Vietnam

Vietnam A country which came under French influence in 1862, when a French naval attack forced the Vietnamese Emperor to concede the southern part of the country, Cochin-China, to colonial control, with the French also gaining access to the entire country for Catholic missionary activity. Two decades later, France acquired the remaining Vietnamese territory, the historic provinces of Annam and Tonkin (1884), which it united with Cochin-China and Cambodia to form the Indochinese Union in 1887. Laos became part of Indochina in 1893. Under colonial rule, an infrastructure was developed, while an elite was educated according to French cultural and educational standards. French customs were introduced with mixed success, while the alphabet was Latinized. As a concession to national pride, the Emperor remained, but was subdued as a puppet of the colonial authorities.

A disparate anti-colonial movement began to form during the 1920s, with the Communists, many of whom had been influenced by the Communist Parties of France and the Soviet Union, emerging as the most effective and cohesive movement. Under instruction from the Comintern in Moscow, Ho Chi Minh founded the Revolutionary Youth League of Vietnam in 1925, from which emerged the Indochinese Communist Party, established in Hong Kong, in 1930. The party only became a dominant force, however, during World War II, when from 1943 the Vietminh forces, which it came to dominate, became the central resistance force against Japanese occupation.

By the time the Japanese left in August 1945, the Vietminh coalition was in control of most of the country, enabling Ho Chi Minh to declare an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 2 September 1945. However, the French soon returned and re-established control over the slightly more Francophile Cochin-China in the south. French efforts to reassert control over the rest of Vietnam led to the Indochina War (1946–54), in which they failed to overcome the popular forces of Ho Chi Minh's armies. In the Geneva Agreements of 1954, the country was separated into two ‘regroupment zones’ along the 17th Parallel. This was not intended to become a political border, as elections were to be held in both parts in preparation for reunification in 1956. However, the southern part was now controlled by the resolute anti-Communist, Ngo Dinh Diem, and instead of agreement and compromise, this meant that two mutually antagonistic political systems and ideologies competed with each other.

South Vietnam, which from 1949 was officially called the Associated State of Vietnam, was established as a member of the French Union, under the Presidency of Bao Dai. Given its subservience to the French, which was greatly exacerbated due to the Indochina War, the state never gained widespread acceptance at the grass roots. In 1954, after the Geneva Agreements, it was officially renamed the Republic of Vietnam, under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem. He established a dictatorship which managed to instil some discipline into a government and administration otherwise riven with conflict and factionalism. This did little, however, to endear him to the majority of the population, particularly as he never carried out the promised land reform. Around 2 per cent of the population continued to control around 45 per cent of the cultivated land. He was weakened considerably by the continued growth of the Communist movement in his own country, and the active attempt by the Communist north to undermine his government with the foundation of the National Liberation Front and the Vietcong from 1960. These tensions erupted into the Vietnam War, which the South lost despite heavy US involvement.

Meanwhile, North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) was ruled by the Indochinese Communist Party (Vietnamese Workers' Party from 1951) since its creation in 1946. Despite its authoritarian leadership structures, it managed to gain the support of the majority of the population. It was seen as the liberator from foreign rule, as the organizer of a land reform (from 1955) which ended drastic inequalities in land ownership, and as the party of the revered ‘Uncle Ho’ (Chi Minh). Moreover, the party was able to consolidate its position in state and society through the active economic and military support of the Soviet Union and, from 1949, Communist China. Ultimately, it was the party's widespread popular support that ensured success in the Indochina War, as well as later in the Vietnam War. Despite their military superiority the French and then the US troops were unable to identify the enemy shielded by the civilian population. In addition, as it was a war of liberation in their own country the Vietnamese could suffer much higher casualties than the French or the USA, whose interest in the war was never clear-cut, and at best indirect. Thus, North Vietnam emerged victorious in the war, though not without heavy losses, including around 700,000 civilian casualties and the destruction of 45 per cent of the towns, 75 per cent of industrial capacity, and 25 per cent of agricultural production. The USA withdrew after the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, while South Vietnam struggled on until the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Thereafter Vietnam was finally reunited, under Communist leadership.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed on 7 July 1976. The hardline leadership of Le Duan failed to integrate the two halves, with their different economic, social, religious, and cultural traditions, encouraging instead the exodus as boat people of the wealthy and skilled population of the south (many of whom were of Chinese origin) as the epitome of capitalism. The integration of the country was also fundamentally hampered by Le Duan's foreign ambitions, which aimed at making Vietnam a major regional power in competition with China. Thus, the country's rich resources were squandered on further warfare, while its unusual alliance with both China and the Soviet Union gave way to intense rivalry with the former and intense dependence on the latter. Its forces invaded Kampuchea (Cambodia) (1978–9) and installed a puppet regime, while the country's continued abrasiveness towards China led to a brief but fierce military conflict, in which China engaged in a punitive invasion of its border territories in February 1979.

As a result of all these developments, the economy collapsed in the late 1970s, and was given little space to recover in subsequent years. After Le Duan's death in 1986, the reformist wing of the Communist Party gained control over party and state with the accession of Nguyen Van Linh. He withdrew the Vietnamese army from Cambodia in 1989, and created a climate for restored relations with China, culminating in a non-aggression pact in 1993. Economic growth was actively encouraged, with a law allowing joint ventures with foreign companies being passed in 1988.

In 1992 the new Constitution declared a transition to a market economy as the official aim of the state, while the control of the party was slightly diminished owing to the separation of office between party leader and head of state. The latter office was filled in that year by General Le Duc Anh(b. 1920), who normalized relations with the USA, culminating in the creation of diplomatic relations between the two countries on 5 August 1995. This policy was continued under President Trân Duc Luong (1997–2001), and culminated in the visit of US President Clinton in 2000. Vietnam was less affected by the Asian economic crisis that set in in 1997 than many of its neighbours, not least because its economy had been less exposed to cheap credit. With the election of the reformist Nong Duc Manh as President in 2001, the Communist Party confirmed its commitment to market liberalization. At the same time, it improved its relations to China and Russia, in an effort to promote its financial and security concerns.