Vietnam (pronounced /ˌviːɛtˈnɑːm/; Vietnamese: Việt Nam), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam; /koŋ˨ hʊa˨˩ sa˧˨˧ hoi˨ tɕu˧˩˧ ŋiə˧˨˧ vɪət˨ nam/), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east. With a population of over 86 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world.

Vietnam was under Chinese control for a thousand years before becoming a nation-state in the 10th century. Successive dynasties flourished along with geographic and political expansion deeper into Southeast Asia, until it was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century. Efforts to resist the French eventually led to their expulsion from the country in the mid-20th century, leaving a nation divided politically into two countries. Bitter fighting between the two sides continued during the Vietnam War, ending with a communist victory in 1975.

Emerging from a long and bitter war, the war-ravaged nation was politically isolated. The government’s centrally-planned economic decisions hindered post-war reconstruction and its treatment of the losing side engendered more resentment than reconciliation. In 1986, it instituted economic and political reforms and began a path towards international reintegration. By 2000, it had established diplomatic relations with most nations. Its economic growth had been among the highest in the world in the past decade. These efforts culminated in Vietnam joining the World Trade Organization in 2007 and its successful bid to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in 2008.

When Viet Nam was divided in half in 1954, the people of Viet Nam were given one year to move to the other half of the country, if they so chose. As a result, about one million Vietnamese who had previously lived in the northern half of Viet Nam chose to abandon almost everything they and dozens of generations before them had owned and built, in order to move to the south and live in a democratic society, without communist control. Among those were both sides of my family, about which you'll learn more later. Conversely, only about 10,000 southerners moved the other way into the north of Viet Nam.


Unfortunately, life was rather chaotic for them wherever they lived. The repressive policies of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem ultimately led to his assassination in 1963. Subsequent regimes didn't have any more popular support but were firmly entrenched, thanks to both the South Vietnamese and U.S. militaries.

The increasing number and intensity of insurrection activities by communists in both the north and south led the U.S. to fear that if Viet Nam were to become communist, it would produce a "domino effect" in which other countries in the area would also fall to communism. The U.S. feared that this scenario would seriously threaten their political, military, and economic interests on an international scale. Therefore, they felt stronger and more direct actions were needed to fight this threat.

Their opportunity for full and direct confrontation came after the U.S. destroyer Maddox was supposedly attacked by the North Vietnamese on August 2, 1964, although several sources claimed the attach never actually took place. Nonetheless, President Johnson succeeded in passing the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that effectively authorized full-scale U.S. military intervention in Viet Nam. By the end of 1965, 180,000 U.S. troops were fighting in Viet Nam and reached its peak of 540,000 by 1969.

The history of Vietnam, according to legends, dates back more than 4,000 years. The only reliable sources, however, indicate the Vietnamese history roughly dates to 2700 years ago. For most of the period from 111 BC to the early 10th century, it was under the direct rule of successive dynasties from China. Vietnam regained autonomy in early 10th century, and complete independence in 938 AD. While for much of its history, Vietnam remained a tributary state to its larger neighbor China, it repelled repeated attempts by China to make it once again part of the territory under direct imperial rule. Moreover it managed to repel the three invasions by the Mongols during the Yuan Dynasty, when China was under Mongolian rule. But the king at that time, Trần Nhân Tông, would eventually diplomatically submit as a tributary of the Yuan to avoid further conflicts. The independent period temporarily ended in the middle to late 19th century, when the country was colonized by France. During World War II, Imperial Japan expelled the French to occupy Vietnam, though they retained French administrators during their occupation. After the war, France attempted to re-establish its colonial rule but ultimately failed. The Geneva Accords partitioned the country in two with a promise of democratic election to reunite the country.