First Indochina War
The First Indochina War began in French Indochina on 19 December 1946 and lasted until 1 August 1954. Fighting between French forces and their Viet Minh opponents in the South dated from September 1945, Japanese forces located south of that line surrendered to him and those to the north surrendered to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. In September 1945, Chinese forces entered Tonkin and a small British task force landed at Saigon, the Chinese accepted the Vietnamese government under Ho Chi Minh, in power in Hanoi. The British refused to do likewise in Saigon, and deferred to the French there from the outset, on V-J Day, September 2, Ho Chi Minh had proclaimed in Hanoi the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. On 23 September 1945, with the knowledge of the British Commander in Saigon, French forces overthrew the local DRV government, guerrilla warfare began around Saigon immediately. The first few years of the war involved a low-level rural insurgency against the French, French Union forces included colonial troops from the whole former empire, French professional troops and units of the French Foreign Legion.
The use of metropolitan recruits was forbidden by the government to prevent the war from becoming more unpopular at home. It was called the dirty war by leftists in France, the strategy of pushing the Viet Minh into attacking well-defended bases in remote parts of the country at the end of their logistical trails was validated at the Battle of Nà Sản. However, this base was relatively weak because of a lack of concrete and this combination proved fatal for this base defenses, culminating in a decisive French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The south continued under Emperor Bảo Đại, a year later, Bảo Đại would be deposed by his prime minister, Ngô Đình Diệm, creating the Republic of Vietnam. Soon an insurgency, backed by the North, developed against Diệms government, the conflict gradually escalated into the Vietnam War. Vietnam was absorbed into French Indochina in stages between 1858 and 1887, nationalism grew until World War II provided a break in French control. Early Vietnamese resistance centered on the intellectual Phan Bội Châu, Châu looked to Japan, which had modernized and was one of the few Asian nations to successfully resist European colonization.
With Prince Cường Để, Châu started two organizations in Japan, the Duy Tân hội and Vietnam Cong Hien Hoi, due to French pressure, Japan deported Phan Bội Châu to China. Witnessing Sun Yat-sens 1911 nationalist revolution, Châu was inspired to commence the Viet Nam Quang Phục Hội movement in Guangzhou, from 1914 to 1917, he was imprisoned by Yuan Shikais counterrevolutionary government. In 1925, he was captured by French agents in Shanghai, due to his popularity, Châu was spared from execution and placed under house arrest until his death in 1940. In September 1940, shortly after Phan Bội Châus death, Japan launched its invasion of French Indochina, keeping the French colonial administration, the Japanese ruled from behind the scenes in a parallel of Vichy France. As far as Vietnamese nationalists were concerned, this was a double-puppet government, Emperor Bảo Đại collaborated with the Japanese, just as he had with the French, ensuring his lifestyle could continue
China
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War.
The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa.
The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
Prime Minister of Vietnam
The prime minister directs the work of government members, and may propose deputy prime ministers to the National Assembly. The head of government is responsible to the National Assembly and serves as the Deputy Chairman of the Council for Defence, prime minister is Chairman of the Coucil for National Education. The tenure of a minister is five years, and the term is renewable once. The current prime minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has served since 2016, in case of incapacity, a deputy prime minister assumes the office of acting prime minister until the prime minister resumes duty, or until the appointment of a new prime minister. The powers and prestige of the prime minister have varied through the years, Pham Van Dong, Vietnams second prime minister, often lamented that in practice he had little power. Since the death of Pham Hung in 1988, the minister has been ranked 3rd in the order of precedence of the Communist Partys Politburo. Both the 1946 and 1959 Constitutions state that the National Assembly had the power to appoint, the prime minister presided over the Council of Ministers, the highest executive body of state, from 1981 until it was renamed to Government in the 1992 constitution.
The office of minister was renamed in the 1980 constitution to that of Chairman of the Council of Ministers. At his resignation, he was the prime minister in Vietnamese history. He often lamented that he was one of the worlds weakest prime ministers, on one occasion saying, when I say something, nobody listens. If I propose changing a deputy minister, it out to be impossible. I cannot even choose my own ministers, since the death of Pham Hung in 1988, the prime minister has been ranked Number 3 in the order of precedence of the Communist Partys Politburo. The National Assembly by a proposal of the President of Vietnam elects the prime minister, the prime minister is responsible to the National Assembly, and the Assembly elects all ministers to government. Finally, the deputies of the National Assembly have the right to question the prime minister and other members of government, the prime minister is the only member of government who must be a member of the National Assembly. This is because the minister is accountable to the National Assembly, and he reports to it, or to its Standing Committee.
The prime minister issues directives and supervises the implementation of orders given by the president. Cabinet members and members of the Central Government in general are responsible to the prime minister, when the prime minister is absent, he must choose one of his deputy prime ministers to direct the work of the government. The prime minister serves concurrently as the secretary of the CPV Government Caucus Commission, the National Assembly chairman serves as the commissions deputy
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was a South Vietnamese politician. A former mandarin of the Nguyễn dynasty, he was named Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam by Head of State Bảo Đại in 1954. In October 1955, after winning a rigged referendum, he deposed Bảo Đại and established the first Republic of Vietnam. He was a leader of the Catholic element and was opposed by Buddhists. The assassination led to the end of the U. S. -Diệm alliance, Diệm has been a controversial historical figure in historiography on Vietnam War scholarship. Some historians portrayed him as a tool of the U. S. policymakers, some recent studies have portrayed Diệm from a more Vietnamese-centered perspective as a competent leader with his own vision on nation building and modernisation of South Vietnam. Diệm was born in 1901 in Quảng Bình, a central Vietnam province and his family originated in the Phú Cam district, a Catholic district in Huế city. His clan had been among Vietnams earliest Catholic converts in the 17th century, Diệm was given a saints name at birth, Gioan Baotixita, following the custom of the Catholic Church.
The Ngô-Đình family, along with other Vietnamese Catholics, suffered from anti-Catholic persecutions from Emperors Minh Mạng, in 1880, while Diệms father, Ngô Đình Khả, was studying in Malaya, an anti-Catholic riot led by Buddhist monks almost wiped out the entire Ngô-Đình family. Over 100 of the Ngô clan were burned alive in a church including Khảs parents and he worked for French armed forces commander as an interpreter and took part in campaigns against anti-colonial rebels in the mountains of Tonkin during 1880. Then, he became a high-ranking Mandarin, the first headmaster of the National Academy in Huế, which was found in 1896, and he rose to become the minister of the rites and chamberlain, and keeper of the eunuchs. In 1907, after the ouster of Thành Thái king, Khả resigned and withdrew from the royal court, after the tragedy of his family, Khả decided to give up being a priest and got married. Khả had nine sons and three daughters by his second wife, Phạm Thị Thân, after his first wife died childless.
They were, Ngô Đình Khôi, Ngô Đình Thị Giao, Ngô Đình Thục, Ngô Đình Diệm, Ngô Đình Thị Hiệp, Ngô Đình Thị Hoàng, Ngô Đình Nhu, Ngô Đình Cẩn, Ngô Đình Luyện. As a devout Roman Catholic, Khả took his family to Mass every morning. Mastering both Latin and classical Chinese, Khả made sure that his children were educated in Christian scriptures. At the age of fifteen he followed his brother, Ngô Đình Thục. Diệm even swore himself to celibacy to prove his devotion to his faith before he decided not to pursue clerical career due to finding monastic life too rigorous, according to Moyar, Diệm‘s personality was too independent to discipline himself in the church. He inherited his fathers antagonism toward the French colonialists who occupied his country and it was there that he had the only romantic relationship of his life, when he fell in love with one of his teachers daughters
Ho Chi Minh
He was a key figure in the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, as well as the Peoples Army of Vietnam and the Việt Cộng during the Vietnam War. After the war, the capital of the Republic of Vietnam, was renamed Hồ Chí Minh City. Ho Chi Minh was born Nguyễn Sinh Cung, in 1890 in the village of Hoàng Trù, from 1895, he grew up in his father Nguyễn Sinh Sắc s village of Làng Sen, Kim Liên, Nam Đàn, Nghệ An Province. He had three siblings, his sister Bạch Liên, a clerk in the French Army, his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm, a geomancer and traditional herbalist, as a young child, Cung studied with his father before more formal classes with a scholar named Vuong Thuc Do. Cung quickly mastered Chinese writing, a prerequisite for any study of Confucianism. In addition to his studious endeavors, he was fond of adventure, following Confucian tradition, at the age of 10, his father gave him a new name, Nguyễn Tất Thành. Thànhs father was a Confucian scholar and teacher, and a magistrate in the small remote district of Binh Khe.
This exposed Thành to rebellion at an age and seemed to be the norm for the province where Thành came of age. The province was known for its resistance to foreign rule, in deference to his father, Thành received a French education, attended lycée in Huế, the alma mater of his disciples, Phạm Văn Đồng and Võ Nguyên Giáp and his enemy, Ngô Đình Diệm. Previously, it was believed that Thành was involved in a demonstration of poor peasants in Huế in May 1908. However, a document from the Centre des archives dOutre-mer in France shows that he was admitted to Collège Quốc học on August 8,1908, which was several months after the anti-corvée demonstration. The exaggeration of revolutionary credentials was common among Vietnamese communist leaders and he chose to leave school in order to find a chance to go abroad. Thành worked as a helper on a French steamer, the Amirale de Latouche-Tréville, while using the alias Văn Ba. The steamer departed on 5 June 1911 and arrived in Marseille, the ship left for Le Havre and Dunkirk, returning to Marseille in mid-September.
There he applied for the French Colonial Administrative School but his application was rejected, instead, he decided to begin traveling the world by working on ships and visited many countries from 1911 to 1917. In 1912, while working as the cooks helper on a ship, from 1912–13, he may have lived in New York City and Boston, where he claimed to have worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel. Inquiries to the Parker House management revealed no records of his ever having worked there, among a series of menial jobs, he claimed to have worked for a wealthy family in Brooklyn between 1917–18, and for General Motors as a line manager. At various points between 1913 and 1919, Thành claimed to have lived in West Ealing, and in Crouch End and he reportedly worked as either a chef or dish washer at the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing
Viet Cong
It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory it controlled. Many soldiers were recruited in South Vietnam, but others were attached to the Peoples Army of Vietnam, although the terminology distinguishes northerners from the southerners, communist forces were under a single command structure set up in 1958. North Vietnam established the National Liberation Front on December 20,1960, many of the Việt Cộngs core members were volunteer regroupees, southern Viet Minh who had resettled in the North after the Geneva Accord. Hanoi gave the military training and sent them back to the South along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the early 1960s. The NLF called for southern Vietnamese to overthrow the colonial regime of the American imperialists. The offensive riveted the attention of the media for weeks. Later communist offensives were conducted predominantly by the North Vietnamese, the organisation was dissolved in 1976 when North and South Vietnam were officially unified under a communist government.
The term Việt cộng appeared in Saigon newspapers beginning in 1956 and it is a contraction of Việt Nam Cộng-sản, or alternatively Việt gian cộng sản. The earliest citation for Việt Cộng in English is from 1957, American soldiers referred to the Viet Cong as Victor Charlie or V-C. Victor and Charlie are both letters in the NATO phonetic alphabet, Charlie referred to communist forces in general, both Việt Cộng and North Vietnamese. The official Vietnamese history gives the name as the Liberation Army of South Vietnam or the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam. Many writers shorten this to National Liberation Front, in 1969, the Viet Cong created the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, abbreviated PRG. Although the NLF was not officially abolished until 1977, the Viet Cong no longer used the name after PRG was created, members generally referred to the Viet Cong as the Front. Todays Vietnamese media most frequently refers to the group as the Peoples Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam, by the terms of the Geneva Accord, which ended the Indochina War and the Viet Minh agreed to a truce and to a separation of forces.
The Viet Minh had become the government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam since the Vietnamese 1946 general election, military forces of non-communists regrouped in South Vietnam, which became a separate state. The political forces was not compulsory to regroup, elections on reunification were scheduled for July 1956. A divided Vietnam angered Vietnamese nationalists, but it made the country less of a threat to China, Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the past and Vietnam in the present do not recognise that Vietnam was divided into two countries. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai negotiated the terms of the ceasefire with France, about 90,000 Viet Minh were evacuated to the North while 5,000 to 10,000 cadre remained in the South, most of them with orders to refocus on political activity and agitation
Geneva
Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic, the municipality has a population of 198,072, and the canton has 484,736 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France, within Swiss territory, the commuter area named Métropole lémanique contains a population of 1.25 million. This area is essentially spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. It is the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, Geneva was ranked as the worlds ninth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, ahead of Frankfurt, and third in Europe behind London and Zürich. A2009 survey by Mercer found that Geneva has the third-highest quality of life of any city in the world, the city has been referred to as the worlds most compact metropolis and the Peace Capital.
In 2009 and 2011, Geneva was ranked as, the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava, probably from a Celtic toponym *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis, the name takes various forms in modern languages, Geneva /dʒᵻˈniːvə/ in English, Genève, Genf, Italian and Romansh, Genevra. The city in origin shares its name, *genawa estuary, with the Italian port city of Genoa, Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. It became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, around this time the House of Savoy came to dominate the city. In the 15th century, a republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council.
In 1541, with Protestantism in the ascendancy, John Calvin, by the 18th century, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, in 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, in 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12 North, 6°09 East, at the end of Lake Geneva. It is surrounded by two chains, the Alps and the Jura
1954 Geneva Conference
The part of the conference on the Korean question ended without adopting any declarations or proposals. On Indochina, the conference produced a set of known as the Geneva Accords. A Conference Final Declaration, issued by the British chairman of the conference, although presented as a consensus view, this document was not accepted by the delegates of either the State of Vietnam or the United States. In addition, three separate ceasefire accords, covering Cambodia and Vietnam, were signed at the conference, the conference was held at the Palace of Nations in Geneva, commencing on April 26,1954. The first agenda item was the Korean question to be followed by Indochina. ”After the defeat of the Japanese Empire in 1945, nationalist and communist movements in Vietnam fought for independence, resulting in the First Indochina War in 1946. This colonial war between the French Unions Expeditionary Corps and Hồ Chí Minhs Việt Minh guerrillas turned into a Cold War crisis in January 1950, the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ started on March 13,1954, and continued during the Geneva conference.
The course of the hung over the conference, as both sides sought a strategic victory that would strengthen their negotiating position. The Chinese delegation proposed an amendment to have a group of “neutral nations” supervise the elections, the U. S. supported the South Korean position, saying that the USSR wanted to turn North Korea into a puppet state. Most allies remained silent and at least one, thought that the U. S. -South Korean proposal would be deemed unreasonable, the South Korean representative proposed all-Korea elections, to be held according to South Korean constitutional procedures and still under UN-supervision. The Belgian and British delegations said that while they were not going to accept “the Soviet and Chinese proposals, that did not mean a rejection of the ideas they contained. ”In the end, the conference participants did not agree on any declaration. While the delegates began to assemble in Geneva from late April, the Viet Minh had achieved their decisive victory over the French Union forces at Dien Bien Phu the previous day.
The Western allies did not have a position on what the Conference was to achieve in relation to Indochina. Anthony Eden, leading the British delegation, favored a negotiated settlement to the conflict and its leaders had previously accused the Democratic Truman administration of having lost China when the communists were successful in dominating the country. The Eisenhower administration had considered air strikes in support of the French at Dien Bien Phu, Eisenhower was wary of becoming drawn into another Korea that would be deeply unpopular with the American public. U. S. domestic policy considerations strongly influenced the U. S. position at Geneva, at the time of the Geneva conference, the U. S. did not recognize the Peoples Republic of China. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a strong anti-Communist, forbade any contact with the Chinese delegation, refusing to shake hands with Zhou Enlai, the State of Vietnam refused to attend the negotiations until Bidault wrote to Bao Dai assuring him that any agreement would not partition Vietnam.
Pham Van Dong first proposed a partition of Vietnam on May 25. It appears that the DRV leadership thought the balance of forces was uncomfortably close and were worried about morale problems among their troops, in addition, there was a widespread perception that the Diem government would collapse, leaving the Viet Minh free to take control of the area
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy.
By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party.
The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
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listen); abbreviated from Việt Nam độc lập đồng minh, French: "Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam", English: "League for the Independence of Vietnam") was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on May 19, 1941. The Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội had previously formed in Nanjing, China, at some point between August 1935 and early 1936 when Vietnamese Nationalist or other Vietnamese nationalist parties formed an anti-imperialist united front. This organization soon lapsed into inactivity, only to be revived by the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) and Hồ Chí Minh in 1941.[1] The Việt Minh established itself as the only organized anti-French and anti-Japanese resistance group.[2] The Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. The United States supported France. When the Japanese occupation began, the Việt Minh opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China. After World War II, the Việt Minh opposed the re-occupation of Vietnam by France and later opposed South Vietnam and the United States in the Vietnam War.
The political leader and founder of Việt Minh was Hồ Chí Minh. The military leadership was under the command of Võ Nguyên Giáp. Other founders were Lê Duẩn and Phạm Văn Đồng.
