Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Native name	''Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam''
Conventional long name	Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Common name	Vietnam
Image coat	Coat of arms of Vietnam.svg
Symbol type	Emblem
Other symbol type	File:Communist Party of Vietnam flag.svg
Map caption
National motto	"Independence – Freedom – Happiness"
National anthem	File:United States Navy Band - Tiến Quân Ca.ogg''Tiến Quân Ca''"Army March" (first verse)
Official languages	Vietnamese
Languages type	Official scripts
Languages	Vietnamese alphabet
Demonym	Vietnamese
Capital	Hanoi
Legislature	National Assembly of Vietnam
Largest city	Ho Chi Minh City
Government type	Unitary socialist republic,Single-party state
Leader title1	President
Leader name1
Leader title2	Prime Minister
Leader name2
Leader title3	General Secretary of the CPV
Leader name3
Sovereignty type	Formation
Established event1	Đại Việt
Established date1	1054
Established event2	French annexation
Established date2	1853 to 1883
Established event3	Independence from France
Established date3	2 September 1945
Established event4	Reunification
Established date4	2 July 1976
Established event5	Current constitution
Established date5	15 April 1992
Area rank	65th
Area km2	331.698
Area sq mi	128,565
Percent water	1.3
Population estimate	90,549,390
Population census	85,846,997
Population estimate rank	13th
Population estimate year	2011
Population census year	2009
Population density km2	259
Population density sq mi	668
Population density rank	46th
Gdp ppp year	2010
Gdp ppp	$273.967 billion
Gdp ppp per capita	$3,104.179
Gdp nominal	$104.600 billion
Gdp nominal year	2010
Gdp nominal per capita	$1,168
Hdi year	2010
Hdi	0.572
Hdi rank	113th
Hdi category	medium
Gini	38
Gini year	2008
Gini category	medium
Currency	(₫)
Currency code	VND
Time zone	ICT (Indochina Time) UTC+7
Utc offset	+7
Time zone dst	No DST
Utc offset dst	+7
Drives on	right
Cctld	.vn
Calling code	84
Image map3	Bandovietnam-final-fill-scale.svg
Footnote1	According to the official name and 1992 Constitution. }}

Vietnam, sometimes spelled Viet Nam ( ; , ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (, ), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China (PRC) to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea, referred to as East Sea (), to the east. With a population of over 89 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world.

The Vietnamese became independent from China in AD 938 after their victory at the battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive dynasties flourished along with geographic and political expansion deeper into Southeast Asia, until it was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century. Efforts to resist the French eventually led to their expulsion from the country in the mid-20th century, leaving a nation divided politically into two countries. Fighting between the two sides continued during the Vietnam War, ending with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.

Emerging from this prolonged military engagement, the war-ravaged nation was politically isolated. In 1986, the government instituted economic and political reforms and began a path towards international reintegration. By 2000, it had established diplomatic relations with most nations. Its economic growth has been among the highest in the world in the past decade. According to Citigroup the high growth will be continued and based on Global Growth Generators countries Index, Vietnam got the highest Index among 11 countries. These efforts resulted in Vietnam joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. These economic reforms also introduced inequality in many spheres of life in Vietnam such as income distribution and women's rights.

Etymology

The name ''Việt Nam'' () is a variation of "Nam Việt" (南越, literally ''Southern Việt''), a name that can be traced back to the Trieu Dynasty (2nd century BC). The word "Việt" originated as a shortened form of Bách Việt (百越, lit. ''hundred Viets'' or ''multitude of Viets''), a word applied to a group of peoples then living in southern China and Vietnam. The name Vietnam (越南) appears on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bảo Lâm Pagoda, Haiphong, carved in 1558, and in the oracular poem ''Sấm Trạng Trình''. In 1804–1813, it was used officially by Emperor Gia Long. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when Emperor Bao Dai changed the official name back to "Việt Nam". (The use of Chinese characters was discontinued at this time, so the alphabetic spelling is official.)

History

Pre-Dynastic era

The area now known as Vietnam has been inhabited since Paleolithic times, and some archaeological sites in Thanh Hóa Province purportedly date back several thousand years. Archaeologists link the beginnings of Vietnamese civilization to the late Neolithic, Early Bronze Age, Phung Nguyen culture, which was centered in Vĩnh Phúc Province of contemporary Vietnam from about 2000 to 1400 BCE.

By about 1200 BCE, the development of wet-rice cultivation and bronze casting in the Ma River and Red River plains led to the development of the Dong Son culture, notable for its elaborate bronze drums. The bronze weapons, tools, and drums of Dong-Sonian sites show a Southeast Asian influence that indicates an indigenous origin for the bronze-casting technology.

Many small, ancient copper mine sites have been found in northern Vietnam. Some of the similarities between the Dong-Sonian sites and other Southeast Asian sites include the presence of boat-shaped coffins and burial jars, stilt dwellings, and evidence of the customs of betel-nut-chewing and teeth-blackening.

Dynastic era

The legendary Hồng Bàng Dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered by many Vietnamese as the first Vietnamese state, known as Văn Lang. In 257 BCE, the last Hùng king lost to Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt tribes with his Âu Việt tribes, forming Âu Lạc and proclaiming himself An Dương Vương. In 207 BCE, a Chinese general named Zhao Tuo defeated An Dương Vương and consolidated Âu Lạc into Nanyue. In 111 BCE, the Chinese Han Dynasty consolidated Nanyue into their empire.

For the next thousand years, Vietnam was mostly under Chinese rule. Early independence movements such as those of the Trưng Sisters and of Lady Triệu were only briefly successful. It was independent as Vạn Xuân under the Anterior Lý Dynasty between 544 and 602. By the early 10th century, Vietnam had gained autonomy, but not independence, under the Khúc family.

In 938 CE, a Vietnamese lord named Ngô Quyền defeated Chinese forces at the Bạch Đằng River and regained independence after a millennium under Chinese control. Renamed as Đại Việt (Great Viet), the nation went through a golden era during the Lý and Trần Dynasties. During the rule of the Trần Dynasty, Đại Việt repelled three Mongol invasions. Buddhism flourished and became the state religion.

Following the brief Hồ Dynasty, Vietnamese independence was momentarily interrupted by the Chinese Ming Dynasty, but was restored by Lê Lợi, the founder of the Lê Dynasty. Vietnam reached its zenith in the Lê Dynasty of the 15th century, especially during the reign of Emperor Lê Thánh Tông (1460–1497). Between the 11th and 18th centuries, Vietnam expanded southward in a process known as (''southward expansion''), and it eventually conquered the kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Empire.

From the 16th century onwards, civil strife and frequent infighting engulfed much of Vietnam. First, the Chinese-supported Mạc Dynasty challenged the Lê Dynasty's power. After the Mạc Dynasty was defeated, the Lê Dynasty was reinstalled, but with no actual power. Power was divided between the Trịnh Lords in the North and the Nguyễn Lords in the South, who engaged in a civil war for more than four decades before a truce was called in the 1670s. During this time, the Nguyễn expanded southern Vietnam into the Mekong Delta, annexing the Central Highlands and the Khmer land in the Mekong Delta.

The division of the country ended a century later when the Tây Sơn brothers defeated both and established their new dynasty. However, their rule did not last long and they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyễn Lords led by Nguyễn Ánh with the help of the French. Nguyễn Ánh unified Vietnam, and established the Nguyễn Dynasty, ruling under the name Gia Long.

French colonisation

Vietnam's independence was gradually eroded by France—aided by large Catholic collaborator militias—in a series of military conquests from 1859 until 1885 when the entire country became part of French Indochina. The French administration imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese society. A Western-style system of modern education was developed, and Roman Catholicism was propagated widely in Vietnamese society. Most of the French settlers in Indochina were concentrated in Cochinchina (southern third of Vietnam whose principal city was Saigon).

Developing a plantation economy to promote the exports of tobacco, indigo, tea and coffee, the French largely ignored increasing calls for self-government and civil rights. A nationalist political movement soon emerged, with leaders such as Phan Boi Chau, Phan Chu Trinh, Phan Dinh Phung, Emperor Hàm Nghi and Ho Chi Minh fighting or calling for independence. However, the royalist Can Vuong was defeated in the 1890s after a decade of resistance, and the 1930 Yen Bai mutiny of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang was put down easily. The French maintained control of their colonies until World War II, when the Japanese war in the Pacific triggered the invasion of French Indochina in 1941.

With the defeat of France in Europe, the French Third Republic transformed into the Vichy Regime, to which the colony remained loyal. Heavily dependent on Nazi Germany, Vichy France was forced to surrender control of French Indochina to Japan. The natural resources of Vietnam were exploited for the purposes of the Japanese Empire's military campaigns into the British Indochinese colonies of Burma, the Malay Peninsula and India.

First Indochina War

In 1941, the Viet Minh – a communist and nationalist liberation movement – emerged under Ho Chi Minh to seek independence for Vietnam from France as well as to oppose the Japanese occupation. Japanese occupation during World War II caused the Vietnamese Famine of 1945, which caused 2 million deaths, or 10% of the population then. Following the military defeat of Japan and the fall of its Empire of Vietnam in August 1945, Viet Minh occupied Hanoi and proclaimed a provisional government, which asserted independence on 2 September.

In the same year the Provisional French Republic sent the French Far East Expeditionary Corps, which was originally created to fight the Japanese occupation forces, in order to pacify the liberation movement and to restore French rule. On November 20, 1946, triggered by the Haiphong Incident, the First Indochina War between Viet Minh and the French forces ensued, lasting until July 20, 1954.

Despite fewer losses – Expeditionary Corps suffered one-third of the casualties of the Chinese and Soviet-backed Viet Minh – during the course of the war, the French and Vietnamese loyalists eventually suffered a major strategic setback at the Siege of Dien Bien Phu, which allowed Ho Chi Minh to negotiate a ceasefire with a favorable position at the ongoing Geneva conference of 1954. Colonial administration ended as French Indochina was dissolved. According to the Geneva Accords of 1954 the forces of former French supporters and communist nationalists were separated south and north, respectively, with the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone, at the 17th parallel north, between. A 300-day period of free movement was given, during which almost a million northerners, mainly Catholic, moved south, fearing persecution by the communists.

A partition of Vietnam, with Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam in North Vietnam, and Emperor Bảo Đại's State of Vietnam in the South Vietnam, was not intended to be permanent by the Geneva Accords, and they expressly forbade the interference of third powers. The State of Vietnam's Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem toppled Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum organised by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, and proclaimed himself president of the Republic of Vietnam. The Accords mandated nationwide elections by 1956, which Diem refused to hold, despite repeated calls from the North for talks to discuss elections.

Vietnam War

The pro-Hanoi Vietcong began a guerrilla campaign in the late 1950s to overthrow Diem's government, which an official Vietcong statement described as a "disguised colonial regime." In the North, thousands of landowners were murdered by the communists and famine broke out in the 1950s. In the South, Diem went about crushing all opposition and tens of thousands were jailed or killed; dissidents were routinely labelled as communists even if they were anti-communist. Both Vietnams were police states with totalitarian security systems.

In 1963, Buddhist discontent with Diem's pro-Catholic discrimination erupted following the banning of the Buddhist flag and the Hue Vesak shootings. This resulted in a series of mass demonstrations during what is known as the Buddhist crisis. With Diem unwilling to bend, Nhu orchestrated the Xa Loi Pagoda raids; estimates of the death toll range into the hundreds. As a result, America's relationship with Diem broke down and resulted in the 1963 coup that saw Diem killed.

Diem was followed by a series of military regimes that often lasted only months before being toppled by another. With this instability, the communists began to gain ground. There were more than a dozen governments before the pairing of Air Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky and General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu took control of a junta in mid-1965. Thieu gradually outmaneuvered Ky and cemented his grip on power in fraudulent elections in 1967 and 1971.

To support South Vietnam's struggle against the communist insurgency, the United States began increasing its contribution of military advisers. US forces became embroiled in ground combat operations in 1965 and at their peak they numbered more than 500,000. Communist forces attacked most major targets in South Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive, and although their campaign failed militarily, it shocked the American establishment, and caused them to think that the communists could not be defeated. Communist forces supplying the Vietcong carried supplies along the Ho Chi Minh trail, which passed through Laos and Cambodia. US president Richard Nixon authorized Operation Menu, an SAC bombing campaign in Laos and Cambodia, which he kept secret from the US Congress.

Its own casualties mounting, and facing opposition to the war at home and condemnation abroad, the U.S. began withdrawing from ground combat roles according to the Nixon Doctrine; the process was subsequently called . The effort had mixed results. The Paris Peace Accords of 27 January 1973 formally recognized the sovereignty of Vietnam "as recognized by the 1954 Geneva Agreements." Under the terms of the accords all American combat troops were withdrawn by 29 March 1973. Limited fighting continued, before the north captured the province of Phuoc Long in December 1974 and started a full-scale offensive, culminating in the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. South Vietnam briefly came under the nominal rule of a Provisional Revolutionary Government while under military occupation by North Vietnam. On 2 July 1976, North and South were merged to form the ''Socialist Republic of Vietnam''.

Postwar period

The government embarked on a mass campaign of collectivization of farms and factories. This caused an economic collapse and resulted in triple-digit inflation. Reconstruction of the war-ravaged country was slow, and serious humanitarian and economic problems confronted the communist regime. Millions of people fled the country in crudely built boats, creating an international humanitarian crisis.

In 1978, the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia (sparking the Cambodian-Vietnamese War) to remove from power the Khmer Rouge—who had been razing Vietnamese border villages and massacring the inhabitants, installing a regime whose leaders ruled until 1989. This action worsened relations with China, which launched a brief incursion into northern Vietnam (the Sino-Vietnamese War) in 1979. This conflict caused Vietnam to rely even more heavily on Soviet economic and military aid.

Đổi Mới (renovation)

At the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in December 1986, reformers, upset by the lack of economic progress after the Vietnam War, replaced the "old guard" with new leadership. The reformers were led by 71 year-old Nguyen Van Linh, who became the party's new general secretary. Linh was a native of northern Vietnam who had served in the south both during and after the war. In a historic shift, the reformers implemented free-market reforms known as (''renovation''), which carefully managed the transition from a planned economy to a "socialist-oriented market economy".

With the authority of the state remaining unchallenged, private ownership of farms and companies engaged in commodity production, deregulation and foreign investment were encouraged while the state maintained control over strategic industries. The economy of Vietnam subsequently achieved rapid growth in agricultural and industrial production, construction and housing, exports and foreign investment. However, these reforms have also caused a rise in inequalities in many spheres of social life, such as income and gender inequality.

Government and politics

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a single-party state. A new state constitution was approved in April 1992, replacing the 1975 version. The central role of the Communist Party of Vietnam was reasserted in all organs of government, politics and society.

Only political organizations affiliated with or endorsed by the Communist Party are permitted to contest elections. These include the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, worker and trade unionist parties. Although the state remains officially committed to socialism as its defining creed it is increasingly capitalist, according to ''The Economist'' it is currently run by "ardently capitalist communists".

The President of Vietnam is the titular head of state and the nominal commander in chief of the military of Vietnam, chairing the Council on National Defense and Security. The current Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung, is the head of government, presiding over a council of ministers composed of three deputy prime ministers and the heads of 26 ministries and commissions.

The National Assembly of Vietnam is the unicameral legislature of the government, composed of 498 members. It is superior to both the executive and judicial branches. All members of the council of ministers are derived from the National Assembly. The Supreme People's Court of Vietnam, which is the highest court of appeal in the nation, is also answerable to the National Assembly.

Beneath the Supreme People's Court stand the provincial municipal courts and the local courts. Military courts are also a powerful branch of the judiciary with special jurisdiction in matters of national security. All organs of Vietnam's government are controlled by the Communist Party. Most government appointees are members of the party. The General Secretary of the Communist Party is perhaps the most important political person in the nation, controlling the party's national organization and state appointments, as well as setting policy.

The Vietnam People's Army (VPA) is the official name for the combined military services of Vietnam, which is organized along the lines of China's People's Liberation Army. The VPA is further subdivided into the Vietnamese People's Ground Forces (including Strategic Rear Forces and Border Defense Forces), the Vietnam People's Navy, the Vietnam People's Air Force and the Vietnamese People's Coast Guard.

Through Vietnam's recent history, the VPA has actively been involved in Vietnam's workforce to develop the economy of Vietnam, in order to coordinate national defense and the economy. The VPA is involved in such areas as industry, agriculture, forestry, fishery and telecommunications. The total strength of the VPA is close to 500,000 officers and enlisted members. The government also organizes and maintains provincial militias and police forces. The role of the military in public life has steadily been reduced since the 1980s.

International relations

Through history, Vietnam, which is considered as a "small country" has practised a flexible but effective foreign policy to other countries, especially China as a neighbouring country. "Nam quốc sơn hà" poem has set the foundation for Vietnam's perspective on international relations: that a land naturally belongs to its indegenous people and any invasion is considered to be contrasting to the law of the nature. Nguyễn Trãi has stated in "Bình Ngô đại cáo" proclaim that Vietnam' sovereignty does not only include its land and people, but its culture and that Vietnamese owns a distinctive culture relative to China's. Many international relation principles are presented in "''Bang giao hảo thoại''" by Ngô Thì Nhậm, under Quang Trung's dynasty, which is a collection of diplomat letters of Vietnam sent to Qing dynasty, China. These principles are activeness, justice and military power. This was affirmed that Vietnam would never invade China to revenge after war but would stand firm if China re-attacks. This also was promoted that Vietnamese army's power is in quality rather than quantity. A special diplomat case at that time is the official visit of Vietnam's pseudo-King to China.

The current Vietnamese foreign policy is: "Implement consistently the foreign policy line of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development; the foreign policy of openness and diversification and multi-lateralization of international relations. Proactively and actively engage in international economic integration while expanding international cooperation in other fields. Vietnam is a friend and reliable partner of all countries in the international community, actively taking part in international and regional cooperation processes."

As of December 2007, Vietnam had established diplomatic relations with 172 countries (including the United States, which normalized relations in 1995). Vietnam holds membership of 63 international organizations such as the United Nations, ASEAN, NAM, La Francophonie, WTO and 650 non-government organizations.

Geography

Location

Vietnam lies between latitudes 8° and 24°N, and longitudes 102° and 110°E.

Subdivisions

Vietnam is divided into 58 provinces (known in Vietnamese as ''tỉnh'', from the Chinese 省, shěng). There are also 5 centrally controlled municipalities existing at the same level as provinces (''thành phố trực thuộc trung ương'').

{| style="margin:auto;" | style="padding-right:1em; vertical-align:top;" | ---- Bắc Ninh Ha Nam Ha Tay Hai Duong Hung Yen Nam Dinh Ninh Binh Thai Binh Vĩnh Phúc Ha Noi (municipality) Hai Phong (municipality) | style="padding-right:1em; vertical-align:top;" | ---- Ha Tinh Nghe An Quang Binh Quảng Trị Thanh Hóa Thừa Thiên-Huế | style="padding-right:1em; vertical-align:top;" | ---- Bắc Giang Bắc Kạn Cao Bang Ha Giang Lang Son Lao Cai Phu Tho Quang Ninh Thái Nguyên Tuyen Quang Yen Bai | style="padding-right:1em; vertical-align:top;" | ---- Dien Bien Hoa Binh Lai Chau Son La |- | style="padding-right:1em; vertical-align:top;" | ---- Dak Lak Dak Nong Gia Lai Kon Tum Lam Dong | style="padding-right:1em; vertical-align:top;" | ---- Binh Dinh Binh Thuan Khanh Hoa Ninh Thuan Phu Yen Quang Nam Quang Ngai Da Nang (municipality) | style="padding-right:1em; vertical-align:top;" | ---- Ba Ria-Vung Tau Binh Duong Binh Phuoc Dong Nai Tay Ninh Ho Chi Minh (municipality) | style="padding-right:1em; vertical-align:top;" | ---- An Giang Bạc Liêu Bến Tre Ca Mau Dong Thap Hau Giang Kien Giang Long An Soc Trang Tien Giang Tra Vinh Vĩnh Long Cần Thơ (municipality) |}

The provinces are further subdivided into provincial municipalities (''thành phố trực thuộc tỉnh''), townships (''thị xã'') and counties (''huyện''), and then, subdivided into towns (''thị trấn'') or communes (''xã'').

The centrally controlled municipalities are subdivided into districts (''quận'') and counties, and then, subdivided into wards (''phường'').

Geography and climate

Vietnam is approximately in area (not including Hoang Sa and Truong Sa islands), larger than Italy and almost the size of Germany. The combined length of the country's land boundaries is and its coastline (excluding islands) is . The topography consists of hills and densely forested mountains, with level land covering no more than 20%. Mountains account for 40% of the area, with smaller hills accounting for 40% and tropical forests 42%. The northern part of the country consists mostly of highlands and the Red River Delta. Phan Xi Păng, located in Lào Cai province, is the highest mountain in Vietnam at . The south is divided into coastal lowlands, Annamite Chain peaks, extensive forests, and poor soil. Comprising five relatively flat plateaus of basalt soil, the highlands account for 16% of the country's arable land and 22% of its total forested land.

The delta of the Red River (also known as the ), a flat, triangular region of , is smaller but more intensely developed and more densely populated than the Mekong River Delta. Once an inlet of the Gulf of Tonkin, it has been filled in by the enormous alluvial deposits of the rivers over a period of millennia, and it advances one into the Gulf annually. The Mekong delta, covering about , is a low-level plain no more than above sea level at any point and criss-crossed by a maze of canals and rivers. So much sediment is carried by the Mekong's various branches and tributaries that the delta advances into the sea every year.

Because of differences in latitude and the marked variety of topographical relief, the climate tends to vary considerably from place to place. During the winter or dry season, extending roughly from November to April, the monsoon winds usually blow from the northeast along the China coast and across the Gulf of Tonkin, picking up considerable moisture; consequently the winter season in most parts of the country is dry only by comparison with the rainy or summer season.

The average annual temperature is generally higher in the plains than in the mountains and plateaus and in the south than in the north. Temperatures in the southern plains (Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta) varies less, going between over the course of a year. The seasons in the mountains and plateaus and in the north are much more dramatic, and temperatures may vary from in December and January to in July and August.

Nature

Vietnam has two World Natural Heritage sites: Halong Bay and Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and six World biosphere reserves including: Can Gio Mangrove Forest, Cat Tien, Cat Ba, Kien Giang, Red River Delta, Western Nghe An. Because of Typhoon Ketsana of 29 September 2009, more than 300,000 persons were evacuated.

Biodiversity

Vietnam is in the Indomalaya ecozone.

According to chapter 1 of the 2005 National Environmental Present Condition Report, "Biodiversity Subject of Vietnam Environment Protection Agency," in terms of species diversity Vietnam is one of twenty five countries considered to possess a high level of biodiversity, and is ranked 16th in biological diversity (having 16% world's species) (page 9). 15,986 flora were identified, of which 10% are endemic (p9). Statistics indicate that there are 307 nematodes, 200 oligochaeta, 145 acarina, 113 springtails, 7750 insects, 260 reptiles, 120 amphibians, 840 birds and 310 mammals of which 100 birds and 78 mammals are endemic (p9,10).

Vietnam also has 1438 fresh water microalgae (9,6% species in the world) (Table 1.2, p9). It is also noted that there are 794 aquatic invertebrates and 2458 sea fish (p10,11). In recent years, there have been 13 genera, 222 species, and 30 taxa of flora newly described. 6 mammals have been discovered including the saola, giant muntjac, Tonkin Snub-nosed Langur, livistona halongensis, geothelphusa vietnamica, and 1 bird, the Edwards's Pheasant.

In agricultural genetic diversity, Vietnam is one of the world's twelve original cultivar centers (p13). The Vietnam National Cultivar Gene Bank is preserving 12,300 cultivars of 115 species (p14). In Chapter 4 of that report, it is said that the Vietnamese government spent 49.07 million USD for preserving biodiversity in 2004 (p71) and has established 126 conservation areas including 28 national parks (p73).

Economy and international trade

Historically, Vietnam has been an agricultural civilization based on wet rice cultivating. The Vietnam War destroyed much of the country's economy. Upon taking power, the Government created a planned economy for the nation.

Collectivization of farms, factories and economic capital was implemented, and millions of people were put to work in government programs. For a decade, united Vietnam's economy was plagued with inefficiency and corruption in state programs, poor quality and underproduction and restrictions on economic activities and trade. It also suffered from the trade embargo from the United States and most of Europe after the Vietnam War. Subsequently, the trade partners of the Communist blocs began to erode.

In 1986, the Sixth Party Congress introduced significant economic reforms with free market economy elements as part of a broad economic reform package called "đổi mới" (''Renovation''), resulting in a Socialist-oriented market economy. Private ownership was encouraged in industries, commerce and agriculture. Vietnam achieved around 8% annual GDP growth from 1990 to 1997 and continued at around 7% from 2000 to 2005, making it one of the world's fastest growing economies. Growth by 8.5 percent, 6.3, 5.3 and 6.8 for the year of 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively, but inflation rate hit 11.8 percent in December 2010 on a year-on-year basis, according to a GSO estimate. The dong has been devalued three times since late last year. Before 1998, foreign investment grew threefold and domestic savings quintupled. Manufacturing, information technology and high-tech industries form a large and fast-growing part of the national economy. Vietnam is a relative newcomer to the oil business, but today it is the third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia with output of . Vietnam is one of Asia's most open economies: two-way trade is around 160% of GDP, more than twice the ratio for China and over four times India's.

Deep poverty, defined as a percent of the population living under $1 per day, has declined significantly and is now smaller than that of China, India, and the Philippines. Much can be attributed to equitable economic policy that aimed at improving living standards and preventing the rise of inequality; this included egalitarian land distribution at the initial stages of Doi Moi, investing in poor remote areas and the supporting the poor with education and health fees.

In 2009, the nominal GDP reached $92.439 billion, with nominal GDP per capita of $1,060 According to a forecast in December 2005 by Goldman-Sachs, Vietnamese economy will become the 17th largest economy in the world in 2025, with nominal GDP of $ 436 billion and GDP per capita of 4,357 USD. According to the forecast by the PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2008, Vietnam may be fastest growing of emerging economies by 2025 with a potential growth rate of almost 10% per annum in real dollar terms that could push it up to around 70% of the size of the UK economy by 2050.

As a result of several land reform measures, Vietnam is now the largest producer of cashew nuts with a one-third global share, the largest producer of black pepper accounting for one-third of the world's market and second largest rice exporter in the world after Thailand. Vietnam has the highest percent of land use for permanent crops, 6.93%, of any nation in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Besides rice, key exports are coffee, tea, rubber, and fishery products. However, agriculture's share of economic output has declined, falling as a share of GDP from 42% in 1989 to 20% in 2006, as production in other sectors of the economy has risen. According to the CIA World Fact Book, the unemployment rate in Vietnam is 2.9% (30 April 2009 est.)

Vietnam applied sequenced trade liberalisation, a two-track approach opening some sectors of the economy to international markets while protecting others. 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 was accepted into the WTO on November 7, 2006. Vietnam's chief trading partners include China, Japan, Australia, ASEAN countries, the U.S. and Western European countries. Vietnam still uses five-year plans however (see Five-Year Plans of Vietnam).

Transport

Air

Vietnam operates 17 major civil airports, including three international gateways: Noi Bai serving Hanoi, Da Nang International Airport serving Da Nang City, and Tan Son Nhat serving Ho Chi Minh City. Tan Son Nhat is the largest, handling 75 percent of international passenger traffic. According to the approved plan, Vietnam will have 10 international airports by 2015 (besides the three above-mentioned airport, they are: Lien Khuong International Airport, Phu Bai International Airport, Cam Ranh International Airport, Phu Quoc International Airport, Cat Bi International Airport, Cần Thơ International Airport and Long Thanh International Airport). The planned Long Thanh International Airport will be built on an area of and will have full capacity of 100 million passengers, 5 metric tons of cargo per annum. Vietnam Airlines, the national airline, has a fleet of 69 (150 in 2020) aircraft A number of private airlines that supplement the state-owned Vietnam Airlines are Air Mekong, Jetstar Pacific Airlines and VASCO.

The modern transport network of Vietnam was originally developed under French rule for the purpose of raw materials harvesting, and reconstructed and extensively modernized following the Vietnam War. The road system is the most popular form of transportation in the country. Vietnam's road system includes national roads administered by the central level; provincial roads managed by the provincial level; district roads managed by the district level; urban roads managed by cities and towns; and commune roads managed by the commune level.

Road and Infrastructure

Bicycles, motor scooters and motorcycles remain the most popular forms of road transport in Vietnam's cities, towns, and villages although the number of privately owned automobiles is also on the rise, especially in the larger cities. Public bus operated by private companies is the main long distance travel means for many people. An average 30 people are killed each day due to traffic accidents. Traffic congestion is a serious problem in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as the cities' roads struggle to cope with the booming numbers of automobiles.

Rail

In 2009, Vietnam and Japan signed a deal to build a high-speed railway using Japanese technology. Vietnamese high speed engineers were sent to Japan to take a high-speed course from March to November. Since 2006, Vietnam has sent 100 high-speed operators to take courses in Japan so they can operate it once it is completed. The railway will be a 1,630-km-long express route and contain a total of 26 stations, including Hanoi and Thu Thiem terminus in Ho Chi Minh City. It will help reduce the travel time between the country's two largest cities to under 10 hours.

Using the planned technology (Shinkansen), the railway will be designed for trains to travel at a maximum speed of 360 km per hour. However, the consultant joint venture recommended running trains at a maximum of 320 km per hour using Fastech 360s trains. As scheduled, the railway lines from Hanoi to central Vinh and from central Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam will be laid during the 2010–2015 period. From 2015–2020, construction will begin on the routes between Vinh and Nha Trang and between Hanoi and the northern mountainous provinces of Lao Cai and Lang Son.

Water

The nation has seven developed ports and harbors at Cam Ranh, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Gai (Halong City), Qui Nhơn, and Nha Trang. There are also more than 17,000 km of navigable waterways, which play a significant role in rural life owing to the extensive network of rivers in Vietnam.

Demographics

Population

The result of Census April 1, 2009 shows the population of Vietnam more than 85.8 million. Vietnamese people, of which: the so-called "Viet" or "Kinh" is nearly 73,6 million, account for 85.8% of the population. Their population is concentrated in the alluvial deltas and coastal plains of the country. A homogeneous social and ethnic group, the Kinh exert political and economic control. There are 54 ethnic minority groups throughout the country, but the Kinh are purveyors of the dominant culture.

Most ethnic minorities, such as the Muong, a closely related ethnic of the Kinh, are found mostly in the highlands covering two-thirds of the territory. Before the Vietnam War, the population of the Central Highlands was almost exclusively Degar (over 40 hill tribal groups), until Diem's governments enacted a program of settling Kinh in indigenous areas. The Hoa (ethnic Chinese) and Khmer Krom are mainly lowlanders. The largest ethnic minority groups include the Hmong, Dao, Tay, Thai, and Nung. From 1978 to 1979, some 450,000 ethnic Chinese left Vietnam.

Languages

The people of Vietnam speak Vietnamese which is a tonal monosyllabic Mon–Khmer language as an official national language. In its early history, Vietnamese writing used Chinese characters. In the 13th century, the Vietnamese developed their own set of characters called Chữ nôm. The celebrated epic ( or ) by Nguyễn Du was written in Chữ nôm. During the French colonial period, Quốc ngữ, the romanized Vietnamese alphabet used for spoken Vietnamese, which was developed in 17th century by Jesuit Alexandre De Rhodes and several other Catholic missionaries, became popular and brought literacy to the masses.

Various other languages are spoken by several minority groups in Vietnam. The most common of these are Tày, Mường, Cham, Khmer, Chinese, Nùng, and H'Mông. The Montagnard peoples of the Central Highlands also speak a number of distinct languages. The French language, a legacy of colonial rule, is still spoken by some older Vietnamese as a second language, but is losing its popularity. Vietnam nevertheless remains a full member of La Francophonie. Russian – and to a much lesser extent German, Czech or Polish – is sometimes known among those whose families had ties with the Soviet bloc. In recent years, English is becoming more popular as a second language. English study is obligatory in most schools. Chinese and Japanese have also become more popular.

Religions

For much of Vietnamese history, Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism have strongly influenced the religious and cultural life of the people. About 85% of Vietnamese identify with Buddhism, though not all practice on a regular basis. Most people ascribe to Tam Đạo ("Triple religion"): 80% of people worship the mixture of Mahayana Buddhism mainly, Taoism, Confucianism with Ancestor Worship; 2% Hòa Hảo (a new 20th century religious movement that is concentrated in the Mekong Delta) and 2% Theravada Buddhism, mainly among Khmer people in the Mekong. The census of Government showed that only over 10 million people have taken refuge in the Three Jewels; the vast majority of Vietnamese people of Asian religions practice Ancestor Worship.

About 8% of the population are Christians, with about six million Roman Catholics and fewer than one million Protestants, according to the census of 2007. Christianity was introduced first by the Portuguese and the Dutch traders in the 16th and 17th centuries, then further propagated by French missionaries in the 19th and 20th centuries, and to a lesser extent, by American Protestant missionaries during the presence of American forces during the 1960s and early 1970s, largely among the Montagnards of South Vietnam. The largest Protestant churches are the Evangelical Church of Vietnam and the Montagnard Evangelical Church. Two thirds of Vietnam's Protestants are ethnic minorities.

The Vietnamese government is deeply suspicious and wary of Roman Catholicism. This mistrust originated during the 19th century when some Catholics collaborated with the French colonists in conquering and ruling the country and in helping French attempts to install Catholic emperors, such as in the Lê Văn Khôi revolt. Furthermore, the Catholic Church's strongly anti-communist stance has made it a government enemy. The Vatican Church is banned and only government-controlled Catholic organisations are permitted. The country's relations with the Vatican have improved, however, in recent years.

About 3% of the population are Cao Dai, a syncretic 20th century religion that is concentrated around Tay Ninh Province.

Sunni and Cham Bani Islam, a small minority faith, is primarily practiced by the ethnic Cham minority, though there are also a few ethnic Vietnamese adherents in the southwest. In total there are 70,000 Muslims; small Hindu communities (over 50,000 people) and a small number of Baha'is.

The communist government rejects criticism that it does not allow religious freedom. Nevertheless, only government-controlled religious organisations are allowed and the Unified Buddhist Congregation of Vietnam that formed in South Vietnam is banned in favour of the communist-approved body.

Education

Vietnam has an extensive state-controlled network of schools, colleges and universities but the number of privately run and mixed public and private institutions is also growing. General education in Vietnam is imparted in 5 categories: Kindergarten, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and college/university. Courses are taught mainly in Vietnamese. A large number of public schools have been organized across the country to raise the national literacy rate, which was 90.3% between 2003 and 2008. There are a large number of specialist colleges, established to develop a diverse and skilled national workforce.

A large number of Vietnam's most acclaimed universities are based in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Facing serious crises, Vietnam's education system is under a holistic reform launched by the government. In Vietnam, education from age 6 to 11 is free and mandatory. Education above these ages is not free; therefore, some poor families may have trouble paying tuition for their children without some forms of public or private assistance. Regardless, school enrollment is among the highest in the world and the number of colleges and universities increased dramatically in recent years, from 178 in 2000 to 299 in 2005.

Health

The overall quality of health in Vietnam is regarded as good, as of 2009 life expectancy is 76 for women and 72 for men. Infant mortality is 12 per 1,000 live births. However, malnutrition is still common in the provinces. In 2001, government spending on health care corresponded to just 0.9% of gross domestic product (GDP). Government subsidies covered only about 20% of health care expenses, with the remaining 80% coming out of individuals’ own pockets.

In 1954, North Vietnam established a public health system that reached down to the hamlet level. After the reunification in 1975, this system was extended to the former South Vietnam. Beginning in the late 1980s, the quality of health care began to decline as a result of budgetary constraints, a shift of responsibility to the provinces, and the introduction of charges. As of 2009 85% of the population has access to improved water sources. Inadequate funding also has contributed to a shortage of nurses, midwives, and hospital beds. In 2000 Vietnam had only 250,000 hospital beds, or 14.8 beds per 10,000 people, a very low ratio among Asian nations, according to the World Bank.

Vietnam has made progress in combating malaria, for which the mortality rate declined sharply, to about 5% of the rate in the early 1990s, after the country introduced antimalarial drugs and treatment. However, tuberculosis (TB) cases are on the rise, with 57 deaths per day reported in May 2004. With an intensified vaccination program, better hygiene, and foreign assistance, Vietnam hopes to reduce sharply the number of TB cases and annual new TB infections.

As of September 2005, Vietnam had diagnosed 101,291 HIV cases, of which 16,528 progressed to AIDS and 9,554 died. But the actual number of HIV-positive individuals is estimated to be much higher. An average, 40–50 new infections are reported every day in Vietnam. As of 2007 0.5% of the population is infected with HIV and the figure has been stable since 2005. In June 2004, the Bush Administration announced that Vietnam would be one of 15 nations to receive funding as part of a US$15 billion global AIDS plan.

Science and technology

Historically, Vietnamese scholars did not practice "science" in its generally accepted meaning, but many academic fields were well-developed, especially social sciences and humanities. It has at least ten centuries of commentary and analytic writings. Among the best known works are those of "Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư" – of Ngô Sĩ Liên. Writings that deal with geography, nature, customs and people were also written such as "Dư địa chí" by Nguyễn Trãi. In philosophy, Vietnamese monks led by abdicated Emperor Tran Nhan Tong developed Trúc Lâm Zen branch. In mathematics, arithmetics and geometry has been taught in schools since the 15th century, using the famous textbook: "Đại thành toán pháp" by Lương Thế Vinh. Lương Thế Vinh also introduced the notion of zero while Mạc Hiển Tích had used the term "số ẩn" (unknown/secret/hidden number) to refer to negative numbers even earlier. In the later centuries, much knowledge was collected into encyclopedias such as "Vân đài loại ngữ" by Lê Quý Đôn and "Lịch triều hiến chương loại chí" by Phan Huy Chú.

Recently, Vietnam's mathematical field has advanced human knowledge by several contributions, including the foundation of global optimization by Hoàng Tụy and the proof of fundamental lemma in the theory of automorphic forms by Ngô Bảo Châu (Fields Medal 2010).

Media

Vietnam's media sector is controlled by the government to follow the official communist party line, though some newspapers are relatively outspoken. The Voice of Vietnam is the official state-run radio broadcasting service that covers the nation. It also broadcasts internationally via shortwave, renting transmitters in other countries and provides broadcasts from its website. Vietnam Television is the national television broadcasting company. As Vietnam moved toward a free-market economy with its Đổi mới measures, the government has relied on the print media to keep the public informed about its policies. The measure has had the effect of almost doubling the numbers of newspapers and magazines since 1996. Vietnam is putting considerable effort into modernization and expansion of its telecommunication system, but its performance continues to lag behind that of its more modern neighbors.

Vietnam extensively regulates Internet access to its citizens, using both legal and technical means. The collaborative project OpenNet Initiative classifies Vietnam's level of online political censorship to be "pervasive" while Reporters without Borders considers Vietnam one of 15 "internet enemies". While the government of Vietnam claims to safeguard the country against obscene or sexually-explicit content through its blocking efforts, much of the filtered sites contain politically or religiously sensitive materials that might undermine the Communist Party's hold on power. Amnesty International reported many instances of Internet activists being arrested for their online activities.

Culture

Vietnam is an agricultural civilization based on wet rice cultivation with ancient Dong Son culture as one of its defining aspects. The major stimulation of Vietnamese culture's development comes from indigenous factors. Vietnamese totems are Vietnamese dragon which is derived from crocodile and snake (Vietnam's National Father- Lạc Long Quân is a holy dragon), lạc- a holy bird (Vietnam's National Mother- Âu Cơ is a bird fairy), turtle and ''nghê''- in dog's image. Vietnamese social is structured from units named ''làng'' (English: villages), not from lines of blood. Regarding national solidarity, all Vietnamese have a common ancestor death anniversary on the 10th day of the 3rd Lunar month (see Giỗ Tổ Hùng Vương).

Vietnam's culture is a part of Sinosphere that Confucianism and Laoism set the frameworks for Vietnam's feudal political systems and philosophy (Specifically, Vietnamese are closely related to Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Hainan cultures. Many of these people have also immigrated into Vietnam). Moreover, Vietnam was partially indianized for some certain periods of time, mostly by Buddism. Through history, Cham culture, Cambodian culture, the culture of Tai people and other minority ethnic groups in Vietnam have been integrated with Vietnamese culture in correlated effects. Vietnam's contemporary culture is also influenced by Western culture, for example, American, French and Russian cultures.

The official spoken and written language of Vietnam is Vietnamese, currently written in Latin alphabet. However, according to many recent researches, Vietnam is believed to have had established a distinctive culture before the invasion of China's dynasties, including a syllabic writing system named ''Khoa Đẩu'' for Vietnamese language along with its education system nationwide.

In the socialist era, the cultural life of Vietnam has been deeply influenced by government-controlled media and the cultural influences of socialist programs. For many decades, foreign cultural influences were shunned and emphasis placed on appreciating and sharing the culture of communist nations such as the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and others. Since the 1990s, Vietnam has seen a greater exposure to Southeast Asian, European and American culture and media.

Clothing

One of the most popular Vietnamese traditional garments is the "", worn often for special occasions such as weddings or festivals. White Áo dài is the required uniform for girls in many high schools across Vietnam. Áo Dài was once worn by both genders but today it is worn mainly by females, except for certain important traditional culture-related occasions where some men do wear it.

Cuisine

Vietnamese cuisine uses very little oil and many vegetables. The main dishes are often based on rice, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Its characteristic flavors are sweet (sugar), spicy (serrano peppers), sour (lime), nuoc mam (fish sauce), and flavored by a variety of mint and basil.

Music

Vietnamese music varies slightly in the three regions: or North, or Central, and 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.

Literature

Vietnamese literature has a long history. Folk literature has been developed for centuries with many great arts, including a typical 6–8 verse poem kind named "ca dao", a system of tales about village establishers and heroes which served as cultural base for many cultural regions (for example, "Saint Gióng tales"). Written literatures dates from Ngô Dynasty with some admirable artists like Nguyễn Trãi with "Bình Ngô đại cáo", Trần Hưng Đạo with "Hịch tướng sĩ", Nguyễn Du with "Truyện Kiều" (English: The Tale of Kieu) and Nguyễn Đình Chiểu with "Lục Vân Tiên". Some genres play an important role in performance like "hát nói" in ca trù. Some poet unions have been formed like "Tao Đàn." The mordenization of literature has happened since Western cultural effect began in 19th century. The first transformation movement was "Thơ Mới" from 1932 to 1945.

Arts and sports

Vovinam and Bình Ðịnh martial arts are two popular Vietnamese martial arts practiced by many within Vietnam. Football (soccer) is the most popular team sport in Vietnam. Sports and games such as badminton, tennis, ping pong, and chess are also popular with large segments of the population. Volleyball, especially women's volleyball, is watched by a fairly large number of Vietnamese people. The (expatriate Vietnamese) community forms a prominent part of Vietnamese cultural life, introducing Western sports, films, music and other cultural activities in the nation.

Festivals

Vietnam has a plethora of festivals, the most important being the New Year Tết. The dates of the calendar are set by the Lunar Calendar.

Among countless other traditional Vietnamese occasions, the traditional Vietnamese wedding is very popular. Many of the age-old customs in a Vietnamese wedding continue to be celebrated by both Vietnamese in Vietnam and overseas, often combining both western and eastern elements.

Tourism

Vietnam's number of visitors for tourism and vacation has increased steadily over the past ten years. About 3.77 million international guests visited Vietnam in 2009. The government and private enterprizes are investing capital into the coastal regions that are already popular for their beaches and boat tours.

Popular destinations include Hanoi, Saigon, the old imperial capital of Hue, World Heritage Sites of Hoi An and the Cham temples of Mỹ Sơn, the coastline such as Nha Trang, the caves of Halong Bay, Marble Mountains, and many other sites. As tourism increases in importance, new projects are invested into, such as the tourism complex in Binh Duong, with the largest artificial sea in Southeast Asia.

On Valentine's Day 2011 Joe Jackson, the father of popstar Michael Jackson, attended a ground breaking ceremony for what will be the region's largest entertainment complex, a five-star hotel and amusement park called "Happyland" in which he has investment interests. The $2 billion project, which has been designed to accommodate 14 million tourists annually, is located in southern Long An province about 20 minutes from Ho Chi Minh City. It is expected that the project will be finished in 2014.

Gallery

File:Tp-hcm-6.jpg|Saigon File:Ho hoan kiem.jpg|Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi at night File:bao_tang_my_thuat.jpg|National Museum of Fine Art File:bao_tang_lich_su.jpg|National Museum of History File:LyThaiToStatueHanoi1.jpg|Statue of Lý Thái Tổ, emperor and dynasty founder File:Fansipan-vietnam.jpg|In Lào Cai province, the highest mountain in Indochina at 3,143 metres (10,312 ft). File:Cho_Ben_Thanh_1.jpg|Quách Thị Trang square and Bến Thành market File:Citadel Hue.jpg|Thế Miếu temple File:VN Ngu Hanh Son tango7174.jpg|Statue of Quan Âm Buddha at the top of one of the Marble Mountains File:Statue of Jesus in Vungtau.jpgIMG 8522.JPG|A 32m-high statue of Jesus extending his 18.3m-long arms on the top of 170m-high Nho Mountain in Vung Tau. File:Marble Mountains, Vietnam.jpg|Marble Mountains in Da Nang city File:ChamRemains.jpg|Mỹ Sơn is the site of the largest collection of Cham ruins. File:ChamMuiNe.jpg|The towers of Po Sa Nu (Pho Hai) near Phan Thiết may be the oldest extant Cham buildings. In style, they exhibit the influence of pre-Angkorian Cambodia. File:Phu quoc 3.jpg|Phu Quoc island coastline File:Sapa9.jpg|Rice crops File:Nha_tho_Duc_Ba_1.jpg|Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica File:Dai nam main workship.jpg|Đại Nam Văn Hiến, a tourism complex in Binh Duong File:Flag tower, Hanoi.jpg|Flag Tower of Hanoi - one of the symbols of the city and part of the Hanoi Citadel, a World Heritage Site. Its height is 33.4 m (41 m with the flag).

See also

CIVETS

References

Other documents

Herring, George C''. America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975'' (4th ed 2001), most widely used short history.

Jahn GC. 2006. The Dream is not yet over. In: P. Fredenburg P, Hill B, editors. Sharing rice for peace and prosperity in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Victoria, (Australia): Sid Harta Publishers. p 237–240

Karrnow, Stanley. ''Vietnam: A History''. ''Penguin (Non-Classics)''; 2nd edition (June 1, 1997). ISBN 0-14-026547-3

McMahon, Robert J. ''Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War: Documents and Essays'' (1995) textbook

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 7th edition, Oxford University Press.

Tucker, Spencer. ed. ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' (1998) 3 vol. reference set; also one-volume abridgment (2001)

External links

Country Profile from BBC News

Vietnam from ''UCB Libraries GovPubs''

; Government

Portal of the Government of Vietnam

Communist Party of Vietnam

National Assembly: the Vietnamese legislative body

General Statistics Office

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Chief of State and Cabinet Members

; Other

Vietnam tourism website Official Tourism website of Vietnam

Category:Member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Category:Communist states Category:Countries bordering the South China Sea Category:Single-party states Category:Socialist states Category:Southeast Asian countries Category:States and territories established in 1976 Category:Member states of the United Nations

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Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Group	French American Franco-Américain, Franco-Américaine
Popplace	Predominantly in New England, The Midwest and Louisiana
Langs	American English, French(Cajun•Acadian•Canadian•Missouri)
Rels	Predominantly Roman Catholicism Calvinist Protestantism
Related	French people, French Canadian, Québécois, Cajuns, Acadians }}

French Americans or Franco-Americans are Americans of French or French Canadian descent. About 11.8 million U.S. residents are of this descent, and about 1.6 million speak French at home. An additional 450,000 U.S. residents speak a French-based creole language, according to the 2000 census. While Americans of French descent make up a substantial percentage of the American population, French Americans arguably are less visible than other similarly sized ethnic groups. This is due in part to the tendency of French American groups to identify more strongly with "New World" regional identities such as Acadian, Cajun, or Louisiana Creole. This has inhibited the development of a wider French American identity. The majority of Americans of French and French Canadian descent are descendants of those who first settled in Canada in the 17th century (known as New France at the time), which later became the Province of Quebec in 1763, Lower Canada in 1791, and a Canadian province of Quebec after Canadian Confederation in 1867. The majority of Americans of French descent, mostly resident in New England and the Midwest, are descendants of the Quebec Diaspora and the first Canadiens, while few are of Acadian descent from the Canadian Maritime provinces. Immigration to the United States from France was much lower than from other parts of Europe, such as Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, or Poland.

History

Unlike other immigrants who came to the United States from other countries, some French Americans arrived prior to the founding of the United States. In many parts of the country, like the Midwest and Louisiana, they were the founders of some of these villages, cities, and first state inhabitants. While found throughout the country, French Americans are most numerous in New England, northern New York, the Midwest, and Louisiana. French is the fourth most-spoken language in the country, behind English, Spanish, and Chinese. Often, French Americans are identified more specifically as being of French Canadian, Cajun, or Louisiana Creole descent. An important part of French American history is the Quebec diaspora of the 1840s-1930s, in which one million French Canadians moved to the United States, principally to the New England states, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Historically, the French in Canada had among the highest birth rates in world history, which is why their population was large even though immigration from France was relatively low. They also moved to different regions within Canada, namely Ontario and Manitoba. Many of the early male migrants worked in the lumber industry in both regions, and, to a lesser degree, in the burgeoning mining industry in the upper Great Lakes.

Louisiana

The Cajuns of Louisiana have a unique heritage. Their ancestors settled Acadia, in what is now the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, in the 17th and early 18th centuries. In 1755, after capturing Fort Beauséjour in the region, the British Army forced the Acadians to either swear an oath of loyalty to the British Crown or face expulsion. Thousands refused to take the oath, causing them to be sent, penniless, to the 13 colonies to the south in what has become known as the Great Upheaval. Over the next generation, some four thousand managed to make the long trek to Louisiana, where they began a new life. The name ''Cajun'' is a corruption of the word ''Acadian''. Many still live in what is known as the Cajun Country, where much of their colonial culture survives. French Louisiana, when it was sold by Napoleon in 1803, covered all or part of than fifteen current U.S. states and contained French and Canadian colonists dispersed across it, though they were most numerous in its southernmost portion.

In Louisiana today, more than 15% of the population of the Cajun Country reported in the 2000 United States Census that French was spoken at home.

Another significant source of immigrants to Louisiana was Saint Domingue, which gained its independence as the Republic of Haiti in 1804, following a bloody revolution; much of its white population (along with some mulattoes) fled during this time, often to Louisiana, where they largely assimilated into the Creole culture.

Biloxi in Mississippi, and Mobile in Alabama, still contain French American heritage since they were founded by the Canadian Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville.

The Houma Tribe in Louisiana still speak the same French they had been taught 300 years ago.

Colonial era

In the 17th and early 18th centuries there was an influx of a few thousand Huguenots, who were Protestant refugees fleeing religious persecution in France. For nearly a century they fostered a distinctive French Protestant identity that enabled them to remain aloof from American society, but by the time of the American Revolution they had generally intermarried and merged into the larger Presbyterian community. The largest number settling in South Carolina, where the French comprised four percent of the white population in 1790. With the help of the well organized international Huguenot community, many also moved to Virginia. In the north, Paul Revere of Boston was a prominent figure.

Midwest

From the beginning of the 17th century, French Canadians explored and traveled to the region with their coureur de bois and explorers, such as Jean Nicolet, Robert de LaSalle, Jacques Marquette, Nicholas Perrot, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, Pierre Dugué de Boisbriant, Lucien Galtier, Pierre Laclède, René Auguste Chouteau, Julien Dubuque, Pierre de La Vérendrye, and Pierre Parrant.

The French Canadians set up a number of villages along the waterways, including Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin; La Baye, Wisconsin; Cahokia, Illinois; Kaskaskia, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan; Saint Ignace, Michigan; Vincennes, Indiana; St. Paul, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; and Sainte Genevieve, Missouri. They also built a series of forts in the area, such as Fort de Chartres, Fort Crevecoeur, Fort Saint Louis, Fort Ouiatenon, Fort Miami (Michigan), Fort Miami (Indiana), Fort Saint Joseph, Fort La Baye, Fort de Buade, Fort Saint Antoine, Fort Crevecoeur, Fort Trempealeau, Fort Beauharnois, Fort Orleans, Fort St. Charles, Fort Kaministiquia, Fort Michilimackinac, Fort Rouillé, Fort Niagara, Fort Le Boeuf, Fort Venango, and Fort Duquesne. The forts were serviced by soldiers and fur trappers who had long networks reaching through the Great Lakes back to Montreal.

The region was relinquished by France to the British in 1763 as a result of the Treaty of Paris. Three years of war by the Natives, called Pontiac's War ensued. It became part of the Province of Quebec in 1774, and was seized by the United States during the Revolution.

New England, New York State

In the late 19th century, many Francophones arrived in New England from Quebec and New Brunswick to work in textile mill cities in New England. In the same period, Francophones from Quebec soon became a majority of the workers in the saw mill and logging camps in the Adirondack Mountains and their foothills. Others sought opportunities for farming and other trades such as blacksmiths in Northern New York State. By the mid-20th century French Americans comprised 30% of the Maine's population. Some migrants became lumberjacks but most concentrated in industrialized areas and into enclaves known as 'Little Canadas.'

French Canadian immigrant women saw the United States as a place of opportunity and possibility where they could create alternatives for themselves distinct from the expectations of their parents and their community. By the early 20th century some French Canadian women even began to see migration to the United States to work as a rite of passage and a time of self-discovery and self-reliance. When these women did marry, they had fewer children with longer intervals between children than their Canadian counterparts. Some women never married, and oral accounts suggest that self-reliance and economic independence were important reasons for choosing work over marriage and motherhood. These women conformed to traditional gender ideals in order to retain their 'Canadienne' cultural identity, but they also redefined these roles in ways that provided them increased independence in their roles as wives and mothers.

The French Americans became active in the Catholic Church where they tried with little success to challenge its domination by Irish clerics. They founded such newspapers as 'Le Messager' and 'La Justice.' The first hospital in Lewiston, Maine, became a reality in 1889 when the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, the 'Grey Nuns,' opened the doors of the Asylum of Our Lady of Lourdes. This hospital was central to the Grey Nuns' mission of providing social services for Lewiston's predominately French Canadian mill workers. The Grey Nuns struggled to establish their institution despite meager financial resources, language barriers, and opposition from the established medical community. Immigration dwindled after World War I.

The French Canadian community in New England tried to preserve some of its cultural norms. This doctrine, like efforts to preserve francophone culture in Quebec, became known as ''la Survivance''.

Potvin (2003) has studied the evolution of French Catholic parishes in New England. The predominantly Irish hierarchy of the 19th century was slow to recognize the need for French-language parishes; several bishops even called for assimilation and English language-only parochial schools. In the 20th century, a number of parochial schools for Francophone students opened, though they gradually closed toward the end of the century and a large share of the French-speaking population left the Church. At the same time, the number of priests available to staff these parishes also diminished. By the 21st century the emphasis was on retaining local reminders of French American culture rather than on retaining the language itself. With the decline of the state's textile industry during the 1950s, the French element experienced a period of upward mobility and assimilation. This pattern of assimilation increased during the 1970s and 1980s as many Catholic organizations switched to English names and parish children entered public schools; some parochial schools closed in the 1970s. Although some ties to its French Canadian origins remain, the community was largely anglicized by the 1990s, moving almost completely from 'Canadien' to 'American'.

Representative of the assimilation process was the career of singer and icon of American popular culture Rudy Vallée (1901–1986). He grew up in Westbrook, Maine, and after serving in World War I attended the University of Maine, then transferred to Yale, and went on to become as a popular music star. He never forgot his Maine roots, and maintained an estate at Kezar Lake.

Civil War

French Americans in the Union forces were one of the most important Catholic groups present during the American Civil War. The exact number is unclear, but thousands of French Americans appear to have served in this conflict. Union forces did not keep reliable statistics concerning foreign enlistments. However, historians have estimated anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 French Americans serving in this war. In addition to those born in the United States, many who served in the Union forces came from Canada or had resided there for several years. Canada's national anthem was written by such a soldier named Calixa Lavallée, who wrote this anthem while he served for the Union attaining the rank of Lieutenant. The French government and British government supported the Confederate cause, but no soldiers were sent. Leading Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard was a noted French American from Louisiana.

Politics

Walker (1962) examines the voting behavior in U.S. presidential elections from 1880 to 1960, using election returns from 30 French American communities in New England, along with sample survey data for the 1948-60 elections. From 1896 to 1924, French Americans typically supported the Republican Party because of its conservatism, emphasis on order, and advocacy of the tariff to protect the textile workers from foreign competition. In 1928, with Catholic Al Smith as the Democratic candidate, the French Americans moved over to the Democratic column and stayed there for six presidential elections. They formed part of the New Deal Coalition. Unlike the Irish and German Catholics, very few French Americans deserted the Democratic ranks because of the foreign policy and war issues of the 1940 and 1944 campaigns. In 1952 many French Americans broke from the Democrats but returned heavily in 1960.

As the ancestors of most French Americans had for the most part left France before the French Revolution, they usually prefer the Fleur-de-lis to the modern French tricolor.

Population

According to the U.S. Census Bureau of 2000, 5.3% of Americans are of French and/or French Canadian ancestry. French Americans made up close to, or more than, 10% of the population of:

{| style="background:none;" |- | New Hampshire || 25.2% | Vermont || 23.3% | Maine || 22.8% | Rhode Island || 17.2% | Louisiana || 16.2% | Massachusetts || 12.9% | Connecticut || 9.9% |}

In states that once made up part of New France (excluding Louisiana): {| style="background:none;" cellspacing="4" |- | Michigan || 6.8% | Montana || 5.3% | Minnesota || 5.3% | Wisconsin || 5.0% | North Dakota || 4.7% | Wyoming || 4.2% | Missouri || 3.8% | Kansas || 3.6% | Indiana || 2.7% |}

Franco Americans also made up more than 4% of the population in {| style="background:none;" cellspacing="4" | Washington || 4.6% | Oregon || 4.6% | Alaska || 4.2% |}

; States with the largest French communities including (according to the 2010 U.S. Census) French and French Canadian {| style="background:none;" cellspacing="4" |- | 1. || California || 1,210,000 | 2. || Louisiana || 1,070,000 | 3. || Massachusetts || 850,573 | 4. || Michigan || 706,560 | 5. || New York || 680,208 | 6. || Florida || 630,000 |}

Religion

Most Franco Americans have a Roman Catholic heritage (which includes most French Canadians and Cajuns). Besides the Protestant Huguenots who fled from France in the colonial era, there were some Protestants from Switzerland who came in the 19th century.

There was tension between the English-speaking Irish Catholics, who controlled the Church in New England, and the French immigrants, who wanted their language taught in the parochial schools. The Irish controlled all the Catholic colleges in New England, except for Assumption College in Massachusetts, controlled by the French, and one school in New Hampshire controlled by Germans. Tension reached a breaking point during the Sentinelle affair of the 1920s, in which Franco-American Catholics of Providence, Rhode Island, challenged their bishop over control of parish funds in an unsuccessful bid to wrest power from the Irish American episcopate.

Marie-Rose Ferron was a mystic stigmatic; she was born in Quebec and lived in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Between about 1925 and 1936, she was a popular "victim soul" who suffered physically to redeem the sins of her community. Father Onésime Boyer, promoted her cult.

French language in the United States

According to the National Education Bureau, French is the second most commonly taught foreign language in U.S. high schools, colleges, and universities behind Spanish. French was the most commonly taught foreign language until the 1980s; when the influx of Hispanic immigrants aided the growth of Spanish. According to the U.S. 2000 Census, French is the third most spoken language in the United States after English and Spanish, with 2 097 206 speakers, up from 1 930 404 in 1990. In addition to parts of Louisiana, the language is also commonly spoken in Florida, northern Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York City; home to large French-speaking communities from France, Canada, and Haiti.

As a result of French immigration to what is now the United States in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the French language was once widely spoken in much of the country, especially in the former Louisiana Territory, as well as in the Northeast. French-language newspapers existed in many American cities; especially New Orleans and in certain cities in New England. Americans of French descent often lived in predominately French neighborhoods; where they attended schools and churches that used their language. In New England, Upstate New York, and the Midwest, French Canadian neighborhoods were known as "Little Canada".

Cities founded by the French and French Canadians

Biloxi, Mississippi founded in 1699 by Canadien Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville.

Bourbonnais, Illinois named after French Canadian fur trader Francois Bourbonnais. The first permanent resident was French Canadian fur trader Noel LeVasseur in the 1830s.

Chicago, Illinois founded by the French and the Indians, is pronounced with the French pronunciation of the sound ''ché'' as opposed to the English ''chi''. It also contained a u at the end, ''Chécagou''.

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho French Canadian fur traders allegedly named the local Indian tribe the ''Coeur d'Alene'' out of respect for their tough trading practices. Coeur d'Alêne literally means "heart of the awl."

Detroit, Michigan was founded by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac in 1701, a French army captain, and was originally called ''Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit'', after the minister of marine under Louis XIV and the French word Détroit for "strait."

Dubuque, Iowa was established as a lead mining site by Canadien Julien Dubuque in 1788

Green Bay, Wisconsin or La Baye, was founded by Jean Nicolet in 1634. Many descendants of Green Bay are direct descendants of the French Canadian ''habitants'' and their families.

Juneau, Alaska was founded in 1891 and named in honour of Joseph Juneau, a gold prospector from the region of Montreal, who settled the first mining camp in the area.

Kaskaskia, Illinois was founded in 1703 by French Jesuit missionaries and was Illinois's first capital.

Mobile, Alabama founded in 1702 by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne. It was the first capital of Louisana.

Natchitoches, Louisiana was founded in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis.

New Orleans, Louisiana was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne.

Pierre, South Dakota was named after Pierre Chouteau, Jr., a fur trader of French Canadian origin, who built Fort Pierre, where the capital of Pierre stands today.

Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin established in 1685 by Nicholas Perrot as a fur trading post.

Prairie du Rocher, Illinois was founded in 1722 by Sister Thérèse Langlois, four years after Fort de Chartres was built by Pierre Dugué de Boisbriand.

Saint Charles, Missouri was founded by Louis Blanchette, a French Canadian, in 1769.

Saint Louis, Missouri was founded by a French trader, Pierre Laclède, and his stepson, a trader from Louisiana, René Auguste Chouteau in 1764.

Sainte Genevieve, Missouri was founded in 1735 by ''habitants''.

Saint Ignace, Michigan was founded by father Jacques Marquette in 1671.

Saint Paul, Minnesota was established in 1838 by Pierre Parrant and settled by French Canadians. In 1841, it was named Saint-Paul by Father Lucien Galtier in honor of Paul the Apostle.

Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan was founded in 1668 by fathers Jacques Marquette and Claude Dablon

Vincennes, Indiana was established in 1732 by François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes and rallied to the cause of the American revolution with Father Pierre Gibault.

State names given to American states

Most of the names were bestowed by early French explorers who were not permanent residents of the area that became the U.S. Upwards of 10 U.S. states have names of either direct French origin (Louisiana, Vermont, Illinois), indirect French origin through other languages (Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Delaware, New Jersey) or possible / disputed French origin (Maine, Oregon).

Arkansas – named by French explorers from the corrupted Indian word meaning "south wind";

Delaware – named after Lord de la Warr (Anglo-Norman surname originally ''de la Guerre'' meaning; "of the war");

Illinois – French for the land of the Illini, a Native American tribe;

Louisiana – from the French "Louisiane", in honor of king Louis XIV of France;

Maine – most likely from the French province of the same name. because Henrietta Maria of France, queen of Charles I of England was said to have owned the province of Maine in France.

Michigan – French transcription of Ojibwe word ''Mishigamaw'' which means "great lake"

New Jersey – named after the Bailliage de Jersey, the largest of the British Channel Islands, whose inhabitants are of Norman descent and many of whom still speak a Norman-French dialect. English and French are the official languages of Jersey and Guernsey;

Oregon – may have been named by early French explorers after "le fleuve aux ouragans", the hurricane river, a name used to describe the windiness of the Columbia River;

Vermont – comes from a contraction of French words, ''Vert'', green, and ''mont'', mount, mountain. Hence the "Green Mountain" (''la montagne verte'') state;

Wisconsin – named after the Meskousing River. This spelling was later corrupted from the local Native American language to "Ouisconsin" by French explorers, and over time this version became the French name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling to its modern form when they began to arrive in greater numbers during the early 19th Century;

Historiography

Richard (2002) examines the major trends in the historiography regarding the Franco-Americans who came to New England in 1860-1930. He identifies three categories of scholars: survivalists, who emphasized the common destiny of Franco-Americans and celebrated their survival; regionalists and social historians, who aimed to uncover the diversity of the Franco-American past in distinctive communities across New England; and pragmatists, who argued that the forces of acculturation were too strong for the Franco-American community to overcome. The 'pragmatists versus survivalists' debate over the fate of the Franco-American community may be the ultimate weakness of Franco-American historiography. Such teleological stances impede the progress of research by funneling scholarly energies in limited directions while many other avenues, for example, Franco-American politics, arts, and ties to Quebec, remain unexplored.

Immigration from France, Canada, and Acadia

French immigration to the United States from 1827 to 1870
! Year	! French immigrants
1827	1,280
1828	2,843
1829	582
1830	1,174
1831	2,038
1832	5,361
1833	4,682
1834	2,989
1835	2,696
1836	4,443
1837	5,074
1838	3,675
1839	7,198
1840	7,419
1841	5,006
1842	4,504
1843	3,346
1844	3,155
1845	7,663
1846	10,583
1847	20,040
1848	7,743
1849	5,841
1850	9,389
1851	20,126
1852	6,763
1853	10,170
1854	13,317
1855	6,044
1856	7,246
1857	2,397
1858	3,155
1859	2,579
1860	3,961
1861	2,326
1862	3,142
1863	1,838
1864	3,128
1865	3,583
1866	6,855
1867	5,237
1868	1,989
1869	4,531
1870	5,120
Total	242,231

| valign="top" | {| class=wikitable ! colspan = 6 |Distribution of French Canadians in New England, 1860-1880 |- ! colspan = 2 | State ! Francophones ! Percentage ! Francophones ! Percentage | Maine | style="text-align:center;"| 7,490 | style="text-align:center;"| 20.0% | style="text-align:center;"| 29,000 | style="text-align:center;"| 13.9% | New Hampshire | style="text-align:center;"| 1,780 | style="text-align:center;"| 4.7% | style="text-align:center;"| 26,200 | style="text-align:center;"| 12.6% | Vermont | style="text-align:center;"| 16,580 | style="text-align:center;"| 44.3% | style="text-align:center;"| 33,500 | style="text-align:center;"| 16.1% | Massachusetts | style="text-align:center;"| 7,780 | style="text-align:center;"| 20.8% | style="text-align:center;"| 81,000 | style="text-align:center;"| 38.9% | Rhode Island | style="text-align:center;"| 1,810 | style="text-align:center;"| 5.0% | style="text-align:center;"| 19,800 | style="text-align:center;"| 9.5% | Connecticut | style="text-align:center;"| 1,980 | style="text-align:center;"| 5.3% | style="text-align:center;"| 18,500 | style="text-align:center;"| 8.9% |- ! colspan = 2 | Total ! style="text-align:center;"| 37,420 ! style="text-align:center;"| 100% ! style="text-align:center;"| 208,100 ! style="text-align:center;"| 100% |} {| class=wikitable ! colspan = 6 |Distribution of French Canadians in New England, 1900-1930 |- ! colspan = 2 | State ! Francophones ! Percentage ! Francophones ! Percentage | Maine | style="text-align:center;"| 58,583 | style="text-align:center;"| 11.3% | style="text-align:center;"| 99,765 | style="text-align:center;"| 13.4% | New Hampshire | style="text-align:center;"| 74,598 | style="text-align:center;"| 14.4% | style="text-align:center;"| 101,324 | style="text-align:center;"| 13.6% | Vermont | style="text-align:center;"| 41,286 | style="text-align:center;"| 8.0% | style="text-align:center;"| 46,956 | style="text-align:center;"| 6.4% | Massachusetts | style="text-align:center;"| 250,024 | style="text-align:center;"| 48.1% | style="text-align:center;"| 336,871 | style="text-align:center;"| 45.3% | Rhode Island | style="text-align:center;"| 56,382 | style="text-align:center;"| 10.9% | style="text-align:center;"| 91,173 | style="text-align:center;"| 12.3% | Connecticut | style="text-align:center;"| 37,914 | style="text-align:center;"| 7.3% | style="text-align:center;"| 67,130 | style="text-align:center;"| 9.0% |- ! colspan = 2 | Total ! style="text-align:center;"| 518,887 ! style="text-align:center;"| 100% ! style="text-align:center;"| 743,219 ! style="text-align:center;"| 100% |} {| class=wikitable |- ! colspan = 6 |Deportation of Acadians from Acadia to Thirteen British Colonies in 1755 |- ! colspan = 2 | State ! Acadians ! Percentage | Massachusetts | style="text-align:center;"| 2,000 | style="text-align:center;"| 26.75% | Virginia | style="text-align:center;"| 1,500 | style="text-align:center;"| 20.06% | Carolinas | style="text-align:center;"| 1,027 | style="text-align:center;"| 13.74% | Maryland | style="text-align:center;"| 1,000 | style="text-align:center;"| 13.38% | Connecticut | style="text-align:center;"| 700 | style="text-align:center;"| 9.4% | Pennsylvania | style="text-align:center;"| 500 | style="text-align:center;"| 6.7% | Georgia | style="text-align:center;"| 450 | style="text-align:center;"| 6.0% | New York | style="text-align:center;"| 300 | style="text-align:center;"| 4.0% |- !| Total ! style="text-align:center;"| ! style="text-align:center;"| 7,477 ! style="text-align:center;"| 100% |} {| class=wikitable |- ! colspan = 6 |Acadian immigration to Louisiana from Canada, New England, and France from 1763 to 1790 |- ! colspan = 2 | From ! Acadians ! Percentage ! Years | Canada | style="text-align:center;"| 4,000 | style="text-align:center;"| 56.34% | style="text-align:center;"| 1763 - 1790 | New England | style="text-align:center;"| 1,500 | style="text-align:center;"| 21.13% | style="text-align:center;"| 1765 - 1770 | France | style="text-align:center;"| 1,600 | style="text-align:center;"| 22.54% | style="text-align:center;"| 1785 |- !| Total ! style="text-align:center;"| ! style="text-align:center;"| 7,100 ! style="text-align:center;"| 100% ! style="text-align:center;"| |} {| class=wikitable ! colspan = 6 |Distribution of French Americans in certain parts of the United States |- ! colspan = 2 | State(s) ! Franco-Americans ! Percentage | Midwest | style="text-align:center;"| 2,550,000 | style="text-align:center;"| 21.6% | New England | style="text-align:center;"| 2,320,000 | style="text-align:center;"| 19.7% | California | style="text-align:center;"| 1,210,000 | style="text-align:center;"| 10.3% | Louisiana | style="text-align:center;"| 1,070,000 | style="text-align:center;"| 9.7% | New York | style="text-align:center;"| 835,300 | style="text-align:center;"| 7.1% | Florida | style="text-align:center;"| 630,000 | style="text-align:center;"| 5.3% |- ! colspan = 2 | Total ! style="text-align:center;"| 8,615,300 ! style="text-align:center;"| 73% |} |}

See also

Acadians

Canadian American

European American

French Argentine

French Canadian

Hyphenated American

List of French Americans

The Huguenot Society of America

Citations

Bibliography

Anctil, Pierre. (1979). ''A Franco-American Bibliography: New England'', Bedford, N. H.: National Materials Development Center, 137 p.

Baird, Charles Washington (1885). ''History of the Huguenot Emigration to America'', Dodd, Mead & Company, (online: Volume I)

Barkan, Elliott Robert. (1980) "French Canadians." in Stephan Thernstrom, ed. ''Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups'' 388-401, comprehensive survey

Bond, Bradley G. (2005). ''French Colonial Louisiana and the Atlantic World'', LSU Press, 322 pages ISBN 0-8071-3035-4 (online excerpt)

Brasseaux, Carl A. (1987). ''The Founding of New Acadia. The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803'', LSU Press, 229 pages ISBN 0-8071-2099-5

Brault, Gérard-J. (1986). ''The French-Canadian Heritage in New England'', Hanover: University Press of New England, 1986, 282 p. ISBN 0-87451-359-6 (online excerpt)

Brown, Michael. "Franco-American Identity at the University of Maine," ''Maine History'' 1997 36(3-4): 106-119

Chartier, Armand, and Claire Quintal (1999). ''The Franco-Americans of New England. A History'', Manchester and Worcester: ACA Assurance and Institut français of Assumption College, 537 p. ISBN 1-880261-05-7. 537pp; encyclopedic coverage, 1860 to 1990s.

Doty, C. Stewart. "The Future of the Franco-American Past," ''American Review of Canadian Studies,'' Spring 2000, Vol. 30 Issue 1, pp 7-17 calls for further research on trade unionism, politics, farming and logging, links with Quebec elites, and literary figures.

Ekberg, Carl J. (2000). ''French Roots in the Illinois Country. The Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times'', University of Illinois Press, 376 pages ISBN 0-252-06924-2 (online excerpt)

Fedunkiw, Marianne. "French-Canadian Americans", in ''everyculture.com'', retrieved April 24, 2008

Fréchette, Louis (1982). ''The United States for French Canadians'', 345 pages ISBN 0-665-17794-1 (was originally published in the 1890s)

Gagné, Peter J. and Adrien Gabriel Morice (2000). ''French-Canadians of the West. A Biographical Dictionary of French-Canadians and French Métis of the Western United States and Canada'', Quintin Publications, ISBN 1-58211-223-1

Geyh, Patricia Keeney, et al. (2002). ''French Canadian Sources. A Guide for Genealogists'', Ancestry Publishing, 320 pages ISBN 1-931279-01-2 (online excerpt)

Girod André " French-American Class" Publibook

Lagarde, François. (2003). ''The French in Texas. History, Migration, Culture'', University of Texas Press, 330 pages ISBN 0-292-70528-X (online excerpt)

Lamarre, Jean. (2003). ''The French Canadians of Michigan'', Wayne State University Press, 209 pages ISBN 0-8143-3158-0 (online excerpt)

Laflamme, J.L.K., David E. Lavigne and J. Arthur Favreau. (1908)

Louder, Dean R., and Eric Waddell, eds. (1993). ''French America. Mobility, Identity, and Minority Experience Across the Continent'', Louisiana State University Press, 371 pages ISBN 0-8071-1669-6

Lindenfeld, Jacqueline. (2002). ''The French in the United States. An Ethnograpic Study'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 184 pages ISBN 0-89789-903-2 (online excerpt)

Monnier, Alain. "Franco-Americains et Francophones aux Etats-Unis" ("Franco-Americans and French Speakers in the United States). ''Population'' 1987 42(3): 527-542. Census study; In the 1980 Census 13 million Americans claimed to be of 'French origin' and one-and-a-half million spoke French at home.

Potvin, Raymond H. "The Franco-American Parishes of New England: Past, Present and Future," ''American Catholic Studies'' 2003 114(2): 55-67

Pritchard, James S. (2004). ''In Search of Empire. The French in the Americas, 1670-1730'', Cambridge University Press, 484 pages ISBN 0-521-82742-6 (online excerpt)

Richard, Mark Paul. (2008) ''Loyal but French: The Negotiation of Identity by French-Canadian Descendants in the United States'', on acculturation in Lewiston, Maine, 1860 to the 2000

Richard, Sacha. (2002) "American Perspectives on 'La Fievre aux Etats-Unis,' 1860-1930: A Historiographical Analysis of Recent Writings on the Franco-Americans in New England," ''Canadian Review of American Studies'' 32(1): 105-132

Roby, Yves. (2004). ''The Franco-Americans of New England. Dreams and Realities'', Montreal: Les éditions du Septentrion, 543 pages ISBN 2-89448-391-0 (online excerpt) translated by Mary Ricard.

Rumily, Robert. (1958) ''Histoire des Franco Americains''. a standard history

Stewart, Alice R. "The Franco-Americans of Maine: A Historiographical Essay," ''Maine Historical Society Quarterly'' 1987 26(3): 160-179

Thernstrom, Stephan, ed. ''Harvard Encyclopedia of American ethnic groups'' (1980)

Valdman, Albert. (1997). ''French and Creole in Louisiana'', Springer, 372 pages ISBN 0-306-45464-5 (online excerpt)

Weil, François. "Les Franco-Americains et la France' ("Franco-Americans and France") ''Revue Francaise d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer'' 1990 77(3): 21-34

Primary sources

Madore, Nelson, and Barry Rodrigue, eds. ''Voyages: A Maine Franco-American Reader'' (2009)

Robbins, Rhea Cote. ''Wednesday's Child'' (2008)

Robbins, Rhea Cote, ed. ''Canuck and Other Stories'' (2006)

External links

Extensive studies, Documents, Statistics and Resources of Franco American History

Franco American Center

Franco American Women's Institute

Institut français

Dave Martucci, ''Franco-American flags'', in Flags of the World

Vivre en Orange County - French Community in Orange County, California

Bonjour L.A. !- Bonjour L.A. ! Los Angeles with a French touch

Council for the Development of French in Louisiana - a state agency.

History of a small sawmill and logging community in the Northern New York State populated by French Canadians

Category:French American history Category:Ethnic groups in the United States

ar:أمريكيون فرنسيون ca:Francoamericà fr:Franco-Américains ja:フランス系アメリカ人 no:Franco-Amerika pl:Amerykanie francuskiego pochodzenia

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Hồ Chí Minh
nationality	Vietnamese
birth date	May 19, 1890
birth place	Nghệ An Province, French Indochina
death date	September 02, 1969
death place	Hanoi, Democratic Republic of Vietnam
order	Chairman of the Workers' Party of Vietnam
term start	19 February 1951
term end	2 September 1969
predecessor	Position established
successor	Post abolished
order2	First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam
term start2	1 November 1956
term end2	10 September 1960
predecessor2	Trường Chinh
successor2	Lê Duẩn
order3	President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
term start3	2 September 1945
term end3	2 September 1969
predecessor3	Position established
successor3	Tôn Đức Thắng
order4	Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
term start4	2 September 1945
term end4	20 September 1955
predecessor4	Position established
successor4	Phạm Văn Đồng
party	Workers’ Party of Vietnam
signature	Ho Chi Minh Signature.svg }}

Hồ Chí Minh (), born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc (19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969) was a Vietnamese Marxist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1945–1955) and president (1945–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a key figure in the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, as well as the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Vietcong during the Vietnam War until his death in 1969.

Hồ led the Việt Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Điện Biên Phủ. He lost political power in 1955—when he was replaced as prime minister—but remained the highly visible figurehead of North Vietnam—through the presidency—until his death. The capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, after the Fall of Saigon, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor.

Early life

Nguyễn Sinh Cung was born in 1890 in Hoàng Trù Village, Vietnam, his mother’s hometown. From 1895, he grew up in his paternal hometown of Kim Liên Village, Nam Đàn District, Nghệ An Province, Vietnam. He had three siblings: his sister Bạch Liên (or Nguyễn Thị Thanh), a clerk in the French Army; his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (or Nguyễn Tất Đạt), a geomancer and traditional herbalist; and another brother (Nguyễn Sinh Nhuận) who died in his infancy. As a young child, Cung studied with his father before more formal classes with a scholar named Vuong Thuc Do. Cung quickly mastered Chinese writing, a requisite for any serious study of Confucianism, while honing his colloquial Vietnamese writing. In addition to his studious endeavors, he was fond of adventure, loved to fly kites and go fishing. In deference to his father, Cung received a French education, attended lycée in Huế, the ''alma mater'' of his later disciples, Phạm Văn Đồng and Võ Nguyên Giáp. He later left his studies and chose to teach at Dục Thanh school in Phan Thiết.

In the USA

In 1912, working as the cook’s helper on a ship, Cung traveled to the United States. From 1912 to 1913, he lived in New York (Harlem) and Boston, where he worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel. Among a series of menial jobs, he also has claimed to have worked for a wealthy family in Brooklyn between 1917 and 1918. During this time, he was influenced by Marcus Garvey in Harlem. It is believed that, while in the United States, he made contact with Korean nationalists, an experience that developed his political outlook.

In England

At various points between 1913 and 1919, Cung lived in West Ealing, west London, and later in Crouch End, Hornsey, north London. He is reported to have worked as a chef at the Drayton Court Hotel, on The Avenue, West Ealing. It is claimed that Ho trained as a pastry chef under the legendary French master, Escoffier, at the Carlton Hotel in the Haymarket, Westminster, but there is no evidence to support this. However, the wall of New Zealand House, home of the New Zealand High Commission, which now stands on the site of the Carlton Hotel, displays a blue plaque, stating that Cung worked there in 1913 as a waiter.

Political education in France

From 1919–1923, while living in France, Nguyễn Sinh Cung embraced communism, through his friend and Socialist Party of France comrade Marcel Cachin. Cung claimed to have arrived in Paris from London in 1917, but French police only have documents of his arrival in June 1919.

Following World War I, under the name of Nguyễn Ái Quốc (“Nguyễn the Patriot”), he petitioned for recognition of the civil rights of the Vietnamese people in French Indochina to the Western powers at the Versailles peace talks, but was ignored. Citing the language and the spirit of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Nguyễn petitioned U.S. President Woodrow Wilson for help to remove the French from Vietnam and replace them with a new, nationalist government. While he was unable to obtain consideration at Versailles, the failed effort had the effect of further radicalizing Nguyễn, while at the same time making him a national hero of the anti-colonial movement at home in Viet Nam.

In 1920, during the Congress of Tours, in France, Nguyễn Ái Quốc became a founding member of the ''Parti Communiste Français'' (French Communist Party)(PCF) and spent much of his time in Moscow afterwards, becoming the Comintern’s Asia hand and the principal theorist on colonial warfare. During the Indochina War, the PCF would be involved with anti-war propaganda, sabotage and support for the revolutionary effort.

In May 1922, Nguyễn wrote an article for a French magazine criticizing the use of English words by French sportswriters. The article implores Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré to outlaw such Franglais as ''le manager'', ''le round'' and ''le knock-out''. While living in Paris, he had a relationship with dressmaker Marie Brière.

In the Soviet Union and China

In 1923, Nguyễn left Paris for Moscow, where he was employed by the Comintern, studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, and participated in the Fifth Comintern Congress in June 1924, before arriving in Canton (present-day Guangzhou), China, in November 1924. In June 1925, Hoàng Văn Chí said that Nguyễn had betrayed Phan Bội Châu, the head of a rival revolutionary faction, to French police in Shanghai for 100,000 piastres. Hồ later claimed that he did this because he expected Chau’s trial to stir up anti-French resentment and because he needed the money to establish a communist organization. But in ''Ho Chi Minh: A life'', Duikers denied this hypothesis. Châu never denounced Nguyễn.

During 1925-26 he organized 'Youth Education Classes' and occasionally gave lectures at the Whampoa Military Academy on the revolutionary movement in Indochina. He married a Chinese woman, Tăng Tuyết Minh (Zeng Xueming), on 18 October 1926. When his comrades objected to the match, he told them, “I will get married despite your disapproval because I need a woman to teach me the language and keep house.” She was 21 and he was 36. They married in the same place where Zhou Enlai had married earlier and then lived together at the residence of Comintern agent Mikhail Borodin.

Chiang Kai-shek’s anti-communist 1927 coup triggered a new round of wanderings for Hồ. He left Canton again in April 1927 and returned to Moscow, spending some of the summer of 1927 recuperating from tuberculosis in the Crimea, before returning to Paris once more in November. He then returned to Asia by way of Brussels, Berlin, Switzerland, and Italy, from where he took a ship to Bangkok, Thailand, where he arrived in July 1928. “Although we have been separated for almost a year, our feelings for each other do not have to be said in order to be felt”, he reassured Minh in an intercepted letter.

He remained in Thailand, staying in the Thai village of Nachok, until late 1929 when he moved on to Hong Kong, and Shanghai. In June 1931, he was arrested in Hong Kong. To reduce French pressure for extradition, it was announced in 1932 that Nguyễn Ái Quốc had died. The British quietly released him in January 1933. He then made his way back to Milan, Italy, where he served in a restaurant. The restaurant is now a traditional Lombard-cuisine temple and harbors a portrait of Ho Chi Minh on the wall of its main dining hall. He then moved to the Soviet Union, where he spent several more years recovering from tuberculosis. In 1938, he returned to China and served as an adviser with Chinese Communist armed forces, which later forced China’s government to the island of Taiwan. Around 1940, Nguyễn Ái Quốc began regularly using the name "Hồ Chí Minh", a Vietnamese name combining a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ, 胡) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from Sino-Vietnamese 志明; Chí meaning 'will' (or spirit), and Minh meaning 'light'), in essence, meaning “bringer of light”.

Independence movement

In 1941, Hồ returned to Vietnam to lead the Việt Minh independence movement. The “men in black” were a 10,000 member guerilla force that operated with the Việt Minh. He oversaw many successful military actions against the Vichy French and Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II, supported closely but clandestinely by the United States Office of Strategic Services, and also later against the French bid to reoccupy the country (1946–1954). He was also jailed in China for many months by Chiang Kai-shek’s local authorities. After his release in 1943, he again returned to Vietnam. He was treated for malaria and dysentery by American OSS doctors. In the highlands in 1944, he lived with Do Thi Lac, a woman of Tay ethnicity. Lac had a son in 1956.

After the August Revolution (1945) organized by the Việt Minh, Hồ became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and issued a Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam that borrowed much from the French and American declarations. Though he convinced Emperor Bảo Đại to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any country. He repeatedly petitioned American President Harry Truman for support for Vietnamese independence, citing the Atlantic Charter, but Truman never responded.

In 1945, in a power struggle, the Việt Minh killed members of rival groups, such as the leader of the Constitutional Party, the head of the Party for Independence, and Ngô Đình Diệm’s brother, Ngô Ðình Khôi. Purges and killings of Trotskyists, the rival anti-Stalinist communists, have also been documented. In 1946, when Hồ traveled outside of the country, his subordinates imprisoned 25,000 non-communist nationalists and forced 6,000 others to flee. Hundreds of political opponents were also killed in July that same year, notably members of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang and the Dai Viet Quoc Dan Dang. All rival political parties were banned and local governments purged to minimise opposition later on.

Birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

On 2 September 1945, after Emperor Bảo Đại’s abdication, Hồ Chí Minh read the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam, under the name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. With violence between rival Vietnamese factions and French forces increasing, the British commander, General Sir Douglas Gracey, declared martial law. On 24 September, the Việt Minh leaders responded with a call for a general strike.

In September 1945, a force of 200,000 Chinese Nationalists arrived in Hanoi. Hồ Chí Minh made arrangement with their general, Lu Han, to dissolve the Communist Party and to hold an election which would yield a coalition government. When Chiang Kai-Shek later traded Chinese influence in Vietnam for French concessions in Shanghai, Hồ Chí Minh had no choice but to sign an agreement with France on 6 March 1946, in which Vietnam would be recognized as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union. The agreement soon broke down. The purpose of the agreement was to drive out Chiang’s army from North Vietnam. Fighting broke out with the French soon after the Chinese left. Hồ Chí Minh was almost captured by a group of French soldiers led by Jean-Etienne Valluy at Việt Bắc but was able to escape.

“The last time the Chinese came, they stayed a thousand years. The French are foreigners. They are weak. Colonialism is dying. The white man is finished in Asia. But if the Chinese stay now, they will never go. As for me, I prefer to sniff French shit for five years than to eat Chinese shit for the rest of my life.”—Hồ Chí Minh, 1946

In February 1950, Hồ met with Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong in Moscow after the Soviet Union recognized his government. They all agreed that China would be responsible for backing the Việt Minh. Mao’s emissary to Moscow stated in August that China planned to train 60-70,000 Việt Minh in the near future. China’s support enabled Hồ to escalate the fight against France.

According to a story told by journalist Bernard Fall, after fighting the French for several years, Hồ decided to negotiate a truce. The French negotiators arrived at the meeting site: a mud hut with a thatched roof. Inside they found a long table with chairs and were surprised to discover in one corner of the room a silver ice bucket containing ice and a bottle of good Champagne which should have indicated that Hồ expected the negotiations to succeed. One demand by the French was the return to French custody of a number of Japanese military officers (who had been helping the Vietnamese armed forces by training them in the use of weapons of Japanese origin), in order for them to stand trial for war crimes committed during World War II. Hồ replied that the Japanese officers were allies and friends whom he could not betray. Then he walked out, to seven more years of war.

In 1954, after the important defeat of French Union forces at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ, France was forced to give up its empire in Indochina.

Becoming president

The 1954 Geneva Accords, concluded between France and the Việt Minh, provided that communist forces regroup in the North and non-communist forces regroup in the South. Hồ’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam relocated to Hanoi and became the government of North Vietnam, a communist-led single party state. The Geneva accords also provided for a national election to reunify the country in 1956, but this provision was rejected by South Vietnam’s government and the United States. The U.S. committed itself to oppose communism in Asia beginning in 1950, when it funded 80 percent of the French effort. After Geneva, the U.S. replaced France as South Vietnam’s chief sponsor and financial backer, but there never was a treaty between the U.S. and South Vietnam.

Following the Geneva Accords, there was to be a 300-day period in which people could freely move between the zones of the two Vietnams. Some 900,000 to 1 million Vietnamese, mostly Roman Catholic, as well as many anti-communists, intellectuals, former French colonial civil servants and wealthy Vietnamese, left for South Vietnam, while a much smaller number, mostly communists, went from South to North. This was partly due to propaganda claims by a CIA mission led by Colonel Edward Lansdale that the Virgin Mary had moved South out of distaste for life under communism. Some Canadian observers claimed that some were forced by North Vietnamese authorities to remain against their will. During this era, Hồ, following the communist doctrine initiated by Stalin and Mao, started a land reform in which thousands of people accused of being landlords were summarily executed or tortured and starved in prison. With the backing of the U.S., the 1956 elections were canceled by Diem.

At the end of 1959, Lê Duẩn was appointed acting party leader and began sending aid to the Vietcong insurgency in South Vietnam. This represented a loss of power by Hồ, who is said to have preferred the more moderate Giáp for the position. The so called Ho Chi Minh Trail was built in 1959 to allow aid to be sent to the Vietcong through Laos and Cambodia, thus escalating the war. Duẩn was officially named party leader in 1960, leaving Hồ a figurehead president and symbol of Vietnamese Communism.

In 1963, Hồ corresponded with South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in the hope of achieving a negotiated peace. This correspondence was a factor in the U.S. decision to tacitly support a coup against Diem later that year.

In late 1964, North Vietnamese combat troops were sent southwest into neutral Laos. During the mid to late 1960s, Lê Duẩn permitted 320,000 Chinese volunteers into northern North Vietnam to help build infrastructure for the country, thereby freeing a similar number of North Vietnamese forces to go south.

By early 1965, U.S. combat troops began arriving in South Vietnam to counter the threat imposed by both the local Vietcong and the North Vietnamese troops in the border areas. As the fighting escalated, widespread bombing of North Vietnam by the U.S. Air Force and Navy escalated as Operation Rolling Thunder. Hồ remained in Hanoi during his final years, demanding the unconditional withdrawal of all foreign troops in South Vietnam. By July, 1967, Hồ and most of the Politburo of North Vietnam met in a high-level conference where they concluded that the war was not going well for them since the American military blunted every attempt by the Peoples Army of Vietnam to make gains. However, with Hồ's permission, the Viet Cong planned to execute the Tet Offensive as a gamble to take the South by force and defeat the U.S. military.

The offensive was a huge tactical failure which resulted in the decimation of whole units of Viet Cong as well as a fundamental change in the attitudes of people in the South. Up until Tet, they had generally favored the Viet Cong; in the wake of mass executions conducted during the Offensive, popular support shifted to the government. It appeared to Hồ and the rest his government that the war was indeed lost--until it became clear from news coverage that the scope of the action had shocked an American public that up until then had been assured that the Communists were "on the ropes." Ironically, at the moment that they genuinely were struggling, the overly positive spin that the U.S. military had offered for years came crashing down. The bombing of North Vietnam was halted, and negotiations with U.S. officials opened to discuss how to end the war. From that moment on, Hồ and his government realized that while defeat of the U.S. military in battle was impossible, merely prolonging the conflict would lead to eventual acceptance of the terms that Hanoi wanted.

By 1969, with negotiations still dragging on, Hồ's health began to deteriorate from multiple health problems, including diabetes among other ailments, which prevented him from participating in further active politics. However, he insisted that his forces in South Vietnam continue fighting until all of Vietnam was reunited under his government, regardless of the length of time that it might take, believing that time and politics were on his side.

Death

With the outcome of the Vietnam War still in question, Hồ Chí Minh died at 9:47 a.m. on the morning of 2 September 1969, at his home in Hanoi at age 79 from heart failure. His embalmed body is currently on display in a mausoleum in Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi.

News of his death was withheld from the North Vietnamese public for nearly 48 hours due to not wanting to announce his death on the anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. He was not initially replaced as president, but a "collective leadership" composed of several ministers and military leaders took over. They took control of North Vietnam to continue Hồ's goal of finishing the war with South Vietnam and uniting it under his founding government.

Six years after his death, after the communists were successful in the war against South Vietnam, several North Vietnamese tanks in Saigon displayed a poster with the following quote; "You are always marching with us, Uncle Hồ".

Legacy

The former capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, was officially renamed Hồ Chí Minh City on 1 May 1975 shortly after its capture which officially ended the war.

Hồ Chí Minh's embalmed body is on display in Hanoi in a granite mausoleum modeled after Lenin's Tomb in Moscow. Streams of people queue each day, sometimes for hours, to pass his body in silence. This is similar to other Communist leaders.

The Hồ Chí Minh Museum in Hanoi is dedicated to his life and work.

Chilean musician Victor Jara references Ho Chi Minh in his song "El Derecho de Vivir en Paz" (The Right to Live in Peace).

Cult of personality

In Vietnam today, he is regarded by the Communist government with god-like status in a nationwide cult of personality, even though, since the mid-1980s, the government has abandoned most of his economic policies. He is still referred to as "Uncle Hồ" or just "Uncle" (''Bác'') in Vietnam. Hồ's image appears on the front of every Vietnamese currency note, and Hồ's portrait and bust is featured prominently in many of Vietnam's public buildings, classrooms and even temples, many of which are devoted to him. In 1987, UNESCO officially recommended to member states that they "join in the commemoration of the centenary of the birth of President Hồ Chí Minh by organizing various events as a tribute to his memory", considering "the important and many-sided contribution of President Ho Chi Minh in the fields of culture, education and the arts" and that Hồ Chí Minh "devoted his whole life to the national liberation of the Vietnamese people, contributing to the common struggle of peoples for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress."

Publications about Ho's non-celibacy are banned in Vietnam. A newspaper editor in Vietnam was dismissed from her post in 1991 for publishing a story about Tang Tuyet Minh. William Duiker's ''Ho Chi Minh: A Life'' (2000) presents much information on Ho's relationships. The government requested substantial cuts in the official Vietnamese translation of Duiker's book, which was refused. In 2002, the Vietnamese government suppressed a review of Duiker's book in the ''Far Eastern Economic Review''.

References

Further reading

Essays

Bernard B. Fall, ed., 1967. ''Ho Chi Minh on Revolution and War, Selected Writings 1920-1966''. New American Library.

Biography

William J. Duiker. 2000. ''Ho Chi Minh: A Life''. Theia.

Jean Lacouture. 1968. ''Ho Chi Minh: A Political Biography''. Random House.

N. Khac Huyen. 1971. ''Vision Accomplished? The Enigma of Ho Chi Minh''. The Macmillan Company.

David Halberstam. 1971. ''Ho.'' Rowman & Littlefield.

Hồ chí Minh toàn tập. NXB chính trị quốc gia

Sophie Quinn-Judge. 2003. ''Ho Chi Minh: The missing years''. C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 1-85065-658-4

Ton That Thien, ''Was Ho Chi Minh a Nationalist? Ho Chi Minh and the Comintern'' Information and Resource Centre, Singapore, 1990

The Việt Minh, NLF and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

William J. Duiker. 1981. ''The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam''. Westview Press.

Hoang Van Chi. 1964. ''From colonialism to communism''. Praeger.

Truong Nhu Tang. 1986. ''A Viet Cong Memoir''. Vintage.

The War in Vietnam

Frances FitzGerald. 1972. ''Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam''. Little, Brown and Company.

American foreign policy

Christopher Hitchens. 2001. ''The Trial of Henry Kissinger''. Verso.

Henry A. Kissinger. 1979. ''White House Years''. Little, Brown.

Richard Nixon. 1987. ''No More Vietnams''. Arbor House Pub Co.

External links

The Drayton Court Hotel

Obituary in ''The New York Times'', 4 September 1969

TIME 100: Hồ Chí Minh

Hồ Chí Minh's biography

Hồ Chí Minh pictures as slides

Satellite photo of the mausoleum on Google Maps

Final Tribute to Ho Chi Minh from the Central Committee of the Vietnam Workers' Party

Bibliography: Writings of Ho Chi Minh, and Books about Him

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Category:1890 births Category:1969 deaths Category:People from Nghe An Province Category:Cold War leaders Category:Communist rulers Category:Anti-Revisionists Category:People of the First Indochina War Category:People of the Vietnam War Category:Presidents of Vietnam Category:Prime Ministers of Vietnam Category:Vietnamese revolutionaries Category:Vietminh members Category:World War II resistance members Category:Communist Party of Vietnam politicians Category:Bandung Conference attendees *

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