Vietnam , officially the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is a country at the eastern edge of
mainland Southeast Asia , with an area of about 331,000 square kilometres (128,000 sq mi) and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's
fifteenth-most populous country . One of the two
Marxist-Leninist states in
Southeast Asia , Vietnam shares land borders with
China to the north, and
Laos and
Cambodia to the west. It shares
maritime borders with
Thailand through the
Gulf of Thailand , and the
Philippines ,
Indonesia , and
Malaysia through the
South China Sea . Its capital is
Hanoi and its largest city is
Ho Chi Minh City (commonly known as Saigon).
Vietnam was inhabited by the Paleolithic age, with states established in the first millennium BC on the Red River Delta in modern-day northern Vietnam . The Han dynasty annexed Northern and Central Vietnam under Chinese rule from 111 BC, until the first dynasty emerged in 939. Successive monarchical dynasties absorbed Chinese influences through Confucianism and Buddhism , and expanded southward to the Mekong Delta , conquering Champa . During most of the 17th and 18th centuries, Vietnam was effectively divided into two domains of Đàng Trong and Đàng Ngoài . The Nguyễn —the last imperial dynasty—surrendered to France in 1883. In 1887, its territory was integrated into French Indochina as three separate regions. In the immediate aftermath of World War II , the nationalist coalition Viet Minh , led by the communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh , launched the August Revolution and declared Vietnam's independence from the Empire of Japan in 1945.
Vietnam went through prolonged warfare in the 20th century. After World War II , France returned to reclaim colonial power in the First Indochina War , from which Vietnam emerged victorious in 1954. As a result of the treaties signed between the Viet Minh and France, Vietnam was also separated into two parts. The Vietnam War began shortly after, between the communist North Vietnam , supported by the Soviet Union and China , and the anti-communist South Vietnam , supported by the United States . Upon the North Vietnamese victory in 1975, Vietnam reunified as a unitary socialist state under the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in 1976. An ineffective planned economy , a trade embargo by the West , and wars with Cambodia and China crippled the country further. In 1986, the CPV initiated economic and political reforms similar to the Chinese economic reform , transforming the country to a socialist-oriented market economy . The reforms facilitated Vietnamese reintegration into the global economy and politics .
Vietnam is a developing country with a lower-middle-income economy. It has high levels of corruption , censorship , environmental issues and a poor human rights record ; the country ranks among the lowest in international measurements of civil liberties , freedom of the press , and freedom of religion and ethnic minorities . It is part of international and intergovernmental institutions including the ASEAN , the APEC , the CPTPP , the Non-Aligned Movement , the OIF , and the WTO . It has assumed a seat on the United Nations Security Council twice. (Full article...
The Vietnam War Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and a major conflict of the Cold War . While the war was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam , the north was supported by the Soviet Union , China , and other communist states, while the south was supported by the US and anti-communist allies . This made it a proxy war between the US and Soviet Union. It lasted almost 20 years, with direct US military involvement ending in 1973. The conflict spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars , which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.
After the fall of
French Indochina with the
1954 Geneva Conference , the country gained independence from France but was divided into two parts: the
Viet Minh took control of North Vietnam, while the US assumed financial and military support for South Vietnam. The
Viet Cong (VC), a South Vietnamese
common front under the direction of the north, initiated
guerrilla war in the south. The
People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) engaged in more
conventional warfare with US and
Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces. North Vietnam
invaded Laos in 1958, establishing the
Ho Chi Minh trail to supply and reinforce the VC. By 1963, the north had sent 40,000 soldiers to fight in the south. US involvement increased under President
John F. Kennedy , from 1,000
military advisors in 1959 to 23,000 by 1964. (
Full article... )
List of selected articles
Image 1 Hồ Chí Minh attended French Communist Congress in Marseilles in 1921 under the name Nguyễn Ái Quốc.
Image 2 The train station at
Da Lat
Image 3 The sunset over
Hanoi , after a rain
Image 4 Hanging fishing nets in the
Cu Đê River , just before it merges with Da Nang Bay
Image 5 Wooden doors in the Imperial palace in
Huế , Vietnam
Image 6 View of
Ho Chi Minh City from
Bitexco Financial Tower , Vietnam
Image 7 The gate to Linh Ung Pagoda at
Sơn Trà District ,
Da Nang , Vietnam
Image 8 Thích Quảng Đức 's self-immolation during the
Buddhist crisis in Vietnam.
Image 9 Imperial City of Huế , recognized as a UNESCO Heritage site in 1993, was the former capital of Vietnam under the
Nguyễn dynasty .
Image 10 Dong Ho painting is a line of Vietnamese folk painting originating in Đông Hồ village (Song Hồ commune,
Thuận Thành District , Bắc Ninh Province.
Image 11 Water puppetry , lit. "Making
puppets dance on water") is a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century when it originated in the villages of the
Red River Delta area of northern
Vietnam .
Image 12 Making salt by evaporation of sea water near
Ninh Hòa town,
Khánh Hòa Province Vietnam
Image 13 The painting depicts the retired emperor
Trần Nhân Tông who has now become a monk and returned to Hanoi from his hermitage in Vũ Lâm.
Image 14 A view of
Mường Thanh Valley from
Dien Bien Phu city, Vietnam
Newer entries
... that fourteenth-century Buddhist monk Tuệ Tĩnh traditional Vietnamese medicine ?
... that the statue of Trần Hưng Đạo in Mê Linh Square
... that "Arnold's Christmas Hey Arnold! Vietnam War ?
... that the owner of the bus service Vietnamese-American communities in the United States was the target of an assassination plot by a competitor?
... that Charles Larson Peace Corps to avoid the Vietnam draft?
... that Nothgottes Rheingau since the 14th century, is a monastery of Cistercians from Vietnam?
The following are images from various Vietnam-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 A lantern procession during Tết Trung Thu in Vietnam, which is also celebrated as "Children's Festival". (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 2 Vietnamese painting depicting a funeral during the
Nguyễn dynasty (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 3 Empress Nam Phương wearing
áo nhật bình and
khăn vành dây (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 4 19th-century manuscript of "Mysterious tales of the Southern Realm" (
Lĩnh Nam chích quái ), a copy of 15th-century original tale. (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 5 Vietnamese statues depicting the traditional practice of
teeth blackening (nhuộm răng đen) (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 6 Vietnamese calligraphy depicting people on a boat, the calligraphy says, "Thuyền nhân" (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 7 Silk painting of Trịnh Đình Kiên (1715-1786) in the 18th century, exhibited in
Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 8 Water puppet theatre in
Hanoi (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 9 A Kinh Vietnamese woman with blackened teeth. (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 10 Ba tầm hat, a popular type of women's hat in northern Vietnam (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 11 A trio of Vietnamese musicians performing together. The man on the far left plays
kèn đám ma , the man in the middle plays the
đàn nhị and the man on the right plays the
trống chầu . (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 12 Court attires of Nguyễn Dynasty (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 13 Hanoi's
One Pillar Pagoda , a historic Buddhist temple (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 14 Portrait of Nguyễn Quý Đức (1648-1720) wearing
áo giao lĩnh (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 15 Vietnam map of Köppen climate classification zones (from
Geography of Vietnam )
Image 17 Ceremonial procession of
Thành hoàng , 19th century (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 19 Traditionally, people wore white clothes along with white turbans during funerals. Vietnamese officials Hồ Đắc Trung, Tôn Thất Hân,
Nguyễn Hữu Bài and Đoàn Đình Duyệt depicted during the funeral of emperor
Khải Định . (from
Culture of Vietnam )
Image 20 Handwritten Vietnamese (from
Culture of Vietnam )
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