North Vietnam
The
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN), or less commonly, Vietnamese Democratic Republic (
Vietnamese:
Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cộng Hòa), also known as
North Vietnam, was proclaimed by
H" Chí Minh in Hànội on
September 2,
1945 as a provisional government. It was recognized by the
People's Republic of China and the
Soviet Union in
1950. In 1954, after the defeat of
France by the
Việt Minh at the
Battle of Ðiện Biên Phủ, and as a result of the
Geneva Conference, France began negotiating with the Việt Minh and
Việtnam was partitioned by the
Demilitarized Zone (or DMZ at the 17th
parallel). France turned over power in the northern half of Vietnam to the Việt Minh who then established the DRVN as a true government. Under the
Geneva Accord national elections were supposed to be held in both parts of Việtnam in
1956, with the view of unifying the nation. For the transition, North Việtnam was established as a
socialist state, the first in
Southeast Asia.
South Việtnam was established in the southern part of the country, with its capital at
Sàigòn.
Following the partition of the country, there followed a mass exodus of North Vietnamese to the South, many of them
Catholics who said that they were persecuted by official North Vietnamese policy. This amounted to one million people out of a population of 13 million [
1]. Also at the time an estimated 100,000 people fled South Việtnam for the North. In its early years, the poor nation, cut off from the agricultural areas of the South, is described by some as having become repressive and
totalitarian. Between
1953 and
1956,
agrarian reforms were attempted due to Chinese pressure. In the process, tens of thousands of landowners were publicly denounced as "
landlords" (
địa chủ) and executed, with their land distributed to those considered loyal to the party. Estimates of executions vary considerably however, some estimate less than 10,000 deaths while others put forward 100,000 or more [
2]. A literary movement called
Nhân văn - Giai phẩm (Humanism-Arts) attempted to democratize the country and allow people to freely express their thoughts resulted in a
purge in which many intellectuals and writers were sent to
reeducation camps because they did not agree with the government.
North Việtnam's capital was
Hànội and it was led by a Communist government allied with the
Soviet Union and
China. During the
Second Indochinese War, North Vietnam largely controlled the (NLF, also known as the
Việt Cộng) who were fighting against the government of
South Việtnam, and the
United States. From 1965 onwards, both China and the Soviet Union provided huge amounts of aid to North Việtnam for their war effort, in what became known in the West as the Vietnam War. North Việtnam invaded and occupied portions of neighboring
Laos and
Cambodia. It also supplied weapons to insurgent groups which eventually overthrew the governments of both countries.
With the
Fall/Liberation of Sàigòn to/by
North Vietnamese forces on
April 30,
1975, political authority within South Việtnam was nominally assumed by the North Vietnamese controlled
Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (P.R.G.). But in truth, political authority rested with the
North Vietnamese Army. This government merged with North Việtnam on
July 2,
1976, to form a single nation called the Socialist Republic of Việtnam (Cộng Hoà Xã Hội Chủ Nghĩa Việt Nam), commonly known as
Việtnam.
*
Vietnam*
South Vietnam*
Vietnam War*
H" Chí Minh*
Socialist State*
People's Army of Vietnam*
Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
