VIETNAM

officially Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Vietnamese Cong Hoa Xa Hoi Chu Nghia Viet Nam, country occupying the eastern part of the Indochinese Peninsula. It has an area of 127,800 square miles (331,000 square kilometres). From north to south it extends about 1,025 miles (1,650 kilometres) and at its narrowest part is about 30 miles wide. Vietnam is bordered by China to the north, the South China Sea to the east and south, the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest, and Cambodia and Laos to the west. The capital, Hanoi, is located in the north, while the country's largest city, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), is in the south. The current Vietnamese nation was established in July 1976, after a period of prolonged warfare and after being partitioned (195475) first militarily and later politically into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, better known as North Vietnam, and the Republic of Vietnam, usually called South Vietnam. officially Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Vietnamese Cong Hoa Xa Hoi Chu Nghia Viet Nam country situated along the eastern coast of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia. The country's maximum length from northwest to southeast is about 1,025 miles (1,650 km), and maximum width from east to west is about 340 miles (550 km) in the north and about 210 miles (340 km) in the south. Vietnam is bordered on the north by China; on the east and south by the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea; on the southwest by the Gulf of Thailand; and on the west by Laos and Cambodia. The capital is Hanoi. Area 127,816 square miles (331,041 square km). Pop. (1995 est.) 74,545,000. Origins of the Vietnamese people Relatively little is known about the origins of the Vietnamese. They first appeared in history as the so-called Lac peoples, who lived in the Red River delta region, in what is now northern Vietnam. Some scholars have suggested that the Lac were closely related to other peoples, known as the Viet (called the Yeh by the Chinese), who inhabited the coastal region of East Asia from the Yangtze River to the Red River delta during the 1st millennium BC. Others have expressed doubt about this supposition, noting that modern-day Vietnamese share many cultural and linguistic traits with other non-Chinese peoples living in neighbouring areas of Southeast Asia. It is now generally believed that the Lac peoples were the result of a mixture between Australo-Melanesian inhabitants who had lived in the area since Paleolithic times and Asiatic peoples who later migrated into the area from China. Linguistic research, which offers a relatively reliable way of distinguishing the various ethnic groups of Southeast Asia, supports the mixed ethnic and cultural origin of the Vietnamese people. Although the Vietnamese language is distinct, it nevertheless can be described as a fusion of Mon-Khmer, Tai, and Chinese elements. From the monotonic Mon-Khmer language family, Vietnamese derived many of its basic words; from the Tai languages, it took tonality and a number of grammatical elements; and from the Chinese, who at that time were somewhat more culturally advanced than the peoples of the Red River delta, it acquired not only a script but also most of its political, literary, philosophical, and technical vocabulary. Ethnographic study also reveals the degree to which ancient Vietnamese culture was a composite of elements found among many other peoples within the region. Totemism, animism, tattooing, the chewing of betel nuts, teeth blackening, and many marriage rituals and seasonal festivals indicate the relationship between the Vietnamese and the neighbouring peoples in Southeast Asia. Although Chinese civilization later became the main force in shaping Vietnamese culture, the failure of the Chinese to assimilate the Vietnamese people underscores the fact that strong elements of an authentic local culture must have emerged in the Red River valley long before China established its millennium of rule over Vietnam. Earliest known history of Vietnam Legendary kingdoms According to the most authoritative legends, the history of the Vietnamese people begins with King De Minh, a descendant of a divine Chinese ruler who was also the legendary father of Chinese agriculture. De Minh and an immortal fairy of the mountains produced Kinh Duong, ruler of the Land of Red Demons, who married the daughter of the Dragon Lord of the Sea. Their son, Lac Long Quan (Dragon Lord of Lac), is regarded as the first authentic Vietnamese king. To make peace with the Chinese, Lac Long Quan married Au Co, a Chinese immortal, who bore him 100 eggs, from which sprang 100 sons. Later, the king and queen separated; Au Co moved with 50 of her sons into the mountains, and Lac Long Quan kept the other 50 sons and continued to rule over the lowlands. Lac Long Quan's eldest son succeeded him as the first of the Hung (or Hong Bang) kings (vuong), and he is regarded as the real founder of the Vietnamese nation and of the first Vietnamese dynasty. This legend and other related legends, most of which received their literary form only after AD 1200, describe in mythical terms the fusion, conflicts, and separation of peoples from the north and south and of peoples from the mountains and the coastal lowlands. The legends show the immortals as mountain dwellers, while the people along the coast are represented by the dragon lordsa division found in many legends throughout Southeast Asia. The retreat of Au Co and 50 of her sons into the mountains may well be a mythical record of a separation among the proto-Vietnamese in the Red River delta: those who left the lowlands could be the ancestors of the Muong, who still live in the hills surrounding the delta and who are the only ethnic minority of Vietnam closely related in language and customs to the Vietnamese. According to legend, the Hung dynasty had 18 kings, each of whom ruled for about 150 years. Their country, called Van Lang (Land of the Tattooed Men), is said to have included not only the Red River delta but also much of southern China. The last of the Hung kings was overthrown in 258 or 257 BC by a neighbouring warlord, Thuc Phan, who invaded and conquered Van Lang, united it with his kingdom, and called the new state Au Lac, which he then ruled under the name An Duong. Au Lac existed only until 207 BC, when it was incorporated by a former Chinese general, Trieu Da (Chao T'o in Chinese), into the kingdom of Nam Viet (Nan Yeh in Chinese). Additional reading David W.P. Elliot et al., Vietnam: Essays on History, Culture, and Society (1985), is a solid and readable introduction. A comprehensive analysis of Vietnamese society and culture is Neil L. Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam (1993). Other studies of peoples and society include Pierre Gourou, The Peasants of the Tonkin Delta, 2 vol. (1955, originally published in French, 1936), a monumental work; three books by Gerald C. Hickey, Village in Vietnam (1964), a classic ethnography of the upper Mekong delta in the 1950s, Sons of the Mountains (1982), a masterful overview of the evolving cultures of the Montagnards up to 1954, and Free in the Forest (1982), a scholarly description of the fate of the peoples of the central highlands from 1954 to 1976; and two studies by A. Terry Rambo, A Comparison of Peasant Social Systems of Northern and Southern Viet-Nam (1973), and Vietnam: Searching for Integration, in Carlos Caldarola (ed.), Religions and Societies, Asia and the Middle East (1982), pp. 407444. Nigel Thrift and Dean Forbes, The Price of War: Urbanization in Vietnam, 195485 (1986); Vo Nhan Tri, Vietnam's Economic Policy Since 1975 (1990); and Melanie Beresford, Vietnam: Politics, Economics, and Society (1988), are useful studies on these topics. Neil L. JamiesonKeith Weller Taylor, The Birth of Vietnam (1983), is the definitive treatment of early history to the 10th century. Joseph Buttinger, The Smaller Dragon: A Political History of Vietnam (1958, reissued 1966), is the standard history from the rise of the Vietnamese state to the colonial era. Thomas Hodgkin, Vietnam (1981), recounts in detail the background of the Vietnamese revolutionary struggle. Alexander B. Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model (1971, reprinted 1988), analyzes 19th-century Vietnamese society. David G. Marr, Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885-1925 (1971), is a sensitive account, while his Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945 (1981), explores the social and intellectual changes taking place under colonial rule. Milton E. Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia (1969), analyzes French policies during the first stages of colonial rule. Alexander B. Woodside, Community and Revolution in Modern Vietnam (1976), argues that the search for community is a key factor in the Vietnamese revolution. Huynh Kim Khanh, Vietnamese Communism, 1925-1945 (1982), is the definitive account of the rise of the Vietnamese communist movement. Ellen Hammer, The Struggle for Indochina (1954, reissued 1969), dramatically treats the final stages of French rule. William J. Duiker, The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam (1981), is a historical study of the evolution of Vietnamese communist strategy. Bernard B. Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, 2nd rev. ed. (1967), dated but still useful, examines the period after the division of the country. Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, rev. and updated ed. (1991), is the companion volume to the PBS film series on the Vietnam War. Douglas Pike, Viet Cong: The Organization and Techniques of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (1966), is the classic analysis of communist techniques during the war; while Truong Nhu Tang, David Chanoff, and Doan Van Toai, A Viet Cong Memoir (1985, also published as Journal of a Viet Cong, 1986), is a firsthand account of the organization. Ken Post, Revolution, Socialism, and Nationalism in Viet Nam, 4 vol. (1989-92), is a Marxist interpretation of the Vietnamese revolution. Jeffrey Race, War Comes to Long An (1972), discusses the factors behind the communist insurgency in South Vietnam, viewed from a single province. William J. Duiker, Vietnam Since the Fall of Saigon, updated ed. (1989), chronicles Hanoi's domestic and foreign policies since the end of the war. Robert Shaplen, Bitter Victory (1986), provides a journalistic account of Hanoi's problems in winning the peace since the end of the war. William J. Duiker Administration and social conditions Government The first constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was adopted in 1980; it was superceded by a second constitution, promulgated in 1992. In addition to reforming Vietnam's government and political structure, the 1992 constitution also outlined major shifts in foreign policy and economic doctrine. In particular, it stressed the development of all economic sectors, including private enterprise, and it granted foreign investors the right to legal ownership of their capital and assets while guaranteeing that their property could not be nationalized by the state. A unicameral, popularly elected National Assembly is the supreme organ of the government. It elects the president, who is head of state, and the vice president. The cabinet consists of the prime minister, who is nominated by the president and approved by the National Assembly, and deputy prime ministers and the heads of government ministries and various state organizations, who are named by the prime minister and confirmed by the Assembly. The cabinet coordinates and directs the ministries and various state organizations of the central government and supervises the administrative committees at the local government level. The responsibilities of the ministries usually are divided along narrow functional lines; there are, for example, numerous economic ministries concerned with agriculture and the food industry, marine products, forestry, and water conservancy. Larger ministries tend to be relatively self-sufficient, with their own colleges, training institutions, and health, social, and cultural facilities. There also are several commissions under the cabinet, such as the State Planning Commission. The prime minister's office oversees a number of general departments beneath the ministerial level and committees that are formed to supervise major projects which involve more than one ministry. The country is divided administratively into 50 provinces and 3 municipalities (Hanoi, Haiphong, and Ho Chi Minh City). These are further subdivided into about 500 districts. At the provincial and district levels, the highest government authority is an elected People's Council, the actual work of which is carried out by administrative committees elected by the councils. Village administration is represented by village People's Councils. Both the 1980 and 1992 constitutions institutionalized the Vietnamese Communist Party as the sole source of leadership for the state and society. The 1992 document, however, delegated much more authority to the president and to the cabinet (which superceded the earlier Council of Ministers); they were given the task of running the government, while the party became responsible for overall policy decisions. These changes reduced considerably the role of the party. Notably affected were the Politboro and the larger Central Committeewhich previously had been the major decision-making bodies of both the party and the stateand the Secretariat and its presiding general secretarywhich, in their role of operating the party organization and carrying out the resolutions of the Central Committee and the Politboro, had effectively governed the country. Nonetheless, the party remains the dominant political institution within Vietnam. Numerous popular associations disseminate party policies and serve as training grounds for potential party members. The Vietnamese Women's Union is an important and active organization. The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union is largely responsible for the Vietnam Youth Federation, while local party units and agricultural cooperative organizations assume leadership over the Farmers' Federation. The Vietnam Federation of Trade Unions has the responsibility of safeguarding workers' welfare, but it does not function as a Western-style bargaining unit. Justice The judicial system consists of the courts and the People's Organs of Control. The National Assembly supervises the work of the Supreme People's Court, which is the highest court of appeal and the court of first instance for special cases (such as treason). This court, in turn, supervises the judicial work of local People's Courts, which are responsible to their corresponding People's Councils. The People's Courts function at all levels of government except the village, where the village administrative committee functions as a primary court. The People's Organs of Control act as watchdogs for the state: they monitor the performance of government agencies, maintain vast powers of surveillance, and act as prosecutors before the People's Courts. The Supreme People's Organ of Control is responsible only to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly. Cultural life Chinese influence permeated all aspects of traditional Vietnamese culture, while Western influences have been strong in the 20th century. Daily life Vietnam's Confucian heritage is seen in the importance of family to the Vietnamese. Families are essentially patrilineal, but Vietnamese women work alongside men in many jobs and play a major role in raising children and managing family finances. When possible, the Vietnamese prefer to work from early morning until early evening, with an extended rest period in the heat of midday. In rural areas, both men and women wear trousers and shirts or blouses. On formal occasions and in urban areas, Western-style clothing is common, including skirts and blouses for women. Women still sometimes wear a form of the traditional ao dai, a long, slit tunic worn over pants. Rice is the staple food. Vietnamese cuisine incorporates elements of both Chinese cooking and the cuisines of other Southeast Asian countries. Noodle soup with chicken or beef broth (pho), a distinctive kind of spring roll (cha gio), and the use of fermented fish sauce (nuoc mam) for dipping and seasoning are among the many noteworthy dishes.