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Democratic Republic of VietnamViệt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa
1945–1976
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc (Independence - Freedom - Happiness)
Anthem: Tiến Quân Ca (Army March)
Location of North Vietnam from 1954
Capital	Hanoi
Common languages	Vietnamese, French (until 1954)
Religion	None (State atheism)
Government	Communist state
President
• 1945–1969	Hồ Chí Minh
First secretary
• 1960–1986	Lê Duẩn
Historical era	Cold War
• Independence proclaimed	September 2 1945
• Vietminh reenters Hanoi	October 10, 1954
• PAVN enters Saigon	April 30, 1975
• North merged with South as "Socialist Republic"	July 2 1976
Area
1960	157,880 km (60,960 sq mi)
1974	157,880 km (60,960 sq mi)
Population
• 1960	15,916,955
• 1974	23,767,300
Currency	đồng
Preceded by Succeeded by French Indochina Empire of Vietnam Vietnam

North Vietnam was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976. It was officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), and was proclaimed by Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi in 1945. Vietnam was partitioned following the Geneva Conference at the end of the First Indochina War.

During World War II, Vietnam was a French colony under Japanese occupation. Soon after Japan surrendered in 1945, the DRV was proclaimed in Hanoi. Viet Minh leader Hồ Chí Minh became head of the government while former emperor Bảo Đại became "supreme advisor." Non-communist figures were ousted from the DRV on October 30 and fled to the South. In November, the French reoccupied Hanoi and the French Indochina War followed. Bảo Đại became head of the Saigon government in 1949, which was then renamed the State of Vietnam. Following the Geneva Accords of 1954, Vietnam was partitioned at the 17th parallel. The DRV became the government of North Vietnam while the State of Vietnam retained control in the South.

The Geneva Accords provided that nationwide elections would be held in 1956. Although France and the Vietminh had agreed to this provision, it was rejected by the State of Vietnam government, which at that time was still part of the French Union. During the Vietnam War (1955–75), North Vietnam and its communist allies, including the Soviet Union and China fought against the military of the Republic of Vietnam government, the US and its Free World Military allies, including Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and various smaller players. At one point, the U.S. had 600,000 troops in the South. The war ended with the total victory of the North Vietnamese forces, not long after American troops withdrew from the South. The two halves of Vietnam (the North and the South) were united into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976.

China and the Soviet Union feuded with each other over their influence in North Vietnam, as both wanted to make the country their satellite state.

Independence proclaimed

Vietnam became part of French Indochina in 1887 and was administered by the pro-German Vichy government during World War II. In 1940-1945, French Indochina was occupied by Japan, which used the colony as a base from which to conduct military operations further south. Soon after the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II, the Vietminh in the August Revolution, entered Hanoi and Hồ proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt had spoken against French rule in Indochina and America was supportive of the Viet Minh at this time.

The Hanoi government of Ho Chi Minh claimed dominion over all of Vietnam. On 12 September 1945, the first British troops arrived in Saigon. On 23 September, French troops occupied the police stations, the post office, and other public buildings. The salient political fact of life in North Vietnam was Chinese Nationalist army of occupation, and the Chinese presence had forced Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh to accommodate Chinese-backed Viet Nationalists. On June 10, 1946, Chinese Nationalist troops evacuated Hanoi, and on June 15, the last detachments embarked at Haiphong.

In January 1946, the Viet Minh held an election to establish a National Assembly. Public enthusiasm for this event suggests that the Viet Minh enjoyed a great deal of popularity at this time, although there were few competitive races and the party makeup of the Assembly was determined in advance of the vote.

When France declared Cochinchina, the southern third of Vietnam, a separate state as the "Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina" in June 1946, Vietnamese nationalists reacted with fury. In November, the National Assembly adopted the first Constitution of the Republic. The French reoccupied Hanoi and the First Indochina War (1946–54) followed. Chinese communist forces arrived on the border in 1949. Chinese aid revived the fortunes of the Viet Minh and transformed it from a guerrilla force into a regular army. The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 transformed what had been an anti-colonial struggle into a Cold War battleground, with the U.S. providing financial support to the French.

Partition of Indochina

Following the partition of Vietnam in 1954 at the end of the First Indochina War, between 600,000 and one million Vietnamese migrated to the South Vietnam, under the U.S.-led evacuation campaign named Operation Passage to Freedom, with an estimated 60% of the north's 1 million Catholics fleeing south. The Catholic migration is attributed to an expectation of persecution of Catholics by the North Vietnamese government, as well as publicity employed by the Saigon government of the President Ngô Đình Diệm. The Viet Minh sought to detain or otherwise prevent would-be refugees from leaving, such as through intimidation through military presence, shutting down ferry services and water traffic, or prohibiting mass gatherings. Concurrently, between 14,000 and 45,000 civilians and approximately 100,000 Viet Minh fighters moved in the opposite direction.

Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including land redistribution. Large landowners and rich peasants were publicly denounced as landlords (địa chủ), and their land distributed to poor and middle peasants, particularly to those with ties to the Communist Party. In some cases there were mass slaughters of landlords. People of the middle- and upper-class, intellectuals, anti-communists, affiliates to the French colonial government and dissidents were also persecuted, imprisoned or killed. Jean-Louis Margolin estimated up to 172,000 North Vietnamese landlords were executed. Dr. Steven Rosefielde, professor of economics at the University of North Carolina, places an estimated death toll at between 200,000 to 900,000. Hundreds of thousands of peasants were massacred in Ho Chi Minh's home province of Nghe An, in a peasant revolt against the communist regime's collectivization of farmland across the North. A widespread famine also occurred across North Vietnam throughout the 1950s, due to the regime's mismanagement of collectivized food supplies to the civilian population.

North Vietnam's capital was Hanoi and it was a one-party state led by the Vietnam Workers' Party (Vietnamese: Đảng lao động Việt Nam). Political opposition groups were suppressed; those publicly opposing the government were imprisoned in hard labor camps. Prisoners were abused and beaten atop of labor-intensive work forced upon them. Many died of exhaustion, starvation, illness (who often died without any medical attention), or assault by prison guards.

North Vietnam was also known for its inhumane, brutal and abusive treatment of Vietnam War POWs. Worldwide attention focused on this issue when American troops raided the Son Tay Prison near Ha Noi on November 21, 1970, to rescue American POWs suspected to be held there.

A literary movement called Nhân văn-Giai phẩm (from the names of the two magazines which started the movement, based in Hanoi) attempted to encourage the democratization of the country and the free expression of thought. Intellectuals were thus lured into criticizing the leadership so they could be arrested later, many of whom were sent to hard labor camps (Gulags), following the model of Mao Tse-tung's Hundred Flowers campaign in China.. Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and other basic civilian freedoms were soon revoked after the government's attempt of destroying the literary movement.

A puritan personality cult was also established around Ho Chi Minh, later extended nationwide after the Communist reunification of the Vietnam, and is reminiscent to other Communist nations like North Korea, the Soviet Union, and China.

International relations

In 1960, Hanoi openly supported and headed the southern communist force (the Vietcong, or NLF) invade South Vietnam and to overthrow the Saigon government, after Diem's administration increased the persecution communists in the South. Troops and supplies were sent along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In 1964 the United States sent combat troops to Vietnam to support the South Vietnamese government, but they had advisors there since 1961. Other Free World nations, including Australia, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Laos and the Khmer Republic also contributed troops and military aid to South Vietnam in its defensive war effort against North Vietnam. China and the Soviet Union provided aid to North Vietnam and troops in support of North Vietnamese military activities. This was known as the Vietnam War (1955–75).

In addition to the Vietcong in South Vietnam, other communist insurgencies also operated within neighboring Laos and Cambodia, both formerly part of the French colonial territory of Indochina. These were the Khmer Rouge and the Pathet Lao. These insurgencies were heavily aided by the Hanoi government, who even sent troops to fight alongside them.

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History of Vietnam
Prehistoric Paleolithic Sơn Vi culture 20,000 BC–12,000 BC Mesolithic Hoabinhian 12,000 BC–10,000 BC Neolithic Bắc Sơn culture 10,000 BC–8,000 BC Quỳnh Văn culture 8,000 BC–6,000 BC Đa Bút culture 4,000 BC–3,000 BC Bronze and Iron Ages Phùng Nguyên culture 2,000 BC–1,500 BC Đồng Đậu culture 1,500 BC–1,000 BC Gò Mun culture 1,000–800 BC Dong Son culture (1,000 BC–100 AD) Sa Huỳnh culture (1,000 BC–200 AD) Óc Eo culture (1–630 AD)
Ancient Hồng Bàng dynasty 2879 BC–258 BC Thục dynasty 257 BC–179 BC Triệu dynasty 204 BC–111 BC
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Dynastic Ngô dynasty 939–965 Anarchy of the 12 Warlords 965–968 Đinh dynasty 968–980 Early Lê dynasty 980–1009 Later Lý dynasty 1009–1225 Trần dynasty 1225–1400 Hồ dynasty 1400–1407 4th Chinese domination 1407–1428 Later Lê dynasty 1428–1527 Mạc dynasty 1527–1592 Later Lê Restoration 1533–1789 Tây Sơn dynasty 1778–1802 Nguyễn dynasty 1802–1945
Colonial French Cochinchina 1862–1949 French Annam 1883–1948 French Tonkin 1883–1948 French Indochina 1887–1954 Empire of Vietnam 1945
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North Vietnam was diplomatically isolated by many Western countries, and many other anti-communist nations worldwide throughout most of the North's history, as these nations only extended recognition to the anti-communist, republican government of South Vietnam. North Vietnam however, was recognized by almost all Communist countries and other Third World countries, like the Soviet Union and other Socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, China, North Korea, India and Cuba, and received aid from these nations. However, North Vietnam obtained diplomatic relations with several non-communist nations in the 1970s, like with the government under Gough Whitlam of Australia.

Fall of Saigon

After the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, or Vietcong, nominally governed South Vietnam for a time, however it was seen as a puppet government under the command of the North Vietnamese government. In practice, the newly conquered territory was administered by the PAVN. North and South Vietnam merged on July 2, 1976, to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

History since 1976

See Vietnam.

Notes

1. Although former emperor Bao Dai was also popular at this time and won a seat in the Assembly, the election did not allow voters to express a preference between Bao Dai and Ho. It was held publicly in northern and central Vietnam, but secretly in Cochinchina, the southern third of Vietnam. There was minimal campaigning and most voters had no idea who the candidates were. (Fall, Bernard, The Viet-Minh Regime (1956), p. 9.) In many districts, a single candidate ran unopposed. (Fall, p. 10.) Party representation in the Assembly was publicly announced before the election was held. (Springhal, John, Decolonization since 1945 (1955), p. 44.)

References

1. William H. Thornton. Fire on the rim: the cultural dynamics of East/West power politics. Lanham, Maryland, USA: Rowan & Little field Publishers, Inc., 2002. Pp. 161.
2. The August Revolution and its historic significance
3. "Political Overview"
4. Lindholm, Richard (1959). Viet-nam, the first five years: an international symposium. Michigan State University Press. p. 49.
5. ^ Tran, Thi Lien (November 2005). "The Catholic Question in North Vietnam". Cold War History (London: Routledge) 5 (4): 427–49. DOI:10.1080/14682740500284747.
6. Jacobs, Seth (2006). Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam, 1950–1963. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-4447-8. p. 45
7. Truong Nhu Tang. 1986. A Viet Cong Memoir. Vintage.
8. Frankum, Ronald (2007). Operation Passage to Freedom: The United States Navy in Vietnam, 1954–55. Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press. ISBN 978-0-89672-608-6. p. 159
9. Frankum, Ronald (2007). Operation Passage to Freedom: The United States Navy in Vietnam, 1954–55. Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press. ISBN 978-0-89672-608-6. p. 160
10. Frankum, Ronald (2007). Operation Passage to Freedom: The United States Navy in Vietnam, 1954–55. Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press. ISBN 978-0-89672-608-6. p. 190
11. Frankum, Ronald (2007). Operation Passage to Freedom: The United States Navy in Vietnam, 1954–55. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press. ISBN 978-0-89672-608-6.
12. Ruane, Kevin (1998). War and Revolution in Vietnam. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-85728-323-5.
13. Qiang Zhai, China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950-1975
14. http://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/2008/P4416.pdf On the question of communist reprisals in Vietnam by Anita Lauve Nutt, August 1970
15. Jean-Louis Margolin "Vietnam and Laos: the impasse of war communism" in The Black Book pp. 568–569.
16. Rosefielde, Steven (2009). Red Holocaust. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-77757-5. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |author link= ignored (|author-link= suggested) (help)
17. "NORTH VIET NAM: The Knowledge of Death". Time. December 3, 1956.
18. "The History Place — Vietnam War 1945–1960". Retrieved 2008-06-11.

External links

• Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
• recorded sound of that declaration
• video of this ceremony

Template:Succession

21°02′N 105°51′E / 21.033°N 105.850°E / 21.033; 105.850

• 1976 disestablishments
• Communism in Vietnam
• Former polities of the Cold War
• Vietnam War
• Divided regions
• Former socialist republics
• First Indochina War
• Indochina Wars
• Former countries in Vietnamese history
• States and territories established in 1954