This article contains Vietnamese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of chữ nôm, chữ Hán and chữ quốc ngữ.
Vietnam (UK: /ˌvjɛtˈnæm, -ˈnɑːm/, US: /ˌviːət-/ (listen);[9]Vietnamese: Việt Nam pronounced [vîət nāːm] (listen)), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula. With an estimated 94.6 million inhabitants as of 2016[update], it is the world's 15th-most-populous country, and the ninth-most-populous Asian country. Vietnam is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest, and the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia across the South China Sea to the east and southeast.[n 5] Its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as the most populous city.
The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, from 111 BC to AD 939. An independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive Vietnamese imperial dynasties flourished as the nation expanded geographically and politically into Southeast Asia, until the Indochina Peninsula was colonised by the French in the mid-19th century. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War. On 2 September 1945 President Hồ Chí Minh declared Vietnam's independence from France under the new name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
In 1954, the Vietnamese declared victory in the battle of Điện Biên Phủ which took place between March and May 1954 and culminated in a major French defeat. Thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam (officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (officially the Republic of Vietnam). Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War with heavy intervention by the United States on the side of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1973. The war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.
Vietnam was then unified under a Communist government but remained impoverished and politically isolated. In 1986, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) initiated a series of economic and political reforms that began Vietnam's path toward integration into the world economy.[11] By 2010, it had established diplomatic relations with 178 countries. Since 2000, Vietnam's economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world,[11] and in 2011, it had the highest Global Growth Generators Index among 11 major economies.[12] Its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2007. Vietnam is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.
Contents
1Etymology
2History
2.1Prehistory
2.2Dynastic Vietnam
2.3French Indochina
2.4First Indochina War
2.5Vietnam War
2.6Reunification and reforms
3Geography
3.1Climate
3.2Biodiversity
3.3Environment
4Government and politics
4.1Foreign relations
4.2Military
4.3Administrative divisions
5Economy
5.1Science and technology
6Infrastructure
6.1Transport
6.2Energy
6.3Health
6.4Education
7Demographics
7.1Languages
7.2Religion
8Culture
8.1Literature
8.2Music
8.3Cuisine
8.4Media
8.5Holidays and festivals
8.6Sports
9See also
10Footnotes
11Notes and references
11.1Notes
11.2References
11.2.1Print
11.2.2Legislation, case law and government source
11.2.3Academic publications
11.2.4News and magazines
11.2.5Websites
11.2.6Free content
12External links
Etymology
Main article: Names of Vietnam
The name Việt Nam (Vietnamese pronunciation: [viə̀t naːm]) is a variation of Nam Việt (Chinese: 南越; pinyin: Nányuè; literally "Southern Việt"), a name that can be traced back to the Triệu dynasty of the 2nd century BC.[13] The word Việt originated as a shortened form of Bách Việt (Chinese: 百越; pinyin: Bǎiyuè), a group of people then living in southern China and Vietnam.[14] The form "Vietnam" (越南) is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình. The name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558.[15] In 1802, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (later become Emperor Gia Long) established the Nguyễn dynasty, and in the second year, he asked the Jiaqing Emperor of the Qing dynasty to confer him the title 'King of Nam Viet/Nanyue' (南越 in Chinese) after seizing Annam's ruling power but the latter refused since the name was related to Zhao Tuo's Nanyue which includes the regions of Guangxi and Guangdong in southern China by which the Qing Emperor decide to call the area as "Viet Nam" instead.[n 6][17] Between 1804 and 1813, the name Vietnam was used officially by Emperor Gia Long.[n 6] It was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châu's History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDĐ).[18] The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the imperial government in Huế and the Việt Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam.[19]
History
Main article: History of Vietnam
Prehistory
A Đông Sơn bronze drum, c. 800 BC.
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.[20] The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, and include isolated tooth fragments from Tham Om and Hang Hum.[21][22][23] Teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can,[24] and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu,[25][26] Lang Gao[27][28] and Lang Cuom.[29] By about 1,000 BC, the development of wet-rice cultivation and bronze casting in the Ma River and Red River floodplains led to the flourishing of the Đông Sơn culture,[30][31] notable for its elaborate bronze Đông Sơn drums.[32][33][34] At this time, the early Vietnamese kingdoms of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc appeared, and the culture's influence spread to other parts of Southeast Asia, including Maritime Southeast Asia, throughout the first millennium BC.[33][35]
Dynastic Vietnam
Map of Vietnam showing the conquest of the south (the Nam tiến), 1009–1834
Lý dynasty (1009–1225)
1069
1306 concessions
1407
1500
1578–1611
1700
1802
After Siamese–Vietnamese War (1834)
Tribal territories by 1834
Main gate of the Imperial City of Huế, the administration centre of the Nguyễn dynasty that unified Vietnam.
Trưng Sisters Parade in southern Vietnam, 1957. Both sisters are highly upheld and respected by local and overseas Vietnamese as one of the pioneers for early independence movements that freed Vietnam from Chinese dynastical domination which also celebrated until present as part of the annual Women's Day.[36][37][38]
The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, known in Vietnamese as Văn Lang.[39][40] 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.[41] In 179 BC, a Chinese general named Zhao Tuo defeated An Dương Vương and consolidated Âu Lạc into Nanyue.[31] However, Nanyue was itself incorporated into the empire of the Chinese Han dynasty in 111 BC after the Han–Nanyue War.[17][42] For the next thousand years, what is now northern Vietnam remained mostly under Chinese rule.[43][44] Early independence movements, such as those of the Trưng Sisters and Lady Triệu,[45] were only temporarily successful,[46] though the region gained a longer period of independence as Vạn Xuân under the Anterior Lý dynasty between AD 544 and 602.[47][48][49] By the early 10th century, Vietnam had gained autonomy, but not sovereignty, under the Khúc family.[50]
In AD 938, the Vietnamese lord Ngô Quyền defeated the forces of the Chinese Southern Han state at Bạch Đằng River and achieved full independence for Vietnam after a millennium of Chinese domination.[51][52][53] Renamed as Đại Việt (Great Viet), the nation enjoyed a golden era under the Lý and Trần dynasties. During the rule of the Trần Dynasty, Đại Việt repelled three Mongol invasions.[54][55] Meanwhile, Buddhism of Mahāyāna tradition flourished and became the state religion.[53][56] Following the 1406–7 Ming–Hồ War which overthrew the Hồ dynasty, Vietnamese independence was briefly interrupted by the Chinese Ming dynasty, but was restored by Lê Lợi, the founder of the Lê dynasty.[57] The Vietnamese dynasties reached their zenith in the Lê dynasty of the 15th century, especially during the reign of Emperor Lê Thánh Tông (1460–1497).[58][59] Between the 11th and 18th centuries, Vietnam expanded southward in a process known as nam tiến ("southward expansion"),[60] eventually conquering the kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Empire.[61][62][63]
From the 16th century onward, civil strife and frequent political infighting engulfed much of Vietnam. First, the Chinese-supported Mạc dynasty challenged the Lê dynasty's power.[64] After the Mạc dynasty was defeated, the Lê dynasty was nominally reinstalled, but actual power was divided between the northern Trịnh lords and the southern Nguyễn lords, who engaged in a civil war for more than four decades before a truce was called in the 1670s.[65] During this time, the Nguyễn expanded southern Vietnam into the Mekong Delta, annexing the Central Highlands and the Khmer lands in the Mekong Delta.[61][63][66] The division of the country ended a century later when the Tây Sơn brothers established a new dynasty. However, their rule did not last long, and they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyễn lords, led by Nguyễn Ánh and aided by the French.[67] Nguyễn Ánh unified Vietnam, and established the Nguyễn dynasty, ruling under the name Gia Long.[66]
French Indochina
Main articles: Cochinchina Campaign, Sino-French War, Tonkin campaign, French Indochina, and Empire of Vietnam
French capture of Saigon as part of the Cochinchina Campaign, 1859.
French Indochina in 1913.
Between 1615–1753, French traders have engaged in trade in the area around Đàng Trong and actively spreading Catholic missionaries.[68][69] Following the detention of several missionaries as the Vietnamese kingdom feel threatened with the continuous Christianisation activities,[70] the French Navy received approval from their government to intervene in Vietnam in 1834 with the aim to freed imprisoned Catholic missionaries from a kingdom that was perceived as xenophobic against foreign influence.[71] Vietnam's kingdom independence was then gradually eroded by France that was aided by large Catholic militias in a series of military conquests between 1859 and 1885.[72] In 1862, the southern third of the country became the French colony of Cochinchina.[73] By 1884, the entire country had come under French rule, with the central and northern parts of Vietnam separated in the two protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. The three Vietnamese entities were formally integrated into the union of French Indochina in 1887.[74][75] The French administration imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese society.[76] A Western-style system of modern education was developed and Catholicism was propagated widely.[77] Most French settlers in Indochina were concentrated in Cochinchina, particularly in the region of Saigon.[78]
Residence Palace of the French Governor-General in Tonkin, French Indochina.
Guerrillas of the royalist Cần Vương movement massacres around a third of Vietnam's Christian population during the colonial period as part of their rebellion against the French rule,[79][80] but was defeated in the 1890s after a decade of resistance by the Catholics as a reprisal of their earlier massacres.[81][82] Another large-scale rebellion, the Thái Nguyên uprising was also suppressed heavily.[83] Despite the French developing a plantation economy to promote the export of tobacco, indigo, tea and coffee, they largely ignored the increasing demands for civil rights and self-government. A nationalist political movement soon emerged, with leaders such as Phan Bội Châu, Phan Châu Trinh, Phan Đình Phùng, Emperor Hàm Nghi, and Hồ Chí Minh fighting or calling for independence.[84] This resulted the 1930 Yên Bái mutiny by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDĐ) but still managed to be suppressed heavily by the French although the mutiny have caused irreparable split that causing many leading members of the organisation become a Communist converts.[85][86][87] The French maintained full control over their colonies until World War II, when the war in the Pacific led to the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in 1940. Afterwards, the Japanese Empire was allowed to station its troops in Vietnam while permitting the pro-Vichy French colonial administration to continue.[88][89] Japan exploited Vietnam's natural resources to support its military campaigns, culminating in a full-scale takeover of the country in March 1945 and the Vietnamese Famine of 1945, which caused up to two million deaths.[90][91]
First Indochina War
Main articles: First Indochina War; Democratic Republic of Vietnam; State of Vietnam; State of Vietnam referendum, 1955; and Operation Passage to Freedom
Situation of the First Indochina War at the end of 1954.
Areas under Việt Minh control
Areas under French control
Việt Minh guerrilla encampment/fighting
In 1941, the Việt Minh which is a nationalist liberation movement based on a Communist ideology emerged under the Vietnamese revolutionary leader Hồ Chí Minh who sought independence for Vietnam from France and the end of the Japanese occupation.[92][93] Following the military defeat of Japan and the fall of its puppet Empire of Vietnam in August 1945, anarchy, rioting and murder were widespread since Saigon's administrative services had collapsed.[94] The Việt Minh has occupied Hanoi and proclaimed a provisional government, which asserted national independence on 2 September.[93] Earlier before in July, the Allies has decide to divide Indochina into half at the 16th parallel to allow Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China receive Japanese surrender in the north while Lord Louis Mountbatten of the British receive the surrender in the south with the Allies agreed that Indochina are belong to France.[95][96]
Partition of French Indochina after the 1954 Geneva Conference.
However as the French are weakened as a result of German occupation, the British-Indian forces together with the remaining Japanese Southern Expeditionary Army Group are being used to maintain order and helping French re-establishing control through the 1945–1946 War in Vietnam.[97] Hồ Chí Minh at the time choose a moderate stance to avoid military conflict with France by which he asked the French to withdrew their colonial administrators and asking for aid from French professors and engineers to help building a modern independent Vietnam.[93] These requests including the idea for independence however could not be accepted by the Provisional Government of the French Republic in which the French Far East Expeditionary Corps are being dispatched instead to restore colonial rule, causing the Việt Minh to launch a drastic measures by launching guerrilla campaign against the French in late 1946.[92][93][98] The matters also turned worse when the Republic of China are gradually fall to the Communists in the Chinese Communist Revolution. The resulting First Indochina War lasted until July 1954. The defeat of French and Vietnamese loyalists in the 1954 battle of Điện Biên Phủ allowed Hồ Chí Minh to negotiate a ceasefire from a favourable position at the subsequent Geneva Conference.[93][99]
The colonial administration was ended and French Indochina was dissolved under the Geneva Accords of 1954 into three countries: Vietnam and the kingdoms of Cambodia and Laos. Vietnam was further divided into North and South administrative regions at the Demilitarised Zone, approximately along the 17th parallel north, pending elections scheduled for July 1956.[n 7] A 300-day period of free movement was permitted, during which almost a million northerners, mainly Catholics, moved south, fearing persecution by the communists.[104][105] The partition of Vietnam was not intended to be permanent by the Geneva Accords, which stipulated that Vietnam would be reunited after elections in 1956.[106] However, in 1955, the State of Vietnam's Prime Minister, Ngô Đình Diệm toppled Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum organised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu, and proclaimed himself president of the Republic of Vietnam.[106] At that point the internationally recognised State of Vietnam effectively ceased to exist and was replaced by the Republic of Vietnam in the south and Hồ Chí Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north.[106]
Vietnam War
Main articles: Vietnam War and Role of the United States in the Vietnam War
South Vietnamese flag flying over the ruins of Đông Ba Gate through the battle of Huế, 1968.
Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in significant political oppression.[107] 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.[108] 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.[108][109] 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.[110] In the South, Diệm countered North Vietnamese subversion (including the assassination of over 450 South Vietnamese officials in 1956) by detaining tens of thousands of suspected communists in "political re-education centres".[111][112] This was a ruthless program that incarcerated many non-communists, although it was also successful at curtailing communist activity in the country, if only for a time.[113] The North Vietnamese government claimed that 2,148 individuals were killed in the process by November 1957.[114] The pro-Hanoi Việt Cộng began a guerrilla campaign in the late 1950s to overthrow Diệm's government.[115] From 1960, the Soviet Union and North Vietnam signed treaties providing for further Soviet military support.[116][117][118]
Three US Fairchild UC-123B aircraft spraying Agent Orange during the Operation Ranch Hand as part of the overall herbicidal warfare operation called Trail Dust with the aim to deprive the food and vegetation cover of the Việt Cộng, c. 1962–1971.
In 1963, Buddhist discontent with Diệm's regime erupted into mass demonstrations, leading to a violent government crackdown.[119] This led to the collapse of Diệm's relationship with the United States, and ultimately to the 1963 coup in which Diệm and Nhu were assassinated.[120] The Diệm era was followed by more than a dozen successive military governments, before the pairing of Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ and General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu took control in mid-1965.[121] Thiệu gradually outmaneuvered Kỳ and cemented his grip on power in fraudulent elections in 1967 and 1971.[122] Under this political instability, the communists began to gain ground. To support South Vietnam's struggle against the communist insurgency, the United States began increasing its contribution of military advisers, using the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident as a pretext for such intervention.[123] US forces became involved in ground combat operations in 1965, and at their peak they numbered more than 500,000.[124][125] The US also engaged in a sustained aerial bombing campaign. Meanwhile, China and the Soviet Union provided North Vietnam with significant material aid and 15,000 combat advisers.[116][117][126] Communist forces supplying the Việt Cộng carried supplies along the Hồ Chí Minh trail, which passed through the Kingdom of Laos.[127]
Việt Cộng guerrilla crossing a river in the Mekong Delta, 1966.
The communists attacked South Vietnamese targets during the 1968 Tết Offensive. Although the campaign failed militarily, it shocked the American establishment, and turned US public opinion against the war.[128] During the offensive, communist troops massacred over 3,000 civilians at Huế.[129][130] Facing an increasing casualty count, rising domestic opposition to the war, and growing international condemnation, the US began withdrawing from ground combat roles in the early 1970s. This process also entailed an unsuccessful effort to strengthen and stabilise South Vietnam.[131] Following the Paris Peace Accords of 27 January 1973, all American combat troops were withdrawn by 29 March 1973.[132] In December 1974, North Vietnam captured the province of Phước Long and started a full-scale offensive, culminating in the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.[133] South Vietnam was briefly ruled by a provisional government for almost eight years while under military occupation by North Vietnam.[134]
Reunification and reforms
Main articles: Reeducation camp, Vietnamese boat people, and Đổi Mới
Reunification parade following the fall of Saigon, with the city being renamed as Ho Chi Minh City, 1975.
On 2 July 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.[135] The war left Vietnam devastated, with the total death toll standing at between 966,000 and 3.8 million.[136][137][138] In the aftermath of the war, under Lê Duẩn's administration, there were no mass executions of South Vietnamese who had collaborated with the US and the defunct South Vietnamese government, confounding Western fears.[139] However, up to 300,000 South Vietnamese were sent to re-education camps, where many endured torture, starvation and disease while being forced to perform hard labour.[140] The government embarked on a mass campaign of collectivisation of farms and factories.[141] In 1978, as a response towards the Khmer Rouge who had been invading and massacring Vietnamese residents in the border villages in the districts of An Giang and Kiên Giang,[142] the Vietnamese military invaded Cambodia and remove them from power after overtaking Phnom Penh.[143] The intervention was a success, resulting the establishment of a new pro-Vietnam socialist government, the People's Republic of Kampuchea which ruled until 1989.[144] This action however worsened relations with China, who had been supporting the Khmer Rouge where they later launched a brief incursion into northern Vietnam in 1979 and causing Vietnam to rely even more heavily on Soviet economic and military aid with the mistrust towards the Chinese government began to escalated.[145]
The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in the capital city of Hanoi, pictured in 2006.
At the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in December 1986, reformist politicians replaced the "old guard" government with new leadership.[146][147] The reformers were led by 71-year-old Nguyễn Văn Linh, who became the party's new general secretary.[146] Linh and the reformers implemented a series of free-market reforms known as Đổi Mới ("Renovation") which carefully managed the transition from a planned economy to a "socialist-oriented market economy".[148][149] Though the authority of the state remained unchallenged under Đổi Mới, the government encouraged private ownership of farms and factories, economic deregulation and foreign investment, while maintaining control over strategic industries.[149][150] The Vietnamese economy subsequently achieved strong growth in agricultural and industrial production, construction, exports and foreign investment despite through these reforms also have caused a rise in income inequality and gender disparities.[151][152][153]
Geography
Main article: Geography of Vietnam
Vietnam geographical feature as seen from NASA satellite image in 2004.
Hoàng Liên Sơn mountain range in the north, en route to the highest summit of the country, the Fansipan.
Vietnam is located on the eastern Indochinese Peninsula between the latitudes 8° and 24°N, and the longitudes 102° and 110°E. It covers a total area of approximately 331,212 km2 (127,882 sq mi).[n 4] The combined length of the country's land boundaries is 4,639 km (2,883 mi), and its coastline is 3,444 km (2,140 mi) long.[154] At its narrowest point in the central Quảng Bình Province, the country is as little as 50 kilometres (31 mi) across, though it widens to around 600 kilometres (370 mi) in the north.[155] Vietnam's land is mostly hilly and densely forested, with level land covering no more than 20%. Mountains account for 40% of the country's land area,[156] and tropical forests cover around 42%.[157] The northern part of the country consists mostly of highlands and the Red River Delta. Fansipan (also called as Phan Xi Păng) which is located in Lào Cai Province is the highest mountain in Vietnam, standing 3,143 m (10,312 ft) high.[158]
Nature attractions in Vietnam, clockwise from top: Hạ Long Bay, Yến River and Bản-Giốc Waterfalls.
The Red River Delta in the north, a flat, roughly triangular region covering 15,000 km2 (5,792 sq mi),[159] is smaller but more intensely developed and more densely populated than the Mekong River Delta in the south. Once an inlet of the Gulf of Tonkin, it has been filled in over the millennia by riverine alluvial deposits.[160][161] The delta, covering about 40,000 km2 (15,444 sq mi), is a low-level plain no more than 3 metres (9.8 ft) above sea level at any point. It is criss-crossed by a maze of rivers and canals, which carry so much sediment that the delta advances 60 to 80 metres (196.9 to 262.5 ft) into the sea every year.[162][163] Southern Vietnam is divided into coastal lowlands, the mountains of the Annamite Range, and extensive forests. Comprising five relatively flat plateaus of basalt soil, the highlands account for 16% of the country's arable land and 22% of its total forested land.[164] The soil in much of southern part of Vietnam is relatively low in nutrients as a result of intense cultivation.[165] Several minor earthquakes have been recorded in the past with most occurred near the northern Vietnamese border in the provinces of Điện Biên, Lào Cai and Sơn La while some are recorded in the offshore of the central part of the country.[166][167]
Climate
Main article: Climate of Vietnam
Due to differences in latitude and the marked variety in topographical relief, the climate tends to vary considerably for each region.[168] During the winter or dry season, extending roughly from November to April, the monsoon winds usually blow from the northeast along the Chinese coast and across the Gulf of Tonkin, picking up considerable moisture.[169] The average annual temperature is generally higher in the plains than in the mountains, especially in southern Vietnam compared to the north. Temperatures vary less in the southern plains around Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, ranging from between 21 and 35 °C (69.8 and 95.0 °F) over the course of the year.[170] In Hanoi and the surrounding areas of Red River Delta, the temperatures are much lower between 15 and 33 °C (59.0 and 91.4 °F)[170] while seasonal variations in the mountains and plateaus and in the northernmost are much more dramatic, with temperatures varying from 3 °C (37.4 °F) in December and January to 37 °C (98.6 °F) in July and August.[171] As Vietnam received high rain precipitation with an average amount of rainfall from 1,500 millimitres to 2,000 millimetres during the monsoon seasons, this often causes flood especially in the cities with poor drainage system.[172] The country also are not exempted from being affected by tropical depressions, tropical storms and typhoon.[172]
Biodiversity
Main articles: Wildlife of Vietnam and List of endangered species in Vietnam
Native species in Vietnam, clockwise from top-right: crested argus, red-shanked douc, Indochinese leopard, saola.
As the country is located inside the Indomalayan realm, Vietnam is one of twenty-five countries considered to possess a uniquely high level of biodiversity as also been stated in the country National Environmental Condition Report in 2005.[173] It is ranked 16th worldwide in biological diversity, being home to approximately 16% of the world's species. 15,986 species of flora have been identified in the country, of which 10% are endemic, while Vietnam's fauna include 307 nematode species, 200 oligochaeta, 145 acarina, 113 springtails, 7,750 insects, 260 reptiles, 120 amphibians, 840 birds and 310 mammals, of which 100 birds and 78 mammals are endemic.[173] Vietnam has two World Natural Heritage Sites, the Hạ Long Bay and Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park together with six biosphere reserves including Cần Giờ Mangrove Forest, Cát Tiên, Cát Bà, Kiên Giang, the Red River Delta and Western Nghệ An.
Pink lotus, widely regarded by Vietnamese as the national flower of the country which symbolising beauty, commitment, health, honour and knowledge.[174][175]
Vietnam is furthermore home to 1,438 species of freshwater microalgae, constituting 9.6% of all microalgae species, as well as 794 aquatic invertebrates and 2,458 species of sea fish.[173] In recent years, 13 genera, 222 species, and 30 taxa of flora have been newly described in Vietnam.[173] Six new mammal species, including the saola, giant muntjac and Tonkin snub-nosed monkey have also been discovered, along with one new bird species, the endangered Edwards's pheasant.[176] In the late 1980s, a small population of Javan rhinoceros was found in Cát Tiên National Park. However, the last individual of the species in Vietnam was reportedly shot in 2010.[177] In agricultural genetic diversity, Vietnam is one of the world's twelve original cultivar centres. The Vietnam National Cultivar Gene Bank preserves 12,300 cultivars of 115 species.[173] The Vietnamese government spent US$49.07 million on the preservation of biodiversity in 2004 alone, and has established 126 conservation areas, including 30 national parks.[173]
Environment
Main article: Environmental issues in Vietnam
Thung Nham Bird Sanctuary in Ninh Bình Province of northern Vietnam housing more than 40 species of birds and more than 100 flora species, an example of ongoing conservation efforts towards habitat life in the country.[178]
In Vietnam, poaching had become a main issue for their wildlife. Since 2000, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Education for Nature - Vietnam have been founded to instill the importance of wildlife conservation in the country.[179] Following this, the seeds of the conservation movement starting to bloom with the foundation of another NGO called GreenViet by Vietnamese youngsters for the enforcement of wildlife protection. Through collaboration between the NGO and local authorities, many local poaching syndicates managed to be crippled with the arrestment of their leaders.[179] As Vietnam have also become the main destination for rhinoceros horn illegal export from South Africa, a study in 2018 found the demands are due to medical and health-related reasons.[180] The main environmental concern that persists in Vietnam until present is the chemical herbicide legacy of Agent Orange that causing birth defects and many health problems towards Vietnamese residents especially in the southern and central areas that was affected most by the chemicals with nearly 4.8 million Vietnamese have been exposed.[181][182][183] In 2012, approximately 50 years after the war,[184] the United States began to start a US$43 million joint clean up project in the former chemical storage areas in Vietnam that was heavily affected with each clearance will be done through several phases.[182][185] Following the completion of the first phase in Đà Nẵng in late 2017,[186] the United States announced its further commitment to clean other sites especially in another heavily impact site of Biên Hòa which is four times larger than the previous site with an additional estimate cost of $390 million.[187]
The Vietnamese government spends over VNĐ10 trillion each year ($431.1 million) for monthly allowance and physical rehabilitation of the Vietnamese victims caused by the chemicals.[188] In 2018, Japanese Engineering Group, Shimizu Corporation also working with Vietnamese military to built a plant in Vietnam for the treatment of Agent Orange polluted soils with the plant construction costs to be funded by the company itself.[189][190] One of the long-term plan to restore the southern Vietnam damaged ecosystems is through reforestation efforts which the Vietnamese government having done since the end of the war, starting with the replantation of mangrove forests in the Mekong Delta regions and in Cần Giờ outside of the main city where mangroves are important to prevent more serious flooding during the monsoon seasons.[191] Apart from herbicide problems, arsenic exposure to ground water in the Mekong Delta and Red River Delta also become a major concern,[192][193] along with unexploded ordnance (UXO) that poses dangers towards human and habitat life as another bitter legacy from the long wars.[194] As part of the continuous campaign for demining/removal of UXO, various international bomb removal agency including those from the United Kingdom,[195]Denmark,[196]South Korea[197] as well the United States[198] itself has providing help in the process with the Vietnam government spends over VNĐ1 trillion ($44 million) annually on demining operations and another hundreds billions of đồng for treatment, assistance, rehabilitation, vocational training and resettlement for the victims of UXOs.[199] Apart from the explosive removal from the legacy of civil war, the neighbouring Chinese government also has removed 53,000 land mines and explosives from the legacy of war between the two countries in an area of 18.4 square kilometres in neighbouring province of Yunnan between the China–Vietnam border in 2017.[200]
Government and politics
Main articles: Politics of Vietnam and Government of Vietnam
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Nguyễn Phú Trọng General Secretary & President
Nguyễn Xuân Phúc Prime Minister
Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân National Assembly Chairperson
Vietnam is a unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist republic, one of the two Communist state (the other being Laos) in Southeast Asia.[201] Although Vietnam remains officially committed to socialism as its defining creed, its economic policies have grown increasingly capitalist,[202][203] with The Economist characterising its leadership as "ardently capitalist communists".[204] Under the constitution, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) asserts their role in all branches of politics and society in the country.[201] The President is the elected head of state and the commander-in-chief of the military, serving as the Chairman of the Council of Supreme Defence and Security, holds the second highest office in Vietnam as well as performing executive functions and state appointments and setting policy.[201]
The Presidential Palace in Hanoi, formerly the Palace of The Governor-General of French Indochina.
The General Secretary of the CPV performs numerous key administrative functions, controlling the party's national organisation.[201] While the Prime Minister are the head of government, presiding over a council of ministers composed of five deputy prime ministers and the heads of 26 ministries and commissions. Only political organisations affiliated with or endorsed by the CPV are permitted to contest elections in Vietnam. These include the Vietnamese Fatherland Front and worker and trade unionist parties.[201]
The National Assembly of Vietnam building in Hanoi.
The National Assembly of Vietnam is the unicameral legislature of the state, composed of 498 members.[205] The legislature is open to all parties. Headed by a Chairman, it is superior to both the executive and judicial branches, with all government ministers being appointed from members of the National Assembly.[201] The Supreme People's Court of Vietnam, headed by a Chief Justice, is the country's highest court of appeal, though it is also answerable to the National Assembly. Beneath the Supreme People's Court stand the provincial municipal courts and numerous local courts. Military courts possess special jurisdiction in matters of national security. Vietnam maintains the death penalty for numerous offences.[206]
Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of Vietnam
President Trần Đại Quang with Russian President Vladimir Putin on 19 November 2016.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accompanies US President Donald Trump to a commercial deals signing ceremony with Vietnamese President on 12 November 2017.
Throughout its history, Vietnam's main foreign relationship has been with various Chinese dynasties.[207] Following the partition of Vietnam, the relations are divided between relations with Eastern Bloc for North Vietnam while Western Bloc for South Vietnam.[207] Despite the differences, Vietnam's sovereign principles and insistence on cultural independence have been laid down in numerous documents over the centuries since before its independence, such as the 11th-century patriotic poem "Nam quốc sơn hà" and the 1428 proclamation of independence "Bình Ngô đại cáo". Though China and Vietnam are now formally at peace,[207]significant territorial tensions in the South China Sea remain between the two countries.[208] Vietnam holds membership of 63 international organisations, including the United Nations (UN), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), International Organisation of the Francophonie (La Francophonie) and World Trade Organisation (WTO). It also maintains relations with over 650 non-government organisations.[209] Until 2010, Vietnam had established diplomatic relations with 178 countries.[210]
Vietnam current foreign policy is to implement consistently the policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, co-operation and development as well the openness and diversification/multilateralisation of international relations,[211][212] with the country further declares itself as a friend and partner of all countries in the international community regardless of their political affiliation by actively taking part in international and regional co-operation especially in country development.[149][211] Since 1990s, several key steps had been taken by Vietnam to restore diplomatic ties with Western countries.[213] Relations with the United States began to improved in August 1995 with both nations upgraded their liaison offices to an embassy status.[214] As diplomatic ties between the two nations grew, the United States opened a consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City while Vietnam opened its consulate in San Francisco. Full diplomatic relations were also restored with New Zealand who opened its embassy in Hanoi in 1995,[215] while Vietnam established an embassy in Wellington in 2003.[216]Pakistan also reopened its embassy in Hanoi in October 2000 with Vietnam reopened their embassy in Islamabad in December 2005 and trade office in Karachi in November 2005.[217][218] In May 2016, US President Barack Obama further normalised relations with Vietnam after he announced the lifting of an arms embargo on sales of lethal arms to Vietnam.[219]
Military
Main article: Vietnam People's Armed Forces
Vietnamese troops on one of the disputed Spratly Islands in 2009
The Vietnam People's Armed Forces consists of the Vietnam People's Army, the Vietnam People's Public Security and the Vietnam Civil Defence Force. The Vietnam People's Army (VPA) is the official name for the active military services of Vietnam, and is subdivided into the Vietnam People's Ground Forces, the Vietnam People's Navy, the Vietnam People's Air Force, the Vietnam Border Defence Force and the Vietnam Coast Guard. The VPA has an active manpower of around 450,000, but its total strength, including paramilitary forces, may be as high as 5,000,000.[220] In 2015, Vietnam's military expenditure totalled approximately US$4.4 billion, equivalent to around 8% of their total government spending.[221] Joint military exercises and war games also being held with Brunei,[222]India,[223]Japan,[224] Laos,[225]Russia,[226][227]Singapore[222] and the United States.[228]
Administrative divisions
Main articles: Provinces of Vietnam, Municipalities of Vietnam, and Districts of Vietnam
Vietnam is divided into 58 provinces (Vietnamese: tỉnh, from the Chinese 省, shěng).[229] There are also five municipalities (thành phố trực thuộc trung ương), which are administratively on the same level as provinces.
A clickable map of Vietnam exhibiting its 58 provinces and 5 centrally controlled municipalities.
The Dalles, Oregon From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search This article is about the city in Oregon. For the nearby geological formation, see Celilo Falls. For other uses, see Dalles. Not to be confused with the town of Dallas, Oregon. City in Wasco County The Dalles City The Dalles and the Columbia River in November 2008 Flag Seal Motto(s): "Cognito timor Vincit" (Latin), "Knowledge Conquers Fear" (English) Location in Oregon Coordinates: 45°36′4″N 121°10′58″W / 45.60111°N 121.18278°W / 45.60111; -121.18278 Coordinates: 45°36′4″N 121°10′58″W / 45.60111°N 121.18278°W / 45.60111; -121.18278 County Wasco County Incorporated 1857 Government • Mayor Stephen Elliott Lawrence (D) [1] [2] Area [3] • Total 6.61 sq mi (17.12...
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