Misplaced Pages

#580419

213-591: Vietnamese victory Post-invasion: [REDACTED]   Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (1982–1990) Second Third The Cambodian–Vietnamese War was an armed conflict between Democratic Kampuchea , controlled by Pol Pot 's Khmer Rouge , and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam . The war began with repeated attacks by the Kampuchea Revolutionary Army on the southwestern border of Vietnam, particularly

426-624: A plantation economy to promote export of tobacco , indigo , tea and coffee . However, they largely ignored the increasing demands for civil rights and self-government . An increasing dissatisfaction, even led to half-hearted, badly co-ordinated, and still worsely executed plots to oust the French, like the infamous Hanoi Poison Plot of 1908. A nationalist political movement soon emerged, with leaders like Phan Bội Châu , Phan Châu Trinh , Phan Đình Phùng , Emperor Hàm Nghi , and Hồ Chí Minh fighting or calling for independence. This resulted in

639-655: A unitary socialist state under the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in 1976. An ineffective planned economy , a trade embargo by the West , and wars with Cambodia and China crippled the country further. In 1986, the CPV initiated economic and political reforms similar to the Chinese economic reform , transforming the country to a socialist-oriented market economy . The reforms facilitated Vietnamese reintegration into

852-837: A Vietnamese-backed "liberation army" to fight against the Khmer Rouge government. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Communist Party Politburo was meeting in Hanoi to discuss its strategy for Kampuchea. It concluded that the Khmer Rouge government was a proxy of China, which had been trying to fill the power vacuum following the withdrawal of the United States. As such, China was identified as Vietnam's main enemy, and its client government in Phnom Penh had to be removed by conventional military force, because

1065-536: A chief justice, is the country's highest court of appeal , though it is also answerable to the National Assembly. Beneath the Supreme People's Court stand the provincial municipal courts and many local courts . Military courts possess special jurisdiction in matters of state security . Vietnam maintains the death penalty for numerous offences. In 2023, a three-person collective leadership

1278-454: A covert aid program to the non-communist resistance (NCR) amounting to $ 5 million per year, ostensibly for non-lethal aid only. This amount was increased to $ 8 million in 1984 and $ 12 million in 1987 and 1988. In late 1988, the United States pared back Central Intelligence Agency funding to $ 8 million, following reports that $ 3.5 million had been diverted by the Thai military. At the same time,

1491-527: A full-scale invasion using 13 divisions, estimated at 150,000 soldiers well-supported by heavy artillery and air power. Initially, Kampuchea directly challenged Vietnam's military might through conventional fighting methods, but this tactic resulted in the loss of half of the KRA within two weeks. Heavy defeats on the battlefield prompted much of the Kampuchean leadership to evacuate towards the western region of

1704-606: A major turning point in the course of Soviet-Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese diplomatic relations, and ultimately the Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea, a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was signed between Vietnam and the Soviet Union on 3 November 1978, which guaranteed the former of vital Soviet military aid in the scenario that China intervened in the conflict. Later, in November 1978, a command and control headquarters

1917-511: A meeting in order to make some, at first, largely cosmetic constitutional changes. The name "People's Republic of Kampuchea" was officially changed to the State of Cambodia ( SOC )—a name that had been previously used right after the 1970 coup —reintroducing the blue colour in the Cambodian flag and other state symbols, although the coat of arms remained almost the same. The national anthem and

2130-740: A modern independent Vietnam. But the Provisional Government of the French Republic did not act on these requests, including the idea of independence, and dispatched the French Far East Expeditionary Corps to restore colonial rule. This resulted in the Việt Minh launching a guerrilla campaign against the French in late 1946. The resulting First Indochina War lasted until July 1954. The defeat of French colonialists and Vietnamese loyalists in

2343-568: A negative ecological legacy. Despite the help of the Vietnamese Army, as well as of Soviet, Cuban and Vietnamese advisers, Heng Samrin had only limited success in establishing the PRK in the face of the ongoing civil war. Security in some rural areas was tenuous, and major transportation routes were subject to interdiction by sporadic attacks. The presence of Vietnamese throughout the country and their intrusion into Cambodian life added fuel to

SECTION 10

#1732765472581

2556-538: A poor state of quality. Cambodia's film industry began a slow comeback starting with Kon Aeuy Madai Ahp ( Khmer : កូនអើយ ម្តាយអាប ), also known as Krasue mother , a horror movie based on Khmer folklore about Ahp , a popular local ghost , the first movie made in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge era. The restoration of cultural life during the PRK was only partial though; there were socialist-minded restrictions hampering creativity that would only be lifted towards

2769-527: A presence there after several violent encounters with the locals. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) only managed to establish official relations with Tonkin in the spring of 1637 after leaving Dejima in Japan to establish trade for silk . Meanwhile, in 1613, the first English attempt to establish contact with Hội An failed following a violent incident involving the East India Company . By 1672

2982-569: A pro-Vietnamese line upon their victory in the same way as the Pathet Lao had done. However, their hopes were dashed as early as 1973, because People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) formations operating in Khmer Rouge-occupied territories were occasionally subjected to armed attacks by their allies. The Vietnamese position inside Kampuchea was further weakened after the end of the war, as there were no pro-Vietnamese elements left within

3195-524: A pro-government propaganda tool. The most important museum about the Khmer Rouge era was located at the Tuol Sleng DK prison and was named "Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes", now Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum . The annual Day of Remembrance , also known as "Day of Hatred" against the Khmer Rouge was instituted as part of the PRK's propaganda. Among the slogans chanted on the Day of Remembrance, one of

3408-577: A provisional government, which asserted national independence on 2 September. In July 1945, the Allies had decided to divide Indochina at the 16th parallel to allow Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China to receive the Japanese surrender in the north while Britain's Lord Louis Mountbatten received their surrender in the south. The Allies agreed that Indochina still belonged to France. But as

3621-451: A result of Vietnam's historical dominance over their country. From the Kampuchean perspective, the Vietnamese strategy to dominate Indochina involved infiltrating the communist parties of Kampuchea and Laos with Vietnamese-trained cadres. For that reason, when the first group of North Vietnamese-trained Khmer Rouge personnel returned to the country, they were immediately purged from the KCP. During

3834-535: A retaliatory strike at the end of 1977 in an attempt to force the Kampuchean government to negotiate. The Vietnamese military withdrew in January 1978, even though its political objectives had not been achieved; the Khmer Rouge remained unwilling to negotiate seriously. Small-scale fighting continued between the two countries throughout 1978, as China tried to mediate peace talks between the two sides. However,

4047-502: A reunified country, Phnom Penh Radio broadcast a commentary which proclaimed the "militant solidarity and friendship between peoples of Democratic Kampuchea and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam grow constantly greener and sturdier". However, during that same month, Pol Pot publicly hinted at tensions between Vietnam and Kampuchea when he told a visiting Vietnamese media delegation that there were "obstacles and difficulties" in

4260-575: A rise in income inequality and gender disparities. In 2021, General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong , was re-elected for his third term in office, meaning he is Vietnam's most powerful leader in decades. Vietnam is located on the eastern Indochinese Peninsula between the latitudes 8° and 24°N , and the longitudes 102° and 110°E . It covers a total area of 331,210 km (127,881 sq mi) or 331,699 km (128,070 sq mi). The combined length of

4473-512: A series of congratulatory messages and exchange visits. On 17 April 1976, Vietnamese leaders sent a message to congratulate Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea and Pol Pot on their "elections" as president, President of the People's Representatives and Premier of Kampuchea, respectively. Furthermore, the Vietnamese even denounced the alleged "U.S. bombing" of Siem Reap in February 1976, thereby reinforcing

SECTION 20

#1732765472581

4686-613: A ten-year Vietnamese occupation. During that period, the Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea continued to be recognised by the United Nations as the legitimate government of Kampuchea, as several armed resistance groups were formed to fight the Vietnamese occupation. Throughout the conflict, these groups received training in Thailand from the British Army 's Special Air Service . Behind the scenes, Prime Minister Hun Sen of

4899-485: A transition and eventually giving way to the restoration of the Kingdom of Cambodia . The PRK/SOC existed as a communist state from 1979 until 1991, the year in which the ruling single party abandoned its Marxist–Leninist ideology . Under Vietnamese control, the PRK was established in the wake of the total destruction of the country's institutions, infrastructure and intelligentsia wreaked by Khmer Rouge rule. The PRK

5112-472: A treaty of friendship and begin discussions on border disputes. However, those discussions never materialised, and the Kampucheans claimed that Vietnam turned down both offers. In August 1975, Vietnam returned the island of Koh Poulo Wai to Kampuchea and formally recognised Kampuchean sovereignty over the island. Following those incidents, both countries attempted to improve their diplomatic relations with

5325-496: Is a low-level plain no more than 3 metres (9.8 ft) above sea level at any point. It is criss-crossed by a maze of rivers and canals, which carry so much sediment that the delta advances 60 to 80 metres (196.9 to 262.5 ft) into the sea every year. The exclusive economic zone of Vietnam covers 417,663 km (161,261 sq mi) in the South China Sea . Southern Vietnam is divided into coastal lowlands,

5538-518: Is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, with 55% of its population living in low-elevation coastal areas. As the country is located within the Indomalayan realm , Vietnam is one of twenty-five countries considered to possess a uniquely high level of biodiversity . This was noted in the country's National Environmental Condition Report in 2005. It is ranked 16th worldwide in biological diversity, being home to approximately 16% of

5751-465: Is the legacy of the use of the chemical herbicide Agent Orange , which continues to cause birth defects and many health problems in the Vietnamese population. In the southern and central areas affected most by the chemical's use during the Vietnam War, nearly 4.8 million Vietnamese people have been exposed to it and suffered from its effects. In 2012, approximately 50 years after the war,

5964-471: The Ba Chúc massacre which resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Vietnamese civilians. On 23 December 1978, 10 out of 19 of the Khmer Rouge's military divisions opened fire along the border with Vietnam with the goal of invading the Vietnamese provinces of Đồng Tháp, An Giang and Kiên Giang. On 25 December 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea, occupying the country in two weeks and removing

6177-482: The Demilitarised Zone , roughly along the 17th parallel north (pending elections scheduled for July 1956 ). A 300-day period of free movement was permitted, during which almost a million northerners, mainly Catholics, moved south, fearing persecution by the communists. This migration was in large part aided by the United States military through Operation Passage to Freedom . The partition of Vietnam by

6390-610: The Eastern Bloc nations; among these only the Socialist Republic of Romania would refuse assistance to the PRK. The bulk of international help and aid from Western nations would be diverted to refugee camps along the Thai border. Faced with a destroyed country and lack of international aid, large numbers of distraught Cambodians flocked to the Thai border in the years that followed. There, international help provided by different international aid organisations, many of them backed by

6603-591: The Fall of Saigon in April 1975 immediately brought a new conflict between Vietnam and Cambodia. Although the North Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge had previously fought side by side, the leaders of the newly created Democratic Kampuchea continued to view Vietnam with great suspicion, because they believed the Vietnamese communists had never given up their dream of creating an Indochinese federation with Vietnam as

Cambodian–Vietnamese War - Misplaced Pages Continue

6816-765: The First Indochina War , from which Vietnam emerged victorious in 1954. As a result of the treaties signed between the Viet Minh and France, Vietnam was also separated into two parts. The Vietnam War began shortly after, between the communist North Vietnam , supported by the Soviet Union and China , and the anti-communist South Vietnam , supported by the United States . Upon the North Vietnamese victory in 1975, Vietnam reunified as

7029-478: The KPRAF / CPAF the only seriously organised fighting force against the state was the former Khmer Rouge militia, ironically labelled as the " Resistance ". This armed faction would wreak much havoc in Cambodia even after the restoration of the monarchy, well into the 1990s. This protracted civil war would bleed Cambodia's energies throughout the 1980s. Vietnam's occupation army of as many as 200,000 troops controlled

7242-488: The Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party , like Chan Sy and Hun Sen , were prominent from the start. As events in the 1980s progressed, the main preoccupations of the new government would be survival, restoring the economy, and combating the Khmer Rouge insurgency by military and political means. The PRK was a communist state. It continued the socialist revolution that had been started by DK, but abandoning

7455-550: The Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) to lead the political struggle for Cambodia's independence. Prince Sihanouk formed his own organisation, FUNCINPEC , and its military arm, the Armée Nationale Sihanoukienne (ANS) in 1981. Fraught with both internal and mutual discord, the non-communist groups opposing the PRK, were never very effective, so that all through the civil war against

7668-545: The Khmer Rouge government of Cambodia ordering massacres of Vietnamese residents in the border villages in the districts of An Giang and Kiên Giang , the Vietnamese military invaded Cambodia and removed them from power after occupying Phnom Penh . The intervention was a success, resulting in the establishment of a new, pro-Vietnam socialist government, the People's Republic of Kampuchea , which ruled until 1989. However, this worsened relations with China, which had supported

7881-576: The Khúc family . In AD 938, the Vietnamese lord Ngô Quyền defeated the forces of the Chinese Southern Han state at Bạch Đằng River and achieved full independence for Vietnam in 939 after a millennium of Chinese domination. By the 960s, the dynastic Đại Việt ( Great Viet ) kingdom was established, Vietnamese society enjoyed a golden era under the Lý and Trần dynasties. During the rule of

8094-761: The Late Pleistocene have been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. Areas comprising what is now Vietnam participated in the Maritime Jade Road , as ascertained by archeological research. By about 1,000 BC, the development of wet- rice cultivation in the Ma River and Red River floodplains led to the flourishing of Đông Sơn culture , notable for its bronze casting used to make elaborate bronze Đông Sơn drums . At this point,

8307-628: The Mekong Delta region . In order to pre-empt any attempt by the Vietnamese to dominate them, the Khmer Rouge leadership began, as the Lon Nol government capitulated in 1975, to purge Vietnamese-trained personnel within their own ranks. Then, in May 1975, the newly formed Democratic Kampuchea began attacking Vietnam, beginning with an attack on the island of Phú Quốc or Koh Trol as referred to by both Vietnam and Cambodia at that time. In spite of

8520-722: The Nguyễn dynasty , ruling under the name Gia Long . In the 1500s, the Portuguese explored the Vietnamese coast and reportedly erected a stele on the Chàm Islands to mark their presence. By 1533, they began landing in the Vietnamese delta but were forced to leave because of local turmoil and fighting. They also had less interest in the territory than they did in China and Japan. After they had settled in Macau and Nagasaki to begin

8733-634: The Nguyễn dynasty . In the second year of his rule, he asked the Jiaqing Emperor of the Qing dynasty to confer on him the title 'King of Nam Việt / Nanyue' ( 南越 in Chinese character) after seizing power in Annam. The Emperor refused because the name was related to Zhao Tuo 's Nanyue, which included the regions of Guangxi and Guangdong in southern China. The Qing Emperor, therefore, decided to call

Cambodian–Vietnamese War - Misplaced Pages Continue

8946-519: The Republic of Vietnam in the south—supported by the United States, France, Laos , Republic of China and Thailand—and Hồ's Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north, supported by the Soviet Union, Sweden, Khmer Rouge , and the People's Republic of China . From 1953 to 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted agrarian reforms including " rent reduction " and " land reform ", which resulted in significant political repression . This included 13,500 to as many as 100,000 executions. In

9159-481: The Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia , with an area of about 331,000 square kilometres (128,000 sq mi) and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's fifteenth-most populous country . One of the two Marxist–Leninist states in Southeast Asia, Vietnam shares land borders with China to the north, and Laos and Cambodia to

9372-650: The Soviet Union as its main allies. The PRK failed to secure United Nations endorsement due to the diplomatic intervention of China, the United Kingdom, the United States and the ASEAN countries. The Cambodian seat at the United Nations was held by the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea , which was the Khmer Rouge in coalition with two non-communist guerrilla factions. However,

9585-842: The United Nations Security Council twice. The name Việt Nam ( pronounced [viə̂tˀ nāːm] , chữ Hán : 越南 ), literally "Viet South", means "Viet of the South" per Vietnamese word order or "South of the Viet" per Classical Chinese word order. A variation of the name, Nanyue (or Nam Việt, 南越 ), was first documented in the 2nd century BC. The term " Việt " (Yue) ( Chinese : 越 ; pinyin : Yuè ; Cantonese Yale : Yuht ; Wade–Giles : Yüeh ; Vietnamese : Việt ) in Early Middle Chinese

9798-533: The United Nations Security Council , so Prince Sihanouk could present the deposed government's case. Despite strong objections from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia , the UN Security Council gave Sihanouk this chance. Although Sihanouk distanced himself from the human rights abuses of the Khmer Rouge, he accused Vietnam of using aggression to violate Kampuchea's sovereignty. As such, he demanded all UN countries suspend aid to Vietnam and not recognise

10011-580: The Viet Minh . When the Japanese were defeated at the end of World War II, he initiated the first Indochinese war of independence against the French. During this time, Vietnamese forces made extensive use of Cambodian territory to transport weapons, supplies, and troops. This relationship lasted throughout the Vietnam War , when Vietnamese communists used Cambodia as a transport route and staging area for attacks on South Vietnam. In 1951, Vietnam guided

10224-399: The Vietnamese Fatherland Front and worker and trade unionist parties. The National Assembly of Vietnam is the unicameral state legislature composed of 500 members. Headed by a chairman , it is superior to both the executive and judicial branches, with all government ministers being appointed from members of the National Assembly. The Supreme People's Court of Vietnam , headed by

10437-465: The collapse of Diệm's relationship with the United States , and ultimately to a 1963 coup in which he and Nhu were assassinated . The Diệm era was followed by more than a dozen successive military governments, before the pairing of Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ and General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu took control in mid-1965. Thiệu gradually outmaneuvered Kỳ and cemented his grip on power in fraudulent elections in 1967 and 1971. During this political instability,

10650-460: The constitution , the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) asserts their role in all branches of the country's politics and society. The president is the elected head of state and the commander-in-chief of the military, serving as the chairman of the Council of Supreme Defence and Security, and holds the second highest office in Vietnam as well as performing executive functions and state appointments and setting policy. The general secretary of

10863-430: The first dynasty emerged in 939. Successive monarchical dynasties absorbed Chinese influences through Confucianism and Buddhism , and expanded southward to the Mekong Delta , conquering Champa . During most of the 17th and 18th centuries, Vietnam was effectively divided into two domains of Đàng Trong and Đàng Ngoài . The Nguyễn —the last imperial dynasty—surrendered to France in 1883. In 1887, its territory

SECTION 50

#1732765472581

11076-405: The global economy and politics . Vietnam is a developing country with a lower-middle-income economy. It has high levels of corruption , censorship , environmental issues and a poor human rights record . It is part of international and intergovernmental institutions including the ASEAN , the APEC , the CPTPP , the Non-Aligned Movement , the OIF , and the WTO . It has assumed a seat on

11289-406: The government of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from power. In doing so, Vietnam put an ultimate stop to the Cambodian genocide , which had most likely killed between 1.2 million and 2.8 million people — or between 13 and 30 percent of the country’s population. On 7 January 1979, the Vietnamese captured Phnom Penh , which forced Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to retreat back into the jungle near

11502-651: The ground water in the Mekong and Red River Deltas has also become a major concern. And most notoriously, unexploded ordnances (UXO) pose dangers to humans and wildlife—another bitter legacy from the long wars. As part of the continuous campaign to demine /remove UXOs, several international bomb removal agencies from the United Kingdom, Denmark, South Korea and the US have been providing assistance. The Vietnam government spends over VNĐ1 trillion ($ 44 million) annually on demining operations and additional hundreds of billions of đồng for treatment, assistance, rehabilitation, vocational training and resettlement of

11715-583: The saola , giant muntjac and Tonkin snub-nosed monkey have also been discovered, along with one new bird species, the endangered Edwards's pheasant . In the late 1980s, a small population of Javan rhinoceros was found in Cát Tiên National Park. However, the last individual of the species in Vietnam was reportedly shot in 2010. In agricultural genetic diversity , Vietnam is one of the world's twelve original cultivar centres. The Vietnam National Cultivar Gene Bank preserves 12,300 cultivars of 115 species. The Vietnamese government spent US$ 49.07 million on

11928-439: The siege of Tourane in 1858, France was aided by Spain (with Filipino, Latin American , and Spanish troops from the Philippines ) and perhaps some Tonkinese Catholics. After the 1862 Treaty , and especially after France completely conquered Lower Cochinchina in 1867, the Văn Thân movement of scholar-gentry class arose and committed violence against Catholics across central and northern Vietnam. Between 1862 and 1867,

12141-457: The "people's war" concept in favour of a conventional military campaign. Not to be outdone by the Vietnamese military build-up, the Government of Democratic Kampuchea was busy strengthening its armed forces with Chinese support. In previous years, China had only provided the KRA with a limited quantities of arms and ammunition, but as relations with Vietnam worsened in 1978, Beijing established additional supply routes through Kampuchea and increased

12354-454: The "pro-American" camp, backed the FULRO against all Vietnamese, both anti-communist South Vietnam and the communist Viet Cong . Following the 1970 coup, thousands of Vietnamese were massacred by forces of Lon Nol. Many of the dead were dumped in the Mekong River . 310,000 ethnic Vietnamese fled Cambodia as a result. The Khmer Rouge would later murder the remaining Vietnamese in the country during their rule. The Khmer Rouge government adopted

12567-445: The 1930 Yên Bái mutiny by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDĐ), which the French quashed. The mutiny split the independence movement, as many leading members converted to communism . The French maintained full control of their colonies until World War II, when the war in the Pacific led to the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in 1940. Afterwards, the Japanese Empire was allowed to station its troops in Vietnam while

12780-410: The 1954 battle of Điện Biên Phủ allowed Hồ to negotiate a ceasefire from a favourable position at the subsequent Geneva Conference . The colonial administration was thereby ended and French Indochina was dissolved under the Geneva Accords of 21 July 1954 into three countries—Vietnam, and the kingdoms of Cambodia and Laos . Vietnam was further divided into North and South administrative regions at

12993-600: The 7th and 4th centuries BC, 'Yue'/'Việt' referred to the State of Yue in the lower Yangtze basin and its people. From the 3rd century BC, the term was used for the non-Chinese populations of southern China and northern Vietnam, with particular ethnic groups called Minyue , Ouyue , Luoyue (Vietnamese: Lạc Việt ), etc., collectively called the Baiyue (Bách Việt, Chinese : 百越 ; pinyin : Bǎiyuè ; Cantonese Yale : Baak Yuet ; Vietnamese : Bách Việt ; lit. 'Hundred Yue/Viet'). The term 'Baiyue'/'Bách Việt' first appeared in

SECTION 60

#1732765472581

13206-506: The CGDK and the PRK agreed to a power-sharing arrangement by forming a unity government known as the Supreme National Council (SNC). The SNC's role was to represent Cambodian sovereignty on the international stage, while the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was tasked with supervising the country's domestic policies until a Cambodian government was elected by the people. Cambodia's pathway to peace proved to be difficult, as Khmer Rouge leaders decided not to participate in

13419-408: The CPV performs numerous key administrative functions, controlling the party's national organisation. The prime minister is the head of government , presiding over a council of ministers composed of five deputy prime ministers and the heads of 26 ministries and commissions. Only political organisations affiliated with or endorsed by the CPV are permitted to contest elections in Vietnam. These include

13632-421: The Cambodian throne with the help of Vietnam, and under his rule Cambodia became a protectorate . Following his death in 1834, the Vietnamese empire under Minh Mang , who held strong Confucian beliefs, annexed and colonised Cambodia. Cambodia was governed under a Vietnamese administration in Phnom Penh and termed a Vietnamese province . The Vietnamese emperor attempted to erase Khmer culture , which had derived

13845-405: The Chinese coast and across the Gulf of Tonkin, picking up considerable moisture. The average annual temperature is generally higher in the plains than in the mountains, especially in southern Vietnam compared to the north. Temperatures vary less in the southern plains around Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, ranging from between 21 and 35 °C (70 and 95 °F) over the year. In Hanoi and

14058-446: The Chinese-supported Mạc dynasty challenged the Lê dynasty's power. After the Mạc dynasty was defeated, the Lê dynasty was nominally reinstalled. Actual power, however, was divided between the northern Trịnh lords and the southern Nguyễn lords , who engaged in a civil war for more than four decades before a truce was called in the 1670s. Vietnam was divided into North (Trịnh) and South (Nguyễn) from 1600 to 1777. During this period,

14271-440: The DK army had been routed and Phnom Penh captured by Vietnamese troops the day before, the KPRC proclaimed that the new official name of Cambodia was the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). The new administration was a pro-Soviet government supported by a substantial Vietnamese military force and civilian advisory effort. Despite the Vietnam-sponsored invasion and control, and the loss of independence that went along with it,

14484-451: The Eastern Military Zone of those he perceived to have been contaminated by the Vietnamese, Pol Pot ordered military units from the Southwest Zone to move into eastern Kampuchea and eliminate the "hidden traitors". Unable to withstand an attack from the Kampuchea Government, So Phim committed suicide while his deputy Heng Samrin defected to Vietnam. On 12 April 1978, the Kampuchean government declared they and Vietnam could negotiate again if

14697-459: The English did establish relations with Tonkin and were allowed to reside in Phố Hiến . Between 1615 and 1753, French traders also engaged in trade in Vietnam. The first French missionaries arrived in 1658, under the Portuguese Padroado . From its foundation, the Paris Foreign Missions Society under Propaganda Fide actively sent missionaries to Vietnam, entering Cochinchina first in 1664 and Tonkin first in 1666. Spanish Dominicans joined

14910-443: The French were weakened by the German occupation , British-Indian forces and the remaining Japanese Southern Expeditionary Army Group were used to maintain order and help France reestablish control through the 1945–1946 War in Vietnam . Hồ initially chose to take a moderate stance to avoid military conflict with France, asking the French to withdraw their colonial administrators and for French professors and engineers to help build

15123-429: The Geneva Accords was not intended to be permanent, and stipulated that Vietnam would be reunited after the elections. But in 1955, the southern State of Vietnam's prime minister, Ngô Đình Diệm , toppled Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum organised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu , and proclaimed himself president of the Republic of Vietnam . This effectively replaced the internationally recognised State of Vietnam by

15336-672: The KPRP was staffed primarily by ethnic Vietnamese or Cambodians under its tutelage, approximately 5,000 communist cadres went with them. The power vacuum the Vietnamese communists left in their wake in Cambodia was soon filled by the return of a young group of Cambodian communist revolutionaries, many of whom received their education in France. In 1960, the KPRP changed its name to the Kampuchean Communist Party (KCP), and

15549-595: The KRA advanced about 10 km (6.2 mi) into Tay Ninh Province , where they killed more than 1,000 Vietnamese civilians in Tân Biên district . Angered by the scale of Kampuchean assaults, the PAVN assembled eight divisions, estimated at 60,000 soldiers, to launch a retaliatory strike against Kampuchea. On 16 December 1977, the PAVN divisions, with support from elements of the Vietnam People's Air Force , crossed

15762-523: The KRA along the border regions to overthrow the Khmer Rouge government. Against the backdrop of military clashes, between 9 January and 20 February 1978, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Phan Hien made several trips to Beijing to hold discussions with representatives of the Kampuchean government, which ultimately proved to be fruitless. On 18 January 1978, China attempted to mediate between Kampuchea and Vietnam when Vice Premier Deng Yingchao (widow of Zhou Enlai ) travelled to Phnom Penh, where her effort

15975-484: The KRA continued its incursion by capturing the Thổ Chu Islands , where it executed 500 Vietnamese civilians. The Vietnamese military immediately responded to Kampuchean actions by launching a counterattack and removing Kampuchean forces from Phú Quốc and Thổ Chu, and then invading the Kampuchean island of Koh Poulo Wai . In June 1975, while on a visit to Hanoi , Pol Pot proposed that Vietnam and his country should sign

16188-817: The KRA made preparations for its war against Vietnam, state-controlled media in Vietnam sent congratulatory messages to the Government of the Democratic Kampuchea on the second anniversary of its establishment, on 17 April 1977. On 30 April 1977, the second anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the Kampuchean reply came in the form of a military attack against the Vietnamese provinces of An Giang and Châu Đốc , killing hundreds of Vietnamese civilians. The PAVN responded by moving its troops to areas attacked by Kampuchea and, on 7 June 1977, Vietnam proposed high-level talks to discuss outstanding issues. On 18 June 1977,

16401-541: The KUFNS as "a Vietnamese political organisation with a Khmer name", because several of its key members had been affiliated with the KCP. Despite being dependent on Vietnamese protection and the backing of the Soviet Union behind the scenes, the KUFNS had an immediate success among exiled Cambodians. This organisation provided a much-needed rallying point for Cambodian leftists opposed to Khmer Rouge rule, channeling efforts towards positive action instead of empty denunciations of

16614-853: The Kampuchean Communist Party. When the pro-Chinese Pol Pot and his brother-in-law Ieng Sary resigned from their respective positions as premier and foreign minister in September 1976, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Văn Đồng and General Secretary of the Communist Party Lê Duẩn were optimistic that Vietnam could exercise greater influence on the Kampucheans. In a private meeting with the Soviet ambassador to Vietnam on 16 November 1976, Lê Duẩn dismissed both Ieng Sary and Pol Pot as "bad people" for their pro-Chinese policies. Le Duan then asserted that Nuon Chea, who had ascended to

16827-597: The Kampuchean Government replied by demanding that Vietnam remove all of its military units from the disputed areas, and create a demilitarised zone between the opposing forces. Both sides ignored each other's proposals, and the KRA continued sending soldiers across the border to attack Vietnamese towns and villages. In September 1977, KRA artillery struck several Vietnamese villages along the border, and six villages in Đồng Tháp Province were overrun by Kampuchean infantry. Shortly afterwards, six divisions of

17040-616: The Kampucheans' fictitious claims over the incident. In response, in June 1976, the Kampuchean leadership sent a message to the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam , which had governed South Vietnam since the fall of Saigon, congratulating them on the seventh anniversary of their establishment. In July 1976, following the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as

17253-421: The Kampucheans. Again, the Vietnamese pushed the KRA forces back into the provincial cities of Suong and Prey Veng and then pulled out. However, as they had done before, the KRA moved its artillery back towards the border and continued shelling Vietnamese villages as though nothing had happened. During the second half of 1978, Vietnamese leaders devoted much of their energy towards the military campaign against

17466-466: The Khmer Rouge at Khao Larn camp in Trat Province . Meanwhile, in Phnom Penh, the new Kampuchean government tried to rebuild the country's economic and social life, which was largely destroyed by decades of political upheavals and constant warfare. However, efforts to rebuild the country were severely hampered by the lack of educated and qualified personnel, as most educated people had either fled

17679-471: The Khmer Rouge government, by seeking political support from the Soviet Union. In a briefing with Vietnamese Foreign Ministry officials on 25 July 1978, the Soviet chargé d'affaires in Hanoi was told that the Kampuchean Government had deployed 14 of its 17 regular army divisions and 16 local regiments along the border with Vietnam. Then, in early September 1978, Lê Duẩn informed the Soviet ambassador that Vietnam aimed to "solve fully this question of Kampuchea by

17892-401: The Khmer Rouge government. Finally, China's PLA stationed a few hundred thousand soldiers on its own border with Vietnam (which would eventually be deployed in the brief Sino-Vietnamese War ), as well as nearly two million soldiers in its border with the Soviet Union. On 21 December 1978, Kampuchea's new-found strength was tested when a Vietnamese offensive, consisting of two divisions, crossed

18105-447: The Khmer Rouge government. Furthermore, instead of sending congratulatory messages as they had done in the previous years, the Vietnamese media changed their tone and began referring to the Kampuchean Government as the "Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique" as the Kampuchean military continued their campaign in Vietnam. By the end of June, the Vietnamese military assembled a multi-division task force to launch another limited-objective campaign against

18318-710: The Khmer Rouge took place sporadically in Cambodia under the Democratic Kampuchea regime, especially in the Eastern Zone after May 1978. By early 1978 the Vietnamese leadership decided to support internal resistance to Pol Pot and the Eastern Zone of Cambodia became a focus of insurrection. In the meantime, as 1978 wore on, Khmer Rouge bellicosity in the border areas surpassed Hanoi's threshold of tolerance. War hysteria against Vietnam reached bizarre levels within Democratic Kampuchea as Pol Pot tried to distract attention from bloody inner purges. In May 1978, on

18531-468: The Khmer Rouge was rebuilt slowly. The PRK managed to reopen the École de formation des cadres administratifs et judiciels , where in 1982 and 1986 training programmes were conducted. To rebuild the nation's intelligentsia, a number of Cambodians were sent to Eastern Bloc countries to study during the PRK's reconstruction period. Despite its efforts in the educational field, the PRK/SOC would struggle with

18744-565: The Khmer Rouge's radical policies and channelling the efforts of building socialism through more pragmatic channels in line with the policies marked by the Soviet Union and the Comecon . Very soon it would be one of the six countries regarded as socialist, and not just developing, by the USSR. Regarding ethnic minorities, the People's Republic of Kampuchea was committed to respect Cambodia's national diversity, which brought some welcome relief to

18957-439: The Khmer Rouge's return. Most Cambodians were psychologically affected and declared emphatically that they would not be able to survive another DK regime. The PRK government strongly encouraged such sentiments, for much of its legitimacy lay in having liberated Cambodia from Pol Pot 's yoke. As a consequence, gruesome displays of skulls and bones, as well as photographs and paintings of Khmer Rouge atrocities, were set up and used as

19170-597: The Khmer Rouge. China later launched a brief incursion into northern Vietnam in 1979, causing Vietnam to rely even more heavily on Soviet economic and military aid, while mistrust of the Chinese government escalated. At the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in December 1986, reformist politicians replaced the "old guard" government with new leadership. The reformers were led by 71-year-old Nguyễn Văn Linh , who became

19383-619: The Laos-Kampuchea border. On 13 December 1978, the Chinese Government warned Vietnam that its patience was limited, and that Vietnam would be punished if it behaved in an "unbridled fashion". The final piece of the Vietnamese strategy emerged when Vietnam announced the formation of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (KUFNS) in the "liberation zones" of Kampuchea. Hanoi claimed that KUFNS

19596-559: The Lê dynasty of the 15th century, especially during the reign of emperor Lê Thánh Tông (1460–1497). Between the 11th and 18th centuries, the Vietnamese polity expanded southward in a gradual process known as Nam tiến ("Southward expansion"), eventually conquering the kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Kingdom . From the 16th century onward, civil strife and frequent political infighting engulfed much of Đại Việt. First,

19809-737: The Nguyễn expanded southern Vietnam into the Mekong Delta , annexing the Central Highlands and the Khmer lands in the Mekong Delta. The division of the country ended a century later when the Tây Sơn brothers helped Trịnh to end Nguyễn, they also established new dynasty and ended Trịnh. However, their rule did not last long, and they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyễn lords, led by Nguyễn Ánh . Nguyễn Ánh unified Vietnam, and established

20022-637: The PRK government approached factions of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) to begin peace talks. Under diplomatic and economic pressure from the international community, the Vietnamese government implemented a series of economic and foreign policy reforms, and withdrew from Kampuchea in September 1989. At the Third Jakarta Informal Meeting in 1990, under the Australian-sponsored Cambodian Peace Plan , representatives of

20235-510: The PRK was considered the de facto government of Cambodia between 1979 and 1992, albeit with limited international recognition outside of the Soviet Bloc . Beginning May 1989, the PRK restored the name "Cambodia" by renaming the country State of Cambodia ( SOC ) during the last four years of its existence in an attempt to attract international sympathy. However, it retained most of its leadership and one-party structure while undergoing

20448-410: The PRK/SOC state. The Salvation Front was a heterogeneous group of communist and non-communist exiles determined to fight against Pol Pot and rebuild Cambodia. Led by Heng Samrin and Pen Sovann , both Khmer Rouge defectors , the organization occupied a zone liberated from the Khmer Rouge after the purge of the Eastern Zone. The front's foundation was announced by Radio Hanoi on 3 December 1978. Of

20661-651: The Reagan Administration gave new flexibility to the funds, permitting the NCR to purchase US-made weapons in Singapore and other regional markets. In 1985, the United States established a separate, overt aid program to the non-communist resistance which came to be known as the Solarz Fund after one of its chief sponsors, Rep. Stephen Solarz . The overt aid program channelled about $ 5 million per year to

20874-485: The Red River Delta, Mekong Delta, Western Nghệ An , Cà Mau , and Cu Lao Cham Marine Park . Vietnam is also home to 1,438 species of freshwater microalgae , constituting 9.6% of all microalgae species, as well as 794 aquatic invertebrates and 2,458 species of sea fish. In recent years, 13 genera , 222 species, and 30 taxa of flora have been newly described in Vietnam. Six new mammal species, including

21087-518: The SOC was unable to restore Cambodia's monarchical tradition. Although the SOC reestablished the prominence of monarchical symbols, like the grand palace in Phnom Penh, that was as far as it would go for the time-being, especially since Norodom Sihanouk had steadfastly associated himself with the CGDK, the opposition coalition against the PRK that included the Khmer Rouge. In mid-1991, however, succumbing to

21300-464: The Salvation Front's central committee proclaimed a set of "immediate policies" to be applied in the areas liberated from the Khmer Rouge. First the communal kitchens were abolished and some Buddhist monks would be brought to every community to reassure the people. Another of these policies was to establish "people's self-management committees" in all localities. These committees would form

21513-482: The Salvation Front's fourteen central committee members, the top two leaders —Heng Samrin, president, and Joran Pollie , vice-president— had been "former" Kampuchean Communist Party (KCP) officials; others were former Khmer Issarak as well as " Khmer Viet Minh " – members who had lived in exile in Vietnam. Ros Samay , secretary general of the KUFNS, was a former KCP "staff assistant" in a military unit. The government of Democratic Kampuchea lost no time in denouncing

21726-434: The South, Diệm countered North Vietnamese subversion (including the assassination of over 450 South Vietnamese officials in 1956) by detaining tens of thousands of suspected communists in "political reeducation centres". This program incarcerated many non-communists, but was successful at curtailing communist activity in the country, if only for a time. The North Vietnamese government claimed that 2,148 people were killed in

21939-572: The Soviet Union provided North Vietnam with significant material aid and 15,000 combat advisers. Communist forces supplying the Việt Cộng carried supplies along the Hồ Chí Minh trail , which passed through Laos . The communists attacked South Vietnamese targets during the 1968 Tết Offensive . The campaign failed militarily, but shocked the American establishment and turned US public opinion against

22152-591: The Tonkin mission in 1676, and Franciscans were in Cochinchina from 1719 to 1834. The Vietnamese authorities began to feel threatened by continuous Christianisation activities. After several Catholic missionaries were detained, the French Navy intervened in 1843 to free them, as the kingdom was perceived as xenophobic . In a series of conquests from 1859 to 1885, France eroded Vietnam's sovereignty. At

22365-665: The Trần dynasty, Đại Việt repelled three Mongol invasions . Meanwhile, the Mahāyāna branch of Buddhism flourished and became the state religion. Following the 1406–7 Ming–Hồ War , which overthrew the Hồ dynasty , Vietnamese independence was interrupted briefly by the Chinese Ming dynasty , but was restored by Lê Lợi , the founder of the Lê dynasty . The Vietnamese polity reached their zenith in

22578-482: The US began a US$ 43 million joint clean-up project in the former chemical storage areas in Vietnam to take place in stages. Following the completion of the first phase in Đà Nẵng in late 2017, the US announced its commitment to clean other sites, especially in the heavily impacted site of Biên Hòa . The Vietnamese government spends over VNĐ 10 trillion each year ($ 431.1 million) for monthly allowances and

22791-417: The US or the defunct South Vietnamese government, confounding Western fears, but up to 300,000 South Vietnamese were sent to reeducation camps , where many endured torture, starvation, and disease while being forced to perform hard labour. The government embarked on a mass campaign of collectivisation of farms and factories. Many fled the country following the conclusion of the war. In 1978, in response to

23004-481: The United States, was available. At one point, more than 500,000 Cambodians were living along the Thai-Cambodian border and more than 100,000 in holding centres inside Thailand. More than US$ 400 million was provided between 1979 and 1982, of which the United States, as part of its Cold War political strategy against communist Vietnam, contributed nearly $ 100 million. In 1982, the US government had initiated

23217-410: The Vietnam War ended, the relationship between the Khmer Rouge —which was in the process of seizing power from a US-backed government headed by Lon Nol—and North Vietnam was strained. Clashes between Vietnamese communists and Khmer Rouge forces began as early as 1974, and the following year Pol Pot signed a treaty codifying the "friendship" between the Khmer Rouge and China. The Fall of Phnom Penh and

23430-481: The Vietnamese adaptation of the Maoist " people's war " doctrine had not been a success against the Khmer Rouge's security apparatus. To reflect the attitude of the country's leaders, Vietnam's state-controlled media stepped up its propaganda war against the Khmer Rouge, with the official Nhân Dân newspaper regularly calling for international intervention to save the Kampuchean people from domestic terror initiated by

23643-424: The Vietnamese gave up their expansionist ambitions and recognised Kampuchea's sovereignty. However, there was also a pre-condition requiring Vietnam to meet several obligations through a seven-month trial ceasefire. The Vietnamese government immediately rejected the demand. In response, two KRA divisions penetrated up to 2 km (1.2 mi) into Vietnamese territory and massacred over 3,000 Vietnamese civilians in

23856-470: The Vietnamese invasion, was forced to take refuge in Thailand . The Thai government under Kriangsak Chamanan accommodated the Khmer Rouge refugees, in exchange for a promise by Deng Xiaoping to end material support to Thailand's insurgent communists . Despite the overwhelming economic challenges brought by the Khmer Rouge and the accompanying refugees, the Thai Government sheltered and protected

24069-605: The Vietnamese retaliation, the Kampuchean Government remained defiant. On 31 December 1977, Khieu Sampham declared that the Kampuchean Government would "temporarily" sever diplomatic relations with Vietnam until the Vietnamese military withdrew from the "sacred territory of Democratic Kampuchea". On 6 January 1978, PAVN divisions were only 38 km (24 mi) from Phnom Penh, but the Vietnamese Government decided to withdraw its forces from Kampuchea because they had failed to achieve Vietnam's political objective. During

24282-582: The Vietnamese revolutionary leader Hồ Chí Minh . The Việt Minh sought independence for Vietnam from France and the end of the Japanese occupation . After the military defeat of Japan in World War II and the fall of its puppet government Empire of Vietnam in August 1945, Saigon's administrative services collapsed and chaos, riots, and murder were widespread. The Việt Minh occupied Hanoi and proclaimed

24495-595: The Vietnamese to maintain control. A major point of departure between the Khmer Rouge faction and the Vietnam-aligned Communist Party of Kampuchea , which has favored more classical Marxism–Leninist ideology, was the Khmer Rouge's embrace of a nationalistic form of Maoism , one of the few major communist parties to do so in the wake of the Sino-Soviet split . This served as the basis for the Khmer Rouge's agrarian policies. Even before

24708-639: The Vietnamese-installed government. Subsequently, seven non-aligned members of the UN Security Council submitted draft resolution S/13027 calling for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Kampuchea, which was endorsed by China, France , Norway , Portugal , the United States and the United Kingdom . However, the resolution was not approved due to opposition from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Vietnam in ASEAN  (dark grey) Vietnam , officially

24921-564: The annexationist, Vietnamese aggressor enemy has given all of us greater confidence in the forces of our people and nation, in our Kampuchean Communist Party and our Kampuchean Revolutionary Army, and in our Party's line of people's war". The Kampuchean leadership claimed that one Kampuchean soldier was equal to 30 Vietnamese soldiers, so if Kampuchea could raise two million soldiers from a population of eight million, it could wipe out Vietnam's population of 50 million and still have six million people left. In reality, Kampuchean leaders simply ignored

25134-615: The area "Việt Nam" instead, meaning "South of the Viet" per Classical Chinese word order but the Vietnamese understood it as "Viet of the South" per Vietnamese word order. Between 1804 and 1813, the name Vietnam was used officially by Emperor Gia Long. It was revived in the early 20th century in Phan Bội Châu 's History of the Loss of Vietnam , and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDĐ). The country

25347-558: The basic administrative structure for the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Council (KPRC), decreed on 8 January 1979, as the central administrative body for the PRK. The KPRC served as the ruling body of the Heng Samrin regime until 27 June 1981, when a new Constitution required that it be replaced by a newly elected Council of Ministers. Pen Sovann became the new prime minister. He was assisted by three deputy prime ministers – Hun Sen, Chan Sy, and Chea Soth. On 8 January 1979, after

25560-452: The basis of Cambodian society, dress, and religion from India rather than China. The trend of Vietnamese dominance continued during French colonisation, under which the former southern region of Cambodia (the Saigon region, the Mekong Delta and Tây Ninh ) was integrated into the French colony Cochinchina . The Khmer Rouge later justified their incursions into Vietnam as an attempt to regain

25773-500: The beginning of 1979". While Vietnam was laying the political foundation for the military campaign against Kampuchea, Soviet ships were reported to be unloading military hardware and ammunition in Cam Ranh Bay . In October 1978, Vietnamese radio broadcast what it claimed were accounts of uprisings against the Khmer Rouge government, urging members of the KRA either to overthrow the "Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique" or defect to Vietnam. In

25986-591: The book Lüshi Chunqiu compiled around 239 BC. By the 17th and 18th centuries AD, educated Vietnamese apparently referred to themselves as người Việt (Viet people) or người Nam (southern people). The form Việt Nam ( 越南 ) is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình . The name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Hải Phòng that dates to 1558. In 1802, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (who later became Emperor Gia Long) established

26199-400: The border along several axes with the objective of forcing the Kampuchean Government to negotiate. On the battlefield, the KRA quickly lost ground to the Vietnamese. By the end of December 1977, Vietnam had won a clear military victory over Kampuchea, as Vietnamese formations marched through Svay Rieng Province and only stopped short of entering the provincial capital. Despite the ferocity of

26412-480: The border and moved towards the town of Kratie , while other support divisions were deployed along local routes to cut off the logistical tail of Kampuchean units. Despite enjoying generous support from China, the KRA could not withstand the Vietnamese offensive and suffered heavy casualties. On 23 December 1978, 10 out of 19 divisions of Khmer Rouge's military divisions opened fire along the shared Southwestern borderline with Vietnam. On 25 December 1978, Vietnam launched

26625-432: The border with Thailand . During the Vietnam War , Vietnamese and Cambodian communists had formed an alliance to fight U.S.-backed governments in their respective countries. Despite their cooperation with the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge leadership feared that the Vietnamese communists were planning to form an Indochinese federation, which would be dominated by Vietnam. They were also harboring irredentist sentiments about

26838-545: The colony's capital. During the colonial period, guerrillas of the royalist Cần Vương movement rebelled against French rule and massacred around a third of Vietnam's Christian population. After a decade of resistance, they were defeated in the 1890s by the Catholics in reprisal for their earlier massacres. Another large-scale rebellion, the Thái Nguyên uprising , was also suppressed heavily. The French developed

27051-436: The communists began to gain ground. To support South Vietnam's struggle against the communist insurgency, the United States used the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident as a pretext for increasing its contribution of military advisers. US forces became involved in ground combat operations by 1965, and at their peak several years later, numbered more than 500,000. The US also engaged in sustained aerial bombing . Meanwhile, China and

27264-476: The community of monks in Phnom Penh and later in the provinces, reordaining prestigious monks who had been formerly senior monks. They were not allowed, however, to ordain young novices. Repair works were started in about 700 Buddhist temples and monasteries, of the roughly 3,600 that had been destroyed or badly damaged by the Khmer Rouge. By mid-1980 traditional Buddhist festivals began to be celebrated. The DK had exterminated many Cambodian intellectuals, which

27477-417: The condition of the population in their own country and Vietnam; the Vietnamese, though poor, were in good physical condition, while Kampuchea's population was physically and mentally exhausted from years of hard labour, starvation and disease. In addition to the disparity in population, there was also a great disparity between the fighting capabilities of the armed forces of the two countries. In 1977, Vietnam

27690-415: The country by means of trenches, wire fences, and minefields along virtually the entire Thai-Cambodian border. The K5 border defence project, designed by Vietnamese general Lê Đức Anh , commander of the Vietnamese forces in Cambodia, irritated Cambodian farmers and ended up being psychologically counterproductive for the PRK. Large swathes of formerly inaccessible tropical forests were destroyed, leaving

27903-454: The country consists mostly of highlands and the Red River Delta. Fansipan (also known as Phan Xi Păng), which is located in Lào Cai province , is the highest mountain in Vietnam, standing 3,143 m (10,312 ft) high. From north to south Vietnam, the country also has numerous islands ; Phú Quốc is the largest. The Hang Sơn Đoòng Cave is considered the largest known cave passage in

28116-405: The country or had been murdered by the Khmer Rouge government during the previous four years. By the end of the year, the new government's attempts at nation-building were further challenged by several anti-Vietnamese resistance groups operating in the western regions of the country. Shortly after the capture of Phnom Penh, representatives of Democratic Kampuchea called for an emergency meeting of

28329-429: The country searching for family members and friends. Following the invasion there were severe famine conditions in the country, with some estimates reaching 500,000. Traditional farming had been so severely interfered with that it took time to be established anew. Meanwhile, the Khmer Rouge commune system had completely collapsed, following which there were no jobs and not enough food to eat. It took six months to begin

28542-596: The country's land area, and tropical forests cover around 42%. The Red River Delta in the north, a flat, roughly triangular region covering 15,000 km (5,792 sq mi), is smaller but more intensely developed and more densely populated than the Mekong River Delta in the south. Once an inlet of the Gulf of Tonkin , it has been filled in over the millennia by riverine alluvial deposits . The delta, covering about 40,000 km (15,444 sq mi),

28755-441: The country's land boundaries is 4,639 km (2,883 mi), and its coastline is 3,444 km (2,140 mi) long. At its narrowest point in the central Quảng Bình province , the country is as little as 50 kilometres (31 mi) across, though it widens to around 600 kilometres (370 mi) in the north. Vietnam's land is mostly hilly and densely forested, with level land covering no more than 20%. Mountains account for 40% of

28968-507: The country. On 7 January 1979, the PAVN entered Phnom Penh along with members of the KUFNS. On the following day, a pro-Vietnamese Kampuchean state, known as the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), was established, with Heng Samrin as the Chief of State and Pen Sovan as General Secretary of the newly refounded Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party . The Khmer Rouge leadership, with much of its political and military structures shattered by

29181-526: The deaths of almost a quarter of all Cambodians between 1975 and December 1978 during the Cambodian genocide . Vietnamese military intervention, and the occupying forces' subsequent facilitation of international food aid to mitigate the massive famine, ended the genocide. On 8 January 1979 the pro-Vietnamese People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) was established in Phnom Penh , marking the beginning of

29394-620: The dry seasons, and the Chinese-backed insurgency held the initiative during the rainy seasons. In 1982, Vietnam launched a major offensive against the main Khmer Rouge base at Phnom Malai in the Cardamom Mountains . But this operation met with little success. The Vietnamese concentrated on consolidating their gains through the K5 Plan , an extravagant and labour-intensive attempt to seal guerrilla infiltration routes into

29607-484: The early Vietnamese kingdoms of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc appeared, and the culture's influence spread to other parts of Southeast Asia , including Maritime Southeast Asia , throughout the first millennium BC. According to Vietnamese legends, Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings first established in 2879 BC is considered the first state in the history of Vietnam (then known as Xích Quỷ and later Văn Lang ). In 257 BC,

29820-523: The eastern provinces of Cambodia, where most of the CPP's votes were drawn from, would secede from Cambodia. To avoid such an outcome, Norodom Ranariddh , the leader of FUNCINPEC, agreed to form a coalition government with the CPP. Shortly afterward, the constitutional monarchy was restored and the Khmer Rouge was outlawed by the newly formed Cambodian government. Angkor , the seat of the Khmer Empire ,

30033-421: The end of the 1980s under the SOC. The PRK relied heavily on propaganda to motivate Cambodians for reconstruction, to promote unity and to establish its rule. Large billboards were displayed with patriotic slogans and party members taught the eleven points of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (KUFNS) to assembled adults. Survivors of Democratic Kampuchea rule lived in fear and uncertainty of

30246-461: The end of the war. It started by replanting mangrove forests in the Mekong Delta regions and in Cần Giờ outside Hồ Chí Minh City, where mangroves are important to ease (though not eliminate) flood conditions during monsoon seasons. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 5.35/10, ranking it 104th globally out of 172 countries. Apart from herbicide problems, arsenic in

30459-500: The establishment of a separate Cambodian communist party, the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP), which allied with a nationalist separatist Cambodian movement, the Khmer Serei (Free Khmers), in order to pursue independence. In accordance with the 1954 Geneva Accords negotiating the end of the French domination, newly created communist North Vietnam pulled all of its Viet Minh soldiers and cadres out of Cambodia. Since

30672-426: The ethnic Thai , Vietnamese , Cham and the " montagnards " of the northeast. The Chinese ethnic minority , however, perceived as an "arm of the hegemonists" continued to be oppressed, even though many of its members, mainly among the trader community, had endured great suffering under the Khmer Rouge. The speaking of Mandarin and Teochew was severely restricted, in much the same manner as under Pol Pot. One of

30885-525: The eve of So Phim 's Eastern Zone uprising, Radio Phnom Penh declared that if each Cambodian soldier killed thirty Vietnamese, only 2 million troops would be needed to eliminate the entire Vietnamese population of 50 million. It appears that the leadership in Phnom Penh was seized with immense territorial ambitions, i.e., to recover Kampuchea Krom , a region in the Mekong Delta which they regarded as Khmer territory. In November, pro-Vietnamese Khmer Rouge leader Vorn Vet led an unsuccessful coup d'état and

31098-402: The far northern mountains near the Chinese border. Vietnam receives high rates of precipitation in the form of rainfall with an average amount from 1,500 to 2,000 mm (60 to 80 in) during the monsoon seasons; this often causes flooding, especially in the cities with poor drainage systems. The country is also affected by tropical depressions , tropical storms and typhoons . Vietnam

31311-430: The fighting, the leaders of reunified Vietnam and Kampuchea made several public diplomatic exchanges throughout 1976 to highlight the supposedly strong relations between them. However, behind the scenes, Kampuchean leaders continued to fear what they perceived as Vietnamese expansionism. Therefore, on 30 April 1977, they launched another major military attack on Vietnam. Shocked by the Kampuchean assault, Vietnam launched

31524-486: The general elections, but instead chose to disrupt the electoral process by launching military attacks on UN peacekeepers and killing ethnic Vietnamese migrants. In May 1993, Sihanouk's FUNCINPEC movement defeated the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), formerly the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP), to win the general elections. However, the CPP leadership refused to accept defeat, and announced that

31737-402: The general lack of education and skills of Cambodian party cadres, bureaucrats and technicians throughout its existence. Cambodian cultural life began also slowly to be rebuilt under the PRK. Movie houses in Phnom Penh were re-opened, screening at first films from Vietnam , the Soviet Union , Eastern European socialist countries and Hindi movies from India. Certain films that did not fit with

31950-516: The genocidal regime. The KUFNS provided as well a framework of legitimacy for the ensuing invasion of Democratic Kampuchea by Vietnam and the subsequent establishment of a pro-Hanoi regime in Phnom Penh. Vietnamese policymakers finally opted for a military solution and, on 22 December 1978, Vietnam launched its offensive with the intent of overthrowing Democratic Kampuchea . An invasion force of 120,000-150,000, consisting of combined armour and infantry units with strong artillery support, drove west into

32163-536: The gradual repopulation of Phnom Penh, as electricity, water and sewage systems were reestablished and street repair and removal of garbage were undertaken. The destruction of Cambodian social institutions during the "Year Zero" period (1975–1979) had been thorough. It had left the PRK with little to start with, for there were no police, no schools, no books, no hospitals, no post and telecommunications, no legal system and no broadcasting networks, either for television or radio, whether state-owned or private. To compound

32376-477: The groups of the opposition. The State of Cambodia lived through a time of dramatic transitions triggered by the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. There was a reduction in Soviet aid to Vietnam which culminated in the withdrawal of the Vietnamese occupying forces. The last Vietnamese troops were said to have left Cambodia on 26 September 1989 but probably they did not leave until 1990. Many Vietnamese civilians also returned to Vietnam in

32589-491: The islands of Phu Quoc and Tho Chau , killing more than five hundred Vietnamese civilians; following the attack, the islands were swiftly recaptured by Vietnam. Even then, the first reactions of the Vietnamese were ambiguous, and it took Vietnam a long time to react with force, for the first impulse was to arrange matters diplomatically "within the family sphere". Massacres of ethnic Vietnamese and of their sympathisers, as well as destruction of Vietnamese Catholic churches, by

32802-409: The landholding elite and imperialists. In its place, they hoped to create a classless society based entirely on worker-peasants. The radical ideologies and goals of the Khmer Rouge were alien concepts to the masses. The socialist revolution held very little popular appeal, which led Pol Pot and his cadres to use ultra-nationalist sentiment, repressive and murderous rule, and propaganda aimed at demonising

33015-578: The last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán. He consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc , proclaiming himself An Dương Vương . In 179 BC, a Chinese general named Zhao Tuo ("Triệu Đà") defeated An Dương Vương and consolidated Âu Lạc into Nanyue . However, Nanyue was itself incorporated into the empire of the Chinese Han dynasty in 111 BC after the Han–Nanyue War . For

33228-560: The leader. For that reason, the Kampuchean government removed all North Vietnamese military forces from Kampuchean territory shortly after their capture of Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975. In the first major clash between the two former allies, the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army (KRA) invaded the Vietnamese island of Phú Quốc on 1 May 1975 (barely 24 hours after Saigon fell), claiming it was historically part of Kampuchea's territory . Nine days later, on 10 May 1975,

33441-419: The level countryside of Cambodia's southeastern provinces. After a seventeen-day blitzkrieg, Phnom Penh fell to the advancing Vietnamese on 7 January 1979. The retreating Kampuchea Revolutionary Army (RAK) and Khmer Rouge cadres burned rice granaries, which, along with other causes, provoked a severe famine all over Cambodia beginning in the last half of 1979 and which lasted until mid-1980. On 1 January 1979,

33654-436: The main official acts of the PRK was a partial restoration of Buddhism as the state religion of Cambodia and temples were gradually reopened to accommodate the monks and to resume a certain measure of traditional religious life. In September 1979 seven old monks were officially reordained at Wat Unnalom in Phnom Penh, and these monks gradually reestablished the Cambodian sangha between 1979 and 1981. They began rebuilding

33867-458: The major population centres and most of the countryside from 1979 to September 1989, but Heng Samrin's 30,000 KPRAF troops were plagued by poor morale and widespread desertion owing to low pay and poverty. Men were directly needed in their family farms as they were being rebuilt and there was much work to do. The civil war followed a wet season / dry season rhythm after 1980. The heavily armed Vietnamese forces conducted offensive operations during

34080-450: The military symbols were also changed. The name "Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Armed Forces" (KPRAF) were changed to "Cambodian People's Armed Forces" (CPAF). Capital punishment was officially abolished and Buddhism , which had been partially reestablished by the PRK in 1979, was fully reintroduced as the national religion, by which the restriction was lifted on the ordination of men under 50 years old and Buddhist traditional chanting

34293-428: The months following the defeat of the Lon Nol government, Pol Pot continued to purge the KCP and the Government of Democratic Kampuchea of those who he believed to be Soviet and Vietnamese agents. Then, in the context of the triumphalism that prevailed among the Khmer Rouge leadership—they claimed they had single-handedly defeated the "American imperialists"—Democratic Kampuchea began preparing for war against Vietnam. As

34506-424: The months that followed, lacking confidence in the ability of the PRK's new avatar to control the situation after the Vietnamese military had left. Despite the quite radical changes announced by Hun Sen, the SOC state stood firm when it came to the one party rule issue. The leadership structure and the executive remained the same as under the PRK, with the party firmly in control as the supreme authority. Accordingly,

34719-497: The most often repeated was "We must absolutely prevent the return of the former black darkness" in Khmer. At least 600,000 Cambodians had been displaced during the Pol Pot era when cities had been emptied. After the Vietnamese invasion freed them, most Cambodians who had been forcefully resettled elsewhere in the countryside returned to the cities or to their original rural homesteads. Since families had been disrupted and separated, many Cambodians freed from their communes wandered over

34932-406: The mountains of the Annamite Range , and extensive forests. 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 soil in much of the southern part of Vietnam is relatively low in nutrients as a result of intense cultivation. Several minor earthquakes have been recorded. The northern part of

35145-402: The mysterious term Angkar , or 'the organisation', and the identities of its leaders remained confidential until 1977. The official head of state was Khieu Samphan, but the two men in control of the party were Pol Pot and Ieng Sary. The ultimate objective of the Khmer Rouge was to erase the structure of the Cambodian state, which they viewed as feudal , capitalist, and serving the agendas of both

35358-428: The name was later adopted by the majority coalition that formed around Saloth Sar ( Pol Pot ), Ieng Sary , and Khieu Samphan as the successor to the KCP. This clique became the genesis of the Khmer Rouge, and its doctrine was heavily influenced by Maoist ideology. After the removal of Sihanouk from power in March 1970, the leader of the new Khmer Republic , Lon Nol , despite being anti-communist and ostensibly in

35571-443: The new order was welcomed by almost the entire Cambodian population due to the Khmer Rouge's brutality. However, there was some plundering of the almost empty capital of Phnom Penh by Vietnamese forces, who carried the goods on trucks back to Vietnam. This unfortunate behaviour would in time contribute to create a negative image of the invaders. Heng Samrin was named head of state of the PRK, and other Khmer communists that had formed

35784-429: The next thousand years, what is now northern Vietnam remained mostly under Chinese rule . Early independence movements, such as those of the Trưng Sisters and Lady Triệu , were temporarily successful, though the region gained a longer period of independence as Vạn Xuân under the Anterior Lý dynasty between AD 544 and 602. By the early 10th century, Northern Vietnam had gained autonomy, but not sovereignty, under

35997-447: The non-communist resistance through USAID . Meanwhile, a sizeable portion of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge forces regrouped and received a continuous and abundant supply of military equipment from China, channelled across Thailand with the co-operation of the Royal Thai Armed Forces . Along with other armed factions, the Khmer Rouge launched a relentless military campaign against the newly established People's Republic of Kampuchea state from

36210-682: The party's new general secretary. He and the reformers implemented a series of free-market reforms known as Đổi Mới ("Renovation") that carefully managed the transition from a planned economy to a " socialist-oriented market economy ". Although the authority of the state remained unchallenged under Đổi Mới , the government encouraged private ownership of farms and factories, economic deregulation, and foreign investment, while maintaining control over strategic industries. Subsequently, Vietnam's economy achieved strong growth in agricultural and industrial production, construction, exports, and foreign investment, although these reforms also resulted in

36423-453: The physical rehabilitation of victims of the chemicals. In 2018, the Japanese engineering group Shimizu Corporation , working with Vietnamese military, built a plant for the treatment of soil polluted by Agent Orange. Plant construction costs were funded by the company itself. One of the long-term plans to restore southern Vietnam's damaged ecosystems is through the use of reforestation efforts. The Vietnamese government began doing this at

36636-419: The position of Premier of Democratic Kampuchea as Pol Pot's replacement, was a person of pro-Vietnamese orientation, so Vietnam could exercise its influence through him. However, the events which developed over the next few months would prove Lê Duẩn had been mistaken in his assessment of Nuon Chea. Meanwhile, in Phnom Penh, the Kampuchean leadership had developed a fear and hatred of the Vietnamese leadership as

36849-428: The preservation of biodiversity in 2004 alone and has established 126 conservation areas, including 30 national parks . In Vietnam, wildlife poaching has become a major concern. In 2000, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Education for Nature – Vietnam was founded to instill in the population the importance of wildlife conservation in the country. In the years that followed, another NGO called GreenViet

37062-432: The private suspicions of both countries' leadership grew. From the Vietnamese perspective, they were the patrons of genuine Marxist–Leninist revolutions in Southeast Asia, so it was vital for them to exercise control over the Kampucheans and the Laotians. Indeed, that was the reason North Vietnam supported the Khmer Rouge during their fight against the Lon Nol government, in the hope that the Kampuchean communists would adopt

37275-401: The pro- Vichy French colonial administration continued. Japan exploited Vietnam's natural resources to support its military campaigns, culminating in a full-scale takeover of the country in March 1945. This led to the Vietnamese Famine of 1945 which killed up to two million people. In 1941, the Việt Minh , a nationalist liberation movement based on a communist ideology , emerged under

37488-416: The pro-Soviet designs of the PRK, such as Hong Kong action cinema , were banned in Cambodia at that time. The domestic film industry had suffered a severe blow, for a large number of Cambodian filmmakers and actors from the 1960s and 1970s had been killed by the Khmer Rouge or had fled the country. Negatives and prints of many films had been destroyed, stolen, or missing and the films that did survive were in

37701-416: The process by November 1957. The pro-Hanoi Việt Cộng began a guerrilla campaign in South Vietnam in the late 1950s to overthrow Diệm's government. From 1960, the Soviet Union and North Vietnam signed treaties providing for further Soviet military support. In 1963, Buddhist discontent with Diệm's Catholic regime erupted into mass demonstrations , leading to a violent government crackdown. This led to

37914-402: The profitable Macau–Japan trade route, the Portuguese began to involve themselves in trade with Hội An . Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries under the Padroado system were active in both Vietnamese realms of Đàng Trong ( Cochinchina or Quinan) and Đàng Ngoài ( Tonkin ) in the 17th century. The Dutch also tried to establish contact with Quinan in 1601 but failed to sustain

38127-716: The province of Phước Long and started a full-scale offensive , culminating in the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. South Vietnam was ruled by a provisional government for almost eight years while under North Vietnamese military occupation. On 2 July 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The war had devastated Vietnam and killed 966,000 to 3.8 million people. A 1974 US Senate subcommittee estimated nearly 1.4 million Vietnamese civilians were killed or wounded between 1965 and 1974—including 415,000 killed. In its aftermath, under Lê Duẩn 's administration, there were no mass executions of South Vietnamese who had collaborated with

38340-576: The refugee camps and from hidden military outposts along the Thai border. Even though the Khmer Rouge was dominant, the non-communist resistance included a number of groups which had formerly been fighting against the Khmer Rouge after 1975. These groups included Lon Nol -era soldiers —-coalesced in 1979–80 to form the Khmer People's National Liberation Armed Forces (KPNLAF)— which pledged loyalty to former Prime Minister Son Sann , and Moulinaka (Mouvement pour la Libération Nationale du Kampuchea), loyal to Prince Norodom Sihanouk . In 1979, Son Sann formed

38553-431: The relationship between the two countries. Nonetheless, on 21 September 1976, the first air service connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with Phnom Penh was established. Then in December 1976, the Kampuchean Revolutionary Organisation sent greetings to the Vietnamese Communist Party during their Fourth Congress . Towards the end of 1976, while Vietnam and Kampuchea publicly appeared to be improving their relationships,

38766-436: The repercussions of the dismemberment of the Soviet bloc as well as the result of the US and Chinese pressure—forced the PRK to begin economic and constitutional reforms in an attempt to ensure future political dominance. In April 1989, Hanoi and Phnom Penh announced that final withdrawal would take place by the end of September the same year. On 29–30 April 1989, the National Assembly of the PRK, presided over by Hun Sen, held

38979-476: The same level as provinces. Provinces of Vietnam Island areas: *- Bạch Long Vĩ Island ( Haiphong Municipality [3]) **- Phú Quý Islands ( Phú Quý district , Bình Thuận province [46]) ***- Côn Đảo Islands ( Côn Đảo district , Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province [51]) People%27s Republic of Kampuchea The People's Republic of Kampuchea ( PRK ) was a partially recognised state in Southeast Asia which existed from 1979 to 1989. It

39192-578: The same year due to corruption charges against him. On 3 August 2024, Tô Lâm, who is also serving as the president, was elected by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam as the general secretary following the death of Nguyễn Phú Trọng on 19 July 2024. On 21 October 2024, the National Assembly appointed army general Lương Cường as president, succeeding Tô Lâm. Vietnam is divided into 58 provinces (Vietnamese: Tỉnh , chữ Hán : 省 ). There are also five municipalities ( thành phố trực thuộc trung ương ), which are administratively on

39405-423: The situation for Cambodia, the Western nations, China and the ASEAN states refused to provide reconstruction assistance directly to the new government. Owing to US and China's opposition to the international recognition of the PRK, the United Nations relief and rehabilitation agencies were not allowed to operate within Cambodia by the UN authorities . The little developmental help that was available came only from

39618-618: The southern third of the country became the French colony of Cochinchina . By 1884, the entire country was under French rule, with the central and northern parts of Vietnam separated into the two protectorates of Annam and Tonkin . The three entities were formally integrated into the union of French Indochina in 1887. The French administration imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese society. A Western-style system of modern education introduced new humanist values. Most French settlers in Indochina were concentrated in Cochinchina, particularly in Saigon , and in Hanoi ,

39831-415: The surrounding areas of the Red River Delta, the temperatures are much lower between 15 and 33 °C (59 and 91 °F). Seasonal variations in the mountains, plateaus, and the northernmost areas are much more dramatic, with temperatures varying from 3 °C (37 °F) in December and January to 37 °C (99 °F) in July and August. During winter, snow occasionally falls over the highest peaks of

40044-435: The territories which Cambodia had lost during the previous centuries. The communist movement in Cambodia and Vietnam began before World War II with the founding of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), almost exclusively dominated by the Vietnamese, originally meant to fight French colonial rule in Indochina . In 1941, Nguyen Ai Quoc (commonly known by his alias Ho Chi Minh ) founded the Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi, or

40257-469: The traditional Cambodian anti-Vietnamese sentiment. In 1986, Hanoi claimed to have begun withdrawing part of its occupation forces. At the same time, Vietnam continued efforts to strengthen the PRK and its military arm, the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces (KPRAF). These withdrawals continued over the next two years, although actual numbers were difficult to verify. Vietnam's proposal to withdraw its remaining occupation forces in 1989–90—one of

40470-447: The two governments could not reach a compromise. By the end of 1978, Vietnamese leaders decided to remove the Khmer Rouge-dominated government of Democratic Kampuchea, perceiving it as being pro-Chinese and hostile towards Vietnam . On 25 December 1978, 150,000 Vietnamese troops invaded Democratic Kampuchea and overran the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army in just two weeks, thereby ending Pol Pot 's government, which had been responsible for

40683-425: The victims of UXOs. Vietnam is a unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist republic , one of the two communist states (the other being Laos ) in Southeast Asia . Although Vietnam remains officially committed to socialism as its defining creed, its economic policies have grown increasingly capitalist , with The Economist characterising its leadership as "ardently capitalist communists". Under

40896-401: The village of Ba Chúc in An Giang Province. In June 1978, the VPAF started bombing KRA positions along the border regions, flying about 30 bombing sorties per day and inflicting heavy casualties on the Kampucheans. By that stage in the conflict, most surviving leaders of the Eastern Military Zone had escaped into Vietnam, where they assembled at various secret camps with the purpose of forming

41109-581: The volume of military hardware which travelled down each route. On the eve of the Vietnamese invasion, Kampuchea had an estimated 73,000 soldiers in the Eastern Military Zone bordering Vietnam. At that time, all branches of the Kampuchean armed forces were significantly strengthened by large quantities of Chinese-made military equipment, which included fighter aircraft, patrol boats, heavy artillery, anti-aircraft guns, trucks and tanks. Additionally, there were between 10,000 and 20,000 Chinese advisers in both military and civilian capacities, providing their support to

41322-530: The war. During the offensive, communist troops massacred over 3,000 civilians at Huế . Facing an increasing casualty count, rising domestic opposition to the war, and growing international condemnation, the US began withdrawing from ground combat roles in the early 1970s. This also entailed an unsuccessful effort to strengthen and stabilise South Vietnam . Following the Paris Peace Accords of 27 January 1973, all American combat troops were withdrawn by 29 March 1973. In December 1974, North Vietnam captured

41535-541: The west. It shares maritime borders with Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand , and the Philippines , Indonesia , and Malaysia through the South China Sea . Its capital is Hanoi and its largest city is Ho Chi Minh City (commonly known as Saigon). Vietnam was inhabited by the Paleolithic age, with states established in the first millennium BC on the Red River Delta in modern-day northern Vietnam . The Han dynasty annexed Northern and Central Vietnam, which were subsequently under Chinese rule from 111 BC until

41748-435: The withdrawal, the PAVN also evacuated thousands of prisoners and civilian refugees, including future leader Hun Sen . Instead of being sobered by the Vietnamese show of force, the Kampuchean government boasted that the Vietnamese withdrawal was a major victory for Democratic Kampuchea, comparing it to the "defeat of U.S. imperialism" on 17 April 1975. The Kampucheans went on further to proclaim that "our 6 January victory over

41961-411: The world since its discovery in 2009. The Ba Bể Lake and Mekong River are the largest lake and longest river in the country. Due to differences in latitude and the marked variety in topographical relief , Vietnam's climate tends to vary considerably for each region. During the winter or dry season, extending roughly from November to April, the monsoon winds usually blow from the northeast along

42174-587: The world's species. 15,986 species of flora have been identified in the country, of which 10% are endemic . Vietnam's fauna includes 307 nematode species, 200 oligochaeta , 145 acarina , 113 springtails , 7,750 insects, 260 reptiles, and 120 amphibians. There are 840 birds and 310 mammals are found in Vietnam, of which 100 birds and 78 mammals are endemic. Vietnam has two World Natural Heritage Sites —the Hạ Long Bay and Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park —together with nine biosphere reserves , including Cần Giờ Mangrove Forest , Cát Tiên , Cát Bà , Kiên Giang ,

42387-440: Was a satellite state of Vietnam , founded in Cambodia by the Vietnamese-backed Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation , a group of Cambodian communists who were dissatisfied with the Khmer Rouge due to its oppressive rule and defected from it after the overthrow of Democratic Kampuchea , Pol Pot 's government. Brought about by an invasion from Vietnam , which routed the Khmer Rouge armies , it had Vietnam and

42600-413: Was a difficult obstacle for Cambodia's reconstruction, when local leaders and experts were most needed. Among the surviving educated urban Cambodians who could have helped the struggling country to its feet, many opted to flee the Socialist state and flocked to the refugee camps to emigrate to the West. The PRK's administration was technically unequipped and the state bureaucracy that had been destroyed by

42813-495: Was an independent Kampuchean communist movement, with members drawn from all walks of life. Heng Samrin, formerly a member of the Khmer Rouge and commander of the KRA 4th Division, was the chairman of the KUFNS Central Committee. Previously, the KUFNS was known as the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Kampuchea (PRGK), which consisted of 300 former Khmer Rouge cadres who defected to Vietnam. The PRGK regularly sent representatives abroad in search of support, before Vietnam abandoned

43026-489: Was established for the planned invasion of Kampuchea, with Senior General Lê Đức Anh taking full control of PAVN units along the border areas. The Vietnamese government drafted 350,000 men into the military to replace earlier losses and augment its units along the border. While the new recruits were completing training, ten divisions were deployed to the border regions of Long An , Đồng Tháp and Tây Ninh Provinces. Vietnam also shifted three divisions based in Laos south towards

43239-436: Was established in January 1979 as a result of a process that began with Khmer Rouge belligerence. Initially, communist North Vietnam was a strong ally of the Khmer Rouge while it was fighting against Lon Nol 's Khmer Republic during the 1970–1975 civil war. Only after the Khmer Rouge took power did the Vietnamese opinion of Kampuchea become negative, when on 1 May 1975 (the day after Saigon fell ), Khmer Rouge soldiers raided

43452-600: Was estimated to have 615,000 soldiers and 900 tanks, supported by a 12,000-member air force with 300 combat aircraft, including one squadron of light bombers. In comparison, Kampuchea had an army of 70,000, only a few heavy tanks, 200 armoured vehicles and limited air capability. Despite facing such heavy odds, Kampuchea showed no signs of hesitation as its military continued to assault Vietnam's border regions. In January 1978, KRA forces still held portions of Vietnamese territory and began overrunning Vietnamese outposts in Hà Tiên Province. On 27 January 1978, Vietnam started calling on

43665-408: Was first written using the logograph "戉" for an axe (a homophone), in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions of the late Shang dynasty ( c.  1200 BC), and later as "越". At that time, it referred to a people or chieftain to the northwest of the Shang. In the early 8th century BC, a tribe on the middle Yangtze were called the Yangyue , a term later used for peoples further south. Between

43878-466: Was formed by Vietnamese youngsters for the enforcement of wildlife protection. Through collaboration between the NGOs and local authorities, many local poaching syndicates were crippled by their leaders' arrests. A study released in 2018 revealed Vietnam is a destination for the illegal export of rhinoceros horns from South Africa due to the demand for them as a medicine and a status symbol. The main environmental concern that persists in Vietnam today

44091-436: Was integrated into French Indochina as three separate regions. In the immediate aftermath of World War II , the nationalist coalition Viet Minh , led by the communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh , launched the August Revolution and declared Vietnam's independence from the Empire of Japan in 1945. Vietnam went through prolonged warfare in the 20th century. After World War II , France returned to reclaim colonial power in

44304-430: Was met with strong resistance by Kampuchean leaders. Meanwhile, Vietnamese government officials began conducting secret meetings with So Phim , the Khmer Rouge leader in Kampuchea's Eastern Military Zone, to plan a military uprising backed by Vietnam. During that same period, military setbacks experienced by the KRA in the Eastern Military Zone prompted Pol Pot to label the region as a "nest of traitors". In order to purge

44517-411: Was responsible for governing Vietnam. President Võ Văn Thưởng , Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính (since 2021) and the most powerful leader Nguyễn Phú Trọng (since 2011) as the Communist Party of Vietnam's General Secretary. On 22 May 2024, Tô Lâm , who previously served as the Minister of Public Security , was voted as the president of Vietnam by the National Assembly after Võ Văn Thưởng resigned on

44730-462: Was resumed in the media. Following the complete normalisation of traditional religious life, Buddhism became extremely popular in Cambodia, experiencing a widespread revival. Intending to liberalise Cambodia's economy, a set of laws on "Personal Ownership" and "Free Market Orientation" was passed as well. The new Constitution stated that Cambodia was a neutral and non-aligned state. The ruling party also announced that there would be negotiations with

44943-545: Was subjected to Vietnamese influence as early as the 13th century . Vietnamese influence spread gradually and indirectly, and it was not until the early 19th century that Vietnam exercised direct control. However, Vietnamese attempts to annex Cambodia began in the 17th century when Vietnamese forces of the Nguyen domain in Cochinchina helped Cambodian dissidents topple its only Muslim king, Ramathipadi I . From then on, Nguyen lords and their successors, Nguyen emperors frequently intervened in Cambodia. In 1813, Nak Ong Chan gained

45156-404: Was subsequently arrested, tortured and executed. Incidents escalated along all of Cambodia's borders. There were now tens of thousands of Cambodian and Vietnamese exiles on Vietnamese territory, and even so Hanoi's response was half-hearted. The Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (KUFNS or FUNSK) was an organisation that would be pivotal in overthrowing the Khmer Rouge and establishing

45369-838: Was usually called Annam until 1945, when the imperial government in Huế adopted Việt Nam . Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age. Stone artefacts excavated in Gia Lai province have been claimed to date to 780,000 years ago, based on associated find of tektites , however this claim has been challenged because tektites are often found in archaeological sites of various ages in Vietnam. Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, and include isolated tooth fragments from Tham Om and Hang Hum. Teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from

#580419