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Vietnam
Education
 Education
and Cultural Activity
The long period of military conflict in Vietnam seriously
disrupted educational progress and cultural programs, especially
those remnants that dated from the years of French rule.
Emphasis has been placed on the reeducation of the people in the
south to instruct them in the Communist system.
Education
All schools in Vietnam were nationalized following
reunification, and by the late 1980s more than 12.6 million
pupils were in attendance. Schooling is free and compulsory.
Universities in Vietnam are the University of Hanoi (1956), and
the University of Ho Chi Minh City (1917). More than 90 percent
of the adult population is literate.
Culture
The cultural life of Vietnam was strongly flavored by that of
China until French domination in the 19th century. At that time
the traditional culture began to acquire an overlay of Western
characteristics. The postwar government expressed its desire to
rid Vietnamese life of Occidental influences.
Two major museums of Vietnamese culture have been established,
in Hanoi in 1958 and in Ho Chi Minh City in 1977. The National
Library was established in Hanoi in 1919; a counterpart was
founded in Ho Chi Minh City in 1976.
Communications
Telecommunications in Vietnam are under the control of the
government or the Vietnamese Communist party. The Voice of
Vietnam broadcasts from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. There are an
estimated 6.6 million radios and 2.2 million televisions
throughout the country. Of the four daily newspapers published
in Vietnam, Nhan Dan, the official paper of the Communist party,
has the largest circulation (300,000).
Government
A constitution enacted in 1992 assigns to the Communist party a
leading role in Vietnamese government and society. The party
acts through the Vietnam Fatherland Front, which includes
representatives of the nation's political parties, trade unions,
and social organizations.
Executive
Under the 1992 constitution, the head of state is a president,
elected by the legislature from among its members; as commander
of the armed forces, the president chairs the Council on
National Defense and Security. The prime minister, who heads the
government, appoints a cabinet, subject to legislative approval.
Legislative
The unicameral National Assembly, composed of a maximum of 400
members, is the highest legislative body in Vietnam.
Governmental appointments are ratified by the legislature, which
is elected for a five-year term.
Judiciary
Judges of the people's courts are elected to their offices.
Organs of Control can initiate lawsuits against governmental
bodies or individuals deemed to be violating the law. The
highest court in Vietnam is the Supreme People's Court.
Local Government
A system of people's councils, each representing a local
jurisdiction, administers local government in Vietnam. Each
council has a people's committee elected from it to serve as an
executive. The country is divided into 50 provinces and three
municipalities: Hanoi, Haiphong, and Ho Chi Minh City.
Political Parties
The Vietnamese Communist party is the leading political
institution. All legislative candidates must be approved by the
Fatherland Front.
Social Services
A national social security system is in operation in Vietnam. In
the late 1980s the nation had some 20,100 physicians and
dentists and 216,000 hospital beds. The average life expectancy
at birth is 66 years for women and 62 years for men.
Defense
The Vietnamese armed forces totaled 857,000 troops in 1992. From
two to three years of military service are compulsory. Much of
the equipment used by the military consists of abandoned
American-made matériel and arms obtained from Vietnam's allies,
particularly the former Soviet republics.
International Organizations
Vietnam has been a member of the United Nations since 1977. The
country also belongs to the International Monetary Fund and the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Economy
Vietnam's modern economy evolved under the burden of military
actions and political upheavals. After partition in 1954, the
nations of North Vietnam and South Vietnam each had developed
their own economic structure, reflecting different economic
systems with different resources and different trading partners.
The North operated under a highly centralized, planned economy,
whereas the South maintained a free-market economy. With the
reunification of Vietnam in 1976 came the introduction of North
Vietnam's centrally planned economy into the South.
National Output
In 1992 Vietnam had an estimated annual gross domestic product
of $15.95 billion. To counteract economic stagnation, a
development program in 1990 called for a doubling of per capita
income, a 50 percent increase in the rice crop, and a fivefold
increase in the value of exports by the year 2000. With the fall
of the Soviet Union, Vietnam's principal benefactor, however,
sharp cuts in aid intensified the nation's economic problems.
Labor
The civilian labor force of Vietnam in the late 1980s was
estimated to exceed 30 million people. The only legal labor
federation is the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, which
had a membership of about 3.8 million.
The reunification of the country seriously affected the economic
structure of Vietnam in terms of the composition of the labor
force. The ethnic Chinese who left Vietnam were part of the
cadre of trained administrators. Many of the workers in the
south who fled or were sent to reeducation camps and collective
farms had been part of the management of industries and
businesses. Inexperienced workers were then placed in positions
of authority, and as a result productivity dropped.
Agriculture
The leading sector of the Vietnamese economy is agriculture,
which employs 72 percent of the labor force. The country's
principal crops in the late 1980s (with annual output in metric
tons) included rice, the staple food, 15.2 million; sugarcane,
6.7 million; fruits, vegetables, and melons, 7 million; cassava,
3 million; and sweet potatoes, 2.1 million. Cash crops include
coffee, 219,000; tea, 30,000; soybeans, 82,000; and natural
rubber, 51,000. Livestock included 12.1 million pigs, 2.9
million cattle, and 96 million poultry.
Forestry and Fishing
Although forests cover about 40 percent of Vietnam's total land
area, the growth of commercial forestry has been hindered by a
lack of transportation facilities, as well as by the mixture of
different species of trees, making it uneconomical to harvest a
single species. Teak and bamboo are predominant. Most of the
25.8 million cu m (911 million cu ft) of roundwood harvested
annually in the late 1980s was used for fuel.
Vietnam's extensive coastline and numerous streams are rich
fishing sites. Most fish are taken from the South China Sea.
Some fish farming has been undertaken in flooded areas inland.
About 871,400 metric tons of fish, crabs, shrimps and prawns,
and other mollusks were caught annually in the late 1980s.
Mining
Most mining activities are confined to the northwest, where
anthracite coal, phosphate rock, copper, tin, zinc, iron
antimony, and chromium are extracted. Coal and apatite, a
phosphate rock, are extensively mined. In addition, large
petroleum and natural gas deposits lie offshore. Petroleum has
been extracted since 1975 and production, mostly by a
state-owned company, has been increasing. The areas holding all
of the petroleum and natural gas reserves are also claimed by
China.
Manufacturing
The major Vietnamese manufacturing plants, concentrated in the
north, have been almost totally restored, but output has not
reached planned levels. Those industries that have dominated
Vietnam's economy manufacture paper, cement, textiles, food
products, chemicals, fertilizers, and electronics.
Energy
Vietnam has not yet fully utilized its considerable
hydroelectric power potential. Coal-powered plants remain the
primary source of electricity. In the late 1980s some 5.3
billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were generated annually.
Transportation
The war years left a mark on the transport system of Vietnam.
Since the end of the conflict, major efforts have been made to
link the south and the north. Vehicular transportation, easiest
along the coast, employs a network of about 85,700 km (about
53,250 mi) of roads, of which about 11 percent are paved.
Railways have about 3220 km (about 2000 mi) of operable track
and are concentrated in the north, except for the 1730-km
(1075-mi) Hanoi-to-Ho Chi Minh City line. The long coastline of
the country and the Mekong and Red rivers, as well as many
smaller streams and canals, facilitate inexpensive
transportation. The major ports used for international shipping
are Haiphong, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. Domestic flights
link several of Vietnam's cities, and Vietnam Airline operates
both internationally and domestically. Ho Chi Minh City and Noi
Bai have international airports. All transport facilities are
government controlled.
Currency and Banking
Following the reunification of Vietnam, the piastre, the
currency of the south, was abolished. The new dông is now the
national monetary unit; the new dông is divided into 100 xu
(10,500 new dông equal U.S.$1; 1992). The State Bank of Vietnam
(1951), headquartered in Hanoi, operates the only banking system
within the country. The Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam is
authorized to handle foreign currencies.
Commerce and Trade
The industrialized north relies on the south for much of its
agricultural needs, and, since the dismantling of the
free-market economy in the south, the north has provided
manufactured goods for the south. Vietnam's annual exports
include unprocessed agricultural products, petroleum, coal,
clothing, footwear, ceramics, gemstones, and silk. Exports were
valued at $2.01 billion in 1991. Imports, dominated by mineral
fuels, tractors, fertilizers, and transportation equipment, were
valued at about $2.05 billion. Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong,
France, and Germany are Vietnam's major trading partners. On
February 4, 1994, the United States ended a trade embargo that
had been imposed against North Vietnam in 1964 and extended to
all of Vietnam on April 30, 1975, after the fall of South
Vietnam. Restrictions on the sale of weapons and some
high-technology goods were left in place. Diplomatic relations
were not restored, but there were provisions for the opening of
liaison offices in each capital.
History
The Vietnamese first appeared in history as one of many
scattered peoples living in what is now South China and Northern
Vietnam just before the beginning of the Christian era.
According to local tradition, the small Vietnamese kingdom of Au
Lac, located in the heart of the Red River valley, was founded
by a line of legendary kings who had ruled over the ancient
kingdom of Van Lang for thousands of years. Historical evidence
to substantiate this tradition is scanty, but archaeological
findings indicate that the early peoples of the Red River delta
area may have been among the first East Asians to practice
agriculture, and by the 1st century BC they had achieved a
relatively advanced level of Bronze Age civilization.
Chinese Influence
In 221 BC the Ch'in dynasty in China completed its conquest of
neighboring states and became the first to rule over a united
China. The Ch'in Empire, however, did not long survive the death
of its dynamic founder, Shih Huang Ti, and the impact of its
collapse was soon felt in Vietnam. In the wreckage of the
empire, the Chinese commander in the south built his own kingdom
of Nam Viet (South Viet; Chinese, Nan Yüeh); the young state of
Au Lac was included.
In 111 BC, Chinese armies conquered Nam Viet and absorbed it
into the growing Han Empire. The Chinese conquest had fateful
consequences for the future course of Vietnamese history. After
briefly ruling through local chieftains, Chinese rulers
attempted to integrate Vietnam politically and culturally into
the Han Empire. Chinese administrators were imported to replace
the local landed nobility. Political institutions patterned
after the Chinese model were imposed, and Confucianism became
the official ideology. The Chinese language was introduced as
the medium of official and literary expression, and Chinese
ideographs were adopted as the written form for the Vietnamese
spoken language. Chinese art, architecture, and music exercised
a powerful impact on their Vietnamese counterparts.
Vietnamese resistance to rule by the Chinese was fierce but
sporadic. The most famous early revolt took place in AD 39, when
two widows of local aristocrats, the Trung sisters, led an
uprising against foreign rule. The revolt was briefly
successful, and the older sister, Trung Trac, established
herself as ruler of an independent state. Chinese armies
returned to the attack, however, and in AD 43 Vietnam was
reconquered.
Independence
The Trung sisters' revolt was only the first in a series of
intermittent uprisings that took place during a thousand years
of Chinese rule in Vietnam. Finally, in 939, Vietnamese forces
under Ngo Quyen took advantage of chaotic conditions in China to
defeat local occupation troops and set up an independent state.
Ngo Quyen's death a few years later ushered in a period of civil
strife, but in the early 11th century the first of the great
Vietnamese dynasties was founded. Under the astute leadership of
several dynamic rulers, the Ly dynasty ruled Vietnam for more
than 200 years, from 1010 to 1225. Although the rise of the Ly
reflected the emergence of a lively sense of Vietnamese
nationhood, Ly rulers retained many of the political and social
institutions that had been introduced during the period of
Chinese rule. Confucianism continued to provide the foundation
for the political institutions of the state. The Chinese civil
service examination system was retained as the means of
selecting government officials, and although at first only
members of the nobility were permitted to compete in the
examinations, eventually the right was extended to include most
males. The educational system also continued to reflect the
Chinese model. Young Vietnamese preparing for the examinations
were schooled in the Confucian classics and grew up conversant
with the great figures and ideas that had shaped Chinese
history.
Vietnamese society, however, was more than just a pale
reflection of China. Beneath the veneer of Chinese fashion and
thought, popular mostly among the upper classes, native forms of
expression continued to flourish. Young Vietnamese learned to
appreciate the great heroes of the Vietnamese past, many of whom
had built their reputation on resistance to the Chinese
conquest. At the village level, social mores reflected native
forms more than patterns imported from China. Although to the
superficial eye Vietnam looked like a “smaller dragon,” under
the tutelage of the great empire to the north it continued to
have a separate culture with vibrant traditions of its own.
The Economy Under the Ly Dynasty
Like most of its neighbors, Vietnam was primarily an
agricultural state, its survival based above all on the
cultivation of wet rice. As in medieval Europe, much of the land
was divided among powerful noble families, who often owned
thousands of serfs or domestic slaves. A class of landholding
farmers also existed, however, and powerful monarchs frequently
attempted to protect this class by limiting the power of feudal
lords and dividing up their large estates.
The Vietnamese economy was not based solely on agriculture.
Commerce and manufacturing thrived, and local crafts appeared in
regional markets throughout the area. Vietnam never developed
into a predominantly commercial nation, however, or became a
major participant in regional trade patterns.
Territorial Expansion
Under the rule of the Ly dynasty and its successor, the Tran
(1225-1400), Vietnam became a dynamic force in Southeast Asia.
China's rulers, however, had not abandoned their historic
objective of controlling the Red River delta, and when the
Mongol dynasty came to power in the 13th century, the armies of
Kublai Khan attacked Vietnam in an effort to reincorporate it
into the Chinese Empire. The Vietnamese resisted with vigor, and
after several bitter battles they defeated the invaders and
drove them back across the border.
While the Vietnamese maintained their vigilance toward the
north, an area of equal and growing concern lay to the south.
For centuries, the Vietnamese state had been restricted to its
heartland in the Red River valley and adjacent hills. Tension
between Vietnam and the kingdom of Champa (see CHAMPA, KINGDOM
OF), a seafaring state along the central coast, appeared shortly
after the restoration of Vietnamese independence. On several
occasions, Cham armies broke through Vietnamese defenses and
occupied the capital near Hanoi. More frequently, Vietnamese
troops were victorious, and they gradually drove Champa to the
south. Finally, in the 15th century, Vietnamese forces captured
the Cham capital south of present-day Da Nang and virtually
destroyed the kingdom. For the next several generations, Vietnam
continued its historic “march to the south,” wiping up the
remnants of the Cham Kingdom and gradually approaching the
marshy flatlands of the Mekong delta. There it confronted a new
foe, the Khmer Empire, which had once been the most powerful
state in the region. By the late 16th century, however, it had
declined, and it offered little resistance to Vietnamese
encroachment. By the end of the 17th century, Vietnam had
occupied the lower Mekong delta and began to advance to the
west, threatening to transform the disintegrating Khmer state
into a mere protectorate. See also CAMBODIA.
The Le Dynasty
The Vietnamese advance to the south coincided with new
challenges in the north. In 1407 Vietnam was again conquered by
Chinese troops. For two decades, the Ming dynasty attempted to
reintegrate Vietnam into the empire, but in 1428, resistance
forces under the rebel leader Le Loi dealt the Chinese a
decisive defeat and restored Vietnamese independence. Le Loi
mounted the throne as the first emperor of the Le dynasty. The
new ruling house retained its vigor for more than a hundred
years, but in the 16th century it began to decline. Power at
court was wielded by two rival aristocratic clans, the Trinh and
the Nguyen. When the former became dominant, the Nguyen were
granted a fiefdom in the south, dividing Vietnam into two
separate zones. Rivalry was sharpened by the machinations of
European powers newly arrived in Southeast Asia in pursuit of
wealth and Christian converts.
By the late 18th century, the Le dynasty was near collapse. Vast
rice lands were controlled by grasping feudal lords. Angry
peasants—led by the Tay Son brothers—revolted, and in 1789
Nguyen Hue, the ablest of the brothers, briefly restored Vietnam
to united rule. Nguyen Hue died shortly after ascending the
throne; a few years later Nguyen Anh, an heir to the Nguyen
house in the south, defeated the Tay Son armies. As Emperor Gia
Long, he established a new dynasty in 1802.
French Intervention
A French missionary, Pierre Pigneau de Behaine, had raised a
mercenary force to help Nguyen Anh seize the throne in the hope
that the new emperor would provide France with trading and
missionary privileges, but his hopes were disappointed. The
Nguyen dynasty was suspicious of French influence. Roman
Catholic missionaries and their Vietnamese converts were
persecuted, and a few were executed during the 1830s. Religious
groups in France demanded action from the government in Paris.
When similar pressure was exerted by commercial and military
interests, Emperor Napoleon III approved the launching of a
naval expedition in 1858 to punish the Vietnamese and force the
court to accept a French protectorate.
The first French attack at Da Nang Harbor failed to achieve its
objectives, but a second farther south was more successful, and
in 1862 the court at Hue agreed to cede several provinces in the
Mekong delta (later called Cochin China) to France. In the 1880s
the French returned to the offensive, launching an attack on the
north. After severe defeats, the Vietnamese accepted a French
protectorate over the remaining territory of Vietnam.
Colonial Rule and Resistance
The imposition of French colonial rule had met with little
organized resistance. The national sense of identity, however,
had not been crushed, and anticolonial sentiment soon began to
emerge. Poor economic conditions contributed to native hostility
to French rule. Although French occupation brought improvements
in transportation and communications, and contributed to the
growth of commerce and manufacturing, colonialism brought little
improvement in livelihood to the mass of the population. In the
countryside, peasants struggled under heavy taxes and high
rents. Workers in factories, in coal mines, and on rubber
plantations labored in abysmal conditions for low wages. By the
early 1920s, nationalist parties began to demand reform and
independence. In 1930 the revolutionary Ho Chi Minh formed an
Indochinese Communist party.
Until World War II started in 1939, such groups labored without
success. In 1940, however, Japan demanded and received the right
to place Vietnam under military occupation, restricting the
local French administration to figurehead authority. Seizing the
opportunity, the Communists organized the broad Vietminh Front
and prepared to launch an uprising at the war's end. The
Vietminh (short for Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh, or League for
the Independence of Vietnam) emphasized moderate reform and
national independence rather than specifically Communist aims.
When the Japanese surrendered to the Allies in August 1945,
Vietminh forces arose throughout Vietnam and declared the
establishment of an independent republic in Hanoi.
The French, however, were unwilling to concede independence and
in October drove the Vietminh and other nationalist groups out
of the south. For more than a year the French and the Vietminh
sought a negotiated solution, but the talks, held in France,
failed to resolve differences, and war broke out in December
1946.
The Expulsion of the French
The conflict lasted for nearly eight years. The Vietminh
retreated into the hills to build up their forces while the
French formed a rival Vietnamese government under Emperor Bao
Dai, the last ruler of the Nguyen dynasty, in populated areas
along the coast. Vietminh forces lacked the strength to defeat
the French and generally restricted their activities to
guerrilla warfare. In 1953-1954 the French fortified a base at
Dien Bien Phu. After months of siege and heavy casualties, the
Vietminh overran the fortress in a decisive battle. As a
consequence, the French government could no longer resist
pressure from a war-weary populace at home and in June 1954
agreed to negotiations to end the war. At a conference held in
Geneva the two sides accepted an interim compromise to end the
war. They divided the country at the 17th parallel, with the
Vietminh in the North and the French and their Vietnamese
supporters in the South. To avoid permanent partition, a
political protocol was drawn up, calling for national elections
to reunify the country two years after the signing of the
treaty.
Partition
After Geneva, the Viet minh in Hanoi refrained from armed
struggle and began to build a Communist society. In the southern
capital, Saigon, Bao Dai soon gave way to a new regime under the
staunch anti-Communist president Ngo Dinh Diem. With diplomatic
support from the United States, Diem refused to hold elections
and attempted to destroy Communist influence in the South. By
1959, however, Diem was in trouble. His unwillingness to
tolerate domestic opposition, his alleged favoritism of fellow
Roman Catholics, and the failure of his social and economic
programs seriously alienated key groups in the populace and led
to rising unrest. The Communists decided it was time to resume
their revolutionary war.
The Vietnam War
In the fall of 1963, Diem was overthrown and killed in a coup
launched by his own generals. In the political confusion that
followed, the security situation in South Vietnam continued to
deteriorate, putting the Communists within reach of victory. In
early 1965, to prevent the total collapse of the Saigon regime,
U.S. President Lyndon Johnson approved regular intensive bombing
of North Vietnam and the dispatch of U.S. combat troops into the
South.
The U.S. intervention caused severe problems for the Communists
on the battlefield and compelled them to send regular units of
the North Vietnamese army into the South. It did not persuade
them to abandon the struggle, however, and in 1968, after the
bloody Tet offensive shook the new Saigon regime of President
Nguyen Van Thieu to its foundations, the Johnson administration
decided to pursue a negotiated settlement. Ho Chi Minh died in
1969 and was succeeded by another leader of the revolution, Le
Duan. The new U.S. president, Richard Nixon, continued Johnson's
policy while gradually withdrawing U.S. troops. In January 1973
the war temporarily came to an end with the signing of a peace
agreement in Paris. The settlement provided for the total
removal of remaining U.S. troops, while Hanoi tacitly agreed to
accept the Thieu regime in preparation for new national
elections. The agreement soon fell apart, however, and in early
1975 the Communists launched a military offensive. In six weeks,
the resistance of the Thieu regime collapsed, and on April 30
the Communists seized power in Saigon. See also VIETNAM WAR.
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam
In 1976 the South was reunited with the North in a new Socialist
Republic of Vietnam. The conclusion of the war, however, did not
end the violence. Border tension with the Communist government
in Cambodia escalated rapidly after the fall of Saigon, and in
early 1979 the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and installed a
pro-Vietnamese government. A few weeks later, Vietnam was itself
attacked by its Communist neighbor and erstwhile benefactor,
China. In the mid-1980s, about 140,000 Vietnamese troops were
stationed in Cambodia and another 50,000 troops in Laos. Vietnam
substantially reduced its forces in Laos during 1988 and
withdrew virtually all its troops from Cambodia by September
1989.
Within Vietnam, postwar economic and social problems were
severe, and reconstruction proceeded slowly. Efforts to
collectivize agriculture and nationalize business aroused
hostility in the south. Disappointing harvests and the
absorption of resources by the military further retarded
Vietnam's recovery. In the early 1990s, the government
encouraged foreign investment and sought to improve relations
with the United States.
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