Dai as chief of state and made himself president of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam).

 Diem's early success in consolidating power did not result in concrete political and economic achievements. Plans for land reform were sabotaged by entrenched interests. With the financial backing of the United States, the regime's chief energies were directed toward building up the military and a variety of intelligence and security forces to counter the still-influential Viet Minh. Totalitarian methods were directed against all who were regarded as opponents, and the favouritism shown to Roman Catholics alienated the majority Buddhist population. Loyalty to the president and his family was made a paramount duty, and Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, founded an elitist underground organization to spy on officials, army officers, and prominent local citizens. Diem also refused to participate in the all-Vietnamese elections described in the Final Declaration. With support from the north, communist-led forces—popularly called the Viet Cong—launched an insurgency movement to seize power and reunify the country. The insurrection appeared close to succeeding, when Diem's army overthrew him in November 1963. Diem and his brother Nhu were killed in the coup.

The Second Indochina War (Vietnam War)
 The government that seized power after Diem's ouster, however, was no more effective than its predecessor. A period of political instability followed, until the military firmly seized control in June 1965 under Nguyen Cao Ky. Militant Buddhists who had helped overthrow Diem strongly opposed Ky's government, but he was able to break their resistance. Civil liberties were restricted, political opponents—denounced as neutralists or pro-communists—were imprisoned, and political parties were allowed to operate only if they did not openly criticize government policy. The character of the regime remained largely unchanged after the presidential elections in September 1967, which led to the election of Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu as president.

      No less evident than the oppressive nature of the Saigon regime was its inability to cope with the Viet Cong. The insurgent movement, aided by a steady infiltration of weapons and advisers from the north, steadily built its fighting strength from about 30,000 men in 1963 to about 150,000 in 1965 when, in the opinion of many American intelligence analysts, the survival of the Saigon regime was seriously threatened. In addition, the political opposition in the south to Saigon became much more organized. The National Front for the Liberation of the South, popularly called the National Liberation Front (NLF), had been organized in late 1960 and within four years had a huge following.

Growing U.S. involvement in the war
 Until 1960 the United States had supported the Saigon regime and its army only with military equipment, financial aid, and, as permitted by the Geneva Accords, 700 advisers for training the army. The number of advisers had increased to 17,000 by the end of 1963, and they were joined by an increasing number of American helicopter pilots. All of this assistance, however, proved insufficient to halt the advance of the Viet Cong, and in February 1965 U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson (Johnson, Lyndon B.) ordered the bombing of North Vietnam, hoping to prevent further infiltration of arms and troops into the south. Four weeks after the bombing began, the United States started sending troops into the south. By July the number of U.S. troops had reached 75,000; it continued to climb until it stood at more than 500,000 early in 1968. Fighting beside the Americans were some 600,000 regular South Vietnamese troops and regional and self-defense forces, as well as smaller contingents from South Korea (Korea, South), Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand.

 Three years of intensive bombing of the north and fighting in the south, however, did not weaken the will and strength of the Viet Cong and their allies from the north. Infiltration of personnel and supplies down the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail continued at a high level, and regular troops from the north—now estimated at more than 100,000—played a growing role in the war. The continuing strength of the insurgent forces became evident in the so-called Tet Offensive that began in late January 1968, during which the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attacked more than 100 cities and military bases, holding on to some for several weeks. After that, a growing conviction in the U.S. government that continuing the war at current levels was no longer politically acceptable led President Johnson to order a reduction of the bombing in the north. This decision opened the way for U.S. negotiations with Hanoi, which began in Paris in May 1968. After the bombing was halted over the entire north in November 1968, the Paris talks were enlarged to include representatives of the NLF and the Saigon regime.

      The war continued under a new U.S. president, Richard M. Nixon (Nixon, Richard M.), who began gradually to withdraw U.S. troops. Public opposition to the war, however, escalated after Nixon ordered attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and on Viet Cong sanctuaries inside Cambodia. In the meantime, the peace talks went on in Paris.

Milton Edgeworth Osborne William J. Duiker William S. Turley

Withdrawal of U.S. troops
 Finally, in January 1973 a peace treaty was signed by the United States and all three Vietnamese parties (North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the Viet Cong). It provided for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops within 60 days and created a political process for the peaceful resolution of the conflict in the south. Nothing was said, however, about the presence of more than 100,000 North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. The signing of the Paris Agreement did not bring an end to the fighting in Vietnam. The Saigon regime made a determined effort to eliminate the communist forces remaining in the south, while northern leaders continued to strengthen their military forces in preparation for a possible future confrontation. By late 1974 Hanoi had decided that victory could be achieved only through armed struggle, and early the next year North Vietnamese troops launched a major offensive against the south. Saigon's forces retreated in panic and disorder, and President Thieu (Nguyen Van Thieu) ordered the abandonment of several northern provinces. Thieu's effort to stabilize the situation was too late, however, and on April 30, 1975, the communists entered Saigon in triumph. The Second Indochina War was finally at an end.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Reunification and early challenges
      Following the communist victory, Vietnam remained theoretically divided (although reunified in concept) until July 2, 1976, when the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was officially proclaimed, with its capital at Hanoi. Vietnam at peace faced formidable problems. In the south alone, millions of people had been made homeless by the war, and more than one-seventh of the population had been killed or wounded; the costs in the north were probably as high or higher. Plans to reconstruct the country called for the expansion of industry in the north and of agriculture in the south. Within two years of the communist victory, however, it became clear that Vietnam would face major difficulties in realizing its goals.

      Hanoi had been at war for more than a generation—indeed, Ho Chi Minh had died in 1969—and the bureaucracy was poorly trained to deal with the problems of peacetime economic recovery. The government encountered considerable resistance to its policies, particularly in the huge metropolis of Saigon (renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976), where members of the commercial sector—many of whom were ethnic Chinese—sought to avoid cooperating in the new socialist economic measures and resisted assignment to “new economic zones” in the countryside. During the late 1970s the country also suffered major floods and drought that severely reduced food production. When the regime suddenly announced a program calling for the socialization of industry and agriculture in the south in early 1978, hundreds of thousands of people (mainly ethnic Chinese) fled the country on foot or by boat.

      These internal difficulties were compounded by problems in foreign affairs. Perhaps unrealistically, the regime decided to pursue plans to form a close alliance with new revolutionary governments in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia (Kampuchea). Such plans risked incurring not only the hostility of the United States but also that of China, which had its own interests in those countries. As Sino-Vietnamese relations soured, Hanoi turned to Moscow and signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union. In the meantime, relations with the revolutionary Democratic Kampuchea ( Khmer Rouge) government in Cambodia rapidly deteriorated when it refused Hanoi's offer of a close relationship among the three countries that once formed French Indochina. Savage border fighting culminated in a Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in December 1978. The Khmer Rouge were dislodged from power, and a pro-Vietnamese government was installed in Phnom Penh.

      Khmer Rouge forces now took refuge in isolated areas of the country and began a guerrilla war of resistance against the new government, the latter backed by some 200,000 Vietnamese troops. In the meantime, China launched a brief but fierce punitive invasion along the Sino-Vietnamese border in early 1979 in response to Vietnamese actions in Cambodia. During the month-long war the Chinese destroyed major Vietnamese towns and inflicted heavy damage in the frontier zone, but they also suffered heavy casualties from the Vietnamese defenders.

      Vietnam was now nearly isolated in the world. Apart from the protégé regime in Phnom Penh and the government of Laos, which also depended heavily on Vietnamese aid for its survival, the country was at odds with the rest of its regional neighbours. The member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) opposed the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia and joined with China in supporting guerrilla resistance forces represented by the Khmer Rouge and various noncommunist Cambodian groups. An economic trade embargo was imposed on Vietnam by the United States and most other Western countries. Only the Soviet Union and its allies in eastern Europe stood by Vietnam.

      Under such severe external pressure, Vietnam suffered continuing economic difficulties. The cost of stationing troops in Cambodia and of maintaining a strong defensive position along the Chinese border was especially heavy. To make matters worse, the regime encountered continuing problems in integrating the southern provinces into a socialist economy. In the early 1980s the government announced a number of reforms to spur the economy. Then, following the death of veteran party chief Le Duan in 1986 (Le Duan had succeeded Ho Chi Minh as party chief in 1960) and his succession by the pro-reform Nguyen Van Linh, the party launched a program of sweeping economic and institutional renovation (doi moi). Actual implementation, however, did not begin until 1988, when a deepening economic crisis and declining support from the Soviet Union compelled the government to slash spending, court foreign investment, and liberalize trade. Other policies essentially legalized free market activities that the government had previously tried to limit or suppress.

William J. Duiker William S. Turley

Vietnam since c. 1990
      These measures stabilized the economy, but the sudden collapse of communist rule in eastern Europe and disintegration of the Soviet Union left Vietnam completely isolated. Having begun removing its armed forces from Cambodia in 1985, Vietnam completed withdrawal in September 1989 and intensified efforts to improve relations with its neighbours. A peace conference in Paris formally ended the Cambodian conflict in 1991 and provided United Nations supervision until elections could be held in 1993. The Cambodian settlement removed a key obstacle to normalizing relations with China, Japan, and Europe. The Vietnamese agreement to help the United States determine the fate of Americans missing in action encouraged the United States to lift the embargo in 1994 and establish diplomatic relations with Hanoi in 1995. Admission to membership in ASEAN in July 1995 symbolized Vietnam's full acceptance into the family of nations.

      The return of peace and stability to the region allowed Vietnam to concentrate on the economic reforms begun in the late 1980s. The government took a pragmatic approach, responding flexibly to domestic realities while seeking ideas from diverse international sources. Major components of reform included instituting a relatively liberal foreign investment law, decollectivizing agriculture, ending fixed prices and subsidies, and significantly reducing the number of state-owned enterprises. Results were on the whole favourable. The output of food staples per capita, after a half century of decline, increased sufficiently for Vietnam to become a sizeable exporter of rice in 1989. Job creation in the private sector made up for job losses in the public sector. Foreign investment spurred growth in crude oil production, light manufacturing, and tourism. Vietnam also redirected its trade in a remarkably short period of time from ex-communist countries to such new partners as Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) averaged nearly 8 percent annually through the 1990s.

      With success, however, came a weakening of commitment to further change and renewed concern about preserving Vietnam's "socialist orientation." One consequence was the continued prominence in the economy of state-owned enterprises, fewer than half of which were profitable but which accounted for nearly one-third of GDP. Leaders also worried that the corruption, inequality, and materialism associated with the new market economy could undermine support for the party. In 1991, Nguyen Van Linh yielded the party's chairmanship to Do Muoi, a cautious, consensus-seeking politician. Although a new constitution enacted in 1992 was seen as a step toward loosening party control of the government, the party remained unwilling to share power with noncommunist elements. Muoi's replacement, Le Kha Phieu, chosen in 1997 after months of bitter factional infighting, lacked both the power and the determination to accelerate the pace of reform. Internal opposition to further liberalization caused Vietnam in 1999 to decide, after years of negotiation, not to sign a trade agreement with the United States that would have also secured membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the face of relentless globalization, Vietnam was threatened by paralysis on account of its reluctance to reform its political institutions.

      Impatience with government corruption and slowing economic growth (exacerbated by the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s) catalyzed large-scale demonstrations early in the 21st century. The demonstrations, in turn, ultimately contributed to the senior party leaders' decision to replace Le Kha Phieu with Nong Duc Manh in April 2001. The new party leader immediately took steps to curb corruption, and to integrate Vietnam more fully into the global economy. Once again, the country's GDP experienced a surge of growth. Trade negotiations with the United States were rekindled, and an accord was signed later that year. At the end of 2006, Vietnam ratified the accession agreement to become the WTO's 150th member in January 2007.

William S. Turley

Additional Reading

Geography
David W.P. Elliot et al.,Vietnam: Essays on History, Culture, and Society (1985), is a solid and readable introduction. A comprehensive analysis of Vietnamese society and culture is Neil L. Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam (1993, reprinted 1995). Other studies of peoples and society include Pierre Gourou, The Peasants of the Tonkin Delta: A Study of Human Geography, trans. by Richard R. Miller, 2 vol. (1955; originally published in French, 1936), a monumental work; three books by Gerald Cannon Hickey, Village in Vietnam (1964), a classic ethnography of the upper Mekong delta in the 1950s, Sons of the Mountains (1982), a masterful overview of the evolving cultures of the Montagnards up to 1954, and Free in the Forest (1982), a scholarly description of the fate of the peoples of the central highlands from 1954 to 1976; and two studies by A. Terry Rambo, A Comparison of Peasant Social Systems of Northern and Southern Viet-Nam: A Study of Ecological Adaptation, Social Succession, and Cultural Evolution (1973), and “Vietnam: Searching for Integration,” in Carlo Caldarola (ed.), Religions and Societies: Asia and the Middle East (1982), pp. 407–444. Karen Fjelstad and Nguyen Thi Hien (eds.), Possessed by the Spirits: Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnamese Communities (2006), contains academic analyses of various shamanic activities. William J. Duiker, Vietnam: Revolution in Transition, 2nd ed. (1995), surveys a wide range of social, political, and cultural developments through the end of the war. Nigel Thrift and Dean Forbes, The Price of War: Urbanization in Vietnam, 1954–85 (1986); Keith Griffin (ed.), Economic Reform in Vietnam (1998); and Brian Van Arkadie and Raymond Mallon, Viet Nam: A Transition Tiger? (2003), are useful studies on these topics.

History
Keith Weller Taylor, The Birth of Vietnam (1983), is the definitive treatment of early history to the 10th century. Joseph Buttinger, The Smaller Dragon: A Political History of Vietnam (1958, reprinted 1966), is the standard history from the rise of the Vietnamese state to the colonial era. Alexander Barton Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model (1971, reprinted 1988), compares the governments of these two countries in the first half of the 19th century. Milton E. Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response (1859–1905) (1969), analyzes French policies during the first stages of colonial rule. Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution (1992, reissued 1996), plumbs the sources of anticolonial thought. David G. Marr, Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885–1925 (1971), is a sensitive account, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920–1945 (1981, reissued 1984), explores the social and intellectual changes taking place under colonial rule, and Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power (1995, reprinted 1997), explains the August Revolution. Ellen J. Hammer, The Struggle for Indochina (1954, reissued 1969), dramatically treats the final stages of French rule. Huynh Kim Khánh, Vietnamese Communism, 1925–1945 (1982, reissued 1986), is the definitive account of the rise of the Vietnamese communist movement. Alexander B. Woodside, Community and Revolution in Modern Vietnam (1976), argues that the search for community is a key factor in the Vietnamese revolution. Thomas Hodgkin, Vietnam (1981), recounts in detail the background of the Vietnamese revolutionary struggle. Bernard B. Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, 2nd rev. ed. (1967, reprinted 1984), dated but still useful, examines the period after the division of the country. William J. Duiker, Sacred War: Nationalism and Revolution in a Divided Vietnam (1995), focuses on Vietnamese communist perspectives and strategy, and his Ho Chi Minh (2000) is the most comprehensive account of the communist leader's life. David W.P. Elliott, The Vietnamese War: Revolution and Social Change in the Mekong Delta (2003), is a detailed analysis of communist techniques and popular responses; while Truong Nhu Tang, David Chanoff, and Doan Van Toai, A Vietcong Memoir (1985; also published as Journal of a Vietcong, 1986), is a firsthand account of the organization. Ken Post, Revolution, Socialism, and Nationalism in Vietnam, 5 vol. (1989–94), is a Marxist interpretation of the Vietnamese revolution. Jeffrey Race, War Comes to Long An (1972), is the classic study of factors behind the communist success in one province of South Vietnam. William S. Turley and Mark Selden (eds.), Reinventing Vietnamese Socialism: Doi Moi in Comparative Perspective (1993); and Börje Ljunggren (ed.), The Challenge of Reform in Indochina (1993), assess social, political, and economic developments since the war's end. Adam Fforde and Stefan de Vylder, From Plan to Market (1996), analyzes the causes and dynamics of the transition to a market economy. Sophie Quinn-Judge and Odd Arne Westad (eds.), The Third Indochina War: Conflict Between China, Vietnam, and Cambodia, 1972–1979 (2006), is a collection of essays based on more recently available archives that shed new light on Vietnam's wars with China and Cambodia.William S. Turley

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Universalium. 2010.

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