Vietnam and Unification

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the unification of Vietnam was a long and complicated process that involved many entities and individuals. It discusses the primary unification efforts, beginning in the 1940s through the early years of the 1970s. It looks at how these efforts involved three separate political entities: the communist-led nationalist movement known as the Viet Minh (the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, DRV), led by Ho Chi Minh and based in Hanoi in North Vietnam; the Saigon-based Republic of Vietnam (RVN), a collaborative effort between chief-of-state Bao Dai and Ngo Dinh Diem; and the Geneva Agreement of July 21st, 1954, that divided Vietnam into two cease-fire zones in the north and south, separated by the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at the 17th parallel.

From the Paper:

"In August of 1945, at the end of World War II, the nationalist movement of the Viet Minh seized power in Hanoi, Hue and Saigon, for the Viet Minh had developed a military force and popular base during the Japanese occupation of Vietnam, and it quickly moved to secure political authority before the imminent arrival of the Allied powers. Emperor Bao Dai, the Japanese puppet, abdicated in late August, and on September 2nd, 1945, Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam's independence as the democratic Republic of Vietnam. As Phillip B. Davidson points out, Ho Chi Minh "quoted from the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, first issued in the mid 18th century, in order to give some legitimacy to the claims of the DRV that would bring Vietnam into the fold as an independent Asian entity" (156)."

More papers on Vietnam and Unification:

• Essay # 50810 : "Unification of Vietnam"
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• Research Paper # 23899 : "Vietnam and the Media"

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