South Vietnam
The Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Cộng Hòa), commonly known as South Vietnam to distinguish it from North Vietnam, was a state located in Southeast Asia that occupied the entire southern region and the southern part of the central region of modern Vietnam.
It was founded in 1955 after a referendum that reorganized the southern territories of the extinct State of Vietnam that resisted the hosts of the Communist Party of Vietnam that came from the north, its capital was Saigon, known as the Pearl of Southeast Asia , taking into account the importance of its economic and cultural development. After the defeat of the French, American military advisers arrived to prevent the North Vietnamese communists from unifying the country during the Vietnam War, thus following the Truman Doctrine.
The United States attached great importance to the survival of the South Vietnamese state, since it was believed that the victory of the communists would lead to the successive fall into the Sino-Soviet sphere of the other countries in the area, according to the so-called domino effect. After the defeat of the US troops in the Vietnam War (1973), finally, the guerrillas backed by the North Vietnamese army took Saigon on April 30, 1975, effectively ending the existence of South Vietnam and causing the reunification of Vietnam, which was officially formalized in 1976.
In practice, South Vietnam was a puppet state of the United States, whose survival depended to a large extent on the military and economic aid that the United States sent it for almost 20 years. The US government preferred a Vietnam divided into two and controlling the southern part before a reunified and communist Vietnam, thus following the example of South Korea.
History
South Vietnam was born on September 2, 1945 as a single nation along with North Vietnam. In 1953 the independence of Vietnam was recognized, but divided into two: a socialist republic, North Vietnam and another capitalist one, South Vietnam. The French had withdrawn from Vietnam after the military defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, but during the elections, the United States placed South Vietnam's sovereignty under the regime of candidate Ngo Dinh Diem.
Just as North Vietnam was accused of having a repressive and brutal government regime, South Vietnam was also accused of corruption of its government and of repression of Buddhist monks, the traditional religion in Vietnam, which began to be persecuted in the South under the leadership of the Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem. The Buddhist protests were led by the Vietnamese monk Thích Trí Quang, who publicly burned himself in protest against the government.
In 1960, opponents of the Ngo Dinh Diem government created the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam (FNLV), popularly known as the Vietcong, beginning a resistance against the Saigon and US military. In 1963 President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated in a coup organized by the South Vietnamese military with the apparent permission of the CIA and Nguyên Van Thieu was put in power.
Following this turn of events, war broke out in the open, causing extensive material destruction and the exodus of much of the population from South Vietnam. The Vietcong, with the help of the People's Republic of China, managed to invade South Vietnam and took Saigon, defeating the South Vietnamese government and United States forces in the area. This defeat led to brutal persecutions against those who disagreed with the communist government and caused many to be arrested and killed. After the fall of the southern government, the Republic of South Vietnam was formed, which existed for about 15 months, after which the two countries were unified into a communist-type state.[citation required]
Government and Politics
The State
The Republic of Vietnam was the successor to the State of Vietnam (1949-1955), the name of the country during the last phases of the Indochina war in the years 1945-1955. The State of Vietnam had been a constitutional monarchy with the Emperor Bao Dai as head of state. There were prime ministers in the State of Vietnam, but until 1955 and the fall of Dien Bien Phu both they and Bao Dai lacked real power, so the State was in effect an extension of the existing French colonial government.
1955-1963
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In 1955 Ngo Dinh Diem was appointed as the prime minister of the state, immediately producing a conflict between Diem and Bao Dai regarding the powers of each over the government. Bao Dai had the support of various traditional and religious factions, such as the French government, the Buddhist, Cao Dai and Hoa Hao religions and also the Binh Xuyen criminal organization, but CIA agents and the US embassy helped Diem with reports of intelligence and weaponry.[<citation needed] Diem defeated Emperor Bao Dai's supporters with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ERVN) (until then known as the National Army of Vietnam). On April 30, 1955, Bao Dai resigned as head of state and went into exile from Vietnam.
Lower Diem
Diem's government was a republic, but in fact he had absolute power over state affairs in the RVN. The judicial branch was appointed by Diem, now as president and no longer as prime minister. It was a National Assembly composed of a senate and a congress, but it did not have much influence on the policies of the RVN. Diem ruled until 1963 with the rule of force, and many times he took advantage of the ARVN to defeat his opposition as in the Buddhist crisis of 1963. Many of the acts of the Diem government were not carried out from his state powers, as they were done according to a network of groups loyal to him such as the Can Lao Party, various secret police, and the support he had in the Catholic Church in Vietnam.
Three coups in two years (1963-1965)
On November 2, 1963, following internal conflicts between President Ngô Đình Diệm and his Buddhist and Communist opponents, the ARVN deposed him in a bloody coup, in which Diem and his second-in-command and brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were killed. General Dương Văn Minh came to power, ruling for only three months until another general Nguyen Khanh carried out another coup (January 30, 1964) and placed Minh under house arrest. Nguyen Khanh did not rule for long either, as another coup on February 20, 1965 ousted him from power. Nguyên Van Thieu, who was president of South Vietnam between 1965 and 1975, rose to power, being the person who held the position the longest during the existence of the South Vietnamese state.
Thieu domain (1965-1975)
Vietnam continued to look like a military regime throughout the term of President Nguyen Van Thieu. During his government, which lasted about 10 years (1965-1975), it was the time when the Vietnam War escalated and the biggest combats and offensives took place. Thieu in 1967 outwitted Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky, making his position more powerful. Thieu triumphed in the presidential elections of 1967 and then Ky weakened in relation to him.
The policies of the RVN under the command of Thieu were characterized by being low in ideology and mostly of personal will, the civilian officers did not have many functions, and the ARVN zonal officers had great power in the daily life of all the people in those areas to which they were assigned.
Government of the territories
Throughout the RVN's history, the government in Saigon never fully controlled the country's territory, and after the Paris Agreement (1973) some RVN provinces were under North Vietnamese or Vietcong control. Apart from its core territory, South Vietnam also controlled the Paracel and Spratly Islands, both of which were seized by China in 1973 and 1974 respectively.
Geography
The South was divided into the coastal lowlands, the mountains of the central highlands (Cao-Nguyen Trung-Phan), and the Mekong River delta. South Vietnamese time was one hour ahead of North Vietnamese, having the same time as the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Taiwan, and the Australian state of Western Australia.
Economy
South Vietnam maintained a free market economy and ties to the West. An airline named Air Vietnam was established under the Bảo Đại government. The economy was greatly supported by massive US aid and the presence of large numbers of US soldiers in the country between 1961 and 1973. Electric power production increased fourteen-fold between 1954 and 1973, while industrial production increased by an average of 6.9% per year. During the same period, rice production increased by 203% and the number of students at the university rose from 2,000 to 90,000. US aid peaked in 1973 at $2.3 billion, but only a year later (1974) dropped to 1.1 billion. Inflation rose to 200%, the country suffered a severe economic crisis due to the decrease in US aid, as well as the impact of the oil price of October 1973.
The unification of Vietnam in 1976 led to the imposition of the centrally planned economy of North Vietnam on the south. The country did not make any significant economic progress for the next ten years. Economic changes in the Eastern Bloc, such as perestroika in the Soviet Union, forced the Vietnamese communist government to implement reforms, known as Doi Moi, which opened up the economy to international markets and allowed foreign investment, resulting in lead to rapid economic growth in subsequent decades.
Radius
There were four AM and one FM radio stations, all owned by the government (VTVN), called Template:Illm. One of them was designated as a nationwide civilian broadcast, another was for military service, and the other two stations included a French-language broadcast station and a foreign-language broadcast station in Chinese, English, Khmer, and Thai. Radio Vietnam began operating in 1955 under the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem and ceased to function on April 30, 1975, with the broadcast of Duong Van Minh's surrender. Radio stations from the old south were later repurposed by the communist regime to broadcast its state radio service.
Television
Television was introduced to South Vietnam on February 7, 1966 with a black and white FCC system. Covering all major cities in South Vietnam, it started with a broadcast of one hour per day, and later increased to six hours at night during the 1970s. There were two main channels:
- THVN-TV (Truy casualn hình Viramat Nam-TV) on Channel 9, with programs in Vietnamese, news and special ads from Saigon. This Vietnamese language channel served the Vietnamese population.
- AFVN-TV on Channel 11, operated by the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (now American Forces Network), aimed at U.S. troops in South Vietnam. Transmitting completely in English, broadcast popular programs made in the United States as The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carsonand several sports games like the World Series. He also broadcast news and special announcements from the U.S. government and military commanders.
Both channels used an over-the-air broadcast relay system from high-flying planes called Stratovision.
Demographics
About 90% of the population were Kinh, and 10% were Hoa, Highlanders, French, Cambodian, Cham, Eurasian and others. (1970)
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