Encyclopedia
Vietnam , officially the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is a country in
Southeast Asia. Situated in eastern
Indochina—bordering
China,
Laos,
Cambodia, as well as the
South China Sea—it is the most populous country among the
mainland Southeast Asian countries.
The name of the country comes from the Vietnamese
Vi?t Nam, which is in turn a reordering of Nam Vi?t—the name of an ancient kingdom from the ancestral Vietnamese that covered much of today's northern Vietnam and
southern China. Its
Chinese cognate, Yue/Yuet, was also a name for ethnic groups living in the proximity of southern China during
ancient times.
History
Foundation legend
The famous Vietnamese legend tells that the Vietnamese people of various tribes were born outside the womb following the marriage of L?c Long Quân and Âu Co . However, most Vietnamese historians consider the Dong Son civilization that covered much of
Southeast Asia to be the beginning of Vietnam's history. In 208 BC, a Qin general named Tri?u Đà established a country called Nam Vi?t which encompassed Southern China and the Red River Delta. The historical significance of the original Nam Vi?t remains controversial because some historians consider it a Chinese occupation while some believe it was an independent era.
The Kingdom of Đ?i Vi?t
What is known for sure is that, for most of the period from 111 BC to the early
10th century, it was under the rule of successive
Chinese Dynasties. Sporadic independence movements were attempted, but were quickly extinguished by Chinese forces. In 939, the Vietnamese defeated Chinese forces at the B?ch Đ?ng River and gained independence. They gained complete autonomy a century later. During the rule of the Tr?n Dynasty, it defeated three
Mongol attempts of invasion by the
Yuan Dynasty.
Feudalism in Vietnam reached its zenith in the
Lê Dynasty of the
15th century, especially during the reign of Emperor
Le Thanh Tong. Between the
11th and
18th centuries, the Vietnamese expanded southward in a process known as
nam ti?n . They eventually conquered the kingdom of
Champa and much of the
Khmer empire. The independent period ended in the mid-
19th century, when the country was
colonized by
France.
French colonial rule and division
The French maintained dominant control of their colony until
World War II, when
Japanese forces invaded and occupied Vietnam, using the country as a base to launch attacks against Southeast Asia and
India. After the war France attempted to reestablish its colony, however a communist insurgency that had arisen during Japanese occupation forced the French into the
First Indochina War that lasted until 1954. The French suffered a major defeat at the
Battle of Dien Bien Phu and shortly afterwards withdrew from the country. The world community divided the country at the 17th parallel into
North Vietnam and
South Vietnam during the Geneva Accords. This division was meant to be temporary, pending democratic elections and reunification.
This did not turn out to be the case. North and South Vietnam both formed geopolitical alliances, the North aligning itself with
Communist China and the
Soviet Union and the South with the
United States. The Northern government sought implementation of the Geneva Accords, including reunification following an election that would likely lead to a victory for the Communists, while the government of the South sought to make the division of the country permanent, and was supported in this by the United States, which saw the "nation of South Vietnam" as a bulwark against the spread of "international communism" in the region.
The Vietnam War and reunification
Beginning with supplying military observers during the years 1962 and 1963 it was not until 1964 with the
Gulf of Tonkin incident that America ceased its advisory role to the South Vietnamese government and upon direct order of
President Lyndon B Johnson moved to targeting s such as naval dockyards and military airfields. Following the
Tet offensive in 1968, the United States eventually committed some three million troops in an attempt to defeat the communist insurgency in the South. However with military support from the communist North, as well as material, intelligence and logistical support from China and the Soviet Union, the communists involved the U.S. in a costly
war. Graphic televised reporting by the US
news media played no small role in influencing the American public to hold demonstrations demanding US withdrawal from the war. Beginning in 1970 US combat roles were turned over to the South Vietnamese military under a program known as Vietnamization. The effort had mixed results. The
Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973 formally recognized the sovereignty of both sides. Under the terms of the Accords all American combat troops were withdrawn by March 29, 1973. Limited fighting continued, but all major fighting ended until the North once again invaded and took the South on April 30, 1975. The country was reunified under communist rule as the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
After the reunification, political and economic conditions remained difficult. Millions of South Vietnamese fled the
communist government and became
boat people over the next two decades. In late 1978 the Vietnamese army removed their former allies, the
Khmer Rouge from power in
Cambodia. Only one month later, however, partially in retaliation, China launched a short-lived incursion into Vietnam, which became known as the
Sino-Vietnamese War. Both sides claimed to have been victorious in the brief conflict.
In 1986, the
Communist Party of Vietnam implemented
economic reforms known as
Đ?i M?i . During much of the
1990s,
economic growth was rapid, and Vietnam reintegrated into the
international community. It re-established
diplomatic relations with the United States in 1995, one year after the United States' trade embargo on Vietnam was repealed.
Politics
Vietnam is a single-party socialist republic.
A new state constitution was approved in April 1992, reaffirming the central role of the
Communist Party of Vietnam in politics and society, and outlining government reorganization and increased market reforms in the economy. Though Vietnam remains a
one-party state, adherence to ideological orthodoxy has become less important than economic development as a national priority.
Foreign relations and military
Military
The
Vietnam People's Army is the official name for the armed forces of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. During the
Second Indochinese War , the U.S. incorrectly referred to it as the
North Vietnamese Army , or
People's Army of Vietnam and this term is commonly found throughout
Vietnam War-related subjects. The VPA now includes the: Vietnam People's Ground Forces ,
Vietnam People's Navy ,
Vietnam People's Air Force, and
Coast Guard. The VPA maintains the second largest military in terms of numerical manpower.
Foreign relations
While Vietnam has remained relatively conflict-free since its Cambodia days, tensions have arisen in the past between Vietnam and its neighbors ]]. Vietnam and China each assert claims to the
Spratly Islands, an archipelago in a potentially oil-rich area of the
South China Sea. The territory border between the two countries is being definitively mapped pursuant to a Land Border Agreement signed December 1999, and an Agreement on Borders in the Gulf of Tonkin signed December 2000. Vietnam and
Russia declared a strategic partnership March 2001 during the first visit ever to Hanoi of a Russian
head of state, largely as an attempt to counterbalance the P.R.C.'s growing profile in Southeast Asia. Vietnam has been also building close economic ties with
Japan '.
Administrative divisions
Vietnam is divided into 64 provinces , and subdivided into a number of
districts. Ho Chi Minh City was formerly known as Saigon, and is still often referred to as such. Vietnam's capital is
Hanoi.
Geography
The country is approximately 331,688 square km in area, which is slightly smaller than
Germany. The topography consists of hills and densely forested mountains, with level land covering no more than 20 percent. Mountains account for 40 percent, hills 40 percent and forests 42 percent. The northern part of the country consists mostly of highlands and the Red River Delta. Phan Xi Pang, located in
Lào Cai province, is the highest mountain in Vietnam at 3,143 m . The south is divided into coastal lowlands, Annamite Chain with high
plateaus, and the
Mekong River Delta.
The climate is
tropical and
monsoonal;
humidity averages 84 percent throughout the year. Annual rainfall ranges from 120 to 300 cm , and annual temperatures vary between 5
°C and 37°C .
Land boundaries: Total: 4,639 km
Border countries: Cambodia 1,228 km , China 1,281 km , Laos 2,130 km
Economy
In 1986, the Sixth Party Congress of the
Communist Party of Vietnam formally abandoned its centralized planned economy and began introducing market elements as part of a broad economic reform package called "d?i m?i" .
In many ways, this followed the Chinese model and achieved similar results. On one hand, Vietnam achieved around 8% annual
GDP growth from 1990 to 1997 and continued at around 7% from 2000 to 2002, making it the world's second-fastest growing economy. Simultaneously, investment grew three-fold and domestic savings quintupled.
On the other hand, urban
unemployment has been rising steadily in recent years due to high numbers of migration from the countryside to the cities, and rural unemployment, estimated to be up to 35% during non-harvest periods, is already at critical levels. Layoffs in the state sector and foreign-invested enterprises combined with the lasting effects of a previous
military demobilization further exacerbated the unemployment situation. The country aims to become a member of the
WTO, perhaps as soon as October 2006. In May 2006, Vietnam negotiated a bilateral trade agreement with the US that marked the completion of the bilateral negotiations with WTO members the country needed to qualify for accession to the organization. Among other steps taken in the process of transitioning to a market economy, Vietnam in July 2006 updated its
intellectual property legislation to comply with TRIPS.
Vietnam is still a relatively poor country with GDP of US$251.8 billion . This translates to ~US$3000 per capita. Inflation rate is estimated at 14% per year in 2004. This figure has been scaled down by the Government to 9.5% per annum to avoid the ‘double digit’ classification.
The spending power of the public has noticeably increased. The reason lies in the high prices for property. In
Hanoi, the capital, property prices can be as high as those in
Tokyo or
New York City. This has amazed many people because the average income per capita of this city is around US$1,000 per annum. The booming prices have given poor land owners the opportunity to sell their homes for inflated prices.
Tourism has become an increasingly important industry in Vietnam. There are over 3 to 3.5 million annual visitors.
Demographics
According to official figures from the 1999 census, of Vietnam's then population of 76.3m, the largest of 54 government recognized ethnic groups of Vietnam were:
- Viet/Kinh: 65.8 million
- Tay: 1.48 million
- Thái: 1.33 million
- Mu?ng: 1.14 million
- Khmer: 1.06 million
- Hoa: 0.862 million
- Nung: 0.856 million
- Hmong: 0.787 million
- Cham: 0.250 million
The majority ethnic Vietnamese, also called
Viet or
Kinh, make up about 86 percent of the nation's population. They are concentrated largely in the
alluvial deltas and in the coastal plains. A homogenous social group, the Viets exert influence on national life through their control of political and economic affairs and their role as purveyors of the dominant culture. By contrast, the ethnic minorities, except for the
Kho-me Crôm and the
Hoa , are found mostly in the highlands that cover two-thirds of the national territory.
The Mu?ng live in the mountains of north central Vietnam and speak a Mon-Khmer language closely
related to the Vietnamese language.
The Tày people live primarily in the mountains and foothills of northern Vietnam. Their language is a member of the Tai languages, belonging to the Central Tai subgroup and closely related to the
Zhuang language of southern China.
The Kho-me Crôm live in the fertile
delta of the
Mekong River in southern Vietnam and are ethnically the same as the
Khmer people who make up the majority of the population of
Cambodia.
The Hoa are mainly lowlanders and, more specifically, urban dwellers. They speak predominantly
Cantonese , but there are also speakers of
Hakka , Min Nan/Hokkien/
Fujian , Chaozhou , etc. Until the 1979 Vietnamese census, the Hoa were the largest minority of Vietnam. However, since the North Vietnamese took over South Vietnam in 1975 many Hoa left Vietnam, especially in the 1980s, so that at the 1999 census the Hoa were only the fifth largest minority .
Beyond these five largest ethnic minorities, there are 48 other minorities officially recognized by the Vietnamese government, giving a total of 53 minorities altogether. Many of these 53 minority groups only have a few thousand members or so. Vietnam also has a small number of Eurasian from the French colonization and Amerasian of American soldiers and personnel. Furthermore, there are also a few of those descended from
Indian settlers also during the colonial era. The biracial people, the products of Vietnam War, faced discrimination very much in Vietnam [often referred to as "Children of the Dust"; many have been migrated to the United States where, due to a lack of education in Vietnam due to discrimination because of their racial mix, assume low paying occupations and live at the subsistence level in the United States; most were migrated as adults and not as children].
Officially, the ethnic minorities are referred to as "national minorities". The French used the name Montagnard to refer to all the minorities , no matter what their actual language. The name Montagnard is still sometimes used today. Sometimes, the name Montagnard is used specifically for the Central Vietnam minorities.
See Vi?t Ki?u for a discussion of the Vietnamese diaspora.
Religion
According to the 1999 Socialist Republic of Vietnam's
census numbers, 80.8% of Vietnamese subscribe to no religion. But according to the majority of
other sources, Vietnamese people are predominantly
Confucian and
Mahayana Buddhist , with a sizeable
Roman Catholic following and Protestant,
Cao Đài, and Hoa Hao minorities. The largest Protestant churches are the Evangelical Church of Vietnam and the Montagnard Evangelical Church. Membership of Sunni and Bashi
Islam is usually accredited to the ethnic
Cham minority, but there are also a few ethnic Vietnamese adherents of Islam in the southwest.
According to the 1999 census, 80.8% had no religion, 9.3% were
Buddhist, 6.7% were Catholic, 1.5% were Hoa Hao, and 1.1% were
Cao Dai.
The Vietnamese government has had a history of violence toward local religious leaders regarding
freedom of worship. It has consistently repressed religious sects that are not sanctioned by the state. These religious groups include Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, Hoa Hao Buddhist Church, and Montagnard protestant churches such as Mennonite, according to a 2003
European Parliament resolution. Most notably, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, 86, of the UBCV has been imprisoned for more than 25 years after he had written a letter of protest to Prime Minister Pham Van Dong.
Vietnamese government violations against religious minorities in 2005 include detainee interrogation, abuse, harassment, and s according to the Center for Religious Freedom.
Languages
According to official figures, 86.2% of the population speak
Vietnamese as a native language.
Various other languages are spoken by the several minority groups in Vietnam. The most spoken of these languages are: Tày , Mu?ng ,
Khmer ,
Chinese , Nùng , H'Mông , and Tai Dam .
French, a legacy of
colonial rule, is still spoken by some older Vietnamese as a second language but is losing its popularity.
Russian — and to a much lesser extent
Czech or Polish — is often known among those whose families had ties with the
Soviet bloc. In recent years,
Chinese,
Japanese and
English have become the most popular s, and English is an obligatory course in most schools.
Culture
In its early history, Vietnamese writing used
Chinese characters. In the
13th century, the Vietnamese developed their own set of characters called
Ch? nôm. The celebrated epic
Đo?n tru?ng tân thanh by Nguy?n Du was written in Ch? nôm. During the French colonial period,
Qu?c ng?, the romanised Vietnamese alphabet representation of spoken Vietnamese which was a collective fruit of several Portuguese missionaries, became popular and brought literacy to the masses.
Due to Vietnam's long association with
China, Vietnamese culture remains strongly
Confucian with its emphasis on familial duty. Education is highly valued. Historically, passing the imperial Mandarin exams was the only means for Vietnamese people to socially advance themselves.
The traditional uniform called "
Áo Dài" is worn in special occasions such as weddings or Lunar New Year celebration or festivals. Áo Dài was once worn by both genders but is worn mainly by female today, becoming a pride of Vietnamese people. Another popular traditional Vietnamese costume is the "Áo T? Thân" and "Áo Bà Ba" .
Names often follow the form: Family Name – Middle Name – Given Name . Children take the family name of their father.
Vietnamese cuisine is very healthy and flavorful, using very little oil and many kinds of vegetable. The main dishes are often based on
rice,
soy sauce, and
fish sauce. Its characteristic flavors are sweetness ,
spiciness , sour , and umami , and it is flavored by a variety of mint and
basil.
Music is slightly different according to three regions:
B?c or North,
Trung or Central, and
Nam or South. Northern classical music is Vietnam's oldest and is traditionally more formal. Vietnamese classical music can be traced to the Mongol invasions, when the Vietnamese captured a Chinese
opera troupe. Central classical music shows the influences of Champa culture with its melancholic melodies. Southern music exudes a lively laissez-faire attitude.
See also
References
External links
Government
Media
- : Live VTV1, VTV2, VTV3, VTC, HTV7, HTV9, Hanoi Television, Ho Chi Minh City Television...
- : State radio broadcaster
- : State television broadcaster
- : Official state news agency
- : daily newspaper with highest circulation
- : Largest Vietnamese portal
- : Popular online newspaper
- : Official Communist Party newspaper
- : The most popular weblog on journalism
Overviews
- [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/vm.html CIA World Factbook - Vietnam]
- directory category
- includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports
- The history, culture & map of Vietnam
Images
- : More than 20.000 photos of Vietnam
Other
- : Expat and Travel guide
- : Review of economic development issues
- : A debate comparing Vietnam to Thailand
- : A review of developments in Vietnam since 1988
- : A report from The Economist 3 August 2006
- : Answering the most basic questions for you before travelling to Vietnam
- A fully editable travel guide for Vietnam and Asia
Footnotes
