Portal:Vietnam

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Location of Vietnam in Indochina
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), 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, it is the world's 15th-most populous country. One of two communist states in Southeast Asia, Vietnam is bordered by China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east; it also shares maritime borders with Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia to the south and southwest, and China to the northeast. Its capital is Hanoi, while its largest city is Ho Chi Minh City.

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, which were subsequently 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 Viet Minh, a coalition front 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 communist state that self-designated as a 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 launched 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. It is part of international and intergovernmental institutions including the ASEAN, the APEC, 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 (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until its withdrawal in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian Civil Wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

After the defeat of the French Union in the First Indochina War that began in 1946, Vietnam gained independence in the 1954 Geneva Conference but was divided in two at the 17th parallel: the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, took control of North Vietnam, while the US assumed financial and military support for South Vietnam, led by Ngo Dinh Diem. The North Vietnamese supplied and directed the Viet Cong (VC), a common front of dissidents in the south which intensified a guerrilla war from 1957. In 1958, North Vietnam invaded Laos, establishing the Ho Chi Minh trail to supply the VC. By 1963, the north had covertly sent 40,000 soldiers of its People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), armed with Soviet and Chinese weapons, to fight in the insurgency in the south. President John F. Kennedy increased US involvement from 900 military advisors in 1960 to 16,000 in 1963 and sent more aid to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), which failed to produce results. In 1963, Diem was killed in a US-backed military coup, which added to the south's instability. (Full article...)

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Vietnam News

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23 July 2025 – 2025 Pacific typhoon season
One person is killed by Tropical Storm Wipha in Nghệ An province, Vietnam. (AP)
19 July 2025 – Sinking of the Wonder Sea
At least 38 people are killed, 11 are rescued and eight others are reported missing, including children, when a storm causes the tourist boat Wonder Sea to capsize in the Hạ Long Bay in Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. (News18)
20 June 2025 – Singapore–Vietnam relations
The governments of Singapore and Vietnam sign a memorandum to exchange 300 to 1,000 skilled workers between the countries annually. (VnExpress)
4 June 2025 – Vietnamese two-child policy
Vietnam formally ends the two-child policy in effect since 2009 amid record-low total fertility rates of 1.91 per woman in 2024, causing declining birth rate and a shrinking workforce. (NPR) (AFP via VnExpress)
27 May 2025 – Capital punishment in Vietnam
The National Assembly of Vietnam begins deliberations on a government proposal to end the death penalty for some offences, including drug trafficking and some national security crimes, replacing them with life in prison without parole. (Vietnam News)
16 May 2025 –
Five people are killed and three others are injured by a landslide at a hydropower plant construction site in Phong Thổ, Lai Châu province, Vietnam. (News.az)

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