 HistoryOver thousands of years the Vietnamese have passed down the legend of their origin as being descendants of the Dragon and Fairy. A Herculean son of the Dragon, Lac Long Quan, having killed a sea monster, settled here and married the fairy named Au Co. Au Co laid a sackbut of one hundred children. Fifty of them followed the father to the sea and fifty left stayed with their mother in the mountain area. The eldest son was proclaimed King Hung and the country Van Lang, which is Vietnam today. The dynasty was perpetuated by 18 Hung kings
Archaeological findings prove that the Vietnamese land was inhabited by men 200,000 years ago. Vestiges of local cultures have been found. They date back to different periods: the Paleolithic (300,000-11,000 years ago; Do mountain culture in Thanh Hoa and Son Vi culture in Phu Tho), the Mesolithic (10,000 years ago; Hoa Binh culture in Hoa Binh), and the Neolithic (5,000 years ago; Bac Son culture in Lang Son). At the time, the local population already practice husbandry and wet rice cultivation. Van Lang as the first Vietnamese state was formed in the bronze period marked by the brilliant Dong Son culture (1st millennium B.C., Thanh Hoa province). However, its successor, Au Lac state, was invaded by the Han in the 2nd century. This was the beginning of the ten-century domination of Vietnam by the Northern feudalists.
In the 10th century A.D., Vietnam regained its independence and was then named Dai Viet ruled by many successive dynasties. The most significant of them were the Ly (11th –13th centuries), the Tran (13th –14th centuries) and the Le (15th –17th centuries). They developed a centralized administration, a strong army and made the economy and culture thrive.
During that time, Vietnam had to wage consecutive wars to fight against the attacks from Northern feudalism and Mongolian aggressors. The protracted and tough resistance wars against the Song (11th century), the Yuan-Mongols (13th century) and the Ming (15th century) won glorious victory. And after each resistance war, Vietnam became stronger, its nationalities more consolidated and the country more prosperous.
Between 17th and 18th centuries, Vietnamese feudalism fell into decline. A peasant hero, Nguyen Hue defeated feudal lords and the Qing aggressors in 1789 and reunified the country. Later, supported by the foreign feudals, Nguyen Anh was proclaimed the King of the Nguyen, the last feudal dynasty in Vietnam
In the mid-19th century (1858), French troops invaded Vietnam, and the Nguyen dynasty step by step surrendered. As a consequence, in 1884, the whole of Vietnam came under French domination.
Meanwhile, people’s uprisings and resistance wars broke out everywhere. Eventually, they were all doomed to failure.
In 1930, Nguyen Ai Quoc (later President Ho Chi Minh: 1890-1969) founded the Indochinese Communist Party. Under its leadership, Vietnam recovered independence from the French and Japanese in August 1945. With the proclamation of independence on September 2, 1945, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam came into being.
French troops returned to reoccupy the country. The Vietnamese had to wage a tough nine-year war of resistance (1945-1954) which ended with the Dien Bien Phu victory on May 7, 1954. In implementing the Geneve Agreements on Vietnam, the country was temporarily divided into two zones and would be reunified two years later (1956) through free general elections. The North was named the Democratic Republic of Vietnam  whose supreme power was held by the people, its capital being Hanoi. The South called the Republic of Vietnam was placed under the pro-French and pro-American administrative machinery, its capital being Saigon. The South Vietnam administration made every effort to prevent the expected general elections. It repressed or skilled former participants of the resistance war. Therefore, a struggle for peaceful national reunification broke out. The successive administrations of Saigon could not suppress this struggle, which became more vigorous especially with the foundation of the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation on December 20, 1960.
To prevent the Saigon regime from collapsing, the US Government increased military aid and introduced haft a million US and allied troops into South Vietnam. On August 5, 1964, US aircraft bombed North Vietnam for the first time. On January 27, 1973, the Paris Cease Fire Agreement was signed and US troops were compelled to withdraw. The Nguyen Van Thieu administration was finally overthrown after the 1975 Spring General Offensive launched by the South Vietnam Liberation troops with the support of the Vietnam People’s army. Vietnam became a full member of the United Nations Organization.
In the years of war, Vietnam was heavily devastated, from 1975-1986, it encountered innumerable difficulties. The aftermaths and social evils left by the war, the waves of refugees, the Southwest border war with the Khmer Rouge, the North border conflict, numerous natural calamities, and so on, posed serious challenges to this country.
Since 1986, Vietnam has implemented the renovation line, gradually shifting its centrally planned and subsidized economy to a multi-sectored market economy under State control. The economy has thus come out of crisis and achieved a fair growth rate.
The world has witnessed and appreciated the socio-economic development and political stability in Vietnam. The policy to befriend all nations of the world irrespective of their political and social regime has recorded undeniable results. Since 1991, Vietnam has entered into the orbit of integration with the world community. In July 1995, Vietnam and the United States of America officially normalized relations- on July 28, 1995, Vietnam became a full member of ASEAN and in the same month, it signed a cooperation agreement with the EU. Vietnam has established diplomatic ties with 167 countries, up to now. It is also an active member of APEC, WTO and the Non-Aligned Movements |
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