History of the Vietnam Region
In 208 B.C., the former Chinese general Trieu Da made himself emperor of Nam Viet, located in the Red River Valley in what is now southern China and northern Vietnam. The small kingdom was conquered in the next century by China and absorbed into its growing empire as the province of Giao Chi. After an uprising in 40 A.D., Vietnam was reconquered by the Chinese. Rebellion continued sporadically throughout the next 1,000 years, until in 939 A.D. Vietnamese forces under Ngo Quyen were able to defeat the Chinese and establish an independent Vietnam.
By extending its dominion all the way south through the Mekong Delta, Vietnam became a leading power in Southeast Asia by 1400. China attempted to conquer the country again in the 15th century, but was decisively defeated in 1428 by rebel forces. Civil strife plagued Vietnam in the 16th century as two aristocratic clans, the Trinh and the Nguyen, fought for influence. The Trinh won control of the northern part of Vietnam, while the Nguyen retained a fiefdom in the south, dividing the country in half. Around the same time, European powers-particularly the French-began missionary activity in Southeast Asia, gradually increasing their influence.
In 1787-just two years before their historic revolution-the French helped Nguyen Anh regain control of Vietnam. As Emperor Gia Long, he unified the country but refused to grant France the missionary and trading privileges they desired. When Emperor Napoleon III took power in France, he began putting increased pressure on the Vietnamese, including naval strikes. French forces captured Saigon in 1861, and Vietnam was forced to cede several provinces in the Mekong Delta (later known as Cochinchina) to France. By 1887, France had extended its control over much of Vietnam.
Although French rule brought improvements in infrastructure and economic growth, the quality of life of the majority of the Vietnamese population did not improve, and resistance to colonial rule increased. In 1930, the Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, then living in Hong Kong, formed the Indochinese Communist Party. When World War II broke out in 1939, the Japanese military occupied Vietnam, leaving the French colonial administration intact but effectively reducing its influence. Ho Chi Minh returned to his native country the following year and founded the Viet Minh, or League for the Independence of Vietnam, to fight both Japan and France.
With the Allied victory in 1945, Japan withdrew, leaving the French-educated Emperor Bao Dai in control of an independent Vietnam. Viet Minh forces rose up immediately, seizing the northern city of Hanoi and declaring a Democratic State of Vietnam (known commonly as North Vietnam) with Ho as president. Seeking to regain control in the region, France backed Bao and set up the state of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in July 1949, with Saigon as its capital. Armed conflict between the two states continued until a decisive battle at Dien Bien Phu ended in French defeat by Viet Minh forces. The subsequent treaty negotiations at Geneva partitioned Indochina and called for elections for reunification in 1956.
Backed by the United States, the strongly anti-Communist South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem refused to support the Geneva accords. As the truce between North and South Vietnam began to crumble over the next few years, Communist guerrillas known as the Viet Cong began launching attacks on targets (including U.S. military installations) in South Vietnam. The United States continued to increase its support of South Vietnam, sending economic aid and--beginning in December 1961-military troops. After Diem was overthrown in a brutal coup, the Vietnam War escalated, as the United States began regular intensive bombing of North Vietnam and dispatched combat troops in large numbers to maintain control in the south.
The Vietnam War affected an immense majority of the country's population; in eight years of warfare, an estimated two million Vietnamese died, while three million were wounded and another 12 million became refugees. The war ended in 1975, when Communists seized control of Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi Minh City (Ho himself died in 1969). Vietnam was unified the following year, though sporadic violence continued over the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring China and Cambodia. War had ravaged the country's infrastructure and economy, and reconstruction proceeded slowly. Under a broad free market policy put in place in 1986, the economy began to improve, boosted by oil export revenues and an influx of foreign capital. Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States were resumed in the 1990s. The current prime minister of Vietnam is Nguyen Tan Dung, who is regarded by many as the country's most progressive leader since Ho Chi Minh.
