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 Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi 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 Viet Minh at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, and as a result of the Geneva Conference, France began negotiating with the Viet Minh and Vietnam was partitioned by the Demilitarized Zone (or DMZ at the 17th parallel). France turned over power in the northern half of Vietnam to the Viet Minh who then established the DRVN as a true government. Under the Geneva Accord national elections were to be held in both parts of Vietnam in 1956, with a view to unifying the country. In the interim, North Vietnam was established as a Communist state, the first in Southeast Asia. South Vietnam was established in the southern part of the country, with its capital at Saigon.

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 [link]. In its early years, the poor nation, cut off from the agricultural areas of the South, is described by many as having become repressive and totalitarian. Between 1953 and 1956, agrarian reforms were attempted. 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 [link]. 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.

Flag of the DRVN. This flag was subsequently adopted as the National Flag of the reunified Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Map of North Vietnam

North Vietnam's capital was Hanoi and it was ruled by a Communist government allied with the Soviet Union and China. During the Vietnam War, North Vietnam largely controlled the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF, also known as the Viet Cong) who were fighting against the government of South Vietnam, and the United States. From 1965 onwards, both China and the Soviet Union provided huge amounts of aid to North Vietnam for their war effort, in what became known as the Vietnam War. North Vietnam invaded and occupied portions of its neighbors Laos and Cambodia. It also supplied weapons to insurgent groups which eventually overthrew the governments of both countries.

With the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces on April 30, 1975, political authority within South Vietnam 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 Vietnam on July 2, 1976, to form a single nation called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, commonly known as Vietnam.

External links

[Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam]

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North Vietnam

See also

External links