Back Suid-Viëtnam Afrikaans فيتنام الجنوبية Arabic فييتنام الجنوبيه ARZ Vietnam del Sur AST Cənubi Vyetnam Azerbaijani جنوبی ویئتنام AZB Sidvietnam BAR Паўднёвы В’етнам Byelorussian Южен Виетнам Bulgarian Republik Viêt Nam Breton
State of Vietnam (1954–1955) Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975) Việt Nam Cộng hòa | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954–1975 | |||||||||
| Motto: Tổ Quốc – Danh Dự – Trách Nhiệm "Homeland – Honor – Duty" | |||||||||
| Anthem: Tiếng Gọi Công Dân "Call to the Citizens" | |||||||||
Presidential seal:.svg) (1955–1963).svg) (1963–1975) | |||||||||
.svg) The administrative territory of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War (dark green); territory claimed but not controlled (light green). | |||||||||
| Capital and largest city | Saigon 10°46′37″N 106°41′43″E / 10.77694°N 106.69528°E 10°47′N 106°42′E / 10.78°N 106.70°E | ||||||||
| Official languages | Vietnamese | ||||||||
| Other languages | French[1] English Cantonese Khmer other minority languages | ||||||||
| Demonym(s) |
| ||||||||
| Government | Unitary presidential republic | ||||||||
| President | |||||||||
• 1955–1963 | Ngô Đình Diệm | ||||||||
• 1963–1967 | Vacant (Military junta) | ||||||||
• 1967–1975 | Nguyễn Văn Thiệu | ||||||||
• 1975 | Trần Văn Hương | ||||||||
• 1975 | Dương Văn Minh | ||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1954–1955 (first) | Ngô Đình Diệm | ||||||||
• 1975 (last) | Vũ Văn Mẫu | ||||||||
| Vice President | |||||||||
• 1956–1963 | Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ | ||||||||
• 1963–1967 | Vacant | ||||||||
• 1967–1971 | Nguyễn Cao Kỳ | ||||||||
• 1971–1975 | Trần Văn Hương | ||||||||
• 1975 | Nguyễn Văn Huyền | ||||||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | ||||||||
| Senate | |||||||||
| House of Representatives | |||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||
• State of Vietnam founded | 1949 | ||||||||
• Withdrawal from the French Union | 20 July 1954 | ||||||||
| 21 July 1954 | |||||||||
• First Republic proclaimed | 26 October 1955 | ||||||||
• Start of the Vietnam War | 1 November 1955 | ||||||||
| 1 November 1963 | |||||||||
• Second Republic established | 1 April 1967 | ||||||||
| 27 January 1973 | |||||||||
| 30 April 1975 | |||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• Total | 173,809 km2 (67,108 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1955 | c. 12 million | ||||||||
• 1968 | 16,258,334 | ||||||||
• 1974 | 19,582,000 | ||||||||
• Density | 93.55[a]/km2 (242.3/sq mi) | ||||||||
| Currency | đồng | ||||||||
| Time zone | UTC+8 (Saigon Standard Time – SST) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Vietnam | ||||||||
.svg)
| Republic of Vietnam | |
| Vietnamese alphabet | Việt Nam Cộng hòa |
|---|---|
| Chữ Hán | 越南共和 |
| History of Vietnam |
|---|
  |
 Vietnam portal |
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; Vietnamese: Việt Nam Cộng hòa, VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered international 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. South Vietnam was bordered by North Vietnam to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. Its sovereignty was recognized by the United States and 87 other nations, though it failed to gain admission into the United Nations as a result of a Soviet veto in 1957.[2][3] It was succeeded by the Republic of South Vietnam in 1975. In 1976, the Republic of South Vietnam and North Vietnam merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The aftermath of World War II saw the communist-led Viet Minh, under Ho Chi Minh, seize power and proclaim the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in Hanoi in September 1945, initiating civil conflicts.[4]: 515 In 1949, during the First Indochina War, the French and anti-communist nationalists established the State of Vietnam (SVN), led by former emperor Bảo Đại. Returning from exile in June 1954, Ngo Dinh Diem, recognized as the prominent anti-communist and anti-colonialist figure, was appointed prime minister of the SVN.[5]
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.[6] 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. General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu then led the country after a US-encouraged civilian presidential election from 1967 until 1975.
The beginnings of the Vietnam War occurred in 1955 with an uprising by the newly organized National Liberation Front for South Vietnam (Việt Cộng), 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 Southern 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 Việt-Cộng auxiliaries launched a major second combined-arms conventional invasion in 1975. Communist forces overran Saigon on 30 April 1975, 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.
- ^ U.S. Army Area Handbook for Vietnam, American University (Washington, D.C.). Foreign Areas Studies Division, United States. Army 1962, page 141
- ^ Prugh, George S. (1991) [first printed 1975]. Law at War: Vietnam 1964–1973 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army. pp. 61–63. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 November 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- ^ Doyle, Robert C. (2010). The Enemy in Our Hands: America's Treatment of Enemy Prisoners of War from the Revolution to the War on Terror. University Press of Kentucky. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-8131-2589-3. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
- ^ Thomas, Martin; Asselin, Pierre (2022). "French Decolonisation and Civil War: The Dynamics of Violence in the Early Phases of Anticolonial War in Vietnam and Algeria, 1940–1956". Journal of Modern European History. 20 (4): 513–535. doi:10.1177/16118944221130231.
- ^ Phi-Vân Nguyen (2024b). "Ngô Đình Diệm and the Birth of the Republic of Vietnam". In Miller, Edward (ed.). The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War, Volume I: Origins. Cambridge University Press. pp. 302–325. doi:10.1017/9781316225240.019. ISBN 9781316225240.
- ^ Bühler, Konrad G. (2001). State Succession and Membership in International Organizations: Legal Theories Versus Political Pragmatism. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 71. ISBN 978-90-411-1553-9. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).