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This Day in History
May 27
Vietnam War
Sweden announces support to Viet Cong, 1971
In Sweden, Foreign Minister Torsten Nilsson reveals that Sweden has been providing assistance to the Viet Cong, including some $550,000 worth of medical…
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Ho Chi Minh
As the leader of the Vietnamese nationalist movement for nearly three decades, Ho Chi Minh was one of the most influential communist leaders of the 20th century.
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Vietnamization
In 1969, U.S. President Richard Nixon (1913-94) introduced a new strategy called Vietnamization aimed at ending American involvement in the Vietnam War (1954-75) by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam.
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Khmer Rouge
radical communist movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 after winning power through a guerrilla war. It was purportedly set up in 1967 as the armed wing of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.
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Ho Chi Minh Trail
elaborate system of mountain and jungle paths and trails used by North Vietnam to infiltrate troops and supplies into South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos during the Vietnam War.
organization that led the struggle for Vietnamese independence from French rule. The Viet Minh was formed in China in May 1941 by Ho Chi Minh. Although led primarily by Communists, the Viet Minh operated as a national front organization open to persons of various political persuasions.
In late 1943 members of the Viet Minh, led by General Vo Nguyen Giap, began to infiltrate Vietnam to launch guerrilla operations against the Japanese, who occupied the country during World War II. The Viet Minh forces liberated considerable portions of northern Vietnam, and after the Japanese surrender to the Allies, Viet Minh units seized control of Hanoi and proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
The French at first promised to recognize the new government as a free state but failed to do so. On Nov. 23, 1946, at least 6,000 Vietnamese civilians were killed in a French naval bombardment of the port city of Haiphong, and the first Indochina War began. The Viet Minh had popular support and was able to dominate the countryside, while the French strength lay in urban areas. As the war neared an end, the Viet Minh was succeeded by a new organization, the Lien Viet, or Vietnamese National Popular Front. In 1951 the majority of the Viet Minh leadership was absorbed into the Lao Dong, or Vietnamese Workers' Party (later Vietnamese Communist) Party, which remained the dominant force in North Vietnam.
Elements of the Viet Minh joined with the Viet Cong against the U.S.-supported government of South Vietnam and the United States in the Vietnam War (or Second Indochina War) of the late 1950s, '60s, and early '70s. After the reunification of the country (1976), Viet Minh leaders continued to take an active role in Vietnamese politics.
Copyright © 1994-2009 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. For more information visit Britannica.com.
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