Editing History of Vietnam

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{{History of Vietnam}}
[[Vietnam]], with its coastal strip, rugged mountainous interior, and two major deltas, became home to numerous cultures throughout history. Its strategic geographical position in Southeast Asia also made it a crossroads of trade and a focal point of conflict, contributing to its complex and eventful past. The first [[Ancient East Eurasians|Ancient East Eurasian hunter-gatherers]] arrived at least 40,000 years ago. Around 4,000 years ago during the [[Neolithic]] period, [[Ancient Southern East Asian]] populations, particularly [[Austroasiatic]] and [[Austronesian peoples]], began [[Peopling of Southeast Asia|migrating from southern China into Southeast Asia]], bringing with them [[History of rice cultivation|rice-cultivation knowledge]], [[Austronesian languages|languages]], and much of the genetic basis of the modern population of Vietnam.<ref name="Liu2020" /><ref name=Zhang2020/><ref name=Nägele2022/> In the first millennium BCE the [[Đông Sơn culture]] emerged, based on rice cultivation and focused on the indigenous chiefdoms of [[Văn Lang]] and [[Âu Lạc]]. 

Following the 111 BCE [[Han conquest of Nanyue]], much of Vietnam came [[Vietnam under Chinese rule|under Chinese dominance]] for a thousand years. The period nonetheless saw numerous uprisings, and Vietnamese kingdoms occasionally enjoyed de-facto independence. [[Buddhism]] and [[Hinduism]] arrived by the 2nd century CE, making Vietnam the first place which shared influences of both [[Chinese culture|Chinese]] and [[Culture of India|Indian cultures]].

Independence was regained when the [[Ngô dynasty]] was established in 939, and the next millennium saw a succession of [[List of Vietnamese dynasties|local dynasties]]: [[Ngô dynasty|Ngô]], [[Đinh dynasty|Đinh]], [[Early Lê dynasty|Early Lê]], [[Lý dynasty|Lý]], [[Trần dynasty|Trần]], [[Hồ dynasty|Hồ]], [[Lê dynasty|Later Lê]], [[Mạc dynasty|Mạc]], [[Revival Lê dynasty|Revival Lê]], [[Tây Sơn dynasty|Tây Sơn]], and finally [[Nguyễn dynasty|Nguyễn]]. During this period, Vietnam was periodically divided by civil wars, most notably the [[Trịnh–Nguyễn War]] of the 17th and 18th centuries, and subjected to foreign interventions by the [[Song dynasty|Song]], [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]], [[Champa|Cham]], [[Ming dynasty|Ming]], [[Siam]]ese, [[Qing dynasty|Qing]], and finally the [[France|French]]. In their turn Vietnamese colonizers moved into the [[Mekong Delta]] and parts of today's Cambodia between the 15th and 18th centuries.

Leveraging its military support for the ascendant Nguyễn dynasty and using the pretexts of protecting religious freedom and trading rights, [[French Third Republic|France]] conquered Vietnam, dividing its territory into three separate regions, integrating them into [[French Indochina]] in 1887. The [[World War II|Second World War]] brought a 5-year occupation by [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]]. In 1945 Vietnam was [[August Revolution|proclaimed a republic]], but a [[First Indochina War|three-way conflict]] immediately broke out between communists, anti-communists, and France. In 1949 Vietnam was officially [[State of Vietnam|reunified as a partially autonomous member]] of the [[French Union]]. In practice, a communist insurgency led by [[Ho Chi Minh]] had established a [[North Vietnam|rival state]] which exercised authority over most of the country.

In June 1954 Vietnam won full independence.<ref>{{cite web|archive-date=2014-07-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726175311/http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/aerospace/entertainment/Photos/996953/story.html |access-date=2014-07-19 |title=A picture taken on ngày 4 tháng 6 năm 1954 shows Vietnamese Prime Minister Buu Loc and French council president Joseph Laniel (R) preparing to sign two Franco-Vietnamese treaties by which France recognised Vietnam as an independent state at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, on ngày 4 tháng 6 năm 1954. These signatures took place one month after the defeat of Dien Bien Phu and a few days before the fall of Laniel’s government |url=http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/aerospace/entertainment/Photos/996953/story.html}}</ref>{{Efn|The Full Independence Accords was never ratified by the heads of both countries, but it still took effect at the day of signing according to its Article 4.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mjp.univ-perp.fr/constit/vn1954.htm |title=Vietnam, indépendance, Digithèque MJP}}</ref>}} Following the French defeat, the country was [[1954 Geneva Conference|divided]] into two states in July. As part of the [[Cold War]], a [[Vietnam War|civil war]] quickly broke out between a [[North Vietnam]] supported by China and the Soviet Union, and a [[South Vietnam]] aided by the United States. It ended with the [[Fall of Saigon|defeat of the South]] in 1975 and [[Government of Vietnam|unification under a communist government]] in 1976. Vietnam then fought a [[Sino-Vietnamese War|war]] with China in 1979 and was [[Cambodian-Vietnamese War|bogged down]] in Cambodia from 1978 to 1989,<ref>McCargo, p. 199</ref><ref>Thayer, p. 18</ref> along with a socio-economic disaster that led to ''[[Đổi Mới]]'' in late 1986. Vietnam normalized relations with China in 1991 and the United States in 1995.
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== Pre-historic period ==

=== Modern ethnic context ===
[[File:The proposed route of Austroasiatic and Austronesian migration into Indonesia and the geographic distribution of sites that have produced red-slipped and cord-marked pottery.png|thumb|Proposed neolithic migration paths into [[Southeast Asia]], with Austronesian peoples from the sea and Austroasiatic peoples from inland [[Mekong]] which supposed to take place around the third millennium BCE.]]
[[File:Ethnolinguistic map of Indochina 1970.jpg|thumb|Ethnolinguistic map of Indochina, 1970]]
[[File:Pottery fruit tray Sa Huynh Culture 2.JPG|thumb|Pottery fruit tray of the [[Sa Huỳnh culture|Sa Huỳnh]] people.]]

Vietnam's modern demography consists of [[List of ethnic groups in Vietnam|54 different ethnicities]] belonging to five major ethnolinguistic families: [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]], [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]], [[Hmong-Mien languages|Hmong-Mien]], [[Kra-Dai languages|Kra-Dai]], [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]].<ref name="Liu2020">{{cite journal |vauthors=Liu D, Duong NT, Ton ND, Van Phong N, Pakendorf B, Van Hai N, Stoneking M |title=Extensive ethnolinguistic diversity in Vietnam reflects multiple sources of genetic diversity |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |date=April 2020 |volume=37 |issue=9 |pages=2503–2519 |pmid=32344428 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msaa099 |pmc=7475039 |url=|doi-access=free}}</ref> Among 54 groups, the majority ethnic group is the [[Vietic languages|Vietic]]-speaking [[Kinh people|Kinh]], alone comprising 85.32% of total population in the [[2019 Vietnamese census|2019 census]]. The rest is made up of 53 other ethnic groups. Vietnam's ethnic mosaic results from the peopling process in which various peoples came and settled the territory, leading to the modern state of Vietnam by many stages, often separated by thousands of years over a duration of tens of thousands of years. Vietnam's entire history, thus, is an embroidery of polyethnicity.<ref name="Liu2020" />

=== Pre-Neolithic ===
Early anatomically modern human settlement in mainland Southeast Asia dates back 65 to 10,5 kya (65,000 years ago), during the [[Late Pleistocene]] period.<ref name="Liu2020" /> Probably the foremost hunter-gatherers were the [[Hoabinhian]]s, a large group that gradually settled across Southeast Asia. As part of the [[Initial Upper Paleolithic]] wave, the Hoabinhians, along with the [[Tianyuan man]], are early members of the Ancient Basal East and [[Southeast Asia]]n lineage deeply related to present-day East and Southeast Asians.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Yang MA |date=6 January 2022 |title=A genetic history of migration, diversification, and admixture in Asia |url=http://www.pivotscipub.com/hpgg/2/1/0001 |journal=Human Population Genetics and Genomics |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=1–32 |doi=10.47248/hpgg2202010001 |issn=2770-5005 |quote=...In contrast, mainland East and Southeast Asians and other Pacific islanders (e.g., Austronesian speakers) are closely related to each other [9,15,16] and here denoted as belonging to an East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) lineage (Box 2). …the ESEA lineage differentiated into at least three distinct ancestries: Tianyuan ancestry which can be found 40,000–33,000 years ago in northern East Asia, ancestry found today across present-day populations of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Siberia, but whose origins are unknown, and Hòabìnhian ancestry found 8,000–4,000 years ago in Southeast Asia, but whose origins in the Upper Paleolithic are unknown. |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Chi-Chun |last2=Witonsky |first2=David |last3=Gosling |first3=Anna |last4=Lee |first4=Ju Hyeon |last5=Ringbauer |first5=Harald |last6=Hagan |first6=Richard |last7=Patel |first7=Nisha |last8=Stahl |first8=Raphaela |last9=Novembre |first9=John |last10=Aldenderfer |first10=Mark |last11=Warinner |first11=Christina |last12=Di Rienzo |first12=Anna |last13=Jeong |first13=Choongwon |date=8 March 2022 |title=Ancient genomes from the Himalayas illuminate the genetic history of Tibetans and their Tibeto-Burman speaking neighbors |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=1203 |doi=10.1038/s41467-022-28827-2 |pmid=35260549 |pmc=8904508 |bibcode=2022NatCo..13.1203L |issn=2041-1723 |quote=our results reject previously suggested sources of gene flow into the Tibetan lineage13,35,36, including deeply branching Eastern Eurasian lineages, such as the 45,000-year-old Ust’-Ishim individual from southern Siberia, the 40,000-year-old Tianyuan individual from northern China, and Hoabinhian/Onge-related lineages in southeast Asia (Supplementary Fig. 10), suggesting instead that it represents yet another unsampled lineage within early Eurasian genetic diversity. This deep Eurasian lineage is likely to represent the Paleolithic genetic substratum of the Plateau populations.}}</ref> 

An analysis of individuals from the Con Co Ngua site in [[Thanh Hóa province|Thanh Hoa]], Vietnam about 6.2 k cal BP, when restricted to Vietnamese comparisons, showed the closest distance to peoples from Mai Da Dieu, followed by present-day Vietnamese populations. Based on craniometric and dental nonmetric analysis, the Con Co Ngua individuals were phenotypically similar to Late Pleistocene Southeast Asians and modern [[Melanesians]] and [[Aboriginal Australians]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tran |first1=Huyen Linh |last2=Mai |first2=Huong Pham |last3=Thi |first3=Dung Le |last4=Thi |first4=Nhung Doan |display-authors=3 |date=2023 |title=The first maternal genetic study of hunter-gatherers from Vietnam |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00438-023-02050-0#Sec2 |journal=Molecular Genetics and Genomics |volume=298 |issue=5 |pages=1225–1235 |doi=10.1007/s00438-023-02050-0 |pmid=37438447 |via=Springer Nature Link}}</ref>

=== Neolithic ===
Human migration into Vietnam continued during the [[Neolithic]] period, characterized by movements of [[Ancient Southern East Asian]] populations that expanded from [[southern China]] into Vietnam and Southeast Asia. The earliest agricultural societies that cultivated [[millet]] and [[wet-rice]] emerged around 1700 BCE in the lowlands and river floodplains of Vietnam are associated with this Neolithic migration, indicated by the presences of major [[paternal lineages]] that are represented by [[East Eurasian]]-affiliated Y-haplogroups [[Haplogroup O-M175|O]], [[Haplogroup C-M217|C2]], and [[Haplogroup N-M231|N]].<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Zhang X, Liao S, Qi X, Liu J, Kampuansai J, Zhang H, Yang Z, Serey B, Sovannary T, Bunnath L, Seang Aun H, Samnom H, Kangwanpong D, Shi H, Su B |date=October 2015 |title=Y-chromosome diversity suggests southern origin and Paleolithic backwave migration of Austro-Asiatic speakers from eastern Asia to the Indian subcontinent |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=5 |pages=15486 |bibcode=2015NatSR...515486Z |doi=10.1038/srep15486 |pmc=4611482 |pmid=26482917}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Liu |first1=Dang |title=Extensive ethnolinguistic diversity in Vietnam reflects multiple sources of genetic diversity |date=2019-11-28 |url=https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/857367v1 |access-date=2024-11-14 |language=en |doi=10.1101/857367 |last2=Duong |first2=Nguyen Thuy |last3=Ton |first3=Nguyen Dang |last4=Phong |first4=Nguyen Van |last5=Pakendorf |first5=Brigitte |last6=Hai |first6=Nong Van |last7=Stoneking |first7=Mark|hdl=21.11116/0000-0006-4AD8-4 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Starting from the third millennium BCE, rice farming-based agriculture spread from southern East Asia into Mainland and Insular Southeast Asia.<ref name="Bennett2024">{{Cite journal |last1=Bennett |first1=Andrew E. |last2=Liu |first2=Yichen |last3=Fu |first3=Qiaomei |date=4 December 2024 |title=Reconstructing the Human Population History of East Asia through Ancient Genomics |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/reconstructing-the-human-population-history-of-east-asia-through-ancient-genomics/0524D629660B5E43FC7094C043D54C6A |journal=Elements in Ancient East Asia |language=en |doi=10.1017/9781009246675 |isbn=978-1-009-24667-5 |doi-access=free}}</ref> This technological spread was a result of the migration of East Asian agriculturalists that carried [[Ancient Southern East Asian]] ancestry. These Neolithic farmers took two routes: an inland route into [[Mainland Southeast Asia]] carried out by [[Austroasiatic|Austroasiatic speakers]], and a maritime route that originated from [[Taiwan]] by [[Austronesian speakers]].<ref name=Stoneking2023>{{Cite journal |last1=Stoneking |first1=Mark |last2=Arias |first2=Leonardo |last3=Liu |first3=Dang |last4=Oliveira |first4=Sandra |last5=Pugach |first5=Irina |last6=Rodriguez |first6=Jae Joseph Russell B. |display-authors=4 |date=2023 |title=Genomic perspectives on human dispersals during the Holocene |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=120 |issue=4 |pages=e2209475119 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2209475119 |doi-access=free |issn=1091-6490 |pmc=9942792 |pmid=36649433|bibcode=2023PNAS..12009475S }}</ref><ref name=Zhang2020>{{Cite journal |last1=Zhang |first1=Ming |last2=Fu |first2=Qiaomei |date=2020 |title=Human evolutionary history in Eastern Eurasia using insights from ancient DNA |journal=Current Opinion in Genetics & Development |volume=62 |pages=78–84 |doi=10.1016/j.gde.2020.06.009 |pmid=32688244 |s2cid=220671047 |issn=0959-437X}}</ref><ref name=Nägele2022>{{cite journal |first1=Kathrin |last1=Nägele |first2=Maite |last2=Rivollat |first3=He |last3=Yu |first4=Ke |last4=Wang |year=2022 |title=Ancient genomic research - From broad strokes to nuanced reconstructions of the past |journal=Journal of Anthropological Sciences |volume=100 |issue=100 |pages=193–230 |doi=10.4436/jass.10017|pmid=36576953}}</ref> 

In 2018, researchers conducted a genetic analysis on samples taken from two ancient burial sites in [[northern Vietnam]], [[Mán Bạc]] and Núi Nấp, dating from 1,800 BCE and 100 BCE, respectively. The individuals at Mán Bạc show a mix of East Asian farmer and East Eurasian hunter-gatherer ancestry, with close genetic affinity for modern [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] groups like the [[Mlabri people|Mlabri]], the [[Nicobarese people|Nicobarese]], and the [[Cambodian people|Cambodians]], while Nui Nap projects close to present-day [[Vietnamese people|Vietnamese]] and [[Dai people|Dai]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Lipson | first1=Mark | last2=Cheronet | first2=Olivia | last3=Mallick | first3=Swapan | last4=Rohland | first4=Nadin | last5=Oxenham | first5=Marc | last6=Pietrusewsky | first6=Michael | last7=Pryce | first7=Thomas Oliver | last8=Willis | first8=Anna | last9=Matsumura | first9=Hirofumi | last10=Buckley | first10=Hallie | last11=Domett | first11=Kate | last12=Hai | first12=Nguyen Giang | last13=Hiep | first13=Trinh Hoang | last14=Kyaw | first14=Aung Aung | last15=Win | first15=Tin Tin | last16=Pradier | first16=Baptiste | last17=Broomandkhoshbacht | first17=Nasreen | last18=Candilio | first18=Francesca | last19=Changmai | first19=Piya | last20=Fernandes | first20=Daniel | last21=Ferry | first21=Matthew | last22=Gamarra | first22=Beatriz | last23=Harney | first23=Eadaoin | last24=Kampuansai | first24=Jatupol | last25=Kutanan | first25=Wibhu | last26=Michel | first26=Megan | last27=Novak | first27=Mario | last28=Oppenheimer | first28=Jonas | last29=Sirak | first29=Kendra | last30=Stewardson | first30=Kristin | last31=Zhang | first31=Zhao | last32=Flegontov | first32=Pavel | last33=Pinhasi | first33=Ron | last34=Reich | first34=David | title=Ancient genomes document multiple waves of migration in Southeast Asian prehistory | journal=Science | publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) | date=2018-05-17 | issn=0036-8075 | doi=10.1126/science.aat3188 |biorxiv=10.1101/278374 | pmc=6476732 | pmid=29773666 | volume=361 | issue=6397 | pages=92–95 | bibcode=2018Sci...361...92L }}</ref> A 2018 study by [[George van Driem]] et al. demonstrated that East Asian farmers intermixed with the native inhabitants and contrary to popular opinion, did not replace them. These farmers also shared ancestry with present-day Austroasiatic-speaking hill tribes themselves.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McColl |first1=Hugh |last2=Racimo |first2=Fernando |last3=Vinner |first3=Lasse |last4=Demeter |first4=Fabrice |last5=Gakuhari |first5=Takashi |last6=Moreno-Mayar |first6=J. Víctor |last7=van Driem |first7=George |last8=Gram Wilken |first8=Uffe |last9=Seguin-Orlando |first9=Andaine |last10=de la Fuente Castro |first10=Constanza |last11=Wasef |first11=Sally |last12=Shoocongdej |first12=Rasmi |last13=Souksavatdy |first13=Viengkeo |last14=Sayavongkhamdy |first14=Thongsa |last15=Saidin |first15=Mohd Mokhtar |year=2018 |title=The prehistoric peopling of Southeast Asia |journal=Science |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |volume=361 |issue=6397 |pages=88–92 |bibcode=2018Sci...361...88M |doi=10.1126/science.aat3628 |issn=0036-8075 |pmid=29976827 |s2cid=206667111 |hdl-access=free |last16=Allentoft |first16=Morten E. |last17=Sato |first17=Takehiro |last18=Malaspinas |first18=Anna-Sapfo |last19=Aghakhanian |first19=Farhang A. |last20=Korneliussen |first20=Thorfinn |hdl=10072/383365|url=https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/5420ab64-ae26-43a7-98dc-9d08834807fc }}</ref> 

The [[Cham people]], who for over one thousand years settled in [[Champa|controlled and civilized]] present-day central and southern coastal Vietnam from around the 2nd century AD, are of Austronesian origin. The southernmost sector of Vietnam, the Mekong Delta and its surroundings were, until the 18th century, of integral yet shifting significance within the Austroasiatic [[Proto-Khmeric language|Proto-Khmer]] – and [[Khmer people|Khmer]] principalities like [[Funan]], [[Chenla]], the [[Khmer Empire]] and the Khmer kingdom.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0b-6wpalR40C&pg=PA102|page=102|title=The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Volume One, Part One |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-66369-4 |last1=Tarling |first1=Nicholas |year=1999 }}</ref><ref name="Simanjuntak2017">{{cite book|first1=Truman|last1=Simanjuntak|editor1-first= Philip J.|editor1-last= Piper, Hirofumi Matsumura and David Bulbeck|editor2-first= Hirofumi |editor2-last=Matsumura |editor3-first= David |editor3-last=Bulbeck|title =New Perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific Prehistory|chapter =The Western Route Migration: A Second Probable Neolithic Diffusion to Indonesia|publisher =ANU Press|series =terra australis|volume=45|year =2017|isbn =978-1-76046-095-2|chapter-url =http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n2320/html/ch11.xhtml?referer=&page=18}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rogerblench.info/Archaeology/SE%20Asia/Blench%20Springer%20Handbook%20chapter%20final%20Dec%202014.pdf |title=Origins of Ethnolinguistic Identity in Southeast Asia |publisher=Roger Blench |access-date=5 March 2019}}</ref>

==== Way of life ====
Situated on the southeast edge of monsoon Asia, much of ancient Vietnam enjoyed a combination of high rainfall, humidity, heat, favorable winds, and fertile soil. These natural sources combined to generate an unusually prolific growth of rice and other plants and wildlife. This region's agricultural villages held well over 90 percent of the population. The high volume of rainy season water required villagers to concentrate their labor in managing floods, transplanting rice, and harvesting. These activities produced a cohesive village life with a religion in which one of the core values was the desire to live in harmony with nature and with other people. The way of life, centered in harmony, featured many enjoyable aspects that the people held beloved, typified by not needing many material things, the enjoyment of music and poetry, and living in harmony with nature.<ref>Trần Ngọc Thêm (2016). Hệ Giá Trị Việt Nam từ Truyền thống đến Hiện Đại và con đường tới tương lai. Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh: NXB Văn hóa – Văn nghê, pp. 153–80, 204–205. Well over 90 percent rural. Trần Ngọc Thêm, Hệ Giá Trị Việt Nam từ Truyền thống đến Hiện Đại và con đường tới tương lai, p. 138</ref>

Fishing and hunting supplemented the main rice crop. Arrowheads and spears were dipped in poison to kill larger animals such as elephants. [[Betel nuts]] were widely chewed and the lower classes rarely wore clothing more substantial than a loincloth. Every spring, a fertility festival was held which featured huge parties and sexual abandon.

=== Bronze age ===

The [[Red River (Asia)|Red River]] valley formed a natural geographic and economic unit, bounded to the north and west by mountains and jungles, to the east by the sea and to the south by the [[Red River Delta]].<ref>{{cite journal|journal= Journal of Indo-Pacific Archaeology |volume= 41 |pages= 13–21 | publisher = University of Otago|date=2017-05-24|author=Charles F. W. Higham |title= First Farmers in Mainland Southeast Asia |doi= 10.7152/jipa.v41i0.15014 |doi-access= free }}</ref> The need to have a single authority to prevent floods of the Red River, to cooperate in constructing hydraulic systems, trade exchange, and to repel invaders, led to the creation of the first legendary Vietnamese [[Sovereign state|states]] approximately 2879 BC. Ongoing research from archaeologists has suggested that the Vietnamese [[Dong Son culture|Đông Sơn culture]] were traceable back to northern Vietnam, [[Guangxi]] and [[Laos]] around 1000 BC.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bvom.com/resource/vn_history.asp?pContent=Ancient_Time|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723192002/http://www.bvom.com/resource/vn_history.asp?pContent=Ancient_Time|url-status=dead|title=Ancient time|archive-date=July 23, 2011}}</ref><ref>Lê Huyền Thảo Uyên, 2012–13. ''Welcome to Vietnam''. International Student. West Virginia University.</ref><ref>''Handbook of Asian Education: A Cultural Perspective'', p. 95</ref>

Since around 2000 BC, stone hand tools and weapons improved extraordinarily in both quantity and variety. After this, Vietnam later became part of the [[Maritime Jade Road]], which existed for 3,000 years between 2000 BC to 1000 AD.<ref>Tsang, Cheng-hwa (2000), "Recent advances in the Iron Age archaeology of Taiwan", Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 20: 153–158, {{doi|10.7152/bippa.v20i0.11751}}</ref><ref>Turton, M. (2021). Notes from central Taiwan: Our brother to the south. Taiwan's relations with the Philippines date back millennia, so it's a mystery that it's not the jewel in the crown of the New Southbound Policy. Taiwan Times.</ref><ref>Everington, K. (2017). Birthplace of Austronesians is Taiwan, capital was Taitung: Scholar. Taiwan News.</ref><ref>Bellwood, P., H. Hung, H., Lizuka, Y. (2011). Taiwan Jade in the Philippines: 3,000 Years of Trade and Long-distance Interaction. Semantic Scholar.</ref> Pottery reached a higher level of technique and decoration style. The early farming multilinguistic societies in Vietnam were mainly wet rice [[Oryza]] cultivators, which became the main staple of their diet. During the later stage of the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, the first appearance of bronze tools took place despite these tools still being rare. By about 1000 BC, bronze replaced stone for about 40 percent of edged tools and weapons, rising to about 60 percent. Here, there were not only bronze weapons, axes, and personal ornaments, but also sickles and other agriculture tools. Toward the closure of the Bronze Age, bronze accounts for more than 90 percent of tools and weapons, and there are exceptionally extravagant graves – the burial places of powerful chieftains – containing some hundreds of ritual and personal bronze artifacts, such as musical instruments, bucket-shaped ladles, and ornament daggers. After 1000 BC, the ancient peoples of Vietnam became skilled agriculturalists as they grew rice and kept buffaloes and pigs. They were also skilled fishermen and bold sailors, whose long dug-out canoes traversed the eastern sea.

== Ancient period (c. 500–111 BC) ==
{{anchor|Early dynastic epoch}}
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{{Main|Baiyue|Lạc Việt|Âu Việt|Văn Lang|Âu Lạc|Đông Sơn culture}}

=== Đông Sơn culture and the Legend of Hồng Bàng dynasty ===
[[File:Qin Empire in the south of Yangtze River (210 BC).png|thumb|Southern [[Qin dynasty|Qin]] China and the [[Baiyue]], 210 BC.]]

According to a Vietnamese legend which first appeared in the 14th century book ''[[Lĩnh nam chích quái]]'', the tribal chief [[Kinh Dương Vương|Lộc Tục]] (c. 2919 – 2794 BC) proclaimed himself as Kinh Dương Vương and founded the state of Xích Quỷ in 2879 BC, that marks the beginning of the [[Hồng Bàng dynasty|Hồng Bàng dynastic period]]. However, modern Vietnamese historians assume, that statehood was only developed in the [[Red River Delta]] by the second half of 1st millennium BC. Kinh Dương Vương was succeeded by [[Lạc Long Quân|Sùng Lãm]] (c. 2825 BC – 2525 BC). The next royal dynasty produced 18 monarchs, known as the [[Hùng King]]s, who renamed their country [[Văn Lang]].<ref name=nat>{{cite web|url=http://www.asian-nation.org/vietnam-history.shtml#sthash.tvfpYvja.dpbs |title=Early History & Legend | publisher =Asian-Nation |access-date= March 1, 2019 }}</ref> The administrative system includes offices like military chief (''lạc tướng''), paladin (''lạc hầu'') and mandarin (''bố chính'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://minhquan-lichsu.blogspot.com/2012/08/nen-hanh-chinh-thoi-van-lang-au-lac.html |title=Administration of Van Lang – Au Lac era Vietnam Administration in Van Lang – Au Lac period | publisher = Đăng Nhận |access-date= March 1, 2019 }}</ref>
<!-- EDITORIAL NOTE: i think you mean: matrilineal....Văn Lang is thought to have been a matriarchal society, similar to many other matriarchal societies common in Southeast Asia and in the Pacific Islands at the time. -->
Great numbers of metal weapons and tools excavated at various Phung Nguyen culture sites in northern Indochina are associated with the beginning of the [[Copper Age]] in Southeast Asia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newhistorian.com/how-and-when-the-bronze-age-reached-south-east-asia/4961/ | title =How and When the Bronze Age Reached South East Asia | publisher = New Historian |date=October 1, 2015 |author= Daryl Worthington |access-date= March 7, 2019 }}</ref> Furthermore, the beginning of the [[Bronze Age]] has been verified for around 500 BC at [[Đông Sơn District|Đông Sơn]]. Vietnamese historians usually attribute the [[Đông Sơn culture]] with the kingdoms of [[Văn Lang]], [[Âu Lạc]], and the [[Hồng Bàng dynasty]]. The local [[Lạc Việt]] community had developed a highly sophisticated industry of quality bronze production, processing and the manufacturing of tools, weapons and exquisite Bronze drums. Certainly of symbolic value, they were intended to be used for religious or ceremonial purposes. The craftsmen of these objects required refined skills in melting techniques, in the lost-wax casting technique and acquired master skills of composition and execution for the elaborate engravings.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Higham|first1=Charles|last2=Higham|first2=Thomas|last3=Ciarla|first3=Roberto|last4=Douka|first4=Katerina|last5=Kijngam|first5=Amphan|last6=Rispoli|first6=Fiorella|title=The Origins of the Bronze Age of Southeast Asia|journal=Journal of World Prehistory|date=10 December 2011|volume=24|issue=4|pages=227–274|doi=10.1007/s10963-011-9054-6|s2cid=162300712|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257607857|access-date=7 March 2019|via=Researchgate.net}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Southeast-Asia |title=history of Southeast Asia |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date=7 March 2019}}</ref>
[[File:Tambour-song-da2.jpg|thumb|A [[Đông Sơn drum]] from [[Northern Vietnam]]]]

The Legend of [[Thánh Gióng]] tells of a youth, who leads the [[Văn Lang]] kingdom to victory against the Ân invaders from the north, saves the country and goes straight to heaven.<ref name="Càm2003">{{cite book|author=Nguyen Nguyet Càm|title=Two Cakes Fit for a King: Folktales from Vietnam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eg4rKZEDcyQC|year=2003|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2668-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vietnam-culture.com/articles-31-4/The-Saint-Giong.aspx |title= The Saint Giong | publisher = Vietnam Culture |date=2013-10-02|access-date= March 5, 2019 }}</ref> He wears iron armor, rides an armored horse and wields an iron sword.<ref name="TaylorWhitmore1995">{{cite book|author1=Keith Weller Taylor|author2=John K. Whitmore|title=Essays Into Vietnamese Pasts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A60OggwLPrAC&pg=PA37|year=1995|publisher=SEAP Publications|isbn=978-0-87727-718-7|pages=37–}}</ref> The image implies a society of a certain sophistication in metallurgy as well as An Dương Vương's ''Legend of the Magic Crossbow'', a weapon, that can fire thousands of bolts simultaneously, seems to hint at the extensive use of archery in warfare. The about 1,000 traditional craft villages of the [[Red River Delta|Hồng River Delta]] near and around [[Hanoi]] represented throughout more than 2,000 years of Vietnamese history the national industrial and economic backbone.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers12-06/010055064.pdf |title= The Craft Villages of the Red River Delta (Vietnam): Periodization, Spatialization, Specializations | publisher = IRD France |author=Sylvie Fanchette |access-date= March 5, 2019 }}</ref> Countless, mostly small family run manufacturers have over the centuries preserved their ethnic ideas by producing highly sophisticated goods, built temples and dedicated ceremonies and festivals in an unbroken culture of veneration for these legendary popular spirits.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers13-01/010057972.pdf |title= Discovering Craft Villages in Vietnam, Ten itineraries around Hanoi | publisher = IRD |first1=Sylvie |last1=Fanchette |first2=Nicholas |last2=Stedman |access-date= March 5, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vietnam-culture.com/articles-13-4/The-Magic-Crossbow.aspx |title= The Magic Crossbow | publisher = Vietnam Culture|date=2013-10-02|access-date= March 5, 2019 }}</ref>{{sfn|Taylor|1983|p=25}}

=== Âu Lạc kingdom (257–179 BC) ===
[[File:Co loa Citadel.jpg|thumb|Map of the [[Cổ Loa Citadel]], walls in red, water in blue, vegetation in green.]]
{{Main|An Dương Vương|Cổ Loa Citadel|Âu Lạc}}
By the 3rd century BC, another Viet group, the [[Âu Việt]], emigrated from modern-day southern China to the Hồng River delta and mixed with the indigenous Văn Lang population. In 257 BC, a new kingdom, [[Âu Lạc]], emerged as the union of the Âu Việt and the Lạc Việt, with Thục Phán proclaiming himself "[[An Dương Vương]]" ("King An Dương"). Some modern Vietnamese believe that Thục Phán came upon the [[Âu Việt]] territory (modern-day northernmost Vietnam, western [[Guangdong]], and southern Guangxi province, with its capital in what is today [[Cao Bằng Province]]).<ref>{{Cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Jskyi00bspcC&pg=PA13 | title = A History of Vietnam: From Hong Bang to Tu Duc | isbn = 978-0-313-29622-2 | last1 = Chapuis | first1 = Oscar | date = 1995-01-01| publisher = Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref>

=== Nanyue (179 BC–111 BC) ===
{{Main|Nanyue|Triệu dynasty}}
[[File:Nanyue map.png|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Nanyue]] or Nam Việt (204 BCE – 111 BCE) —an ancient kingdom that consisted of parts of the modern southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan and northern Vietnam.]]
In 207 BC, the former [[Qin dynasty|Qin]] general [[Zhao Tuo]] (Triệu Đà in Vietnamese) established an independent kingdom in the modern-day [[Guangdong]]/[[Guangxi]] area of China's southern coast.<ref name="Keatginooi">[[Keat Gin Ooi]]. ''Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor'', Volume 1. ABC-CLIO, Jan 1, 2004; p.933-34</ref> He proclaimed his new kingdom as [[Nanyue|Nam Việt]] (''pinyin:'' Nanyue), to be ruled by the Zhao dynasty.<ref name="Keatginooi" /> Zhao Tuo later appointed himself a commandant of central Guangdong, closing the borders and conquering neighboring districts and titled himself "King of Nanyue".<ref name="Keatginooi" /> In 179 BC, he defeated King An Dương Vương and annexed Âu Lạc.{{sfn|Taylor|1983|p=23-27}}

The period has been given some controversial conclusions by Vietnamese historians, as some consider [[Triệu dynasty|Zhao]]'s rule as the starting point of the Chinese domination, since Zhao Tuo was a former [[Qin dynasty|Qin]] general; whereas others consider it still an era of Vietnamese independence as the Zhao family in Nanyue were assimilated into local culture.<ref name="Anderson2007">{{cite book|author=James Anderson|title=The Rebel Den of Nùng Trí Cao: Loyalty and Identity Along the Sino-Vietnamese Frontier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-E9NS39GaTkC|year=2007|publisher=NUS Press|isbn=978-9971-69-367-1}}</ref> They ruled independently of what then constituted the [[Han dynasty|Han Empire]]. At one point, Zhao Tuo even declared himself Emperor, equal to the Han Emperor in the north.<ref name="Keatginooi" />

== Chinese Domination (111 BC–AD 938) ==
{{Main|Vietnam under Chinese rule}}

=== First Era of Northern Domination (111 BC–AD 40) ===
{{Main|First Era of Northern Domination}}
[[File:汉朝行政区划(繁).png|thumb|left|Northern and Central Vietnam under Chinese rule during the reign of [[Emperor Wu of Han]].]]

In 111 BC, the Chinese [[Han conquest of Nanyue|Han dynasty conquered Nanyue]] and established its new territories, dividing Vietnam into ''[[Jiaozhi|Giao Chỉ]]'' (''pinyin'': Jiaozhi), i.e. the Red River Delta; ''Cửu Chân'' from [[Thanh Hóa Province|Thanh Hóa]] to [[Hà Tĩnh Province|Hà Tĩnh]]; and ''Nhật Nam'' (''pinyin'': Rinan), from [[Quảng Bình Province|Quảng Bình]] to [[Huế]]. While governors and top officials were Chinese, the original Vietnamese nobles (Lạc Hầu, Lạc Tướng) from the Hồng Bàng period still managed in some of the highlands. During this period, [[Buddhism]] was introduced into Vietnam from India via the [[Maritime Silk Road]], while [[Taoism]] and [[Confucianism]] spread to Vietnam through the Chinese rulers.{{sfn|Walker|2012|p=110}}<ref>{{cite web|access-date=30 August 2024 |title=Entry |url=http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/reign/yong-le/year-5-month-5-day-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|archive-date=28 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128132720/http://www.vusta.vn/vi/news/Thong-tin-Su-kien-Thanh-tuu-KH-CN/Xung-dot-vung-mien-giua-cac-toc-Viet-tu-the-ky-XIII-den-XIX-15310.html |access-date=28 January 2018 |title=Bản sao đã lưu trữ |url=http://www.vusta.vn/vi/news/Thong-tin-Su-kien-Thanh-tuu-KH-CN/Xung-dot-vung-mien-giua-cac-toc-Viet-tu-the-ky-XIII-den-XIX-15310.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> 

=== Trưng Sisters' rebellion (40–43) ===
{{Main|Trưng Sisters|Trưng sisters' rebellion}}
In February AD 40, the [[Trưng Sisters]] led a [[Trung sisters' rebellion|successful revolt]] against Han Governor Su Ding (''Vietnamese:'' Tô Định) and recaptured 65 states (including modern Guangxi). Trưng Trắc, angered by the killing of her husband by Su Dung, led the revolt together with her sister, Trưng Nhị. Trưng Trắc later became the Queen ([[Trưng Nữ Vương]]). In 43&nbsp;AD, [[Emperor Guangwu of Han]] sent his famous general [[Ma Yuan (Han dynasty)|Ma Yuan]] (''Vietnamese:'' Mã Viện) with a large army to quell the revolt. After a long, difficult campaign, Ma Yuan suppressed the uprising and the Trung Sisters committed suicide to avoid capture. To this day, the Trưng Sisters are revered in Vietnam as the national symbol of [[Women in Vietnam|Vietnamese women]].{{sfn|Walker|2012|p=37-38}}

=== Second Era of Northern Domination (43–544) ===
[[File:Eastern Jin 382.png|thumb|left|Northern Vietnam under Eastern [[Jin dynasty (266–420)|Jin dynasty]], 382 AD.]]
{{Main|Second Era of Northern Domination}}
Learning a lesson from the Trưng revolt, the Han and other successful Chinese dynasties took measures to eliminate the power of the Vietnamese nobles.{{sfn|Walker|2012|pp=111-112}} The Vietnamese elites were educated in Chinese culture and politics. A Giao Chỉ prefect, [[Shi Xie]], ruled Vietnam as an autonomous warlord for forty years and was posthumously deified by later Vietnamese monarchs.{{sfn|Walker|2012|p=132}}<ref>Taylor, Keith Weller (1 April 1991). [https://books.google.com/books?id=rCl_02LnNVIC&pg=PA70 "The Birth of Vietnam"]. University of California Press – via Google Books.</ref> [[Shi Xie]] pledged loyalty to [[Eastern Wu]] of the [[Three Kingdoms]] era of China. The Eastern Wu was a formative period in [[Vietnamese history]]. According to Stephen O'Harrow, Shi Xie was essentially "the first Vietnamese".<ref>{{cite book | last=de Crespigny | first=Rafe | title=Generals of the South: The Foundation and Early History of the Three Kingdoms State of Wu | orig-year=1990 | publisher=Faculty of Asian Studies, The Australian National University | location=Canberra, ACT |isbn = 0-7315-0901-3 | chapter-url = https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/html/1885/42048/gos_index.html | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120709044544/https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/html/1885/42048/gos_index.html | archive-date=9 July 2012 | chapter=Empire in the South | year = 2004 |version = Internet | url-status=live | access-date=22 September 2016 | df=dmy-all |page=739}}</ref> Nearly 200 years passed before the Vietnamese attempted another revolt. In 248 a [[Vietnamese people|Yue]] woman, [[Triệu Thị Trinh]] with her brother [[Triệu Quốc Đạt]], popularly known as Lady Triệu (Bà Triệu), led a revolt against the Wu dynasty. Once again, the uprising failed. Eastern Wu sent [[Lu Yin (Three Kingdoms)|Lu Yin]] and 8,000 elite soldiers to suppress the rebels.{{sfn|Walker|2012|p=133}} He managed to pacify the rebels with a combination of threats and persuasion. According to the ''[[Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư]]'' (Complete Annals of Đại Việt), Lady Triệu had long hair that reached her shoulders and rode into battle on an elephant. After several months of warfare she was defeated and committed suicide.{{sfn|Taylor|1983|p=90}}

=== Early Cham kingdoms (192–7th century) ===
{{Main|Lâm Ấp|Xitu|Quduqian}}
[[File:Bia ký chữ Phạn-Chăm cổ ở PoKlaungGarai.JPG|thumb|Inscription from the Cham temple at Po Klong Garai.]]
At the same time, in present-day [[Central Vietnam]], there was a successful revolt of [[Cham people|Cham]] nations in 192. Chinese dynasties called it Lin-Yi (Lin village; Vietnamese: ''Lâm Ấp''). It later became a powerful kingdom, [[Champa]], stretching from [[Quảng Bình Province|Quảng Bình]] to Phan Thiết ([[Bình Thuận Province|Bình Thuận]]). The Cham developed the first [[Cham script|native writing system]] in Southeast Asia, oldest surviving literature of any Southeast Asian language, leading Buddhist, Hindu, and cultural expertise in the region.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=48}}

=== Funan kingdom (1st century–627) ===
{{Main|Funan}}
In the early first century AD, on the lower [[Mekong]], the first Indianized kingdom of Southeast Asia which the Chinese called them ''[[Funan]]'' emerged and became the great economic power in the region, its prime city [[Óc Eo]] attracted merchants and craftmen from China, India, and even Rome. The first ruler of Funan, Queen [[Queen Soma|Liǔyè]], got married with [[Kaundinya I|Kaundinya]], a man from the west with a magic bow. Kaundinya then became the ruler of Funan. Funan is said to be the first Khmer state, or Austronesian, or multiethnic. According to Chinese annals, the last king of Funan, [[Rudravarman]] (r. 514–545) sent many embassies to China. Also according to Chinese annals, [[Funan]] might have been conquered by another kingdom called [[Zhenla]] around AD 627, ending the kingdom of Funan.{{sfnp|Coedes|1975|p=69}}

=== Kingdom of Vạn Xuân (544–602) ===
{{Main|Early Lý dynasty}}
In the period between the beginning of the Chinese [[Age of Fragmentation]] and the end of the [[Tang dynasty]], several revolts against Chinese rule took place, such as those of [[Lý Nam Đế|Lý Bôn]] and his general and heir [[Triệu Việt Vương|Triệu Quang Phục]]. All of them ultimately failed, yet most notable were those led by Lý Bôn and Triệu Quang Phục, who ruled the briefly independent Van Xuan kingdom for almost half a century, from 544 to 602, before [[Sui dynasty|Sui China]] [[Sui–Lý War|reconquered the kingdom]].{{sfn|Taylor|1983|p=158–159}}

=== Golden Age of Cham Civilization and wars with Angkor Empire (7th century–1203) ===
{{multiple image
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 | caption1 = Champa and the region during the 9th century
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 | caption2 = Crown of Champa (7th-8th century)
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 | caption3 = Head of Shiva made of gold-silver alloy (10th century)
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}}
{{Main|Champa}}
The Cham [[Lâm Ấp]] kingdom, with capital located in [[Trà Kiệu|Simhapura]], became prosperous through benefiting from the ancient maritime trade routes from the Middle East to China. The wealthy of Lâm Ấp attracted attention from the Chinese Empire. In 605, emperor Yang Guang of the [[Sui dynasty|Sui Empire]] ordered general Liu Fang, who had just reconquered and pacificed northern Vietnam, to [[Sui–Lâm Ấp war|invade]] Lâm Ấp. The kingdom was quickly overwhelmed by the invaders who pillaged and looted Cham sanctuaries. Despite that, king [[Sambhuvarman]] of Lâm Ấp (r. 572–629) quickly reasserted his independence, beginning the unified period of Champa in 629.{{sfn|Taylor|1983|pp=161–163}}

From the 7th to the 10th centuries, the Cham controlled the trade in spices and silk between China, India, the Indonesian islands, and the [[Abbasid]] empire in [[Baghdad]]. They supplemented their income from the trade routes not only by exporting ivory and aloe, but also by engaging in piracy and raiding. This period of prosperity and cultural flourishing is often referred to as the golden age of Champa.

In 875, a new Mahayana Buddhist monarch named [[Indravarman II (Champa)|Indravarman II]] (r. 854–893) founded a new dynasty with Buddhism as state religion.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=122}} Indravarman II built a new capital city in [[Indrapura (Champa)|Indrapura]] (modern-day [[Quảng Nam]]) and a large Buddhist temple in Dong Duong. The dynasty of Indravarman II continued to rule until the late 10th century, when a [[Cham–Vietnamese War (982)|Vietnamese invasion in 982]] murdered the ruling king [[Paramesvaravarman I (Champa)|Jaya Paramesvaravarman I]] (r. 972–982).{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=124}} A Vietnamese usurper named [[Lưu Kế Tông]] took advance of unsettling situation and seized Indrapura in 983, declared himself the king of Champa in 986, disrupted the Cham kingdom. In [[Vijaya (Champa)|Vijaya]] (present-day Binh Dinh) from the south, a new Hindu dynasty was founded in 989 and relocated Cham capital to Vijaya in 1000.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=125}}

Champa and the emerging [[Khmer Empire]] had [[Khmer–Cham wars|waged war]] on each other for three centuries, from the 10th to 13th century. The Khmer first invaded Champa in Kauthara (Khanh Hoa) in 950.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=154}} In 1080, they attacked Vijaya and central Champa. The Cham under Harivarman IV launched counteroffensive against the Cambodian and plundered temples across east of the [[Mekong]] river. Tensions escalated during the next century. [[Suryavarman II]] of Khmer Empire invaded Champa in 1145 and 1149 after Cham ruler Indravarman refused to join with the Khmer campaign against the Vietnamese.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=164}} It was believed that Suryavarman II died during the war against Champa in 1150.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=160}} In 1177 Cham king [[Jaya Indravarman IV]] led a surprised attacked on Khmer capital [[Yasodharapura]] ([[Angkor]]) and defeated them at the [[Battle of Tonlé Sap]].{{sfn|Coedes|1975|pp=163, 166}}

The new Cambodian ruler, [[Jayavarman VII]], arose to power, repelled the Cham and began his conquest of Champa in 1190. He finally defeated the Cham in 1203 and put Champa under Khmer governance for 17 years. In 1220, as the Khmer voluntary withdraw from Champa, a Cham prince named Angsaraja proclaimed [[Jaya Paramesvaravarman II]] of Champa and restored Cham independence.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|pp=169–173}}

Champa expanded its commerce to the Philippines in the 1200s. The ''[[History of Song (book)|History of Song]]'' notes that to the east of Champa through a two-day journey lay the country of [[Ma-i]], at Mindoro, Philippines; while Pu-duan ([[Butuan (historical polity)|Butuan]]) at Mindanao, need a seven-day journey, and there were mentions of Cham commercial activities in Butuan.<ref name=Wade2005>{{cite book|last1=Wade|first1=Geoff|title=Champa in the Song hui-yao: A draft translation |year=2005|publisher=Asia Research Institute, Singapore}}</ref> Butuan resented Champa commercial supremacy and their king, Rajah Kiling spearheaded a diplomatic rivalry for China trade against Champa hegemony.<ref>{{cite book | author-link=William Henry Scott (historian) |last=Scott |first=William |title=Prehispanic Source Materials: For the Study of Philippine History |page=66 |location=Quezon City |publisher=New Day Publishers |year=1984 |edition=revised |isbn=9711002264}}</ref> Meanwhile, at the nation of the future [[Sultanate of Sulu]] which by then was still Hindu, there was a mass migration of men from Champa and they were locally known as Orang Dampuan, and they caused conflicts (which were then resolved) with the local Sulu people. They became the ancestors of the local [[Yakan people]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Study Skills in English for a Changing World' 2001 Ed.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2H0KWiOADLQC&q=Orang+Dampuans&pg=PA23|publisher=Rex Bookstore, Inc.|isbn=978-971-23-3225-8|pages=23–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Philippine History Module-based Learning I' 2002 Ed.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ITLRpPrrcykC&q=Orang+Dampuans&pg=PA39|publisher=Rex Bookstore, Inc.|isbn=978-971-23-3449-8|pages=39–}}</ref>

=== Third Era of Northern Domination (602–AD 905) ===
[[File:Tang Dynasty 700 CE.svg|thumb|left|Vietnam under the Chinese [[Tang dynasty]], c. 700]]
{{Main|Third Era of Northern Domination|Annan (Tang protectorate)}}
During the Tang dynasty, Vietnam was called [[Annam (Chinese province)|Annam]] until AD 866. With its capital around [[Bắc Ninh Province|Bắc Ninh]], Annam became a flourishing trading outpost, receiving goods from the southern seas. The ''[[Book of the Later Han]]'' recorded that in 166 the first envoy from the [[Roman Empire]] to China arrived by this route, and merchants were soon to follow. The 3rd-century ''Tales of Wei'' (''[[Weilüe]]'') mentioned a "water route" (the Red River) from Annam into what is now southern [[Yunnan]]. From there, goods were taken over land to the rest of China via the regions of modern [[Kunming]] and [[Chengdu]]. The capital of Annam, Tống Bình or [[Songping]] (today Hanoi) was a major urbanized settlement in the southwest region of Tang Empire. From 858 to 864, disturbances in Annan gave [[Nanzhao]], a Yunnan kingdom, opportunity to intervene the region, provoking local tribes to revolt against the Chinese. The Yunnanese and their local allies launched the [[Siege of Songping]] in early 863, defeating the Chinese, and captured the capital in three years. In 866, Chinese jiedushi [[Gao Pian]] recaptured the city and drove out the Nanzhao army. He renamed the city to Daluocheng (大羅城, [[Đại La]] thành).

In 866, Annan was renamed [[Tĩnh Hải quân]]. Early in the 10th century, as China became politically fragmented, successive lords from the [[Khúc clan]], followed by [[Dương Đình Nghệ]], ruled Tĩnh Hải quân autonomously under the [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] title of [[Jiedushi]] (''Vietnamese'': Tiết Độ Sứ), (governor), but stopped short of proclaiming themselves kings.

=== Autonomous era (905–938) ===
[[File:Five Dynasties Ten Kingdoms 923 CE.png|thumb|[[Khúc clan]] (orange), 923 CE]]
{{Main|Tĩnh Hải quân|Khúc clan|Dương Đình Nghệ|Kiều Công Tiễn}}
Since 905, Tĩnh Hải circuit had been ruled by local Vietnamese governors like an autonomous state.{{sfn|Juzheng|1995|p=53}} Tĩnh Hải circuit had to paid tributes for [[Later Liang (Five Dynasties)|Later Liang dynasty]] to exchange political protection.{{sfn|Juzheng|1995|p=100}} In 923, the nearby [[Southern Han]] invaded Jinghai but was repelled by Vietnamese leader [[Dương Đình Nghệ]].{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=45}} In 938, the Chinese state Southern Han once again sent a fleet to subdue the Vietnamese. General [[Ngô Quyền]] (r. 939–944), Dương Đình Nghệ's son-in-law, defeated the Southern Han fleet at the [[Battle of Bạch Đằng (938)]]. He then proclaimed himself King Ngô, established a monarchy government in [[Cổ Loa]] and effectively began the age of independence for Vietnam.

== Dynastic period (939–1945) ==
{{anchor|Late dynastic epoch}}
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[[File:Territorial expansion of Vietnam from Lý dynasty to Nguyễn dynasty (1009–1834).gif|right|thumb|Map of Vietnam showing its [[Nam tiến|territorial expansions]], 11th to 19th century]]
[[File:VietnamChampa-fr.svg|thumb|upright|left|Đại Việt, Champa and Khmer Empire (12th century)]]
The basic nature of Vietnamese society changed little during the nearly 1,000 years between independence from China in the 10th century and the French conquest in the 19th century. Viet Nam, named Đại Việt (Great Viet) was a stable nation, but village autonomy was a key feature. Villages had a unified culture centered around harmony related to the religion of the spirits of nature and the peaceful nature of Buddhism. While the sovereign was the ultimate source of political authority, a saying was, "The Sovereign's Laws end at the village gate". The sovereign was the final dispenser of justice, law, and supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces, as well as overseer of religious rituals. Administration was carried out by mandarins who were trained exactly like their Chinese counterparts (i.e. by rigorous study of Confucian texts). Overall, Vietnam remained very efficiently and stably governed except in times of war and dynastic breakdown. Its administrative system was probably far more advanced than that of any other Southeast Asian states and was more highly centralized and stably governed among Asian states. No serious challenge to the sovereign's authority ever arose, as titles of nobility were bestowed purely as honors and were not hereditary. Periodic land reforms broke up large estates and ensured that powerful landowners could not emerge. No religious/priestly class ever arose outside of the mandarins either. This stagnant absolutism ensured a stable, well-ordered society, but also resistance to social, cultural, or technological innovations. Reformers looked only to the past for inspiration.<ref>Dai Viet. Huu Ngoc, Borton, L., & Collins, E., ed. (2016). Viet Nam : Tradition and Change. Ha Noi. World Publishers, Ohio University Press, p. 285. Autonomy, royal cede. Huu Ngoc (2004). Wandering through Vietnamese culture. Ha Noi: The Gioi, pp. 189–90. Harmony and religion. Trần Ngọc Thêm (2001). Tìm về Bản Sắc Văn hóa Việt Nam: Cái Nhìn Hệ Thống-Loại Hình (In lần thứ 3, sửa chữa và bổ sung, ed.). Việt Nam: Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh. NXB T.P. Hồ Chí Minh, pp. 99–102, 110–118.</ref>

Literacy remained the province of the upper classes. Originally, only [[Chữ Hán]] was used to write, but by the 11th century, a set of derivative characters known as [[Chữ Nôm]] emerged that allowed native Vietnamese words to be written. However, it remained limited to poetry, literature, and practical texts like medicine while all state and official documents were written in [[Classical Chinese]]. Aside from some mining and fishing, agriculture was the primary activity of most Vietnamese, and economic development and trade were not promoted or encouraged by the state.<ref>Andaya, Barbara Watson (1 January 2006). [https://archive.org/details/flamingwombrepos0000anda/page/23 "The Flaming Womb: Repositioning Women in Early Modern Southeast Asia"]. University of Hawaii Press – via Google Books.</ref>

=== Ngô, Đinh, & Anterior Lê dynasties (939–1009) ===
{{Main|Timeline of early independent Vietnam|Ngô dynasty|Đinh dynasty|Anterior Lê dynasty}}
{{Further|Anarchy of the 12 Warlords}}
[[File:VietnamChampa1.gif|thumb|right|200px|Indochina c. 1010&nbsp;AD. ''[[Đại Việt]]'' lands in yellow, [[Champa]] polities in green and the [[Khmer Empire]] in purple.]]
Ngô Quyền in 939 declared himself king, but died after only 6 years. His untimely death after a short reign resulted in a power struggle for the throne, resulting in the country's first major civil war, the [[Anarchy of the 12 Warlords|upheaval of the Twelve Warlords]] (''Loạn Thập Nhị Sứ Quân''). The war lasted from 944 to 968, until the clan led by [[Đinh Bộ Lĩnh]] defeated the other warlords, unifying the country.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=47}} Đinh Bộ Lĩnh founded the [[Đinh dynasty]] in 968 and proclaimed himself Đinh Tiên Hoàng (Đinh the Majestic [[Emperor]]) and renamed the country from [[Tĩnh Hải quân]] to [[Đại Cồ Việt]] (literally "Great Viet"), with its capital in the city of [[Hoa Lư Ancient Capital|Hoa Lư]] ([[Ninh Bình Province]]). In relations with China since Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, Vietnamese dynasties had [[Emperor at home, king abroad|considered]] their leaders "kings" although they had still implicitly considered their leaders emperors.{{sfn|Taylor|1983|pp=285, 287}} 

In 979, Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng and his crown prince [[Đinh Liễn]] were assassinated by Đỗ Thích, a government official, leaving his lone surviving son, the 6-year-old [[Đinh Toàn]], to assume the throne. Taking advantage of the situation, [[Song dynasty|the Song dynasty]] invaded Đại Cồ Việt. Facing such a grave threat to national independence, the commander of the armed forces, (Thập Đạo Tướng Quân) [[Lê Hoàn]] took the throne, replaced the house of Đinh and established the [[Anterior Lê dynasty]]. A capable military tactician, Lê Hoan realized the risks of engaging the mighty Song troops head on; thus, he tricked the invading army into Chi Lăng Pass, then ambushed and killed their commander, quickly ending the threat to his young nation in 981. The Song dynasty withdrew their troops and Lê Hoàn was referred to in his realm as Emperor Đại Hành (Đại Hành Hoàng Đế).{{sfn|Walker|2012|p=211-212}} Emperor Lê Đại Hành was also the first Vietnamese monarch who began the southward expansion process against the kingdom of [[Champa]].

Emperor Lê Đại Hành's death in 1005 resulted in infighting for the throne amongst his sons. The eventual winner, [[Lê Long Đĩnh]], became the most notorious tyrant in Vietnamese history. He devised sadistic punishments of prisoners for his own entertainment and indulged in deviant sexual activities. Toward the end of his short life{{spaced ndash}}he died at the age of 24 – Lê Long Đĩnh had become so ill, that he had to lie down when meeting with his officials in court.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=60}}

=== Lý dynasty, Trần dynasty & Hồ dynasty (1009–1407) ===
{{Main|Lý dynasty|Trần dynasty|Hồ dynasty}}
{{See also|Timeline of the Lý dynasty}}
[[File:ChuaMotCot2.JPG|thumb|[[One Pillar Pagoda]] built by emperor [[Lý Thái Tông]] in 1049]]
When the emperor Lê Long Đĩnh died in 1009, a palace guard commander named [[Lý Thái Tổ|Lý Công Uẩn]] was nominated by the court to take over the throne, and founded the [[Lý dynasty]].{{sfn|Tarling|1999|p=140}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Ngô Sĩ Liên|2009|pp=154}}</ref> This event is regarded as the beginning of another golden era in Vietnamese history, with the following dynasties inheriting the Lý dynasty's prosperity and doing much to maintain and expand it. The way Lý Công Uẩn ascended to the throne was rather uncommon in Vietnamese history. As a high-ranking military commander residing in the capital, he had all opportunities to seize power during the tumultuous years after Emperor Lê Hoàn's death, yet preferring not to do so out of his sense of duty. He was in a way being "elected" by the court after some debate before a consensus was reached.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ngô Sĩ Liên|2009|pp=155}}</ref>

[[File:遷都詔.jpg|thumb|[[Edict on the Transfer of the Capital]], written by emperor [[Lý Thái Tổ|Lý Công Uẩn]]]]
The Lý monarchs are credited for laying down a concrete foundation for the nation of Vietnam. In 1010, Lý Công Uẩn issued the [[Edict on the Transfer of the Capital]], moving the capital Đại Cồ Việt from Hoa Lư, a natural fortification surrounded by mountains and rivers, to the new capital, Đại La ([[Hanoi]]), which was later renamed [[Thăng Long]] (Ascending Dragon) by Lý Công Uẩn, after allegedly seeing a dragon flying upwards when he arrived at the capital.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=62}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Ngô Sĩ Liên|2009|pp=160}}</ref> Moving the capital, Lý Công Uẩn thus departed from the militarily defensive mentality of his predecessors and envisioned a strong economy as the key to national survival. The third emperor of the dynasty, Lý Thánh Tông renamed the country "Đại Việt" (大越, Great Viet).<ref>{{Harvnb|Ngô Sĩ Liên|2009|pp=193}}</ref> Successive Lý emperors continued to accomplish far-reaching feats: building a dike system to protect rice farms; founding the [[Temple of Literature, Hanoi|Quốc Tử Giám]]<ref>{{Harvnb|Ngô Sĩ Liên|2009|pp=197}}</ref> the first noble university; and establishing [[Confucian court examination system in Vietnam|court examination]] system to select capable commoners for government positions once every three years; organizing a new system of taxation;{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=86}} establishing humane treatment of prisoners. Women were holding important roles in Lý society as the court ladies were in charge of tax collection. Neighboring [[Dali kingdom]]'s [[Vajrayana]] Buddhism traditions also had influences on Vietnamese beliefs at the time. Lý kings adopted both [[Buddhism]] and [[Taoism]] as state religions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://baophapluat.vn/dao-va-doi/dau-tich-phat-giao-mat-tong-trong-bo-tuong-di-da-tam-ton-co-nhat-viet-nam-tiep-theo-va-het-496547.html|title=Dấu tích Phật giáo Mật Tông trong bộ tượng Di Đà Tam Tôn cổ nhất Việt Nam (tiếp theo và hết)|date=February 27, 2020|website=Báo Pháp luật Việt Nam}}</ref>

The Vietnamese during Lý dynasty had one major war with [[Song dynasty|Song]] China, and a few invasive campaigns against neighboring [[Champa]] in the south.{{sfn|Twitchett|2008|p=468}}{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=81}} The most notable conflict took place on Chinese territory [[Guangxi]] in late 1075. Upon learning that a Song invasion was imminent, the Vietnamese army under the command of [[Lý Thường Kiệt]], and Tông Đản used [[Amphibious warfare|amphibious]] operations to preemptively destroy three Song military installations at [[Nanning|Yongzhou]], Qinzhou, and Lianzhou in [[Guangdong]] and [[Guangxi]], and killed 100,000 Chinese.<ref>''Xu Zizhi Tongjian Changbian''《長編》卷三百上載出師兵員“死者二十萬”，“上曰：「朝廷以交址犯順，故興師討罪，郭逵不能剪滅，垂成而還。今廣源瘴癘之地，我得之未為利，彼失之未為害，一夫不獲，朕尚閔之，况十死五六邪？」又安南之師，死者二十萬，朝廷當任其咎。《續資治通鑑長編·卷三百》”。
《越史略》載廣西被殺者“無慮十萬”。
《玉海》卷一九三上稱“兵夫三十萬人冒暑涉瘴地，死者過半”。</ref><ref name=Chapuis77>{{Harvnb|Chapuis|1995|page=77}}</ref> The Song dynasty took revenge and invaded Đại Việt in 1076, but the Song troops were held back at the [[Battle of Như Nguyệt River (1077)|Battle of Như Nguyệt River]] commonly known as the Cầu river ([[Bắc Ninh]]) about 40&nbsp;km from the current capital, Hanoi. Neither side was able to force a victory, so the Vietnamese court proposed a truce, which the Song emperor accepted.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=84}} Champa and the powerful Khmer Empire took advantage of Đại Việt's distraction with the Song to pillage Đại Việt's southern provinces. Together they invaded Đại Việt in 1128 and 1132.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=93}} Further invasions followed in the subsequent decades.<ref>Cœdès, George (1 January 1966). [https://books.google.com/books?id=qgrAFlAC4-QC&pg=PA84 "The Making of South East Asia"]. University of California Press – via Google Books.</ref>
{{multiple image
 | align = right
 | direction = vertical
 | width = 180
 | header =
 | image1 = Chua Thanh Mai 2.jpg
 | alt1 = 
 | caption1 = Buddhist inscriptions in Nom (Vietnamese) and Chinese scripts (1366)
 | image2 = Tay Do castle South gate.JPG
 | alt2 = 
 | caption2 = Remain Southern gate of [[Tây Đô]], capital of Dai Viet from 1397 to 1407. UNESCO [[World Heritage Site]].
 | image3 = Tran-Ho Dynasty, 14th-15th Century, Cannonballs (9735704257).jpg
 | alt3 = 
 | caption3 = Cannonball with size 57&nbsp;mm, produced during Trần dynasty, 14th century.
}}
[[File:Nhất Mân (緡壹) - Đại Trần Thông Bảo Hội Sao (鈔會寶通陳大) Replica - Howard A. Daniel III.jpg|A print of banknote [[Hội Sao Thông Bảo]] in 1393|100px|thumb|left]]
Toward the declining Lý monarch's power in the late 12th century, the Trần clan from [[Nam Định]] eventually rise to power.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=103}} In 1224, powerful court minister [[Trần Thủ Độ]] forced the emperor Lý Huệ Tông to become a Buddhist monk and [[Lý Chiêu Hoàng]], Huệ Tông's 8-year-old young daughter, to become ruler of the country.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=109}} Trần Thủ Độ then arranged the marriage of Chiêu Hoàng to his nephew [[Trần Cảnh]] and eventually had the throne transferred to Trần Cảnh, thus begun the [[Trần dynasty]].{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=110}}

Trần Thủ Độ viciously purged members of the Lý nobility; some Lý princes escaped to Korea, including [[Lý Long Tường]]. After the purge, the Trần emperors ruled the country in similar manner to the Lý kings. Noted Trần monarch accomplishments include the creation of a system of population records based at the village level, the compilation of a formal 30-volume history of Đại Việt (Đại Việt Sử Ký) by [[Lê Văn Hưu]], and the rising in status of the [[Nôm]] script, a system of writing for Vietnamese language. The Trần dynasty also adopted a unique way to train new emperors: when a crown prince reached the age of 18, his predecessor would abdicate and turn the throne over to him, yet holding the title of Retired Emperor (Thái Thượng Hoàng), acting as a mentor to the new Emperor.

During the Trần dynasty, the armies of the [[Mongol Empire]] and the Mongol [[Yuan dynasty]] of China under [[Möngke Khan]] and [[Kublai Khan]] [[Mongol invasions of Vietnam|invaded Đại Việt in 1258, 1285, and 1287–88]]. Đại Việt repelled all attacks of the Yuan Mongols during the reign of [[Kublai Khan]]. Three Mongol armies said to have numbered from 300,000 to 500,000 men were defeated.{{Disputed inline|date=May 2020}} The key to Annam's successes was to avoid the Mongols' strength in open field battles and city sieges—the Trần court [[Scorched earth|abandoned]] the capital and the cities. The Mongols were then countered decisively at their weak points, which were battles in swampy areas such as Chương Dương, Hàm Tử, Vạn Kiếp and on rivers such as Vân Đồn and Bạch Đằng. The Mongols also suffered from tropical diseases and loss of supplies to Trần army's raids. The Yuan-Trần war reached its climax when the retreating Yuan fleet was decimated at the [[Battle of Bạch Đằng (1288)]]. The military architect behind Annam's victories was Commander Trần Quốc Tuấn, more popularly known as [[Trần Hưng Đạo]]. In order to avoid further disastrous campaigns, the Tran and Champa acknowledged Mongol supremacy. {{Citation needed|date=August 2012}}

In 1288, [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] explorer [[Marco Polo]] visited Champa and Đại Việt.
It was also during this period that the Vietnamese waged war against the southern kingdom of [[Champa]], continuing the Vietnamese long history of southern expansion (known as [[Nam tiến]]) that had begun shortly after gaining independence in the 10th century. Often, they encountered strong resistance from the Chams. After the successful alliance with Champa during the Mongol invasion, king Trần Nhân Tông of Đại Việt gained two Champa provinces, located around present-day [[Huế]], through the peaceful means of the political marriage of Princess [[Huyền Trân]] to Cham king [[Jaya Simhavarman III]]. Not long after the nuptials, the king died, and the princess returned to her northern home in order to avoid a Cham custom that would have required her to join her husband in death.{{sfn|Maspero|2002|p=86-87}} Champa was made a tributary state of Vietnam in 1312, but ten years later they regained independence and eventually waged a 30-years long war against the Vietnamese, in order to regain these lands and encouraged by the decline of Đại Việt in the course of the 14th century. Cham troops led by king [[Chế Bồng Nga]] (Cham: Po Binasuor or Che Bonguar, r. 1360–1390) killed king [[Trần Duệ Tông]] through a battle in [[Vijaya (Champa)|Vijaya]] (1377).{{sfn|Maspero|2002|p=93-94}} Multiple Cham northward invasions from 1371 to 1390 put Vietnamese capital Thăng Long and Vietnamese economy in destruction.{{sfn|Walker|2012|p=257-258}} However, in 1390 the Cham naval offensive against Hanoi was halted by the Vietnamese general [[Trần Khát Chân]], whose soldiers made use of cannons.{{sfn|Maspero|2002|p=107-109}}

The wars with Champa and the Mongols left Đại Việt exhausted and bankrupt. The Trần family was in turn overthrown by one of its own court officials, [[Hồ Quý Ly]]. Hồ Quý Ly forced the last Trần emperor to abdicate and assumed the throne in 1400. He changed the country name to [[Đại Ngu]] and moved the capital to [[Tây Đô]], Western Capital (Thanh Hóa). Thăng Long was renamed Đông Đô, Eastern Capital. Although widely blamed for causing national disunity and losing the country later to the [[Ming dynasty|Ming Empire]], Hồ Quý Ly's reign actually introduced a lot of progressive, ambitious reforms, including the addition of mathematics to the national examinations, the open critique of [[Confucian]] philosophy, the use of paper currency in place of coins, investment in building large warships and cannons, and land reform. He ceded the throne to his son, Hồ Hán Thương, in 1401 and assumed the title Thái Thượng Hoàng, in similar manner to the Trần kings.{{sfn|Walker|2012|p=257}}

=== Champa from 1220 to 1471 ===
{{multiple image
 | align = right|
 | total_width = 300
 | image_style = border:none;
 | title = Champa from 13th century to 1471
 | perrow = 2/2/2
 | caption_align = center
 | image1 = Map of the Kingdom of Champa (1380) during the reign of King Che Bunga.png
 | alt1 = 
 | caption1 = Champa at its zenith during the reign of [[Po Binasuor]] (r. 1360–90)
 | image2 = Po Klong Garai.jpg
 | alt2 = 
 | caption2 = Po Klong Garai temple, built by king [[Chế Mân|Jaya Simhavarman III]] (r. 1288–1307)
 | image3 = Garuda Thap Mam 13th c.jpg
 | alt3 = 
 | caption3 = Sculpture of [[Garuda]], Vijaya, 13th century
 | image4 = Tháp Dương Long, Tây Sơn, Bình Định.JPG
 | caption4 =Cham temple in Duong Long (12th century)
}}
After having been restored from Khmer domination in 1220, Champa continued to face another counter-power from the north. After their invasion of 982, the Vietnamese had been pushing war against Champa in 1020, 1044, and 1069, plundered Cham capital. In 1252 king [[Tran Thai Tong]] of the new dynasty of Dai Viet led an incursion into Cham territories, captured many Cham concubines and women. This might be the reason for the death of Jaya Paramesvaravarman II as he died in the same year. His younger brother, Prince Harideva of Sakanvijaya, was crowned as [[Jaya Indravarman VI]] (r. 1252–1257). The new king was however assassinated by his nephew in 1257, who became [[Indravarman V]] (r. 1257–1288).{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=182}}

The new Mongol Yuan threat soon dragged two hostile kingdoms Champa and Dai Viet close together. The Yuan emperor Kublai demanded Cham submission in 1278 and 1280, both refused. In early 1283 Kublai sent a sea expedition led by Sogetu to invade Champa. The Cham retreated to the mountains, successfully waged a guerrilla resistance that bogged down the Mongols.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=192}} Sogetu was driven to the north, and later killed by joint Cham–Vietnamese forces in June 1285. Although having repulsed the Mongol yokes, the Cham king sent an ambassador to the great Khan in October 1285.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=193}} His successor, [[Chế Mân|Jaya Simhavarman III]] (r. 1288–1307), married with a Vietnamese Queen (daughter of the ruling Vietnamese king) in 1306, and Dai Viet acquired two northern provinces.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=217}}

In 1307 the new Cham king [[Chế Chí|Simhavarman IV]] (r. 1307–1312), set out to retake the two provinces to protest against the Vietnamese agreement but was defeated and taken as a prisoner. Champa thus became a Vietnamese vassal state.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=229}} The Cham revolted in 1318. In 1326 they managed to defeat the Vietnamese and reasserted independence.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=230}} Royal upheaval within the Cham court resumed until 1360, when a strong Cham king was enthroned, known as [[Po Binasuor]] (r. 1360–90). During his thirty-year reign, Champa gained its [[Cham–Vietnamese War (1367–1390)|momentum peak]]. Po Binasuor annihilated the Vietnamese invaders in 1377, ransacked Hanoi in 1371, 1378, 1379, and 1383, nearly had united all Vietnam for the first time by the 1380s.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=237}} During a naval battle in early 1390, the Cham conqueror however was killed by Vietnamese firearm units, thus ending the short-lived rising period of the Cham kingdom.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=238}} During the next decades, Champa returned to its status quo of peace. After much warfare and dismal conflicts, king [[Indravarman VI]] (r. 1400–41) reestablished relations with the second kingdom of Dai Viet's ruler [[Le Loi]] in 1428.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=238}}

The Islamization of Champa began in the 8th century to 11th century, being faster proselytized during the 14th and 15th centuries. [[Ibn Battuta]] during his visit to Champa in 1340, described a princess who met him, spoke in Turkish, was literate in Arabic, and wrote out the bismillah in the presence of the visitor.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=230}} Islam further got more popular in Cham society after the fall of Champa in 1471.{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=239}} After the death of Indravarman VI, succession disputes escalated into civil war between Cham princes, weakening the kingdom. The Vietnamese took advantage, raided Vijaya in 1446. In 1471 Dai Viet king [[Le Thanh Tong]] conquered Champa, killed 60,000 people, and took away 30,000 prisoners included the Cham king and the royal family. Champa was reduced to the rump state of [[Panduranga (Champa)|Panduranga]], which persisted to exist until being fully absorbed in 1832 by the [[Vietnamese Empire]].{{sfn|Coedes|1975|p=239}}

=== Fourth Chinese Domination (1407–1427) ===
[[File:Ming Domination of Vietnam.jpg|thumb|Ming Chinese occupation of Vietnam (1407–1427)]]
{{Main|Fourth Era of Northern Domination|Later Trần dynasty}}
In 1407, under the pretext of helping to restore the Trần monarchs, Chinese [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] troops [[Ming–Hồ War|invaded Đại Ngu]] and captured [[Hồ Quý Ly]] and [[Hồ Hán Thương]].{{sfn|Walker|2012|p=258}} The [[Hồ dynasty|Hồ family]] came to an end after only 7 years in power. The Ming occupying force annexed Đại Ngu into the Ming Empire after claiming that there was no heir to the Trần throne. Vietnam, weakened by dynastic feuds and the wars with Champa, quickly succumbed. The Ming conquest was harsh. Vietnam was annexed directly as [[Jiaozhi Province|a province of China]], the old policy of cultural assimilation again imposed forcibly, and the country was ruthlessly exploited.{{sfn|Walker|2012|p=259}} However, by this time, Vietnamese nationalism had reached a point where attempts to sinicize them could only strengthen further resistance. Almost immediately, [[Later Trần dynasty|Trần loyalists started a resistance war]]. The resistance, under the leadership of [[Trùng Quang Đế|Trần Quý Khoáng]] at first gained some advances, yet as Trần Quý Khoáng executed two top commanders out of suspicion, a rift widened within his ranks and resulted in his defeat in 1413.<ref name="MS321">{{Cite web|url=https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%98%8E%E5%8F%B2/%E5%8D%B7321|title=明史/卷321 - 维基文库，自由的图书馆|website=zh.wikisource.org}}</ref>

=== Restored Dai Viet period (1428–1527) ===
==== Later Lê dynasty – initial period (1428–1527) ====
{{Main|Later Lê dynasty}}
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = vertical
| width             = 180
| header            = 
| image1            = Hoi quan Phuoc Kien.jpg
| alt1              = 
| caption1          = A [[Fujian]]ese communal house in [[Hội An]]. Originally a Vietnamese Buddhism temple, it remains Lê's architectures.
| image2            = Boat by the water - Hoi An (16922189291).jpg
| alt2              = 
| caption2          = The old city of [[Hội An]], [[Central Vietnam]], a UNESCO [[World Heritage Site]], founded in 1470 during Later Lê period.
}}
[[File:Restored Le Dynasty Cannon, 17th-18th Century (9735645651).jpg|thumb|Cannons of Vietnam during the Later Lê dynasty]]

In 1418, [[Lê Lợi]] was the son of a wealthy aristocrat in [[Thanh Hóa]], led the [[Lam Sơn uprising]] against the Ming from his base of Lam Sơn (Thanh Hóa). Overcoming many early setbacks and with strategic advice from [[Nguyễn Trãi]], Lê Lợi's movement finally gathered momentum. In September 1426, the Lam Sơn rebellion marched northward, ultimately defeated the Ming army in the [[Battle of Tốt Động – Chúc Động]] in south of Hanoi by using cannons.<ref>[http://aejjrsite.free.fr/goodmorning/gm104/gm104_ChinaDaiViet.pdf Sun Laichen (2003), "Chinese Military Technology and Dai Viet: c.1390-1597," ''Asia Research Institute Working Paper Series'', No.11, September] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307060033/http://aejjrsite.free.fr/goodmorning/gm104/gm104_ChinaDaiViet.pdf |date=2021-03-07 }}.</ref> Then Lê Lợi's forces launched a siege at Đông Quan (Hanoi), the capital of the Ming occupation. The [[Xuande Emperor]] of Ming China responded by sent two reinforcement forces of 122,000 men, but Lê Lợi staged an ambush and killed the Ming commander Liu Shan in [[Chi Lăng]].<ref name="MS321" /> Ming troops at Đông Quan surrendered. The Lam Sơn rebels defeated 200,000 Ming soldiers.<ref>Tsai, Shih-shan Henry (1 January 1996). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ka6jNJcX_ygC&pg=PA15 "The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty"]. SUNY Press – via Google Books.</ref>

In April 1428, Lê Lợi reestablished the independent of Vietnam under his [[Lê dynasty]]. Lê Lợi renamed the country back to [[Đại Việt]] and moved the capital back to [[Thăng Long]], renamed it [[Đông Kinh]].

[[File:Bản đồ Việt Nam dưới thời vua Lê Thánh Tông, vương triều Lê Sơ năm 1480.png|thumb|The territory of [[Đại Việt]] during the reign of [[Lê Thánh Tông]] (1460–1497), including conquests in [[Muang Phuan]] and [[Champa]].]]
The Lê kings carried out land reforms to revitalize the economy after the war. Unlike the Lý and Trần kings, who were more influenced by Buddhism, the Lê kings leaned toward [[Confucianism]]. A comprehensive set of laws, the [[Hồng Đức code]] was introduced in 1483 with some strong Confucian elements, yet also included some progressive rules, such as the rights of women. Art and architecture during the Lê dynasty also became more influenced by [[Ming dynasty|Chinese styles]] than during previous Lý and Trần dynasties. The Lê dynasty commissioned the drawing of national maps and had [[Ngô Sĩ Liên]] continue the task of writing Đại Việt's history up to the time of Lê Lợi.

Overpopulation and land shortages stimulated a Vietnamese expansion south. In 1471, Đại Việt troops led by king Lê Thánh Tông invaded [[Champa]] and [[Cham–Vietnamese War (1471)|captured]] its capital [[Vijaya (Champa)|Vijaya]]. This event effectively ended Champa as a powerful kingdom, although some smaller surviving Cham states lasted for a few centuries more. It initiated the dispersal of the [[Cham people (Asia)|Cham people]] across Southeast Asia. With the kingdom of Champa mostly destroyed and the Cham people exiled or suppressed, Vietnamese colonization of what is now central Vietnam proceeded without substantial resistance. However, despite becoming greatly outnumbered by Vietnamese settlers and the integration of formerly Cham territory into the Vietnamese nation, the majority of Cham people nevertheless remained in Vietnam and they are now considered one of the key minorities in modern Vietnam. Vietnamese armies also raided the Mekong Delta, which the decaying Khmer Empire could no longer defend. The city of [[Huế]], founded in 1600 lies close to where the Champa capital of Indrapura once stood. In 1479, Lê Thánh Tông also campaigned against [[Laos]] in the [[Vietnamese-Laotian War (1467–80)|Vietnamese–Lao War]] and captured its capital [[Luang Prabang]], in which later the city was totally ransacked and destroyed by the Vietnamese. He made further incursions westwards into the [[Irrawaddy River]] region in modern-day Burma before withdrawing. After the death of Lê Thánh Tông, Đại Việt fell into a swift decline (1497–1527), with 6 rulers in within 30 years of failing economy, natural disasters and rebellions raged through the country. European traders and missionaries, reaching Vietnam in the midst of the [[Age of Discovery]], were at first [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]], and started spreading [[Christianity]] since 1533.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hdgmvietnam.com/chi-tiet/nhung-moc-lich-su-quan-trong-cua-ghcgvn-31228|title=Những mốc lịch sử quan trọng của GHCGVN|website=hdgmvietnam.com}}</ref>

=== Decentralized period (1527–1802) ===
==== Mạc & Later Lê dynasties – restoration period (1527–1789) ====
{{Main|Mạc dynasty|Lê-Mạc War|Northern and Southern dynasties (Vietnam)|Revival Lê dynasty}}
[[File:Map of Southern and Northern Dynasties of Vietnam.png|thumb|From 1533 until 1592, Vietnam was divided between the northern [[Mac dynasty]] and the southern [[Le dynasty]].]]
The Lê dynasty was overthrown by its general named [[Mạc Đăng Dung]] in 1527. He killed the Lê emperor and proclaimed himself emperor, starting the [[Mạc dynasty]]. After defeating many revolutions for two years, Mạc Đăng Dung adopted the Trần dynasty's practice and ceded the throne to his son, Mạc Đăng Doanh, and he became Thái Thượng Hoàng.

Meanwhile, [[Nguyễn Kim]], a former official in the Lê court, revolted against the Mạc and helped king Lê Trang Tông restore the Lê court in the [[Thanh Hóa]] area. Thus a civil war began between the Northern Court (Mạc) and the Southern Court (Restored Lê). Nguyễn Kim's side controlled the southern part of Annam (from Thanhhoa to the south), leaving the north (including Đông Kinh-Hanoi) under Mạc control.<ref>Dardess, John W. (1 January 2012). [https://books.google.com/books?id=0vLn_IZZVMUC&pg=PA5 "Ming China, 1368–1644: A Concise History of a Resilient Empire"]. Rowman & Littlefield – via Google Books.</ref> When Nguyễn Kim was assassinated in 1545, military power fell into the hands of his son-in-law, [[Trịnh Kiểm]]. In 1558, Nguyễn Kim's son, [[Nguyễn Hoàng]], suspecting that Trịnh Kiểm might kill him as he had done to his brother to secure power, asked to be governor of the far south provinces around present-day [[Quảng Bình Province|Quảng Bình]] to [[Bình Định Province|Bình Định]]. Hoàng pretended to be insane, so Kiểm was fooled into thinking that sending Hoàng south was a good move as Hoàng would be quickly killed in the lawless border regions.{{sfn|Dutton|2006|p=20}} However, Hoàng governed the south effectively while Trịnh Kiểm, and then his son Trịnh Tùng, carried on the war against the Mạc. Nguyễn Hoàng sent money and soldiers north to help the war but gradually he became more and more independent, transforming their realm's economic fortunes by turning it into an international trading post.{{sfn|Dutton|2006|p=20}}

The civil war between the Lê-Trịnh and Mạc dynasties ended in 1592, when the army of [[Trịnh Tùng]] conquered [[Hanoi]] and executed king Mạc Mậu Hợp. Survivors of the Mạc royal family fled to the northern mountains in the province of [[Cao Bằng]] and continued to rule there until 1677 when [[Trịnh Tạc]] conquered this last Mạc territory. The Lê monarchs, ever since Nguyễn Kim's restoration, only acted as figureheads. After the fall of the Mạc dynasty, all real power in the north belonged to the [[Trịnh lords]]. Meanwhile, the Ming court reluctantly decided on a military intervention into the Vietnamese civil war, but Mạc Đăng Dung offered ritual submission to the Ming Empire, which was accepted. Since the late 16th century, trades and contacts between Japan and Vietnam increased as they established relationship in 1591.<ref name=NAJ /> The [[Tokugawa Shogunate]] of Japan and governor [[Nguyễn Hoàng]] of Quảng Nam exchanged total 34 letters from 1589 to 1612, and a Japanese town was established in the city of Hội An in 1604.<ref name=NAJ>{{cite web|url=http://www.archives.go.jp/event/jp_vn45/ch02.html|title=朱印船貿易|author=National Archive of Japan|language=ja}}</ref>

==== Trịnh & Nguyễn lords (1627-1777) ====
{{Main|Trịnh lords|Nguyễn lords|Trịnh–Nguyễn War}}
{{See also|Artillery of the Nguyễn lords}}
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[[File:Vietnam1650.GIF|upright=1.15|thumb|Map of Vietnam showing (roughly) the areas controlled by the Trịnh, Nguyễn, Mạc, and Champa around 1650. Violet: Trịnh Territory. Yellow: Nguyễn Territory. Green: Champa-Panduranga (under Nguyễn overlordship). Pink (Cao Bang): Mạc Territory. Orange: Vũ Lordship.]]
In the year 1600, Nguyễn Hoàng also declared himself Lord (officially "Vương", popularly "Chúa") and refused to send more money or soldiers to help the Trịnh. He also moved his capital to Phú Xuân, modern-day [[Huế]]. Nguyễn Hoàng died in 1613 after having ruled the south for 55 years. He was succeeded by his 6th son, [[Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên]], who likewise refused to acknowledge the power of the Trịnh, yet still pledged allegiance to the Lê monarch.{{sfn|Dutton|2006|p=21}}

[[Trịnh Tráng]] succeeded Trịnh Tùng, his father, upon his death in 1623. Tráng ordered Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên to submit to his authority. The order was refused twice. In 1627, Trịnh Tráng sent 150,000 troops southward in an unsuccessful military campaign. The Trịnh were much stronger, with a larger population, economy and army, but they were unable to vanquish the Nguyễn, who had built two defensive stone walls and invested in Portuguese artillery.

The [[Trịnh–Nguyễn War]] lasted from 1627 until 1672. The Trịnh army staged at least seven offensives, all of which failed to capture Phú Xuân. For a time, starting in 1651, the Nguyễn themselves went on the offensive and attacked parts of Trịnh territory. However, the Trịnh, under a new leader, [[Trịnh Tạc]], forced the Nguyễn back by 1655. After one last offensive in 1672, Trịnh Tạc agreed to a truce with the Nguyễn Lord [[Nguyễn Phúc Tần]].

As such, between 1600 and 1775, the two powerful families partitioned the country: the Nguyễn lords ruled ''[[Đàng Trong]]'' (the South), while the Trịnh lords controlled the ''[[Đàng Ngoài]]'' (the North).

==== Advent of Europeans & southward expansion ====
{{Main|Christianity in Vietnam|Nam tiến}}
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 | caption2 = [[Alexandre de Rhodes]], an influential [[Jesuit]] missionary in Vietnam.
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 | caption3 = 18th century [[Catholic Church in Vietnam|Vietnamese Catholic]] cross
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 | caption2 = [[Buddhanandi]] statue of [[Tây Phương temple]], Hanoi. Both are examples of highly-defined style of Vietnamese wood carving.
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The [[Western world|West]]'s exposure to Annam and Annamese exposure to Westerners dated back to 166 AD<ref name="muohio">{{Cite web |url=http://www.fsb.muohio.edu/mis399/student/VietnamHistoryBrief.htm |title=Brief History of Vietnam |access-date=2011-11-17 |archive-date=2021-02-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225160232/http://www.fsb.muohio.edu/mis399/student/VietnamHistoryBrief.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> with the arrival of merchants from the [[Roman Empire]], to 1292 with the visit of [[Marco Polo]], and the early 16th century with the arrival of Portuguese in 1516 and other European traders and missionaries.<ref name="muohio" /> [[Jesuits]] in the 17th century established a solid foundation of Christianity in both domains of ''[[Đàng Ngoài]]'' ([[Tonkin]]) and ''[[Đàng Trong]]'' ([[Cochinchina]]).<ref name="Tran 2018">{{cite web|last1=Tran|first1=Anh Q.|date=October 2018|title=The Historiography of the Jesuits in Vietnam: 1615–1773 and 1957–2007|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/jesuit-historiography-online/the-historiography-of-the-jesuits-in-vietnam-16151773-and-19572007-COM_210470|publisher=Brill}}</ref> [[Alexandre de Rhodes]], a missionary from the Papal States, improved on earlier work by Portuguese missionaries and developed the Vietnamese Romanized alphabet [[Vietnamese alphabet|chữ Quốc ngữ]] in ''[[Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum]]'' in 1651.<ref name=c>{{cite book|last=Davidson|first=Jeremy H. C. S.|author2=H. L. Shorto|year=1991|title=Austroasiatic Languages: Essays in Honour of H.L. Shorto|page=95}}</ref> The Nôm works of [[Girolamo Maiorica]] are considered a milestone in the history of Vietnamese literature.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sơ lược về Cha Girolamo Maiorica|author=Nguyễn Hai Tính |work=Loan Báo Tin Mừng |publisher=Dòng Tên Việt Nam |date=2014 |access-date= |url=http://loanbaotinmung.net/noidung/1023|archive-date=2016-09-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914060130/http://loanbaotinmung.net/noidung/1023}}</ref> For over two hundred years, the majority of Christian works in Vietnam were produced in [[chữ Nôm]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ostrowski |first=Brian |editor-last1=Wilcox |editor-first1=Wynn |title=Vietnam and the West: New Approaches |date=2010 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780877277828 |chapter= The Rise of Christian Nôm Literature in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam: Fusing European Content and Local Expression |pages=23, 38 }}</ref> The missionaries, primarily from Portugal, Italy, and Japan, played a key role in spreading the new faith. After four decades, the Jesuits were joined by the [[Paris Foreign Missions Society]] (MEP), [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]], [[Discalced Augustinians]], and [[Franciscans]] from various [[Romance languages|Romance]]-speaking countries. By the end of the 18th century, [[Catholic Church in Vietnam|Catholicism]] had become a firmly rooted part of Vietnam’s spiritual and social landscape, particularly in Đàng Ngoài.{{sfn|Keith|2012|pages=4, 18–20}} In the Đàng Trong court, many missionaries held official roles as royal physicians, mathematicians, and astronomers, valued for their scientific knowledge.{{sfn|Dutton|2006|pages=178–179}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Volkov |first=Alexei |editor-last1=Saraiva |editor-first1=Luís |title=Europe and China: Science and the Arts in the 17th and 18th Centuries |series= |volume= |date=2012 |publisher=World Scientific Publishing |isbn=9789814401579 |chapter=Evangelization, Politics, and Technology Transfer in the 17th-Century Cochinchina: The Case of João da Cruz |chapter-url=https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789814390446_0002 |pages=31–34 |doi=10.1142/9789814390446_0002 }}</ref>

Various European efforts to establish trading posts in Vietnam failed, but missionaries were allowed to operate for some time until the mandarins began concluding that [[Christianity]] (which had succeeded in converting up to a tenth of the population by 1700) was a threat to the Confucian social order since it condemned ancestor worship, among other practices. Vietnamese authorities' attitudes to Europeans and Christianity hardened as they began to increasingly see it as a way of undermining society while Catholics claimed that the authorities misunderstood their loyalism and patriotism.<ref>{{cite web |title=Giáo lý Tam Phụ và Đạo Hiếu |author=Antôn Phaolô Trần Quốc Anh |url=https://hdgmvietnam.com/chi-tiet/giao-ly-tam-phu-va-dao-hieu-40872 |website=hdgmvietnam.com |date=2020}}</ref>

The [[Trịnh–Nguyễn War]] gave European traders the opportunities to support each side with weapons and technology: the Portuguese assisted the Nguyễn in the South while the Dutch helped the Trịnh in the North. The Trịnh and the Nguyễn maintained a relative peace for the next hundred years, during which both sides made significant accomplishments. The Trịnh created centralized government offices in charge of state budget and producing currency, unified the weight units into a decimal system, established printing shops to reduce the need to import printed materials from China, opened a military academy, and compiled history books.

Meanwhile, the Nguyễn lords continued the southward expansion by the conquest of the remaining [[Champa|Cham]] land. Việt settlers also arrived in the sparsely populated area known as "Water Chenla", which was the lower [[Mekong Delta]] portion of the former [[Khmer Empire]]. Between the mid-17th century to mid-18th century, as the former Khmer Empire was weakened by internal strife and Siamese invasions, the Nguyễn Lords used various means, political marriage, diplomatic pressure, political and military favors, to gain the area around present-day [[Saigon]] and the Mekong Delta. The Nguyễn army at times also clashed with the [[Thailand|Siamese]] army to establish influence over the former Khmer Empire.

==== Tây Sơn dynasty (1778–1802) ====
{{Main|Tây Sơn dynasty|Tây Sơn wars}}
[[File:Battle at the River Tho-xuong.jpg|thumb|left|Battle of Thọ Xương river between Tây Sơn and [[Military of the Qing dynasty|Qing army]] in December, 1788]]

In 1771, the [[Tây Sơn]] revolution broke out in [[Quy Nhon]], which was under the control of the Nguyễn lord.{{sfn|Dutton|2006|p=43}} The leaders of this revolution were three brothers named [[Nguyễn Nhạc]], [[Nguyễn Lữ]], and [[Nguyễn Huệ]], not related to the Nguyễn lord's family. In 1773, Tây Sơn rebels took Quy Nhon as the capital of the revolution. Tây Sơn brothers' forces attracted many poor peasants, workers, Christians, ethnic minorities in the [[Central Highlands (Vietnam)|Central Highlands]] and [[Cham people]] who had been oppressed by the Nguyễn Lord for a long time,{{sfn|Dutton|2006|p=42}} and also attracted to [[Hoa people|ethnic Chinese]] merchant class, who hope the Tây Sơn revolt will spare down the heavy tax policy of the Nguyễn Lord, however their contributions later were limited due to Tây Sơn's nationalist [[Sinophobia|anti-Chinese]] sentiment.{{sfn|Dutton|2006|p=43}} By 1776, the Tây Sơn had occupied all of the Nguyễn Lord's land and killed almost the entire royal family. The surviving prince [[Gia Long|Nguyễn Phúc Ánh]] (often called Nguyễn Ánh) fled to [[Thailand|Siam]], and obtained military support from the Siamese king. Nguyễn Ánh came back with 50,000 Siamese troops to regain power, but was defeated at the [[Battle of Rạch Gầm–Xoài Mút]] and almost killed. Nguyễn Ánh fled Vietnam, but he did not give up.{{sfn|Dutton|2006|p=45-46}}

[[File:Vietnam at the end of 18th century (Vi).png|thumb|Vietnam, late 18th century.]]
The Tây Sơn army commanded by Nguyễn Huệ marched north in 1786 to fight the Trịnh Lord, [[Trịnh Khải]]. The Trịnh army failed and Trịnh Khải committed suicide. The Tây Sơn army captured the capital in less than two months. The last Lê emperor, [[Lê Chiêu Thống]], fled to [[Qing dynasty|Qing China]] and [[memorial to the throne|petitioned]] the [[Qianlong Emperor]] in 1788 for help. The Qianlong Emperor supplied Lê Chiêu Thống with a massive army of around 200,000 troops to regain his throne from the usurper. In December 1788, Nguyễn Huệ–the third Tây Sơn brother–proclaimed himself Emperor [[Quang Trung]] and defeated the Qing troops with 100,000 men in a surprise 7 day campaign during the lunar new year ([[Tết]]). There was even a rumor saying that Quang Trung had also planned to conquer China, although it was unclear. During his reign, Quang Trung envisioned many reforms but died by unknown reason on the way march south in 1792, at the age of 40. During the reign of Emperor Quang Trung, Đại Việt was in fact divided into three political entities.{{sfn|Dutton|2006|p=48-49}} The Tây Sơn leader, [[Nguyễn Nhạc]], ruled the centre of the country from his capital [[Qui Nhơn]]. Emperor Quang Trung ruled the north from the capital Phú Xuân [[Huế]]. In the South, he officially funded and trained the [[Pirates of the South China Coast]] – one of the most strongest and feared pirate army in the world late 18th century – early 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last= Murray |first= Dian H. |title= Pirates of the South China Coast, 1790–1810 |publisher= Stanford University Press |year= 1987 |isbn= 0-8047-1376-6}}</ref> Nguyễn Ánh, assisted by many talented recruits from the South, captured [[Gia Định]] (Saigon) in 1788 and established a strong base for his force.{{sfn|Choi|2004|p=22-24}}
[[File:Tonking martyrs-sepia.jpg|thumb|left|Many [[Vietnamese Martyrs|Catholic martyrs]] (believers and priests) were slain in [[Tonkin]] and [[Cochinchina]] during persecutions. 64 Martyrs were declared blessed in 1900 of whom 54 were natives; 26 of the martyrs were members of the [[Dominican Order]].<ref>(1902–03) [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924069726762;view=1up;seq=273 "Nachrichten aus den Missionen,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225055859/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924069726762;view=1up;seq=273 |date=2021-02-25 }} ''Die katholischen Missionen. Illustrierte Monatschrift'' 31, pp. 2552–57.</ref>]]

In 1784, during the conflict between [[Nguyễn Ánh]], the surviving heir of the Nguyễn lords, and the [[Tây Sơn dynasty]], a French Roman Catholic prelate, [[Pigneaux de Behaine]], sailed to France to seek military backing for Nguyễn Ánh. At [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]]'s court, Pigneaux brokered the Little Treaty of Versailles which promised French military aid in exchange for Vietnamese concessions. However, because of the [[French Revolution]], Pigneaux's plan failed to materialize. He went to the French territory of [[Puducherry (union territory)|Pondichéry]] (India), and secured two ships, a regiment of Indian troops, and a handful of volunteers and returned to Vietnam in 1788. One of Pigneaux's volunteers, [[Jean-Marie Dayot]], reorganized Nguyễn Ánh's navy along European lines and defeated the Tây Sơn at [[Quy Nhon]] in 1792. A few years later, Nguyễn Ánh's forces captured [[Saigon]], where Pigneaux died in 1799. Another volunteer, [[Victor Olivier de Puymanel]] would later build the [[Gia Định]] fort in central Saigon. {{Citation needed|date=August 2012}}

After Quang Trung's death in September 1792, the Tây Sơn court became unstable as the remaining brothers fought against each other and against the people who were loyal to [[Nguyễn Huệ]]'s young son. Quang Trung's 10-years-old son [[Nguyễn Quang Toản]] succeeded the throne, became [[Nguyễn Quang Toản|Cảnh Thịnh Emperor]], the third ruler of the Tây Sơn dynasty. In the South, lord [[Nguyễn Ánh]] and the Nguyễn royalists were assisted with French, Chinese, Siamese and Christian supports, sailed north in 1799, capturing Tây Sơn's stronghold Quy Nhon.{{sfn|Choi|2004|p=42-43}} In 1801, his force took [[Huế|Phú Xuân]], the Tây Sơn capital. Nguyễn Ánh finally won the war in 1802, when he sieged Thăng Long (Hanoi) and executed [[Nguyễn Quang Toản]], along with many Tây Sơn royals, generals and officials. Nguyễn Ánh ascended the throne and called himself Emperor [[Gia Long]]. Gia is for [[Gia Định]], the old name of Saigon; Long is for Thăng Long, the old name of [[Hanoi]]. Hence Gia Long implied the unification of the country. The [[Nguyễn dynasty]] lasted until [[Bảo Đại]]'s abdication in 1945. As China for centuries had referred to Đại Việt as [[Annam (Chinese province)|Annam]], Gia Long asked the Manchu Qing emperor to rename the country, from Annam to Nam Việt. To prevent any confusion of Gia Long's kingdom with [[Triệu Đà]]'s ancient kingdom, the Manchu emperor reversed the order of the two words to Việt Nam. The name Vietnam is thus known to be used since Emperor Gia Long's reign. Recently historians have found that this name had existed in older books in which Vietnamese referred to their country as Vietnam.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}}{{when|date=June 2018}}

The Period of Division with its many tragedies and dramatic historical developments inspired many poets and gave rise to some Vietnamese masterpieces in verse, including the epic poem ''[[The Tale of Kiều]]'' (''Truyện Kiều'') by [[Nguyễn Du]], ''Song of a Soldier's Wife'' (''Chinh Phụ Ngâm'') by Đặng Trần Côn and Đoàn Thị Điểm, and a collection of satirical, erotically charged poems by a female poet, [[Hồ Xuân Hương]].

=== Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1945) ===
{{Main|Nguyễn dynasty}}
==== Unified Vietnam period (1802–1862) ====
[[File:Nguyen Dynasty, administrative divisions map (1838).svg|thumb|Vietnam around 1838]]
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 | caption1 = 1838 map of Vietnam published by Jean L. Taberd
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 | caption2 = Meridian Gate of [[Imperial City of Huế]], a UNESCO [[World Heritage Site]].
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}}
After defeating the Tây Sơn, [[Gia Long]] unified Vietnam under the [[Nguyễn dynasty]] in 1802.{{sfn|Druk|1884|pp=21–22}} The early Nguyễn emperors had engaged in many of the constructive activities of its predecessors, building roads, digging canals, issuing a legal code, holding examinations, sponsoring care facilities for the sick, compiling maps and history books, and exerting influence over Cambodia and Laos.

Gia Long tolerated Catholicism and employed some Europeans in his court as advisors. His successors were more conservative Confucians and resisted Westernization. [[Minh Mạng]] began centralizing his authority according to neo-Confucian principles and sought to neutralize Catholic influence.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ramsay |first=Jacob |title=Mandarins and Martyrs: The Church and the Nguyen Dynasty in Early Nineteenth-Century Vietnam |date=2008 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804756518 |url=https://www.sup.org/books/asian-studies/mandarins-and-martyrs |pages=58–64 }}</ref> Minh Mạng, as well as the succeeding Nguyễn emperors [[Thiệu Trị]] and [[Tự Đức]], brutally suppressed Catholicism and pursued a 'closed-door' policy, perceiving the Westerners as a threat, following events such as the [[Lê Văn Khôi revolt]] when a French missionary, [[Joseph Marchand]], was accused of encouraging local Catholics to revolt in an attempt to install a Catholic emperor. Catholics, both Vietnamese and foreign-born, were persecuted in retaliation. There were frequent uprisings against the Nguyễns, with hundreds of such events being recorded in the annals. Trade with the West slowed during this period. The persecution of Catholics and the imposition of trade embargoes were soon used as excuses for France to invade Vietnam.

==== Relations with China ====
According to a 2018 study in the ''Journal of Conflict Resolution'' covering Vietnam-China relations from 1365 to 1841, the relations could be characterized as a "hierarchic tributary system".<ref name="HV">{{Cite journal|title=War, Rebellion, and Intervention under Hierarchy: Vietnam–China Relations, 1365 to 1841|journal=Journal of Conflict Resolution|volume=63|issue=4|pages=896–922|doi=10.1177/0022002718772345|year=2018|last1=Kang|first1=David C|last2=Nguyen|first2=Dat X|last3=Fu|first3=Ronan Tse-min|last4=Shaw|first4=Meredith|s2cid=158733115}}</ref> The study found that "the Vietnamese court explicitly recognized its unequal status in its relations with China through a number of institutions and norms. Vietnamese rulers also displayed very little military attention to their relations with China. Rather, Vietnamese leaders were clearly more concerned with quelling chronic domestic instability and managing relations with kingdoms to their south and west."<ref name="HV" />

== French colonial period (1862–1945) ==
=== French conquest of Vietnam (1858–1887) ===
{{Main|Cochinchina Campaign|Tonkin Campaign}}
{{See also|Citadel of Saigon|Trương Định|Phan Đình Phùng|Nguyễn Trung Trực|Phan Thanh Giản}}
The [[French colonial empire]] was heavily involved in Vietnam in the 19th century; often French intervention was undertaken in order to protect the work of the [[Paris Foreign Missions Society]] in the country. In response to many incidents in which Catholic missionaries were persecuted, harassed and in some cases executed, and also to expand French influence in Asia, [[Napoleon III of France]] ordered [[Charles Rigault de Genouilly]] with 14 French gunships to attack the port of [[Da Nang|Đà Nẵng]] (Tourane) in 1858. The attack caused significant damage, yet failed to gain any foothold, in the process being afflicted by the humidity and tropical diseases. De Genouilly decided to sail south and captured the poorly defended city of [[Gia Định]] (Saigon). From 1859 during the [[Siege of Saigon]] to 1867, French colonial troops expanded their control over all six provinces on the Mekong delta and formed a colony known as [[French Cochinchina|Cochinchina]].
[[File:Prise de Saigon 18 Fevrier 1859 Antoine Morel-Fatio.jpg|thumb|left|French gunships attacking [[Saigon]], 1859]]

A few years later, French troops landed in [[Northern Vietnam]] (which they called [[Tonkin]]) and captured [[Hà Nội]] twice in 1873 and 1882. The French managed to keep their grip on Tonkin although, twice, their top commanders [[Francis Garnier]] and [[Henri Rivière (naval officer)|Henri Rivière]], were ambushed and killed fighting pirates of the [[Black Flag Army]] hired by the mandarins. The Nguyễn dynasty surrendered to France via the [[Treaty of Huế (1883)]], marking the colonial era (1883–1954) in the history of Vietnam. France assumed control over the whole of Vietnam after the [[Tonkin Campaign]] (1883–1886). [[French Indochina]] was formed in October 1887 from [[Annam (French colony)|Annam]] (Trung Kỳ, central Vietnam), Tonkin (Bắc Kỳ, northern Vietnam) and Cochinchina (Nam Kỳ, southern Vietnam), with Cambodia and Laos added in 1893. Within French Indochina, Cochinchina had the status of a colony, Annam and Tonkin were nominally two French [[protectorate]]s where the Nguyễn dynasty still ''de jure'' ruled.

[[File:Prise de Bac-Ninh.jpg|thumb|French army [[Bắc Ninh campaign|defeating]] China (ally of Vietnam) in [[Bắc Ninh]], March 1884.]]
[[File:Hocquard and Tonkinese.jpg|thumb|French officers and [[Tonkinese Rifles|Tonkinese riflemen]], 1884.]]
[[File:Second flag of the Nguyen Dynasty.svg|thumb|Flag of the Vietnamese [[Nguyễn dynasty]] during French rule, 1920–45.]]

After the Vietnamese [[Nguyễn dynasty]] lost Gia Định, the island of [[Poulo Condor]], and three southern provinces to France with the [[Treaty of Saigon (1862)|Treaty of Saigon]] signed between the Nguyễn dynasty, Spain, and France in 1862, many [[resistance movement]]s in the south refused to recognize the treaty and continued to fight the French, some led by former court officers, such as [[Trương Định]], some by farmers and other rural people, such as [[Nguyễn Trung Trực]], who sank the French gunship L'Esperance using guerilla tactics. In the north, most movements were led by former court officers, and fighters were from the rural population. Sentiment against the invasion ran deep in the countryside—well over 90 percent of the population—because the French seized and exported most of the rice, creating widespread malnutrition from the 1880s onward. And, an ancient tradition existed of repelling all invaders. These were two reasons that the vast majority opposed the French invasion.<ref>Malutrition. De la Roche, J. “A Program of Social and Cultural Activity in Indo-China.” US: Virginia, Ninth Conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, French Paper No. 3, pp. 5-6. Tradition. Sheehan, N. (1990). A Bright Shining Lie : John Paul Vann and America in Viet Nam (1st Vintage Books ed.). New York: Vintage Books, pp. 159–62, Kindle locations 2933-2975; Lamb, H. (1972). Vietnam's Will to Live. NY: Monthly Review Press, pp. 1–2.</ref><ref>Well over 90 percent rural. Trần Ngọc Thêm, (2016). Hệ Giá Trị Việt Nam từ Truyền thống đến Hiện Đại và con đường tới tương lai (Vietnam values system from traditional to modern and future path)TP. Hồ Chí Minh: NXB Văn hóa – Văn nghê, p. 138</ref> However, Vietnam still became two protectorates ruled by France in [[Treaty of Huế (1883)|1883]], confirmed by the [[Treaty of Huế (1884)]].<ref>Billot, 171–84</ref>
 
Some of the resistance movements lasted decades, with [[Phan Đình Phùng]] fighting in Central Vietnam until 1896, and in the northern mountains, former bandit leader Hoàng Hoa Thám fought until 1911. Even the teenage Nguyễn Emperor [[Hàm Nghi]] left the Imperial Palace of Huế in 1885 with regent [[Tôn Thất Thuyết]] and started the [[Cần Vương]] ("Save the King") movement, trying to rally the people to resist the French. He was captured in November 1888 and exiled to [[French Algeria]].

In Cambodia, which was also part of Indochina like Vietnam, the French restored the Kingdom of Cambodia as a [[French protectorate of Cambodia|Protectorate]] from its previous invader, [[Thailand]],<ref name="Kohn2013">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTDfAQAAQBAJ&q=1599+spanish+cambodia&pg=PA445|title=Dictionary of Wars|date=31 October 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-95494-9|pages=445–|author=George Childs Kohn}}</ref> which had invaded and devastated the country. This act also fulfilled a past promise by Spanish-Philippines to restore Cambodia,<ref name="Hall1981 3">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FrFGAAAAMAAJ&q=1597+Cambodia|title=History of South-East Asia|publisher=Macmillan Press|year=1981|isbn=978-0-333-24163-9|page=282|author=Daniel George Edward Hall}}</ref>a promise that was ultimately realized by the French and Vietnamese,<ref>Philippe Franchini, ''Les Guerres d'Indochine'', tome 1, Pygmalion-Gérard Watelet, 1988, page 92</ref> and both peoples being mostly Catholics. In 1887, Vietnamese protectorates and Cochinchina colony became parts of the [[French Indochina|French Indochinese Federation]].

Guerrillas of the [[Văn Thân movement]] and [[Cần Vương movement]] killed around a third of Vietnam's Christian population during the resistance war.<ref>Fourniau, Annam–Tonkin, pp. 39–77; term "resistance war". Ban Tuyên Giáo Thành Ủy Đà Nẵng (2018). Cuộc Kháng Chiến Chống Pháp – Tây Ban Nha Tại Đà Nẵng (1858–1860). Quảng Nam: NXB Đà Nẵng, pp. 118–131.</ref> Decades later, two more Nguyễn emperors, [[Thành Thái]] and [[Duy Tân]] were also exiled to Africa for having anti-French tendencies. The former was deposed on the pretext of insanity and Duy Tân was caught in a conspiracy with the mandarin [[Trần Cao Vân]] trying to start an uprising. However, lack of modern weapons and equipment prevented these resistance movements from being able to engage the French in open combat. The various anti-French started by mandarins were carried out with the primary goal of restoring the old feudal society. However, by 1900 a new generation of Vietnamese were coming of age who had never lived in precolonial Vietnam. These young activists were as eager as their grandparents to see independence restored, but they realized that returning to the feudal order was not feasible and that modern technology and governmental systems were needed. Having been exposed to Western philosophy, they aimed to establish a republic upon independence, departing from the royalist sentiments of the Cần Vương movements. Some of them set up Vietnamese independence societies in Japan, which many viewed as a model society (i.e. an Asian nation that had modernized, but retained its own culture and institutions).{{Citation needed|date=August 2012}}

===French Indochina and Vietnamese nationalism (1887–1945) ===
{{Main|French Indochina|History of Vietnam during World War I|Vietnamese nationalism}}
[[File:Phan Boi Chau va Cuong De.jpg|thumb|left|[[Phan Bội Châu]] (seated) and prince [[Cường Để]] in Japan, c. 1907]]
[[File:Phan Chau Trinh.jpg|thumb|left|[[Phan Châu Trinh]]]]

There emerged two parallel movements of modernization. The first was the ''[[Đông Du]]'' ("Travel to the East") Movement started in 1905 by [[Phan Bội Châu]]. Châu's plan was to send Vietnamese students to the [[Empire of Japan]] to learn modern skills, so that in the future they could lead a successful armed revolt against the French. With Prince [[Cường Để]], he started two organizations in Japan: ''[[Duy Tân Hội]]'' and ''Việt Nam Công Hiến Hội''. Due to French diplomatic pressure, Japan later deported Châu. [[Phan Châu Trinh]], who favored a peaceful, non-violent struggle to gain independence, led a second movement, ''[[Duy Tân Movement]]'' ([[:vi:Phong trào Duy Tân|vi.]], "Modernization"), which stressed education for the masses, modernizing the country, developing economy, fostering understanding and tolerance between the French and the Vietnamese, and peaceful transitions of power.<ref>{{cite web|archive-date=2019-12-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225150951/http://tuanbaovannghetphcm.vn/lap-lo-hay-ne-tranh-su-that-lich-su/ |access-date=8 February 2018 |location=Tuần báo Văn Nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh |title=Lập lờ hay né tránh sự thật lịch sử? - Tuần báo Văn Nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh |url=http://tuanbaovannghetphcm.vn/lap-lo-hay-ne-tranh-su-that-lich-su/ |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=huc>{{cite web|access-date=17 February 2015 |title=Ý nghĩa lịch sử của tư tưởng dân chủ của Phan Châu Trinh Y |url=http://huc.edu.vn/chi-tiet/872/.html}}</ref> In 1907, he and associates [[Lương Văn Can]], [[Nguyễn Quyền]] opened a patriotic modern school in Hanoi for young Vietnamese men and women. The school was called [[Tonkin Free School]] (Vietnamese: ''Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục''), used new translated books like [[Kang Youwei]]'s ''Datong Shu'' and [[Liang Qichao]]'s ''Ice-Drinker's studio Collection'' (Vietnamese: ''Lương Khải Siêu – Đại đồng Thư, Khang Hữu Vi – Ẩm Băng thất Tùng thư'') . He was a lecturer at the school, and Sào Nam's writings were also used. Lương Văn Can was the headteacher, Nguyễn Quyền was the school supervisor. [[Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh]], [[Phạm Duy Tốn]] were responsible for applying for the open license of school. The purpose of ''Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục'' is "broaden the people’s mind without taking money". Its ideas attacked the brutality of the French occupation of Vietnam, but also wanted to learn modernisation from the French. The school required scholars to renounce their elitist traditions and learn from the masses. It also offered the peasants a modern education.<ref>{{cite web |title=The flame of the Tonkin Free School |url=https://tuoitre.vn/130-nam-thang-tram-chu-viet---ky-6-ngon-lua-dong-kinh-nghia-thuc-470716.htm |website=tuoitre.vn |date=24 December 2011 |access-date=23 March 2022}}</ref> The early part of the 20th century saw the growing in status of the Romanized ''[[Quốc Ngữ]]'' alphabet for the Vietnamese language. Vietnamese patriots realized the potential of ''Quốc Ngữ'' as a useful tool to quickly reduce illiteracy and to educate the masses. The traditional Chinese scripts or the ''[[Nôm]]'' script were seen as too cumbersome and too difficult to learn. The use of prose in literature also became popular with the appearance of many novels; most famous were those from the ''Tự Lực Văn Đoàn'' literary circle. {{Citation needed|date=August 2012}}

[[File:Vũ Văn Giảng (Vũ Hồng Khanh) circa 1927.png|thumb|[[Vũ Hồng Khanh]], a non-communist revolutionary, c. 1927]]
As the French suppressed both movements, and after witnessing revolutionaries in action in China and Russia, Vietnamese revolutionaries began to turn to more radical paths. Phan Bội Châu created the ''[[Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội]]'' in [[Guangzhou]], planning armed resistance against the French. In 1925, French agents captured him in Shanghai and spirited him to Vietnam. Due to his popularity, Châu was spared from execution and placed under house arrest until his death in 1940. In 1927, the ''[[Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng]]'' (Vietnamese Nationalist Party or VNQDĐ), modeled after the [[Kuomintang]] in China, was founded, and the party launched the armed [[Yên Bái mutiny]] in 1930 in Tonkin which resulted in its chairman, [[Nguyễn Thái Học]] and many other leaders captured and executed by the guillotine. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Khởi nghĩa Yên Bái: Tinh thần đấu tranh chống ngoại xâm kiên cường bất khuất vì độc lập, tự do của nhân dân |url=https://www.yenbai.gov.vn/noidung/tintuc/Pages/chi-tiet-tin-tuc.aspx?ItemID=30841&l=Tintrongtinh&lv=4 |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=www.yenbai.gov.vn}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Di tích lịch sử Nguyễn Thái Học, thành phố Yên Bái |url=https://www.yenbai.gov.vn/noidung/tintuc/Pages/chi-tiet-tin-tuc.aspx?ItemID=33&l=Ditichcapquocgia&lv=11#:~:text=Ch%E1%BB%A7%20tr%C6%B0%C6%A1ng%20n%C3%A0y%20v%E1%BB%ABa%20kh%E1%BB%9Fi,Y%C3%AAn%20B%C3%A1i%20l%C3%AAn%20m%C3%A1y%20ch%C3%A9m. |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=www.yenbai.gov.vn}}</ref>

[[Marxism]] was also introduced into Vietnam with the emergence of three separate [[Communist]] parties; the Indochinese Communist Party, Annamese Communist Party and the Indochinese Communist Union, joined later by a [[Trotskyist]] movement led by [[Tạ Thu Thâu]]. In 1930, the [[Communist International]] (Comintern) sent [[Nguyễn Ái Quốc]] to Hong Kong to coordinate the unification of the parties into the [[Communist Party of Vietnam|Vietnamese Communist Party (CPV)]] with Trần Phú as the first Secretary General. Later the party changed its name to the Indochinese Communist Party as the Comintern, under [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]], did not favor nationalistic sentiments. Being a leftist revolutionary living in France since 1911, Nguyễn Ái Quốc (Hồ Chí Minh) participated in founding the [[French Communist Party]] and in 1924 traveled to the Soviet Union to join the Comintern. Through the late 1920s, he acted as a Comintern agent to help build Communist movements in Southeast Asia. The communists rebelled with the 1930-31 [[Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets]] and [[1940 Cochinchina uprising]] against the French colonialists, but failed.

=== Second World War and Independence Declaration===
{{Main|French Indochina in World War II}}
During [[World War II]], the Japanese army [[Japanese invasion of French Indochina|invaded]] Indochina in September 1940, keeping the [[Vichy French]] colonial administration in place as a puppet.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2022-04-19 |language=vi |title=Bài thơ: Lịch sử nước ta (Hồ Chí Minh - 胡志明) |url=https://www.thivien.net/H%E1%BB%93-Ch%C3%AD-Minh/L%E1%BB%8Bch-s%E1%BB%AD-n%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Bc-ta/poem-NjHZhJYtu1u28vSkEmRsug |website=Thi Viện}}</ref> In 1941 [[Hồ Chí Minh]] arrived in northern Vietnam to form the [[Viet Minh]] Front. Although it was supposed to be an umbrella group for all elements fighting for Vietnam's independence and democratic republic, it was ''de facto'' dominated by the [[Communist Party of Vietnam|Communist Party]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/mat-tran-to-quoc-viet-nam-chang-duong-80-nam-ve-vang-1290240396.htm |title=Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam: Chặng đường 80 năm vẻ vang |author=PV |date=17 November 2011 |website=Dân trí |access-date=14 January 2018 |archive-date=15 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115071630/http://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/mat-tran-to-quoc-viet-nam-chang-duong-80-nam-ve-vang-1290240396.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> The Viet Minh had a modest armed force and during the war worked with the American [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS) to collect intelligence on the Japanese.
[[File:Ho Chi Minh (third from left standing) and the OSS in 1945.jpg|thumb|[[Hồ Chí Minh]] (third from left, standing) and the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]], 1945]]
[[File:Flag_of_VNQDD.svg|thumb|right|Flag of the [[Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam]] and ''[[Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng]]'']] 

On March 9, 1945, the Japanese removed Vichy France's control of Indochina. Under Japanese military occupation, emperor [[Bảo Đại]] declared the short-lived [[Empire of Vietnam]] with [[Trần Trọng Kim]] as the Prime Minister. A famine [[Vietnamese Famine of 1945|broke out]] in 1944–45, leaving from 600,000 to 2,000,000 dead.<ref name=khoals>{{cite web|archive-date=14 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414035106/http://khoalichsu.edu.vn/bai-nghien-cu/689-cu-truc-quyn-lc-vit-nam-sau-cuc-o-chinh-ngay-931945-va-vn-khong-trng-quyn-lc-trong-cach-mng-thang-tam |access-date=2016-05-03 |title=Bản sao đã lưu trữ |url=http://khoalichsu.edu.vn/bai-nghien-cu/689-cu-truc-quyn-lc-vit-nam-sau-cuc-o-chinh-ngay-931945-va-vn-khong-trng-quyn-lc-trong-cach-mng-thang-tam |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="d">{{Cite journal|jstor=312870|title=Japan's Role in the Vietnamese Starvation of 1944–45|author=Bui Minh Dung|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=29|issue=3|date=July 1995|pages=573–618|doi=10.1017/s0026749x00014001|s2cid=145374444 }}</ref>

Japan's defeat by the [[Allies of World War II|World War II Allies]] created a [[power vacuum]] for Vietnamese nationalists of all parties to [[August Revolution|seize power in August 1945]], forcing Emperor [[Bảo Đại]] to abdicate and ending the [[Nguyễn dynasty]] on August 25. On September 2, 1945, [[Hồ Chí Minh]] of the [[communist]] Viet Minh read the [[Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam]] (DRV) in Ba Đình flower garden, now known as [[Ba Đình square]], officially creating the [[Democratic Republic of Vietnam]]. During and after the revolution, most of Vietnam was in communist hands, the rest was in non-communist hands. Their success in staging uprisings and in seizing control of most of the country by September 1945 was soon vandalized, however, by the return of the French. In addition, internal conflicts between communist and non-communist factions also occurred despite the new state not yet declaring itself communist in the early stages and a [[coalition government]] was ''de jure'' formed in March 1946. The conflict formed [[anti-communism]] of the non-communist faction, who opposed [[class struggle]] and the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]] of communism, leading to ideological wars between the Vietnamese in the future (1949–75).<ref name="p5" />{{sfnp|Marr|2013|page =415}}<ref name="1vkv">{{cite web|archive-date=2010-02-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100212122448/http://www.dalat.gov.vn/web/books/KivangDL/bai8.htm |date=16 March 1996 |access-date=20 April 2009 |publisher=Nhà xuất bản Văn hóa |title=Sơ lược tiểu sử của các phái viên và cố vấn của Phái đoàn dự hội nghị Đà Lạt |author=Nguyễn Q. Thắng |url=http://www.dalat.gov.vn/web/books/KivangDL/bai8.htm |url-status=dead |work=Một vài ký vãng về Hội nghị Đà Lạt}}</ref><ref name=X>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history|title=Vietnam War History|website=History.com|date=29 October 2009 |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref> In these wars, non-communists were nationalists (''phe quốc gia'') who would fight the communists (''phe cộng sản'') by [[First Indochina War|cooperating]] with French colonialists to gain independence peacefully and later engaging in a [[Vietnam War|civil and proxy war]].<ref name=X>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history|title=Vietnam War History|website=History.com|date=29 October 2009 |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref><ref name="p5" />

== Modern period (1945–present) ==
{{Main|History of Vietnam (1945–present)}}

=== French Indochina War (1945–1954) ===
{{Main|War in Vietnam (1945–1946)|First Indochina War|Democratic Republic of Vietnam|State of Vietnam}}

==== Emergence of opposing sides ====
[[File:Lâm-thời Liên-hiệp Chính-phủ Việt-nam Dân-chủ Cộng-hòa ra mắt Quốc-hội ngày 02 tháng 03 năm 1946.jpg|thumb|250px|The short-lived coalition government between the Viet Minh and nationalists in early 1946 in North Vietnam.]]
{{See also||1940–1946 in French Indochina}}
On 2 September 1945, communist leader [[Hồ Chí Minh]] proclaimed the [[North Vietnam|Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV)]] in Hanoi and held the position of Chairman (''Chủ tịch''). On the same day, Japan signed a [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|treaty]] to officially surrender to the Allies, leading to the official end of [[World War II]]. The rule of [[communist]] Viet Minh led by Hồ over all of Vietnam was ended 21 days later, however, by Franco-British military forces [[War in Vietnam (1945-1946)|attacking]] them south of the 16th parallel. The French colonialists tried to regain power in Vietnam while the non-communist and communist forces of Vietnam were in internal conflicts.<ref name="Dommen">{{cite book|author=Arthur J. Dommen |pages=168–169 |publisher=Indiana University Press |title=The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MauWlUjuWNsC&dq=rue+bonifacy+Viet+Minh&pg=PA168 |year=2001|isbn=0-253-10925-6 }}</ref><ref name="saclenh30">{{cite web |orig-date=1945-09-12 |archive-date=2012-01-18 |access-date=2021-01-06 |others=Hồ Chí Minh ký |author=Chính phủ lâm thời Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa |title=Sắc lệnh Số 30 |url=http://www.vietlaw.gov.vn/LAWNET/docView.do?docid=30&type=html&searchType=fulltextsearch&searchText= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118064729/http://www.vietlaw.gov.vn/LAWNET/docView.do?docid=30&type=html&searchType=fulltextsearch&searchText= |url-status=live |website=Cơ sở dữ liệu Luật Việt Nam}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|date=2016 |doi=10.1525/jvs.2016.11.3-4.103 |first1=Brett |issue=3–4 |journal=[[Journal of Vietnamese Studies]] |last1=Reilly |pages=103–139 |title=The Sovereign States of Vietnam, 1945–1955 |volume=11}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|date=2017 |doi=10.1017/S0022463416000527 |first1=Edward |issue=1 |journal=[[Journal of Southeast Asian Studies]] |last1=Miller |page=135-142 |title=David Marr's Vietnamese Revolution |volume=48}}</ref> France had previously issued a declaration on 24 March 1945 promising to grant Indochina (including protectorates of Vietnam) a much greater democracy.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://indochine.uqam.ca/vi/t-in-chin-tranh/369-de-gaulle-charles-18901970.html#:~:text=Following%20the%20Japanese%20overthrow%20of,not%20a%20plan%20for%20decolonization | title=UQAM &#124; Guerre d'Indochine &#124; de GAULLE, CHARLES (1890–1970) }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.qdnd.vn/ho-so-su-kien/dai-tuong-vo-nguyen-giap/ho-chi-minh-charles-de-gaulle-va-thoi-diem-lich-su-19-12-1946-260437#:~:text=Do%20nh%E1%BA%ADn%20th%E1%BB%A9c%20mu%E1%BB%99n%20m%C3%A0ng,%C4%90%C3%B4ng%20D%C6%B0%C6%A1ng%2C%20nh%C6%B0%20n%C4%83m%201939 | title=Hồ Chí Minh - Charles de Gaulle và thời điểm lịch sử 19-12-1946 }}</ref> The northern part of Vietnam was initially occupied by the army of the [[Republic of China (1912-1949)|Republic of China]] led by General [[Lu Han (general)|Lu Han]], but later France received China's consent to advance to the North, which pushed the Viet Minh's DRV government to make peace with the French colonialists and legalize their return.<ref>{{cite web |archive-date=2015-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103181229/http://ditichhochiminhphuchutich.gov.vn/articledetail.aspx?articleid=53&sitepageid=423#sthash.7i1kQtkC.og1aVoro.dpbs |date=July 2014 |accessdate=3 January 2015 |publisher=Khu di tích Hồ Chí Minh tại Phủ Chủ tịch |title=Hoa quân nhập Việt và mưu đồ "Diệt cộng cầm Hồ" |others=Đ. H. L |url=http://ditichhochiminhphuchutich.gov.vn/articledetail.aspx?articleid=53&sitepageid=423#sthash.7i1kQtkC.og1aVoro.dpbs |url-status=dead}}</ref> In fact, the British and Chinese military occupations in Indochina (including Vietnam) to disarm the Japanese and the return of the French to Indochina were recognized by the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roy |first1=Kaushik |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dwLeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA84 |title=Armed Forces and Insurgents in Modern Asia |last2=Saha |first2=Sourish |date=2016 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-317-23193-6 |edition=illustrated |series= |location= |page=84 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MzpcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 |title=The Vietnam War: A Documentary Reader |date=2016 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-1-4051-9678-9 |edition=illustrated |series=Uncovering the Past: Documentary Readers in American History |location= |page=40 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> At the initial stage, no country recognized the DRV government of the communist Viet Minh.<ref>{{cite web |archive-date=2015-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150616095358/http://www.vjol.info/index.php/sphcm/article/viewFile/13855/12559 |author1=Nguyễn Thị Hương |date=2013-11-23 |access-date=2014-08-19 |title=Hồ Chí Minh với quan hệ Việt - Xô trong những năm 1950 - 1969 |url=http://www.vjol.info/index.php/sphcm/article/viewFile/13855/12559 |url-status=dead}}</ref> On 6 March 1946, in a preliminary agreement, the Viet Minh [[Ho–Sainteny agreement|accepted]] that their state became a [[Free state (polity)|free one]] within the French Union while Cochinchina remained under French rule.{{sfn|Patti|2008|p=622}}<ref>Howard Zinn, ed., "Accord Between France and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 6 March 1946," in ''The Pentagon Papers'', by Mike Gravel, Gravel, vol. 1 (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1971), 18–19, [http://mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/int2.htm www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/int2.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125093817/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/int2.htm |date=2021-01-25}}.</ref> However the French Union was only established on 27 October 1946 when France adopted [[French Constitution of 27 October 1946|new constitution]].<ref>{{cite Legifrance|base=JORFID|number=000000868390|text=Constitution de la République française; J.O. 28 October 1946}}</ref><ref name="JORF-1946">{{cite web |lang=fr |title=Constitution de la République française |date=28 October 1946 |trans-title=Constitution of the French Republic |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9617344x/f2 |id=JO1946 |access-date=8 March 2025}} in: {{cite book |lang=fr |title=Journal officiel de la République française |volume=78 |issue=253 |date=28 October 1946 |pages=9166, 9175}}</ref> The preliminary agreement stipulated that French troops would only stay in Vietnam for five years. The Viet Minh then demanded complete independence and unification of Vietnam within the French Union, but [[de Gaulle]]'s French right-wing faction was rigid and only accepted Vietnam's high autonomy while arguing that the future of Cochinchina would be decided through a referendum with an undetermined date and method. The Viet Minh condemned France's establishment of an autonomous republic in Cochinchina even though this was a colony directly ruled by the French. The Viet Minh army also refused to come under French control as stipulated in the agreements, leading to sporadic clashes and the Viet Minh erecting barricades in [[Hanoi]].<ref>Hồ Chí Minh - A Life. Chương 12: Tái thiết và kháng chiến.</ref><ref>{{cite web |accessdate=14 November 2015 |title=Những cuộc trả lời phỏng vấn báo chí của Bác Hồ (Phần 2) |date=26 June 2013 |url=http://bqllang.gov.vn/tin-tuc/tin-tong-hop/1369-nh-ng-cu-c-tr-l-i-ph-ng-v-n-bao-chi-c-a-bac-h-ph-n-2.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |accessdate=14 November 2015 |title=Những cuộc trả lời phỏng vấn báo chí của Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh (Phần 1) |date=20 June 2013 |url=http://bqllang.gov.vn/tin-tuc/tin-tong-hop/1363-nh-ng-cu-c-tr-l-i-ph-ng-v-n-bao-chi-c-a-ch-t-ch-h-chi-minh-ph-n-1.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2019-03-19 |title=Chuyến thăm hữu nghị Pháp của phái đoàn Quốc hội Việt Nam năm 1946 |url=https://hcmcpv.org.vn/tin-tuc/tim-kiem/chuyen-tham-huu-nghi-phap-cua-phai-doan-quoc-hoi-viet-nam-nam-1946-1491852730 |website=Đảng bộ Tp Hồ Chí Minh}}</ref>

==== Civil conflicts ====
Hồ's communist party and its national-front [[Viet Minh]] hunted down and executed left-opposition [[Trotskyism in Vietnam|Trotskyists]] who had a significant presence in [[Saigon]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Patti |first1=Archimedes L.A. |title=Why Vietnam?: Prelude to America's Albatross |date=1981 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520041561 |location=Berkeley |pages=522–523}}</ref><ref>Alexander, Robert J. (1991), ''International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement''. Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 961-962</ref> In the interregnum between the surrender of the Japanese occupiers in August 1945 and the British-assisted French reconquest of the city in late September, the "[[International Communist League (Vietnam)#:~:text=International Communist League (Vietnam)|Fourth Internationalists]]" and other popular groupings—the nationalist [[Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng|VNQDĐ]] and the [[Syncretism|syncretic]] [[Caodaism|Cao Dai]] and [[Hòa Hảo]] sects—had formed their own militias.{{sfn|Marr|2013|pp=408–409}}<ref>Văn, Ngô (1991), [https://files.libcom.org/files/1945%20The%20Saigon%20commune.pdf 1945, The Saigon Commune] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516131219/https://files.libcom.org/files/1945%20The%20Saigon%20commune.pdf |date=2022-05-16}}, libcom.org</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Phiêu |first=Trần Nguơn |date=2019 |title=Một số chi tiết về Phan Văn Hùm |url=https://nghiencuulichsu.com/2019/03/15/mot-so-chi-tiet-ve-phan-van-hum/ |access-date=2022-12-04 |website=Nghiên Cứu Lịch Sử |language=vi}}</ref> A year later in Paris, asked by [[Daniel Guérin|Daniel Guerin]] about the fate of Trotskyist leader [[Tạ Thu Thâu]] (executed in September),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Đức |first=Tấn |date=1999 |title=Tìm hiểu vụ ám sát Tạ Thu Thâu |url=https://nghiencuulichsu.com/2015/09/07/tim-hieu-vu-am-sat-ta-thu-thau/ |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=Nghiên Cứu Lịch Sử |language=vi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Martin |first=Patrick |date=2020 |title=Seventy-five years since the Stalinist murder of Vietnamese Trotskyist leader Ta Thu Thau |url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/28/viet-s28.html |access-date=2021-05-17 |website=World Socialist Web Site |language=en}}</ref> Hồ Chí Minh, while allowing that "Thâu was a great patriot", replied: "All those who do not follow the line which I have laid down will be broken."<ref>Guerin, Daniel (1954), ''Aux services des colonises, 1930-1953'',. Paris: Editions Minuit, p. 22</ref> At his direction, the [[Viet Minh]] broke or substantially weakened all rival anti-colonial forces,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dommen |first=Arthur J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGduAAAAMAAJ |title=The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam |date=2001 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-33854-9 |pages=153–154 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Robert F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-U4LGQAACAAJ |title=Myths of the Vietnam War: The Pentagon Papers Reconsidered |date=1972 |publisher=American Friends of Vietnam |pages=14–18 |language=en}}</ref> but in the [[Fontainebleau Agreements|talks]] in France of 1946 Hồ failed to secure national unity and independence from the French.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tonnesson |first=Stein |title=Vietnam 1946: How the War Began |publisher=University of California Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780520944602}}</ref>
[[File:Samochod (GAZ) Lublin-51.jpg|thumb|China supplied the communist Viet Minh with many of Soviet-built [[GAZ-51]] trucks during the First Indochina War.]]
[[File:Dien Bien Phu 1954 French prisoners.jpg|thumb|Captured French soldiers from [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Dien Bien Phu]], escorted by Viet Minh troops, walk to a prisoner-of-war camp, 1954]]

In January 1946, Vietnam had its [[1946 North Vietnamese legislative election|first National Assembly election]].<ref>{{cite web|access-date=19 September 2024 |location=Báo điện tử của Đài Truyền hình Việt Nam |title=Bác Hồ với cuộc Tổng tuyển cử đầu tiên |date=19 May 2021 |url=https://vtv.vn/chinh-tri/bac-ho-voi-cuoc-tong-tuyen-cu-dau-tien-2021051905575278.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://quochoi.vn/tulieuquochoi/anpham/Pages/anpham.aspx?AnPhamItemID=3756 |title=Lịch sử Quốc hội Việt Nam (1946-1960) - Tập 1 |date=2007-06-07 |website=Cổng thông tin điện tử Quốc hội nước Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam |author1=Nông Đức Mạnh}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bqllang.gov.vn/tin-tuc/tin-tong-hop/1369-nh-ng-cu-c-tr-l-i-ph-ng-v-n-bao-chi-c-a-bac-h-ph-n-2.html|title=Những cuộc trả lời phỏng vấn báo chí của Bác Hồ|date=2013-06-26|website=Trang tin điện tử Ban quản lý Lăng Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh |author1=Tâm Trang (st)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |archive-date=2013-10-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019135045/http://daidoanket.vn/index.aspx?Menu=1427&Chitiet=30238&Style=1 |date=2011-05-17 |title=Mãi mãi ghi nhớ Quốc hội khóa 1 |url=http://daidoanket.vn/index.aspx?Menu=1427&Chitiet=30238&Style=1 |url-status=dead |website=Đại đoàn kết |access-date=2017-01-08}}</ref> This is considered a fraudulent election.<ref>Sexton, Michael "War for the Asking" 1981</ref><ref>Stanley Karnow. Vietnam: A History. New York, NY. Penguin, 1991, p. 163.</ref><ref>Fall, Bernard, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=2S8kAAAAMAAJ The Viet-Minh Regime] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527015206/https://books.google.com/books?id=2S8kAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 |date=27 May 2016}}'' (1956), p. 9.</ref><ref>Fall, p. 10.</ref><ref>Springhal, John, ''Decolonization since 1945'' (1955), p. 44.</ref> The DRV’s first constitution was approved during the Congress session in early November 1946. 

==== Total war outbeak ====
In late 1946, after Hồ's return from France, France attacked with a naval [[Haiphong incident|bombardment of Haiphong]] that killed over 6000 people;<ref>Cirillo, Roger (2015). ''The Shape of Battles to Come''. Louisville: University Press of Kentucky. p. 187. {{ISBN|978-0813165752}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=March 4, 2018 |location=histoiredumonde.net |title=Histoire du monde.net |url=http://www.histoiredumonde.net/Bombardement-de-haiphong.html}}</ref> communist government later attacked France in [[Hanoi]] capital despite the agreements signed, leading to the [[First Indochina war]] on 19 December 1946.<ref>Ban nghiên cứu lịch sử Đảng. Văn kiện Đảng (1945-1954). Nhà xuất bản Sự thật. Hà Nội. 1978, trang 256–260</ref><ref>Hồ Chí Minh. Toàn tập – Tập 4. Nhà xuất bản Chính trị quốc gia. Hà Nội. 2000. trang 328–330</ref><ref>https://mjp.univ-perp.fr/constit/vn1946.htm</ref> In [[Operation Léa]] 1947, French army had a big victory against the communists, inflicting severe casualties on the Việt Minh. However it was strategically inconclusive because it failed to capture the Việt Minh leadership or seriously cripple its military forces.<ref name="tucker55">Spencer Tucker, [http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=WZry2NaH2_sC&pg=PA55&dq=%22Viet+bac%22#v=onepage&q=%22Viet%20bac%22&f=false ''Vietnam''], University Press of Kentucky, 25-02-[[1999]], trang 55. ISBN 0813109663.</ref> In 1947 the leftist government of France of [[Paul Ramadier]] claimed to support Vietnamese independence and unity, France later wanted to find a political alternative to the Viet Minh in the name of anti-communism after the Viet Minh refused to surrender.<ref name="p5" /><ref>The first Indochina war: French and American policy 1945-54 - Ronald E Irving - London: Croom Helm, 1986.</ref>{{sfn|Patti|2008|p=644}} France decided to bring back the former Vietnamese emperor [[Bảo Đại]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history|title=Vietnam War History|website=History.com|publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=11 August 2016 |archive-date=2017-08-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811143617/http://honvietquochoc.com.vn/bai-viet/896-chu-tich-ho-chi-minh-va-co-van-vinh-thuy.aspx |location=Tạp chí điện tử Hồn Việt |title=Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh và cố vấn Vĩnh Thụy |url=http://honvietquochoc.com.vn/bai-viet/896-chu-tich-ho-chi-minh-va-co-van-vinh-thuy.aspx |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn|Patti|2008|pp=646–647}}<ref name="p5" /> The Vietnamese [[anti-communist]] faction formed a political alliance in [[Nanjing]] in February 1947, they supported cooperation with France and the Bảo Đại Solution to fight communism while gaining independence gradually and building a [[Liberal democracy|Western democracy]] for Vietnam within the French Union.<ref name="p5" /> A [[Provisional Central Government of Vietnam|Provisional Central Government]] was formed in May 1948 and later signed a preliminary treaty with France that recognized Vietnamese independence in [[Hạ Long Bay]] on June 5, partly reuniting the protectorates of [[Annam (French protectorate)|Annam]] and [[Tonkin (French protectorate)|Tonkin]], but the Bảo Đại refused his assent insisting that on a complete reunification and strong independence of Vietnam. In Saigon, the French had designated the direct-rule colony of [[French Cochinchina|Cochinchina]] as a separate autonomous republic.<ref name="p5" /><ref name="Hammer, Ellen J. 1950, p. 55">Hammer, Ellen J. “The Bao Dai Experiment.” ''Pacific Affairs'', vol. 23, no. 1, Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia, 1950, p. 55, {{doi|10.2307/2753754}}.</ref> As part of decolonization after WWII when both the U.S. and USSR opposed [[colonialism]],<ref name="p5" /> after negotiations between French left-wing government and Vietnamese anti-communist politicians led by Bảo Đại, France recognized nominal independence of Vietnam within the [[French Union]] and France gave up their claims to Cochinchina on [[Élysée Accords|8 March 1949]], leading the establishment of the [[State of Vietnam]], its capital was located in [[Saigon]], and the transfer of autonomous functions to the Vietnamese took place gradually. The Accords took effect on 14 June 1949. It received final ratification by the French National Assembly on 29 January 1950 and was signed by French President Vincent Auriol on 2 February, abolishing the [[Treaty of Huế (1884)]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://history.state.gov/countries/vietnam | title=Vietnam - Countries - Office of the Historian}}</ref><ref name="p5" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://nghiencuulichsu.com/2014/06/16/hiep-dinh-phap-viet-ngay-8-thang-3-nam-1949-hiep-dinh-elysee/ |title=Hiệp định Pháp-Việt date 8 tháng 3 năm 1949 (Hiệp định Élysée) |date=16 June 2014}}</ref><ref name=duiker>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ECWRqcj3rGIC&q=%C3%89lys%C3%A9e+Accords&pg=PA69|title=U.S. Containment Policy and the Conflict in Indochina|last=Duiker|first=William|date=1994-07-01|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-6581-7|language=en}}</ref> 

==== Cold War intensification in anticolonial struggles ====
[[File:This is your flag.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Anti-communist]] propaganda poster of the [[State of Vietnam]]: "This is [our true] [[Flag of South Vietnam|national flag of Vietnam]]", 1951.]]
The establishment of pro-French Vietnamese state made this French colonial war in Indochina contain elements of [[Cold War]] conflict; the French sought to retake their new-style colony (Indochina) in the name of anti-communism and helping native states, no longer in the name of colonialism.<ref name=X>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history|title=Vietnam War History|website=History.com|date=29 October 2009 |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref><ref name="p5" /> The United States recognized the new Vietnam on 3 February 1950.<ref name="p5" /> The two countries established diplomatic relations on February 17.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://history.state.gov/countries/vietnam |title=Vietnam - Countries - Office of the Historian}}</ref> On september 7, 1951, the United States signed a treaty with Vietnam to provide direct economic aid to Vietnam, however military aid remained through France until February 1955.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://susta.vn/lich-su/chinh-sach-cua-my-doi-voi-viet-nam-tu-nam-1940-1954-26234 | title=Chính sách của Mỹ đối với Việt Nam từ năm 1940-1954 }}</ref> France accepted Vietnam's independence in the future as long as France's interests were guaranteed through the French Union, the French Union was much different from the old [[French colonial empire]], Vietnam was ''de facto'' still ruled by France but Vietnam's autonomy was much more extensive compared to pre-1945 period.<ref name="p5" />{{sfn|Patti|2008|p=644}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Philippe Franchini |date=2005 |isbn=2-262-02345-X |language=fr |location=Paris |page=196 |publisher=Perrin |title=Les mensonges de la guerre d'Indochine}}<!-- auto-translated from French by Module:CS1 translator -->.</ref> Vietnam regained [[French Cochinchina|Cochinchina]] after legal procedures in June 1949<ref>[https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jo_pdf.do?id=JORFTEXT000000692906 Fac-similé JO du 5 juin 1949], {{page|05502}} Legifrance.gouv.fr.</ref> and the [[State of Vietnam]] was officially proclaimed in July, with Bảo Đại becoming its Head of State (''Quốc trưởng'').<ref name="Hammer, Ellen J. 1950, p. 55" /> Vietnam continued negotiations to demand more autonomy for the country and achieved successes.<ref name="p5" /> On December 8, 1950, the State of Vietnam was allowed to establish its own army and it fought side by side with the French army against communism.<ref name="vietnam.ttu.edu">[http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/2006_Conference/presentations/sherman/RVNAF.pdf ''A Brief Overview of the Vietnam National Army and the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces''(1952-1975)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327061040/http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/2006_Conference/presentations/sherman/RVNAF.pdf |date=2009-03-27}}, Stephen Sherman and Bill Laurie</ref> The fact that France was at a disadvantage during the war forced the French to accelerate the transfer of power to Vietnam. On July 3, 1953, France announced that it would complete Vietnam's independence and on April 28 of the following year, the two countries agreed that they would sign two treaties making Vietnam completely independent from France but still remain within the French Union.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vietnamgear.com/Indochina1953.aspx |title=Indochina War Timeline: 1953}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1954/04/28/archives/french-hint-accord-on-vietnam-treaties.html |title=French Hint Accord on Vietnam Treaties |work=The New York Times |date=28 April 1954}}</ref> On 4 June 1954, French Prime Minister [[Joseph Laniel]] signed the Matignon Accords with Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam (future South Vietnam) [[Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lộc]] to recognize the complete independence of Vietnam within the French Union.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mjp.univ-perp.fr/constit/vn1954.htm | title=Vietnam, indépendance, Digithèque MJP}}</ref><ref name=indo>The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Arthur J. Dommen. Indiana University Press, 20-02-2002. P 240. Trích: The question remains of why the treaties of independence and association were simply initialed by Laniel and Buu Loc and not signed by Coty and Bao Dai… Many writers place the blame for the non-signature of the treaties on the Vietnamese. But there exists no logical explanation why it should have been the Vietnamese, rather than French, who refused their signature to the treaties which had been negotiated. Bao Dai had arrived in French in April believing the treaty-signing was only a matter of two or three weeks away. However, a quite satisfactory explanation in what was happening in Geneva, where the negotiations were moving ahead with suprising rapidity.… After Geneva, Bao Dai’s treaties was never completed</ref><ref name="pent13">[https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent13.htm The Pentagon Papers Gravel Edition Volume 1, Chapter 5, "Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954-1960" (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623032152/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent13.htm |date=2017-06-23 }}</ref>{{Efn|The Full Independence Accords was never ratified by the heads of both countries, but it still took effect at the day of signing according to its Article 4.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://mjp.univ-perp.fr/constit/vn1954.htm | title=Vietnam, indépendance, Digithèque MJP }}</ref>}} On 30 December 1954, the [[French Indochina|Indochinese Federation]] was completely dissolved.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nghiencuulichsu.com/2017/04/17/su-ket-thuc-cua-dong-duong-thuoc-phap-va-thoa-uoc-bon-ben-ky-tai-paris-ngay-29-12-1954/|title=Sự kết thúc của Đông Dương thuộc Pháp và Thỏa ước bốn bên ký tại Paris date 29 – 12 – 1954|date=April 17, 2017|access-date=January 21, 2025|archive-date=June 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606195614/https://nghiencuulichsu.com/2017/04/17/su-ket-thuc-cua-dong-duong-thuoc-phap-va-thoa-uoc-bon-ben-ky-tai-paris-ngay-29-12-1954/|url-status=live}}</ref> In December 1955, South Vietnam withdrew from the French Union.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-A-3.pdf |title=Pentagon Papers Part IV A 3 |publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]] |date=1954–1960 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405045141/http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-A-3.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-05}}</ref>

=== Partition and the Vietnam War (1954–1975) ===
{{Main|North Vietnam|South Vietnam|Vietnam War}}
[[Image:Vietnam1954.jpg|thumb|180px|[[North Vietnam|North]] and [[South Vietnam]] (1954–1975)]] 

==== Enduring division ====
{{Main|1954 Geneva Conference|Operation Passage to Freedom}}
[[File:LBJ touring a factory in Saigon ppmsca.03198.jpg|thumb|U.S. Vice President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] visiting a textile mill in [[Saigon]], South Vietnam, May 1961]]
In China, [[Chinese Communist Party|communists]] (CCP) of [[Mao Zedong|Mao]] established their own state in October 1949. After the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]] recognized the Viet Minh government in early 1950, under [[Stalin]]'s pressure, the government of the Viet Minh publicly declared itself a communist organization even though it had not yet defeated France and began implementing [[Land reform in North Vietnam|land reform]] in 1953.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vanhoanghean.com.vn/chuyen-muc-goc-nhin-van-hoa/nhung-goc-nhin-van-hoa/viet-nam-dan-chu-cong-hoa-tranh-thu-su-ung-ho,-vien-tro-cua-trung-quoc,-lien-xo-trong-khang-chien-chong-phap-1950-1954 |accessdate=2015-05-17 |title=VIỆT NAM DÂN CHỦ CỘNG HÒA TRANH THỦ SỰ ỦNG HỘ, VIỆN TRỢ CỦA TRUNG QUỐC, LIÊN XÔ TRONG KHÁNG CHIẾN CHỐNG PHÁP &#91;1950 - 1954&#93; |archive-date=29 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161129211034/http://www.vanhoanghean.com.vn/chuyen-muc-goc-nhin-van-hoa/nhung-goc-nhin-van-hoa/viet-nam-dan-chu-cong-hoa-tranh-thu-su-ung-ho,-vien-tro-cua-trung-quoc,-lien-xo-trong-khang-chien-chong-phap-1950-1954 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |archive-date=16 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150616095358/http://www.vjol.info/index.php/sphcm/article/viewFile/13855/12559 |author=Nguyễn Thị Hương |date=23 November 2013 |accessdate=19 August 2014 |title=Hồ Chí Minh với quan hệ Việt - Xô trong những năm 1950 - 1969 |url=http://www.vjol.info/index.php/sphcm/article/viewFile/13855/12559 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Despite U.S. assistance from 1950, the French were persuaded to stop their war in Indochina after the Viet Minh with the help of communist [[China]] also from 1950 defeated them. China's help caused the communist Viet Minh (DRV) to reverse the situation in their favor when the Viet Minh's immature government apparatus and army were much improved.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.qdnd.vn/ho-so-su-kien/dai-tuong-vo-nguyen-giap/vien-tro-cua-trung-quoc-doi-voi-cuoc-khang-chien-chong-phap-cua-viet-nam-260871 | title=Viện trợ của Trung Quốc đối với cuộc kháng chiến chống Pháp của Việt Nam }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.qdnd.vn/ho-so-su-kien/dai-tuong-vo-nguyen-giap/trung-quoc-giup-do-viet-nam-trong-cuoc-khang-chien-chong-phap-tiep-theo-va-het-260879 | title=Trung Quốc giúp đỡ Việt Nam trong cuộc kháng chiến chống Pháp (Tiếp theo và hết) }}</ref> The United States supported Bảo Đại's capitalist and anti-communist Vietnam.<ref name="p5" /> Americans supported Vietnam's independence but also opposed communists using the guise of "national liberation".<ref name="history.state.gov">{{cite web|archive-date=2013-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524022108/http://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/AsiaandAfrica |access-date=2013-05-21 |title=Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945-1960, Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State |url=http://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/AsiaandAfrica |url-status=dead}}</ref> On 21 July 1954, an [[1954 Geneva Conference|agreement negotiated at Geneva]], signed by the communist DRV and France, provisionally divided Vietnam along the 17th Parallel, with [[Ho Chi Minh|Hồ Chí Minh]]'s communist [[North Vietnam|DRV]] government ruling the [[North Vietnam|North]] from [[Hanoi]] and [[Bảo Đại]]'s [[State of Vietnam]], governing the [[South Vietnam|South]] from [[Saigon]]. With this agreement, the State of Vietnam lost the North to the communist rebels.<ref>{{cite web|archive-date=18 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101218091655/http://vovnews.vn/Home/Giao-luu-truc-tuyen-voi-Dai-ta-Ha-Van-Lau-va-ong-Le-Danh/20069/42212.vov |access-date=2011-03-22 |title=Giao lưu trực tuyến với Đại tá Hà Văn Lâu và ông Lê Danh, Đài tiếng nói Việt Nam |url=http://vovnews.vn/Home/Giao-luu-truc-tuyen-voi-Dai-ta-Ha-Van-Lau-va-ong-Le-Danh/20069/42212.vov}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history|title=Vietnam War History|website=History.com|publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116105152/http://dangcongsan.vn/cpv/Modules/News/NewsDetail.aspx?co_id=30684&cn_id=425786 |archive-date=2014-01-16 |date=2012-08-29 |title=Hiệp định Giơ-ne-vơ năm 1954 về Đông Dương |url=http://dangcongsan.vn/cpv/Modules/News/NewsDetail.aspx?co_id=30684&cn_id=425786 |url-status=dead|language=vi}}</ref> After the Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm [[1955 State of Vietnam referendum|overthrew]] emperor Bảo Đại, the State of Vietnam became the [[South Vietnam|Republic of Vietnam]] with Diệm being President (''Tổng thống'') in October 1955, still pursuing [[capitalism]] and [[anti-communism]].<ref>{{cite web|archive-date=2016-04-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425125729/http://dangcongsan.vn/tu-lieu-van-kien/van-kien-dang/van-kien-dang-toan-tap/doc-4101420154095856.html |access-date=2017-02-18 |title=Văn kiện đảng toàn tập Tập 16 (1955) Chỉ thị của Trung ương số 48-CT/TW - Ngày 25 tháng 11 nǎm 1955 - Chống tuyển cử riêng rẽ của Mỹ - Diệm ở miền Nam |url=http://dangcongsan.vn/tu-lieu-van-kien/van-kien-dang/van-kien-dang-toan-tap/doc-4101420154095856.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Bühler2001p71">{{cite book|author=Konrad G. Bühler |isbn=978-90-411-1553-9 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ty7NAG1Jl–8C&pg=PA71 71] |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |title=State Succession and Membership in International Organizations: Legal Theories Versus Political Pragmatism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ty7NAG1Jl-8C |year=2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=17 July 2017 |date=5 December 2010 |archive-date=2017-07-17 |publisher=Đại học Sư phạm TP. Hồ Chí Minh |title=HỒ SƠ MỚI GIẢI MẬT: CIA VÀ NHÀ HỌ NGÔ |url=http://www.hcmup.edu.vn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2279%3Ah-s-mi-gii-mt-cia-va-nha-h-ngo&catid=1513%3Avit-nam-hin-i&Itemid=2938&lang=zh&site=71&limitstart=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170717163120/http://www.hcmup.edu.vn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2279%3Ah-s-mi-gii-mt-cia-va-nha-h-ngo&catid=1513%3Avit-nam-hin-i&Itemid=2938&lang=zh&site=71&limitstart=1 |url-status=live}}</ref> 

==== Divergence of the two Vietnams ====
In October 1956, a year after the Republic of Vietnam replaced the State of Vietnam, South Vietnam formed its own parliament and created its own constitution.<ref name=N>Nohlen et al., p334</ref> On 28 April 1956, the last French forces left South Vietnam due to pressure from the U.S. and Diệm.<ref name="Logevall">{{cite book|last=Logevall|first=Fredrik|title=Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam|publisher=Random House|year=2012|isbn=978-0-679-64519-1}}</ref>{{rp|650}} According to the 1954 Geneva agreement, a nation-wide election for a united administration was to be held in July 1956. The anti-communist State of Vietnam opposed the division of Vietnam, condemning the French High Command's arbitrarily handing over the North to the communists and setting a deadline for general elections, threatening to push all of Vietnam into communism.<ref name="pent13">[https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent13.htm The Pentagon Papers Gravel Edition Volume 1, Chapter 5, "Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954-1960" (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623032152/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent13.htm |date=2017-06-23 }}</ref> [[Ngô Đình Diệm|Diệm]]'s regime had the legal right to reject,<ref>[https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent13.htm The Pentagon Papers Gravel Edition Volume 1, Chapter 5, "Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954-1960" (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623032152/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent13.htm |date=2017-06-23 }} Trích: "''France, as the third party in Vietnam, then became pivotal to any political settlement, its executor for the West. But France had agreed to full independence for the GVN on 4 June 1954, nearly six weeks before the end of the Geneva Conference. By the terms of that June agreement, the GVN assumed responsibility for international contracts previously made on its behalf by France; but, there having been no reference to subsequent contracts, it was technically free of the Geneva Agreements. It has been argued to the contrary that the GVN was bound by Geneva because it possessed at the time few of the attributes of full sovereignty, and especially because it was dependent on France for defense.''"</ref> while the United States merely "took note" of the ceasefire agreements and declared that it would "refrain from the threat or use of force to disturb them.<ref name="Logevall" />{{rp|606}}<ref>{{cite web|archive-date=2011-05-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526055007/http://vietnam.vassar.edu/overview/doc3.html |date=2011-06-12 |title=Tuyên bố của Mỹ tại Hội nghị Genève 1954 (bản tiếng Anh) |url=http://vietnam.vassar.edu/overview/doc3.html}}</ref> Fearing that young South Vietnam would fall to communism, which would create a big "red" wave, the United States immediately tried to protect the independence of South Vietnam to prevent the spread of international communism from the North and restrain the influence of the Soviet Union.<ref name=X>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history|title=Vietnam War History|website=History.com|date=29 October 2009 |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref> To protect its ally from the threat of communist invasion, the U.S. reorganized [[Military Assistance Advisory Group]] (MAAG) in Indochina into country-specific units and MAAG Vietnam was established on 1 November 1955.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lawrence |first=A.T. |title=Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant |publisher=McFarland |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7864-4517-2}}</ref>{{Rp|20}} Partitition came into force, but the promised elections were never held. 
[[File:OperationStarlight.jpg|thumb|[[Viet Cong]] prisoners await being carried by helicopter to rear area after American [[Operation Starlite]]. August 18–24, 1965.]]

Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in significant political oppression. During the land reform, testimony from North Vietnamese witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every 160 village residents, which extrapolated nationwide would indicate nearly 100,000 executions. Because the campaign was concentrated mainly in the Red River Delta area, a lower estimate of 50,000 executions became widely accepted by scholars at the time.<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Robert F.|title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development|year=1975|publisher=Hoover Institution Publications|isbn=978-0-8179-6431-3|page=143}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 3024603|doi = 10.2307/3024603|title = Communist Land Policy in North Viet Nam|journal = Far Eastern Survey|volume = 28|issue = 8|pages = 113–126|year = 1959|last1 = Gittinger|first1 = J. Price}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Courtois|first=Stephane|title=The Black Book of Communism|url=https://archive.org/details/blackbookcommuni00wert|url-access=limited|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-674-07608-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/blackbookcommuni00wert/page/n620 569]}}</ref><ref>Dommen, Arthur J. (2001), ''The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans'', Indiana University Press, p. 340, gives a lower estimate of 32,000 executions.</ref> However, declassified documents from the Vietnamese and Hungarian archives indicate that the number of executions was much lower than reported at the time, although likely greater than 13,500.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly%20released%20documents%20on%20the%20land%20reform%20.html |title=Newly released documents on the land reform |website=Vietnam Studies Group |access-date=2016-07-15 |quote=Vu Tuong: There is no reason to expect, and no evidence that I have seen to demonstrate, that the actual executions were less than planned; in fact the executions perhaps exceeded the plan if we consider two following factors. First, this decree was issued in 1953 for the rent and interest reduction campaign that preceded the far more radical land redistribution and party rectification campaigns (or waves) that followed during 1954–1956. Second, the decree was meant to apply to free areas (under the control of the Viet Minh government), not to the areas under French control that would be liberated in 1954–1955 and that would experience a far more violent struggle. Thus the number of 13,500 executed people seems to be a low-end estimate of the real number. This is corroborated by Edwin Moise in his recent paper "Land Reform in North Vietnam, 1953–1956" presented at the 18th Annual Conference on SE Asian Studies, Center for SE Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley (February 2001). In this paper Moise (79–) modified his earlier estimate in his 1983 book (which was 5,000) and accepted an estimate close to 15,000 executions. Moise made the case based on Hungarian reports provided by Balazs, but the document I cited above offers more direct evidence for his revised estimate. This document also suggests that the total number should be adjusted up some more, taking into consideration the later radical phase of the campaign, the unauthorized killings at the local level, and the suicides following arrest and torture (the central government bore less direct responsibility for these cases, however). |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110420044800/http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly%20released%20documents%20on%20the%20land%20reform%20.html |archive-date=2011-04-20 }} cf. {{cite journal|last=Szalontai|first=Balazs|title=Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56|journal=Cold War History|volume=5|number=4|date=November 2005|pages=395–426|doi=10.1080/14682740500284630|s2cid=153956945}} cf. {{cite book|last=Vu |first=Tuong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZbr9iD1HZ8C&q=15%2C000 |title=Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-139-48901-0 |page=103 |quote=Clearly Vietnamese socialism followed a moderate path relative to China.&nbsp;... Yet the Vietnamese 'land reform' campaign&nbsp;... testified that Vietnamese communists could be as radical and murderous as their comrades elsewhere.}}</ref> In the South, Diệm went about crushing political and religious opposition, imprisoning or killing of thousands.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/413521/Ngo-Dinh-Diem|title=Ngo Dinh Diem|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=26 November 2012}}</ref> Besides the fact that South Vietnam never signed the 1954 Geneva Accords and the North did not guarantee free elections as arguments for Saigon to refuse general elections to unify with Hanoi,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodruff |first=Mark |title=Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of The Viet Cong and The North Vietnamese |publisher=Presidio Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-8914-1866-0 |page=6}}</ref> North Vietnam also violated the Geneva Accords by failing to withdraw all Viet Minh troops from South Vietnam, stifling the movement of North Vietnamese refugees, and conducting a military buildup that more than doubled the number of armed divisions in the North Vietnamese army while the South Vietnamese army was reduced by 20,000 men.{{sfn|Turner|1975|p=100–04}}
[[File:Vietnam War bomb strike by CVW-21 c1968.jpg|thumb|Tens of thousands of civilians were killed during the American and South Vietnamese bombing of communist North Vietnam in [[Operation Rolling Thunder]] (1965–68).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index2.html |title=Battlefield:Vietnam Timeline |publisher=[[PBS|Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)]]}}</ref>]]

==== Escalation ====
{{see also|Viet Cong|International participation in the Vietnam War}}
After failing to convince the South Vietnamese government to hold general elections, North Vietnam decided to order its [[Viet Cong|puppet guerrilla cadres]] in the South to fight Diệm in 1959 in order to communize the country by force.<ref>{{cite web |title= The History Place&nbsp;— Vietnam War 1945–1960 |url= http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html |access-date = June 11, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312070611/http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html|archive-date= March 12, 2023}}</ref> The Diệm's regime in particular and anti-communist South Vietnam in general were dictatorial and pseudo-democratic, but not totalitarian like the North; and the [[1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état|fall]] of Diệm's effective regime in November 1963, although bringing about [[democratization]], weakened anti-communist South Vietnam.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/Law-War/law-02.htm |access-date=2010-04-05 |title=Vietnamese Legal System |archive-date=2010-06-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608144354/http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/Law-War/law-02.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.voatiengviet.com/a/ong-diem-va-nen-de-nhat-cong-hoa-bi-lat-do-la-mon-qua-cho-cong-san-/7339062.html |title=Ông Diệm và nền Đệ nhất Cộng hòa bị lật đổ là 'món quà cho cộng sản' |date=3 November 2023}}</ref>

As a result of the [[Vietnam War]] (1955–75), a purely ideological conflict, the [[People's Army of Vietnam]] (PAVN) forces of the communist DRV unified the country under [[communist]] rule.<ref name=X>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history|title=Vietnam War History|website=History.com|date=29 October 2009 |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thcentury/articles/chinesesupport.aspx|title=China saved Vietnam|website=Bob Seals|access-date=23 September 2008|archive-date=22 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201222132426/https://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/?aspxerrorpath=/20thcentury/articles/chinesesupport.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> In this [[Cold War]] conflict, a [[civil war]] between North and South Vietnam,<ref>https://www.bqllang.gov.vn/tin-tuc/tin-tong-hop/4744-su-tiep-noi-chu-quyen-viet-nam-doi-voi-hai-quan-dao-hoang-sa-va-truong-sa.html</ref><ref name=X>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history|title=Vietnam War History|website=History.com|date=29 October 2009 |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref> the North—with support from the Soviet Union and China—defeated the South that had the help from the U.S. Both North and South considered themselves the only legitimate representative of all of Vietnam. The war also spread to [[Laotian Civil War|Laos]] and [[Cambodian Civil War|Cambodia]].<ref>"Operation Rolling Thunder." History. A&E Television Networks, LLC., n.d. Web. 28 April 2015. [http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/operation-rolling-thunder] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408094659/http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/operation-rolling-thunder|date=8 April 2015}}</ref> Communist army of the North defeated the [[Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces]] of the South, which sought to maintain South Vietnamese independence from communism with the direct support of the foreign military (mainly the U.S.).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history|title=Vietnam War History|website=History.com|publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Friedman |first=Herbert |title=Allies of the Republic of Vietnam |url=http://www.psywarrior.com/AlliesRepublicVietnam.html |access-date=1 March 2025}}</ref> The U.S. military presence in Vietnam peaked in April 1969, with 543,000 military personnel stationed in the country.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qh5lffww-KsC|title=The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History, 2nd Edition [4 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History|first=Spencer C.|last=Tucker|date=May 20, 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781851099610|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|archive-date=2022-04-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220403042427/http://tapchiqptd.vn/vi/binh-luan-phe-phan/mot-luan-dieu-xuyen-tac-lich-su/3753.html |access-date=2023-12-09 |title=Một luận điệu xuyên tạc lịch sử - Tạp chí Quốc phòng toàn dân |url=http://tapchiqptd.vn/vi/binh-luan-phe-phan/mot-luan-dieu-xuyen-tac-lich-su/3753.html |url-status=dead |website=tapchiqptd.vn}}</ref> The North also had direct help from foreign armies (mainly Chinese), although they did not join communist North Vietnam in invading the anti-communist South.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of the Modern Chinese Army|last=Li|first=X.|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|year=2007|location=Lexington, KY|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|217}}<ref name="Toledo Blade 320,000 Chinese troops">{{Cite news |date=16 May 1989 |title=China admits 320,000 troops fought in Vietnam |work=Toledo Blade |agency=Reuters |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19890516&id=HkRPAAAAIBAJ&pg=3769,1925460 |access-date=24 December 2013 |archive-date=2 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702034430/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19890516&id=HkRPAAAAIBAJ&pg=3769,1925460 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Roy |first=Denny |url=https://archive.org/details/chinasforeignrel0000royd/page/27 |title=China's Foreign Relations |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8476-9013-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/chinasforeignrel0000royd/page/27 27]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Womack |first=Brantly |title=China and Vietnam |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-61834-2 |page=[{{GBurl|id=GaZvX2BzeegC|p=176}} 179]|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> Anti-communist South Vietnam and its allies always had to deal with the invasion of communist forces from the North, although the U.S.-South Vietnamese coalition carried out air strikes on the North in retaliation.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index2.html |title=Battlefield:Vietnam Timeline |publisher=[[PBS|Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)]]}}</ref><ref>"Operation Rolling Thunder." History. A&E Television Networks, LLC., n.d. Web. 28 April 2015. [http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/operation-rolling-thunder] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408094659/http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/operation-rolling-thunder|date=8 April 2015}}</ref> Despite tactical defeat of the communists against South Vietnamese army in their [[Easter Offensive|1972 invasion campaign]], including major defeats in [[Second Battle of Quảng Trị|Quảng Trị]] and [[Battle of An Lộc|An Lộc]], an agreement unfavorable to the South was still signed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thi|first=Lam Quang|title=Hell in An Loc: The 1972 Easter Invasion and the Battle that Saved South Vietnam|publisher=University of North Texas Press|year=2009|isbn=9781574412765}}</ref><ref>Peter Brush, [http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/central/brush/Vietnamese-Marine-Corps.htm The Vietnamese Marine Corps] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626123226/http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/central/Brush/Vietnamese-Marine-Corps.htm |date=26 June 2010}}, Viet Nam Generation, Vol. 7:1-2, 1996, pp. 73-77</ref><ref name=historynet>{{cite web|url=https://www.historynet.com/how-south-vietnamese-fighters-beat-back-a-communist-offensive-in-the-vietnam-wars-longest-battle/|title=How South Vietnam won the Vietnam War's longest battle|publisher=Vietnam Magazine|author=John D. Howard|date=8 April 2022|accessdate=24 October 2022}}</ref><ref name="Sabry">{{cite book|last=Sabry|first=Fouad|title=Pyrrhic Victory: Strategic Triumphs, Tactical Toll, Unveiling the Costs of Conquest|publisher=One Billion Knowledgeable|year=2024|isbn=|page=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LSYMEQAAQBAJ}}</ref> 

==== The War's final chapter ====
Sporadic conflicts continued right after the agreement before a [[1975 Spring Offensive|big invasion]] of the North happened. With its advantage, the North did not abide by the terms of the [[Paris Peace Accords|1973 Paris Agreement]], as the communists continued to fight and sent materiel and troops to the South after the agreement came into effect.<ref>https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v42/ch7</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hanhimäki|first1=Jussi |title=Selling the 'Decent interval': Kissinger, triangular diplomacy, and the end of the Vietnam war, 1971-73 |journal=Diplomacy & Statecraft |date=2003 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=159–194 |doi=10.1080/09592290412331308771|s2cid=218523033 }}</ref> While the North continued to receive massive aid from the Soviet Union and China, Americans sharply cut aid to South Vietnam and no longer wanted to intervene militarily due to the costly and unpopular war while their relations with China improved to isolate the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hughes|first=Ken|title=Richard Nixon: Foreign Affairs|url=https://millercenter.org/president/nixon/foreign-affairs|url-status=live|website=millercenter.org|date=October 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417132149/https://millercenter.org/president/nixon/foreign-affairs |archive-date=April 17, 2017 }}</ref> The global [[1973 oil crisis|oil crisis of 1973]] further aggravated the situation for the South. Two years after the withdrawal of the last U.S. forces in March 1973, South Vietnam [[Fall of Saigon|fell]] to communist North Vietnamese army on 30 April 1975.<ref>{{cite web |first1=Eric |last1=Kurhi |title=Black April ceremony honors Vietnam War soldiers in San Jose |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23143775/black-april-ceremony-honors-vietnam-war-soldiers-san |work=Mercury News |date=30 April 2013 |access-date=2014-04-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/04/30/the-us-and-vietnam-40-years-after-the-fall-of-saigon |title=The U.S. and Vietnam: 40 Years After the Fall of Saigon |last=Walsh |first=Kenneth T. |website=[[U.S. News & World Report]] |date=30 April 2015 |access-date=3 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104010424/https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/04/30/the-us-and-vietnam-40-years-after-the-fall-of-saigon |archive-date=4 November 2018 |url-status=live}}.</ref><ref>{{cite news|access-date=28 May 2009 |archive-date=2009-05-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502181429/http://www.nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=94038&z=177 |author=Đỗ Dzũng |date=30 April 2009 |publisher=Báo Người Việt |title=Tưởng niệm Tháng Tư Đen ở Quận Cam |url=http://nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=94038&z=177 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The defeat of South Vietnam marked that [[Vietnamese democracy movement|dissidents]] of the communist government no longer had any legal place of operation in Vietnam. After the fall of anti-communist and capitalist government in South Vietnam, for a year it had been administered by a [[Republic of South Vietnam|transitional regime]], a ''de facto'' communist government under the control of communist North Vietnam, before an official reunification under communism happened.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/vietnam-48009443 |trans-title=After 30 April 1975, two Vietnams applied to join the United Nations |title=Sau 30/4/75 từng có hai nước Việt Nam cùng xin gia nhập LHQ|author1=Joaquin Nguyễn Hoà |date=24 April 2019 |website=bbc.com |access-date=29 September 2023 |archive-date=2023-01-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113210128/https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/vietnam-48009443|url-status=live}}</ref> The war left Vietnam devastated, with the [[Vietnam War casualties|total death toll]] standing at between 966,000 and 3.8 million,<ref name="Hirschman">{{cite journal|url=http://www.soc.washington.edu/users/brines/vietcasualties.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620194237/http://www.soc.washington.edu/users/brines/vietcasualties.pdf|archive-date=20 June 2010|last1=Hirschman |first1=Charles|title=Vietnamese Casualties During the American War: A New Estimate|journal=Population and Development Review|year=1995|jstor=2137774|volume= 21|issue=4 |pages=783–812|doi=10.2307/2137774|last2=Preston|first2=Samuel|last3=Vu Manh Loi}}</ref><ref name="afp1995">{{cite news |title=20 Years After Victory, Vietnamese Communists Ponder How to Celebrate |first=Philip |last=Shenon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/23/world/20-years-after-victory-vietnamese-communists-ponder-how-to-celebrate.html |date=23 April 1995 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=24 February 2011}}</ref><ref name="BMJ">{{Cite journal|last1=Obermeyer|first1=Ziad|last2=Murray|first2=Christopher J. L. |last3=Gakidou |first3=Emmanuela |year=2008|title=Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme|journal=[[BMJ]]|volume=336 |doi=10.1136/bmj.a137|pmid=18566045|issue=7659|pages=1482–86|pmc=2440905}} See Table 3.</ref> with many thousands more crippled by weapons and substances such as [[napalm]] and [[Agent Orange]]. The government of Vietnam states that 4 million of its citizens were exposed to Agent Orange, and as many as 3 million have suffered illnesses because of it. These figures include the children of people who were exposed.<ref>Ben Stocking for AP, published in the Seattle Times May 22, 2010 [seattletimes.com/html/health/2011928849_apasvietnamusagentorange.html Vietnam, US still in conflict over Agent Orange]</ref> The [[Red Cross of Vietnam]] estimates that up to 1 million people are disabled or have health problems due to contamination from Agent Orange.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/10/world/asia/vietnam-us-agent-orange/ |title=U.S. in first effort to clean up Agent Orange in Vietnam |author=Jessica King |date=2012-08-10|access-date= 2012-08-11|website=[[CNN]]}}</ref> The United States government became the side challenging these figures as being unreliable.<ref>"Defoliation" entry in {{cite book|editor=Spencer C. Tucker|title=The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-961-0|edition=2nd}}</ref> This civil war caused deep divisions among the [[List of ethnic groups in Vietnam|Vietnamese people]], for example anti-communist [[overseas Vietnamese]] became hostile to [[Flag of North Vietnam|red flag]] of unified Vietnam and adopted [[Flag of South Vietnam|yellow flag]] of the former State of Vietnam and Republic of Vietnam as their representative symbol.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ff-south-vietnamese-flag-20141228-story.html|title=Nearly 40 years after war's end, flag of South Vietnam endures|first=Anh|last=Do|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=28 December 2014 }}</ref>

=== Post-war, reunification, and centralization (1975–1986) ===
{{Main|Republic of South Vietnam|Indochina refugee crisis|Third Indochina War|Subsidy period}}
[[File:Sino Vietnamese War 1979 map english.svg|200px|thumbnail|right|[[Sino-Vietnamese War]], early 1979]]
[[File:Cam Ranh Naval base (concept).JPEG|200px|thumbnail|right|Soviet [[Cam Ranh Base#Soviet and Russian use of Cam Ranh facilities|Cam Ranh Naval Base]] in [[Central Vietnam]], 1985]]

On 2 July 1976, the communist states in North and South Vietnam were officially re-united into a single [[communist state|communist regime]], known as the [[Socialist Republic of Vietnam]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quốc hội quyết nghị lấy tên nước là Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam |trans-title=The National Assembly resolved to name the country the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. |url=https://www.qdnd.vn/tu-lieu-ho-so/ngay-nay-nam-xua/ngay-2-7-1976-quoc-hoi-quyet-nghi-lay-ten-nuoc-la-cong-hoa-xa-hoi-chu-nghia-viet-nam-698149 |access-date=2023-08-17 |website=People's Army Newspaper |language=vi}}</ref><ref>[[Dieter Nohlen]], Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II'', p331 {{ISBN|0-19-924959-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://quochoi.vn/tulieuquochoi/anpham/Pages/anpham.aspx?AnPhamItemID=233 | title=Ấn phẩm }}</ref>  The government also renamed Saigon as [[Ho Chi Minh City|Hồ Chí Minh City]] in honor of Hồ, who died in 1969. 

Vietnam's increasing closeness with the USSR in turn alarmed Chinese leadership, which feared encirclement by the USSR. The newly unified Vietnam joined the [[Comecon|Council for Mutual Economic Assistance]] (Comecon) on 28 June 1978. Soviet military aid to Vietnam increased from $75-$125 million in 1977 to $600-$800 million in 1978. On 3 November 1978, Vietnam and the Soviet Union signed a formal military alliance.<ref name=":Wang">{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Frances Yaping |title=The Art of State Persuasion: China's Strategic Use of Media in Interstate Disputes |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2024 |isbn=9780197757512}}</ref> In the post-1975 period, it was immediately apparent that the effectiveness of [[Communist Party of Vietnam|Communist Party (CPV)]] policies did not necessarily extend to the party's peacetime nation-building plans. Having unified North and South politically, the CPV still had to integrate them socially and economically. In this task, CPV policy makers were confronted with the South's resistance to communist transformation, as well as traditional animosities arising from cultural and historical differences between North and South. In the aftermath of the war, under [[Lê Duẩn]]'s administration, there were no mass executions of South Vietnamese who had collaborated with the U.S. or the [[South Vietnam|Republic of Vietnam]] government, confounding Western fears.<ref>{{cite book|title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era|last=Elliot|first=Duong Van Mai|publisher=RAND Corporation|year=2010|isbn=978-0-8330-4754-0|pages=499, 512–513|chapter=The End of the War}}</ref> However, up to 300,000 South Vietnamese were sent to [[Re-education camp (Vietnam)|re-education camps]], where many endured torture, starvation, and disease while being forced to perform hard labor.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sagan|first1=Ginetta|last2=Denney|first2=Stephen|url=https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982|title=Re-education in Unliberated Vietnam: Loneliness, Suffering and Death|website=The Indochina Newsletter|date=October–November 1982|access-date=2016-09-01}}</ref> The [[New Economic Zones program]] was implemented by the Vietnamese communist government after the [[Fall of Saigon]]. Between 1975 and 1980, more than 1 million northerners migrated to the south and central regions formerly under the [[Republic of Vietnam]].<ref name=Desbarats>{{cite book|last=Desbarats|first=Jacqueline|title=Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation|chapter=Indochina report; no. 11|publisher=Executive Publications, Singapore 1987}}</ref> This program, in turn, displaced around 750,000 to over 1 million Southerners from their homes and forcibly relocated them to uninhabited mountainous forested areas.<ref name=Desbarats /> Many South Vietnamese [[Vietnamese boat people|left]] the country on their own by boats.

Compounding economic difficulties were new military challenges. In the late 1970s, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime started harassing and raiding Vietnamese villages at the common border. To neutralize the threat, the [[PAVN]] [[Cambodian–Vietnamese War|invaded Cambodia in 1978]] and overran its capital of [[Phnom Penh]], driving out the incumbent [[Khmer Rouge]] regime. In response, as an action to support the pro-Beijing Khmer Rouge regime, China increased its pressure on Vietnam, and [[Sino-Vietnamese War|sent troops into Northern Vietnam in 1979]] to "punish" Vietnam. Relations between the two countries had been deteriorating for some time. Territorial disagreements along the border and [[territorial disputes in the South China Sea|in the South China Sea]] that had remained dormant during the [[Vietnam War]] were revived at the war's end, and a postwar campaign engineered by Hanoi against the ethnic Chinese [[Hoa people|Hoa community]] elicited a strong protest from Beijing. China was displeased with Vietnam's alliance with the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://cdn.loc.gov/master/frd/frdcstdy/vi/vietnamcountryst00cima_0/vietnamcountryst00cima_0.pdf|title=Vietnam: a country history|last1=Cima|first1=Ronald J.|last2=Library Of Congress|publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress|year=1989|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=xxxvii|lccn=88600482}}</ref> During its prolonged military occupation of Cambodia in 1979–89, Vietnam's international isolation extended to relations with the United States. The United States, in addition to citing Vietnam's minimal cooperation in accounting for Americans who were [[missing in action]] (MIAs) as an obstacle to normal relations, barred normal ties as long as Vietnamese troops occupied Cambodia. Washington also continued to enforce the trade embargo imposed on Hanoi at the conclusion of the war in 1975.

The harsh postwar crackdown on remnants of capitalism in the South led to the collapse of the economy during the 1980s. With the economy in shambles, the communist government altered its course and adopted consensus policies that bridged the divergent views of pragmatists and communist traditionalists. Throughout the 1980s, Vietnam received nearly $3 billion a year in economic and military aid from the Soviet Union and conducted most of its trade with the USSR and other [[Comecon]] countries. In December 1986, [[Nguyễn Văn Linh]], who was elevated to CPV general secretary the following year, launched a campaign for political and economic renewal (''[[Đổi Mới]]''). His policies were characterized by political and economic experimentation that was similar to simultaneous reform agenda undertaken in the Soviet Union. Reflecting the spirit of political compromise, Vietnam phased out its re-education effort. The communist government stopped promoting agricultural and industrial cooperatives. Farmers were permitted to till private plots alongside state-owned land, and in 1990 the communist government passed a law encouraging the establishment of private businesses.<ref name="duyquy">[http://dangcongsan.vn/tu-lieu-van-kien/tu-lieu-ve-dang/sach-ve-cong-tac-dang/books-310520153565356/index-51052015351515676.html Công cuộc Đổi mới - những thành tựu và bài học kinh nghiệm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211160749/http://dangcongsan.vn/tu-lieu-van-kien/tu-lieu-ve-dang/sach-ve-cong-tac-dang/books-310520153565356/index-51052015351515676.html |date=2017-02-11 }}, NGUYỄN DUY QUÝ, Báo điện tử Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Home |url=https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/9789264305434-14-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/9789264305434-14-en |website=www.oecd-ilibrary.org | date=13 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref> Bogged down in Cambodia and unable to defeat the remnants of the communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas, Vietnam withdrew its troops in 1989 and Cambodia restored multi-party pluralism a few years later.<ref>McCargo, p. 199</ref><ref>Thayer, p. 18</ref>

=== Đổi Mới and contemporary era (1986–present) ===
{{Main|Đổi Mới|Vietnamese democracy movement}}
[[File:Viet Tan Organizes Civic Action in Hanoi.jpg|200px|thumbnail|right|A civic action of the [[Vietnamese democracy movement]] in [[Hanoi]], 2010]]
Both Vietnam and [[China]] planned the normalization of their relations in a secret summit in [[Chengdu]] in September 1990, and officially normalized ties on 5 November 1991, before the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|fall of the Soviet Union]] the following month.<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/11/06/china-and-vietnam-normalize-relations/8b90e568-cb51-44a3-9a84-90a515e29129/</ref>
In February 1994, the [[United States]] lifted its economic embargo against Vietnam,<ref>{{cite web |title=The Lifting of the Trade Embargo Between the United States and Vietnam: The Loss of a Potential Bargaining Tool or a Means of Fostering Cooperation? |url=https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1354&context=psilr |website=elibrary.law.psu.edu}}</ref> and in June 1995, the [[United States–Vietnam relations|United States and Vietnam normalized relations]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Remarks Announcing the Normalization of Diplomatic Relations With Vietnam {{!}} The American Presidency Project |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-announcing-the-normalization-diplomatic-relations-with-vietnam |website=www.presidency.ucsb.edu}}</ref>
After [[President of the United States|American President]] [[Bill Clinton]] visited Vietnam in November 2000, a new era in relations between the two countries began. No other U.S. leader had ever officially visited Hanoi and Clinton was the first to visit Vietnam since the 1975 [[fall of Saigon]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Engel |first1=Matthew |last2=Engel |first2=By Matthew |title=Clinton leaves his mark on Vietnam |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/nov/23/clinton.matthewengel |work=The Guardian |date=23 November 2000}}</ref> Vietnam became an increasingly attractive destination for economic development. Over time, Vietnam has played an increasingly significant role on the world stage. Its economic reforms significantly changed Vietnamese society and increased Vietnamese relevance in both Asian and broader international affairs. Also, due to Vietnam's strategic geopolitical position near the intersection of the Pacific and Indian oceans, many world powers began to take on a much more favorable stance towards Vietnam.

On 11 January 2007, Vietnam became the 150th member of the [[World Trade Organization|WTO]] (World Trade Organization).<ref>{{cite web |title=WTO {{!}} Accessions: Viet Nam |url=https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/acc_e/a1_vietnam_e.htm |website=www.wto.org}}</ref> According to the [[World Bank]], Vietnam became a development success story. Its economic reforms since the beginning of [[Đổi Mới]] in late 1986 helped to change Vietnam from being one of the world’s poorest nations to a [[Middle-income country|middle-income economy]] in one generation.{{sfn|Stern|1987|p=359}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Overview |url=https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/vietnam/overview |website=World Bank |language=en}}</ref>

However, Vietnam also became a country facing disputes, mostly with [[Cambodia]] over their shared border,<ref>{{cite web |title=order Conflicts between Cambodia and Vietnam |url=https://www.durham.ac.uk/media/durham-university/research-/research-centres/ibru-centre-for-borders-research/maps-and-databases/publications-database/boundary-amp-security-bulletins/bsb5-2_amer.pdf |website=durham.ac.uk}}</ref> and especially with [[China]], over the [[South China Sea]].<ref>{{cite news |title=What is the South China Sea dispute? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13748349 |work=BBC News |date=13 June 2011}}</ref> In 2016, President [[Barack Obama]] became the 3rd U.S. Head of State to visit Vietnam.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Montevideo |first1=U. S. Embassy |title=President Obama in Vietnam: The Next Chapter in a Renewed Partnership |url=https://uy.usembassy.gov/president-obama-vietnam-next-chapter-renewed-partnership/ |website=U.S. Embassy in Uruguay |date=15 June 2016}}</ref> His historic visit helped to normalize relations with Vietnam. This improvement of U.S.-Vietnam relations was further increased by the lifting of a lethal arms embargo, allowing the Vietnamese government to buy lethal weapons and modernize its military.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thayer |first1=Carl |title=Obama's Visit to Vietnam: A Turning Point? |url=https://thediplomat.com/2016/05/obamas-visit-to-vietnam-a-turning-point/ |website=thediplomat.com}}</ref>

On 27–28 February 2019, the [[2019 North Korea–United States Hanoi Summit]] was held between North Korean supreme leader [[Kim Jong Un]] and U.S. president [[Donald Trump]] in Hanoi, Vietnam.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Diamond |first1=Kevin Liptak, Jeremy |title='Sometimes you have to walk': Trump leaves Hanoi with no deal |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/27/politics/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-vietnam-summit/index.html |work=CNN |date=28 February 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

Vietnam became a country expected to be a newly industrialized country, and a regional power in the future. Vietnam became a country named as one of the [[Next Eleven]] nations, a term describing eleven economies which could have [[BRIC (economics term)|BRIC]]-like potential to rival G7 nations.<ref>{{cite web |title=What Are the Next Eleven Economies With Growth Prospects? |url=https://www.thebalancemoney.com/what-are-the-next-eleven-1978980 |website=The Balance |language=en}}</ref>

In 2021, General Secretary of the Communist Party, [[Nguyễn Phú Trọng|Nguyen Phu Trong]], was re-elected for his third term in office, meaning he was Vietnam's most powerful leader in decades.<ref>{{cite news |title=Vietnam's ruling Communist Party re-elects chief Trong for rare third term |url=https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20210131-vietnam-s-ruling-communist-party-re-elects-chief-trong-for-rare-third-term |work=France 24 |date=31 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

In 2023, a three-person collective leadership was responsible for governing Vietnam. President [[Võ Văn Thưởng|Vo Van Thuong]] (since 2023),<ref>{{cite news |title=Vietnam parliament elects new president Vo Van Thuong |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/2/vietnam-parliament-elects-new-president-vo-van-thuong |work=www.aljazeera.com |language=en}}</ref> Prime Minister [[Phạm Minh Chính|Pham Minh Chinh]] (since 2021)<ref>{{cite news |title=Vietnam picks new PM and president for next 5 years |url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Vietnam-picks-new-PM-and-president-for-next-5-years |work=Nikkei Asia}}</ref> and the most powerful leader Nguyễn Phú Trọng (since 2011) as the Communist Party of Vietnam’s General Secretary.<ref>{{cite news |title=New president of Vietnam nominated by Communist Party: Report |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/1/new-president-of-vietnam-nominated-by-communist-party-report |work=www.aljazeera.com |language=en}}</ref>

During a visit to Vietnam on 10 September 2023, U.S. President [[Joe Biden]] met General Secretary [[Nguyễn Phú Trọng]]. Following this, the Vietnamese government recognized the relationship between the United States and Vietnam as a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership", emphasizing the increasing importance of bilateral links between the two countries.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-09-10 |title=US denies Cold War with China in historic Vietnam visit |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66748670 |access-date=2023-09-11}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Vietnam|History}}
*[[Economic history of Vietnam]]
*[[History of Asia]]
*[[History of Southeast Asia]]
*[[List of Vietnamese dynasties]]
*[[Politics of Vietnam]]
*[[Vietnam under Chinese rule]]
*[[French Indochina]]
*[[North Vietnam]]
*[[South Vietnam]]
*[[Vietnamese nationalism]]
*[[Communism in Vietnam]]
*[[Lịch sử nước An Nam|''Lịch sử nước An Nam'' (text)]]
*[[Việt Nam sử lược|''Việt Nam sử lược'' (book)]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

== Citations ==
{{reflist|30em|refs=

<ref name="p5">{{cite web|archive-date=2011-08-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806004651/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent5.htm |access-date=2011-07-23 |title=The Pentagon Papers, Chapter 2, "U.S. Involvement in the Franco-Viet Minh War, 1950-1954", U.S. POLICY AND THE BAO DAI REGIME |url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent5.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref>

}}

=== Bibliography ===
* {{cite book |last1=Boylan |first1=Kevin |last2=Olivier |first2=Luc |title=Valley of the Shadow: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu |publisher=Osprey Press |location=Oxford |year=2018 |isbn=978-1472824370 }}
* {{cite book|last=Choi|first=Byung Wook|title=Southern Vietnam Under the Reign of Minh Mạng (1820–1841): Central Policies and Local Response|year=2004|publisher=SEAP Publications|isbn=978-0-87727-138-3}}
* {{cite book |last1=Druk. C.K. Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego (pub.)|title=Przegla̜d polski: Volume 18, Issues 7-9
|year=1884| ref =CITEREFDruk1884}}
* {{citation|author=Vietnamese National Bureau for Historical Record|title=Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục|year=1998|language=vi|publisher=Education Publishing House|location=Hanoi}}
* {{citation|author=Ngô Sĩ Liên|author-link=Ngô Sĩ Liên|title=Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư|edition=Nội các quan bản|year=2009|language=vi|publisher=Cultural Publishing House|location=Hanoi|isbn=978-6041690134}}
* {{citation|author=Trần Trọng Kim|author-link=Trần Trọng Kim|title=Việt Nam sử lược|year=1971|language=vi|publisher=Center for School Materials|location=Saigon}}
* {{citation|last=Coedes|first=George|editor-last=Vella|editor-first=Walter F.|year=1975|title=The Indianized States of Southeast Asia|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-0368-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Dutton |first=George |year=2006 |title=The Tây Sơn Uprising: Society and Rebellion in Eighteenth-century Vietnam |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |isbn=9780824829841 |url=https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/the-tay-son-uprising-society-and-rebellion-in-eighteenth-century-vietnam/ }}
* {{cite book |last=Keith |first=Charles |title=Catholic Vietnam: A Church from Empire to Nation |date=2012 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520272477 |url=https://www.ucpress.edu/books/catholic-vietnam/hardcover }}
* {{citation|last=Maspero|first=Georges|year=2002|title=The Champa Kingdom|publisher=White Lotus Co., Ltd|isbn=978-9747534993}}
* {{citation |last=Patti |first=Archimedes L.A. |title=Why Vietnam |publisher=Nhà xuất bản Đà Nẵng |year=2008}}
* {{citation|author=Phạm Văn Sơn|author-link=Phạm Văn Sơn|title=Việt Sử Toàn Thư|year=1960|language=vi|location=Saigon}}
* {{cite book |last=Riley |first=Jonathon |title=Decisive Battles: From Yorktown to Operation Desert Storm |date=2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781441126740}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Stern |first1=Lewis |year=1987 |title= The Vietnamese Communist Party in 1986: Party Reform Initiatives, the Scramble towards Economic Revitalization, and the Road to the Sixth National Congress |journal=[[Southeast Asian Affairs]] | publisher = [[Institute of Southeast Asian Studies]] |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=345–363 |jstor=27908584 }}
* {{cite book |last=Taylor |first=K. W. |title=The Birth of Vietnam|publisher=University of California Press |year=1983 |isbn=9780520074170 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Taylor|first1=K. W. |author-link=Keith Taylor (historian) |title=A History of the Vietnamese |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/history-of-the-vietnamese/2269255F3CF32ECD6827399643AB68D3 |isbn=9781139021210 }}
* {{citation|last=Walker|first=Hugh Dyson|year=2012|title=East Asia: A New History|publisher=AuthorHouse |isbn=978-1-4772-6516-1}}
* {{citation |last=Juzheng |first=Xue |year=1995  |orig-year=974 |title=[[Old History of the Five Dynasties]] |publisher=Zhonghua Book Company |isbn=7101003214}}
* {{citation |last=Twitchett |first=Denis |year=2008 |title=The Cambridge History of China 1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}

== Further reading ==
;Monographs
{{div col}}
* {{cite book |last1=Peycam |first1=Philippe M. F. |title=The Birth of Vietnamese Political Journalism: Saigon, 1916–1930 |date=2012 |publisher=Columbia University Press |url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-birth-of-vietnamese-political-journalism/9780231528047 |isbn=9780231528047}}
* {{cite book |last1=Nguyen |first1=Lien-Hang T. |title=Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam |date=2012 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |url=https://uncpress.org/book/9780807882696/hanois-war/ |isbn=9780807882696}}
* {{cite book |last=Marr |first=David G. |author-link=David G. Marr |title=Vietnam: State, War, and Revolution (1945–1946) |date=2013 |publisher=University of California Press |url=https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520274150/vietnam |isbn=9780520274150}}
* {{cite book |last=Miller |first=Edward |title=Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam |date=2013 |publisher=Harvard University Press |url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674072985 |isbn=9780674072985}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Christopher Goscha |last1=Goscha |first1=Christopher |title=Vietnam: A New History |date=2016 |publisher=Basic Books |url=https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/christopher-goscha/vietnam/9780465094370/ |isbn=9780465094370}}
* {{cite book |last1=Vu |first1=Tuong |title=Vietnam's Communist Revolution: The Power and Limits of Ideology |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/vietnams-communist-revolution/C0B346C138AF77F994B58ED75513872F |isbn=9781316650417}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Michael Kort |last1=Kort |first1=Michael G. |title=The Vietnam War Reexamined |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/vietnam-war-reexamined/038E514896A0745CBF02F4A1CE848939 |isbn=9781107110199}}
* {{cite book |last1=Dror |first1=Olga |title=Making Two Vietnams: War and Youth Identities, 1965–1975 |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/making-two-vietnams/BE086D9C1DA355B33EDBABC1C628701A |isbn=9781108556163}}
* {{cite book |last1=Holcombe |first1=Alec |title=Mass Mobilization in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1945–1960 |date=2020 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |url=https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/mass-mobilization-in-the-democratic-republic-of-vietnam-1945-1960/ |isbn=9780824884475}}
* {{cite book |last1=Nguyen |first1=Martina Thucnhi |title=On Our Own Strength: The Self-Reliant Literary Group and Cosmopolitan Nationalism in Late Colonial Vietnam |date=2020 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |url=https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/on-our-own-strength-the-self-reliant-literary-group-and-cosmopolitan-nationalism-in-late-colonial-vietnam/ |isbn=9780824883331}}
* {{cite book |last1=Goscha |first1=Christopher |title=The Road to Dien Bien Phu: A History of the First War for Vietnam |date=2022 |publisher=Princeton University Press |url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/9780691228655/the-road-to-dien-bien-phu |isbn=9780691228655}}
* {{cite book |last1=Tran |first1=Nu-Anh |title=Disunion: Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam |date=2022 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |url=https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/disunion-anticommunist-nationalism-and-the-making-of-the-republic-of-vietnam/ |isbn=9780824887865}}
* {{cite book |last=Li |first=Tana |title=A Maritime Vietnam: From Earliest Times to the Nineteenth Century |year=2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/maritime-vietnam/96B310BA54294919EC7E1468920FBA48 |isbn=9781009237628 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Asselin |first1=Pierre |title=Vietnam's American War: A New History |date=2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/vietnams-american-war/034EEB484F83DC3976982F33AB5B8C51 |isbn=9781009229302}}
{{div col end}}

;Edited volumes
{{div col}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Goscha |editor-first1=Christopher E. |editor-last2=de Tréglodé |editor-first2=Benoît |title=Naissance d'un État-Parti: Le Viêt Nam depuis 1945 |date=2004 |publisher=Les Indes savantes |url=https://www.lesindessavantes.com/ouvrage/naissance-dun-etat-parti/ |isbn=9782846540643}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Tran |editor-first1=Nhung Tuyet |editor-last2=Reid |editor-first2=Anthony| editor-link2=Anthony Reid (academic) |title=Viêt Nam: Borderless Histories |date=2006 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |url=https://uwpress.wisc.edu/Books/V/Viet-Nam |isbn=9780299217747}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Lawrence |editor-first1=Mark Atwood |editor-last2=Logevall |editor-first2=Fredrik |title=The First Vietnam War: Colonial Conflict and Cold War Crisis |date=2007 |publisher=Harvard University Press |url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674023925 |isbn=9780674023925}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Wilcox |editor-first1=Wynn |title=Vietnam and the West: New Approaches |date=2010 |publisher=Cornell University Press |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780877277828/vietnam-and-the-west/ |isbn=9780877277828}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Vu |editor-first1=Tuong |editor-last2=Fear |editor-first2=Sean |title=The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975: Vietnamese Perspectives on Nation Building |date=2020 |publisher=Cornell University Press |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501745157/the-republic-of-vietnam-19551975/ |isbn=9781501745157}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Tran |editor-first1=Nu-Anh |editor-last2=Vu |editor-first2=Tuong |title=Building a Republican Nation in Vietnam, 1920–1963 |date=2022 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |url=https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/building-a-republican-nation-in-vietnam-1920-1963/ |isbn=9780824892111}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Luu |editor-first1=Trinh M. |editor-last2=Vu |editor-first2=Tuong |title=Republican Vietnam, 1963–1975: War, Society, Diaspora |date=2023 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |url=https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/republican-vietnam-1963-1975-war-society-diaspora/ |isbn=9780824895181}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last1=Miller |editor-first1=Edward |title=The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War, Volume I: Origins |year=2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-vietnam-war/5B899728B82298D6254C7F3132A10F3E |isbn=9781316225240 }}
* {{Cite book |editor-last1=Preston |editor-first1=Andrew |title=The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War, Volume II: Escalation and Stalemate |year=2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-vietnam-war/9347C5260835EC52FD23AB282E0618A8 |isbn=9781316225264 }}
* {{Cite book |editor-last1=Asselin |editor-first1=Pierre |title=The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War, Volume III: Endings and Aftermaths |year=2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-vietnam-war/06DE99823BE372B88F1AEA8F0285A273 |isbn=9781316225288 }}
{{div col end}}

;Critical and primary sources
{{div col}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Dror |editor-first1=Olga |editor-last2=Taylor |editor-first2=K. W. |title=Views of Seventeenth-Century Vietnam: Christoforo Borri on Cochinchina and Samuel Baron on Tonkin |date=2006 |publisher=Cornell University Press |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780877277415/views-of-seventeenth-century-vietnam/ |isbn=9780877277415}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Dutton |editor-first1=George E. |editor-last2=Werner |editor-first2=Jayne S. |editor-last3=Whitmore |editor-first3=John K. |title=Sources of Vietnamese Tradition |date=2012 |publisher=Columbia University Press |url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/sources-of-vietnamese-tradition/9780231511100/ |isbn=9780231511100}}
{{div col end}}

== External links ==
*{{commons category-inline}}
*[http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/index.htm Virtual Vietnam Archive] Exhaustive collection of Vietnam related documents ([[Texas Tech University]])
*[http://www.viethoc.com/viet-hoc-thu-quan-1/ho-so-van-ban-dhien-tu Thư viện Sử – Viện Việt Học] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419013504/http://www.viethoc.com/viet-hoc-thu-quan-1/ho-so-van-ban-dhien-tu |date=2023-04-19 }} (Institute of Vietnamese Studies) Pdfs of Vietnamese history books

{{Vietnam topics}}
{{History of Asia}}

[[Category:History of Vietnam| ]]
[[Category:Prehistoric Vietnam|*]]