Share over the yearskm² × years here ÷ km² × years in all
Of all its landland ever held here ÷ all land ever held
Heldyears with land here, first – last
Most at oncelargest km² here in one border
Of the countrymost at once ÷ the country’s km²
Vietnam
100%
100%
14 years1956 – 1975
166,965 km²
51%
The Republic of Vietnam (RVN; Vietnamese: Việt Nam Cộng hòa, VNCH), commonly known as South Vietnam, was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered recognition in 1949 as the associated State of Vietnam within the French Union, with its capital at Saigon. Since 1950, it was a member of the Western Bloc during the Cold War. Following the 1954 partition of Vietnam, it became known as South Vietnam and was established as a republic in 1955. Although South Vietnam failed to gain admission into the United Nations as a result of a Soviet veto in 1957, its sovereignty was recognized by 95 countries as of January 1975. It was succeeded by the communist-controlled Republic of South Vietnam in 1975. In 1976, North Vietnam and the Republic of South Vietnam merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
In September 1945, as World War II came to an end, the communist-led Viet Minh, under Ho Chi Minh, seized power and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in Hanoi, leading to civil conflicts.
In 1949, during the First Indochina War, the French and Vietnamese nationalists established the State of Vietnam (SVN), led by former emperor Bảo Đại, as an anti-communist alternative. Returning from exile in June 1954, Ngô Đình Diệm, recognized as the prominent anti-communist and anti-colonialist figure, was appointed prime minister of the SVN.
After the 1954 Geneva Conference, the DRV took control of North Vietnam, while the SVN administered South Vietnam, which encompassed the southern and part of the central regions of the country. A 1955 referendum on the state's future form of government was widely marred by electoral fraud and resulted in the deposal of Bảo Đại by Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm, who proclaimed himself president of the new republic on 26 October 1955. Diệm adopted personalism, a doctrine rejecting communism, liberalism and capitalism, as the official ideology of the regime. His authoritarian tendencies provoked resentment and opposition during the communist insurgency, and Diệm was killed in a CIA-backed military coup led by general Dương Văn Minh in 1963, and a series of short-lived military governments followed which ended in 1967 with General Nguyễn Cao Kỳ ratifying a constitution which formally granted liberal democratic freedoms. General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu then led the country after a disputed civilian presidential election from 1967 until 1975. Amidst escalating communist aggression, his rule grew authoritarian while maintaining a degree of political freedoms and an active civil society.
The Vietnam War emerged from an insurgency by the newly organized Viet Cong, armed and supported by North Vietnam, with backing mainly from China and the Soviet Union. Larger escalation of the insurgency occurred in 1965 with American intervention and the introduction of regular forces of Marines, followed by Army units to supplement the cadre of military advisors guiding the Republic's armed forces. A regular bombing campaign over North Vietnam was conducted by offshore US Navy airplanes, warships, and aircraft carriers joined by Air Force squadrons through 1966 and 1967. Fighting peaked up to that point during the Tet Offensive of February 1968, when there were over a million South Vietnamese soldiers, 500,000 U.S. soldiers, and 100,000 soldiers from other allied nations such as South Korea, Australia, and Thailand in South Vietnam. What started as a guerrilla war eventually turned into a more conventional fight as the balance of power became equalized. An even larger, armored invasion from the North commenced during the Easter Offensive following US ground-forces withdrawal, and had nearly overrun some major southern cities until being beaten back.
Despite a truce agreement under the Paris Peace Accords, concluded in January 1973 after five years of on-and-off negotiations, fighting continued almost immediately afterwards. The regular North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong auxiliaries launched a major combined-arms conventional invasion in 1975. Communist forces overran Saigon on 30 April 1975 in what is called the fall of Saigon, marking the end of the Republic of Vietnam. On 2 July 1976, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the North Vietnamese-controlled Republic of South Vietnam merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
The Republic of Vietnam (RVN; Vietnamese: Việt Nam Cộng hòa, VNCH), commonly known as South Vietnam, was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered recognition in 1949 as the associated State of Vietnam within the French Union, with its capital at Saigon. Since 1950, it was a member of the Western Bloc during the Cold War. Following the 1954 partition of Vietnam, it became known as South Vietnam and was established as a republic in 1955. Although South Vietnam failed to gain admission into the United Nations as a result of a Soviet veto in 1957, its sovereignty was recognized by 95 countries as of January 1975. It was succeeded by the communist-controlled Republic of South Vietnam in 1975. In 1976, North Vietnam and the Republic of South Vietnam merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
In September 1945, as World War II came to an end, the communist-led Viet Minh, under Ho Chi Minh, seized power and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in Hanoi, leading to civil conflicts.
In 1949, during the First Indochina War, the French and Vietnamese nationalists established the State of Vietnam (SVN), led by former emperor Bảo Đại, as an anti-communist alternative. Returning from exile in June 1954, Ngô Đình Diệm, recognized as the prominent anti-communist and anti-colonialist figure, was appointed prime minister of the SVN.
After the 1954 Geneva Conference, the DRV took control of North Vietnam, while the SVN administered South Vietnam, which encompassed the southern and part of the central regions of the country. A 1955 referendum on the state's future form of government was widely marred by electoral fraud and resulted in the deposal of Bảo Đại by Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm, who proclaimed himself president of the new republic on 26 October 1955. Diệm adopted personalism, a doctrine rejecting communism, liberalism and capitalism, as the official ideology of the regime. His authoritarian tendencies provoked resentment and opposition during the communist insurgency, and Diệm was killed in a CIA-backed military coup led by general Dương Văn Minh in 1963, and a series of short-lived military governments followed which ended in 1967 with General Nguyễn Cao Kỳ ratifying a constitution which formally granted liberal democratic freedoms. General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu then led the country after a disputed civilian presidential election from 1967 until 1975. Amidst escalating communist aggression, his rule grew authoritarian while maintaining a degree of political freedoms and an active civil society.
The Vietnam War emerged from an insurgency by the newly organized Viet Cong, armed and supported by North Vietnam, with backing mainly from China and the Soviet Union. Larger escalation of the insurgency occurred in 1965 with American intervention and the introduction of regular forces of Marines, followed by Army units to supplement the cadre of military advisors guiding the Republic's armed forces. A regular bombing campaign over North Vietnam was conducted by offshore US Navy airplanes, warships, and aircraft carriers joined by Air Force squadrons through 1966 and 1967. Fighting peaked up to that point during the Tet Offensive of February 1968, when there were over a million South Vietnamese soldiers, 500,000 U.S. soldiers, and 100,000 soldiers from other allied nations such as South Korea, Australia, and Thailand in South Vietnam. What started as a guerrilla war eventually turned into a more conventional fight as the balance of power became equalized. An even larger, armored invasion from the North commenced during the Easter Offensive following US ground-forces withdrawal, and had nearly overrun some major southern cities until being beaten back.
Despite a truce agreement under the Paris Peace Accords, concluded in January 1973 after five years of on-and-off negotiations, fighting continued almost immediately afterwards. The regular North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong auxiliaries launched a major combined-arms conventional invasion in 1975. Communist forces overran Saigon on 30 April 1975 in what is called the fall of Saigon, marking the end of the Republic of Vietnam. On 2 July 1976, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the North Vietnamese-controlled Republic of South Vietnam merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
Etymology
The official name of the South Vietnamese state was the Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Cộng hòa). The North was officially known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Việt Nam (Vietnamese pronunciation: [viət naːm]) was the name adopted by Emperor Gia Long in 1804. It is a variation of "Nam Việt" (南越, 'Southern Yue'), a name used in ancient times. In 1839, Emperor Minh Mạng renamed the country Đại Nam ("Great South"). In 1945, the nation's official name was changed back to "Vietnam". The name is also sometimes rendered as "Viet Nam" in English.
Before 1954, the three regions of Vietnam were often translated into English as North, Central, and South Viet-Nam. Following the 1954 partition of Vietnam into communist and anti-communist parts, it was recommended to refer to Vietnam south of the 17th parallel as Southern Vietnam, but later on, South Vietnam became common usage. Other names commonly used during its existence include Free Vietnam, the national government, and the Government of Viet Nam (GVN).
History
Foundations
Republican ideas entered French Indochina in the early 20th century, introducing new concepts about the modern nation-state, initially transmitted via China and Japan. By the 1920s, these ideas were embraced by Vietnamese elites, including both revolutionaries and reformers. They influenced Vietnamese independence movements, though suppressed by French colonial authorities. Republican activists were far more popular than communists in the competition between the two groups for leadership of the nationalist movement. This schism long predated the global Cold War and US intervention. Drawing from the deep-rooted tradition of republicanism, South Vietnamese political forces, despite their government's dependence on American assistance, pursued their nation-building projects while vehemently resisting foreign interference.
The Viet Minh sought to consolidate power by terrorizing and purging rival Vietnamese nationalist groups and Trotskyist activists. In 1946, the Franco-Chinese and Ho–Sainteny Agreements enabled French forces to replace the Chinese north of the 16th parallel and facilitated a coexistence between the DRV and the French that strengthened the Viet Minh while undermining the nationalists. That summer, the Viet Minh colluded with French forces to eliminate nationalists, targeted for their ardent anti-colonialism. By eliminating the nationalist parties, the Viet Minh had undermined Vietnam's broader ability to resist French reconquest. The First Indochina War began on 19 December 1946, as French forces reasserted control over Hanoi and other cities. A number of anti-colonialist and anti-communist nationalists, caught between the two sides of the war, chose an uneasy neutrality and were at times labeled as attentistes, including Ngô Đình Diệm and certain Đại Việt politicians. With the internationalization of the war in 1950, many of these figures ultimately stepped off the fence and entered the political fray.
The communist destruction of opposition parties in the summer of 1946 hindered prospects for reconciliation. Nationalist partisans and politico-religious groups rallied around former emperor Bảo Đại to negotiate with the French. The State of Vietnam (SVN) was created through co-operation between anti-communist Vietnamese and the French on 14 June 1949. Bảo Đại accepted the position of chief of state (quốc trưởng). In 1950, China, the Soviet Union and other communist states recognised the DRV while the United States and other non-communist countries recognised the SVN. The civil war and the colonial war in Indochina became internationalized and intertwined with the global Cold War.
As the communist-led Viet Minh became increasingly radicalized, many people left its maquis and returned to the cities. Anti-communists accused the communists of manipulating the collective Vietnamese desire for independence to achieve domination. They criticized the Viet Minh for their revolutionary violence and repression, class struggle, and thought control.
The State of Vietnam withdrew from the French Union on July 20, 1954. The next day, France and the Viet Minh agreed at the Geneva Conference that Vietnam would be temporarily divided at 17th parallel north and the State of Vietnam would rule the territory south of the 17th parallel, pending unification on the basis of supervised elections in 1956. The State of Vietnam and the United States were firmly opposed to the final settlement at Geneva and the division of Vietnam. During the transitional period of relocation, about one million people moved South through the US-backed Operation Passage to Freedom or by their own means. Both the Viet Minh and American leaders did not anticipate such a large exodus of refugees. At least 500,000 Catholics sailed South for various reasons, many driven by fears of religious persecution in the North. There were about 200,000 Buddhists who moved South with their main leaders, along with tens of thousands among ethnic minority groups, including urban Chinese, rural Chinese Nùng, Mường, Thảy, Tày, Mán, and Mèo.
A significant factor in shaping the anticommunist critique in South Vietnam came from the influx of educated Northern émigrés (Bắc di cư). Among them, most of the notable political and cultural voices were non-Catholic. They condemned both the communists and the French colonialists for the partition of Vietnam. Government and private writers illustrated how the communists had betrayed true nationalists, who referred to themselves as quốc gia. They lamented that communism had corrupted the natural goodness of humanity and disrupted the traditional harmony of Vietnamese society, while the increasing radicalisation of the communist Viet Minh had come to hijack the struggle for independence. About 90,000 Việt Minh were evacuated to the North while 5,000 to 10,000 cadre remained in the South, most of them with orders to refocus on political activity and agitation. The Saigon-Cholon Peace Committee, the first Viet Cong front, was founded in 1954 to provide leadership for this group.
As Saigon's delegation did not sign the Geneva Accords, they claimed that the State of Vietnam was not bound by it, and that the communist government in the North created conditions that made a fair election impossible in that region. In July 1955, Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem announced in a broadcast that South Vietnam would not participate in the elections specified in the Geneva Accords, asserting that elections held under communist rule in North Vietnam would not be free. US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles stated that, under conditions of free elections, the communists would not win.
First Republic (1955–1963)
Dennis J. Duncanson described the circumstances prevailing in 1955 and 1956 as "anarchy among sects and of the retiring Việt Minh in the South, the 1956 campaign of terror from Hanoi's land reform and resultant peasant uprising around Vinh in the North". Diệm held a referendum on 23 October 1955 to determine the future political system of the country. He asked voters to approve a republic, thus removing Bảo Đại as head of state. The poll was supervised by his younger brother, Ngô Đình Nhu. Diệm was credited with 98 percent of the votes. In many districts, there were more votes to remove Bảo Đại than there were registered voters (e.g., in Saigon, 133% of the registered population reportedly voted to remove Bảo Đại). His American advisors had recommended a more modest winning margin of "60 to 70 percent". Diệm, however, viewed the election as a test of authority. On 26 October 1955, Diệm declared himself the president of the newly proclaimed Republic of Vietnam. In December 1955, Diệm's South Vietnam ended its existing economic and financial agreements with France and withdrew its representatives from the French Union Assembly. The French, who needed troops to fight in Algeria and were increasingly sidelined by the United States, completely withdrew from Vietnam by April 1956.
The Geneva Accords promised elections in 1956 to determine a national government for a united Vietnam. In 1957, independent observers from India, Poland, and Canada representing the International Control Commission (ICC) stated that fair, unbiased elections were not possible, reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored the armistice agreement: "The elections were not held. South Vietnam, which had not signed the Geneva Accords, did not believe the Communists in North Vietnam would allow a fair election. In January 1957, the ICC agreed with this perception, reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored the armistice agreement. With the French gone, a return to the traditional power struggle between north and south had begun again."
In October 1956 Diệm, with US prodding, launched a land reform program restricting rice farm sizes to a maximum of 247 acres per landowner with the excess land to be sold to landless peasants. More than 1.8m acres of farm land would become available for purchase, the US would pay the landowners and receive payment from the purchasers over a six-year period. Land reform was regarded by the US as a crucial step to build support for the nascent South Vietnamese government and undermine communist propaganda.
The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959 and this decision was confirmed by the Politburo in March. In May 1959, Group 559 was established to maintain and upgrade the Ho Chi Minh trail, at this time a six-month mountain trek through Laos. About 500 of the "regroupees" of 1954 were sent south on the trail during its first year of operation.
Diệm attempted to stabilise South Vietnam by defending against Việt Cộng activities. He launched an anti-communist denunciation campaign (Tố Cộng) against the Việt Cộng and military campaigns against three armed groups (known then as "sects") – the Cao Đài, the Hòa Hảo, and the Bình Xuyên organised crime syndicate whose military strength combined amounted to approximately 350,000 fighters.
By 1960 the land reform process had stalled. Diệm had never truly supported reform because many of his biggest supporters were the country's largest landowners. While the US threatened to cut aid unless land reform and other changes were made, Diệm correctly assessed that the US was bluffing.