Vietnam
Việt Nam (commonly spelled Vietnam; Việtnamese for "Việt South" i.e., the nation of the Viet people in the South) is a country in Southeast Asia. The official name of the country is the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam. It is near China, Laos and Cambodia. The capital of Vietnam is Hànội. The largest city is H' Chí Minh City. That city was called "Sàigòn", before 1975. About 86.5 million people live in Vietnam.
When it was ruled by the Chinese Empire for many hundred years, it was called Annam ("peaceful south").
Vietnam was conquered by France in 1858. The French were very brutal and killed many innocent Vietnamese people. In 1930 Nguyễn Ái Qu'c made the Vietnamese Independence League, called "Việt Nam Ðộc Lập Ð'ng Minh Hội" (Việt Minh for short). The Japanese took over Vietnam in World War II. The Việt Minh fought against both the Japanese and the Vichy French. When the Japanese were beaten, the Vietnamese people, led by the Việt Minh started the August Revolution. Then, on September 2, 1945, Nguyễn Ái Qu'c (who was now calling himself H' Chí Minh, meaning 'H' (a common last name) with the will of light') read the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Ba Ðình Square, in Hànội. It was based on the American Declaration of Independence. Despite its intentions - a declaration that was supposed to bring freedom to the people of Vietnam - Vietnam is not a free country today, and the leadership went away from H' Chí Minh's ideas after his death, even falsifying his will and treating him almost like a god. Many religious and political activists are routinely harassed and jailed by the Vietnamese government because of their dissenting views.
Then the French came back, so Vietnam with H' Chí Minh as Premier fought a war for independence from France. The French surrendered in 1954 after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The nation was then divided into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The anti-communist United States had a lot of influence in the South, and the communist and nationalist Việt Minh controlled the North. H' Chí Minh was extremely popular in the whole nation, so he became President of the Democratic Republic of (North) Việtnam. It was agreed that the nation would be reunited by elections in 1956. But, the Americans and the Southern government stopped the elections from happening because they expected H' Chí Minh to win. Dwight Eisenhower said he thought H' would win with around 80% of the vote if elections were held.
Soon, the USA was at war with Vietnam. This war was known as the American War, the Vietnam War, or the Second Indochinese War. Soon, South Vietnam became a military dictatorship. The Southern army removed the unpopular Ngo Dinh Diem from power and killed him.
On September 2, 1969, Independence Day, President H' Chí Minh died of heart failure. People all across the nation cried for him. Even the Sàigòn newspaper said, "Việt Nam loses a unique politician". But the Vietnamese government lied and said that he had died the next day.
On April 30, 1975, the National Liberation Front liberated Sàigòn and quickly renamed it H' Chí Minh City. The nation was fully reunified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on July 2, 1976.
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