South Vietnam (1954-1975) was a democratic republic located in Southeast Asia on the southern half of present-day Vietnam. Founded in the aftermath of the Vietnamese War of Independence, they opposed the communist North Vietnam and during the Vietnam War they fought against North Vietnam and their sponsored Viet Cong rebels with aid from the United States. In 1975, South Vietnam fell to North Vietnamese troops.
History[]
Location of South Vietnam
The Republic of Vietnam was founded in the Geneva Convention of 1954 after French Indochina gained their independence from France after a long and bloody war that lasted almost ten years. The democratic republic was located in the south of former French Indochina, with the communist North Vietnam occupying the northern half of Vietnam. South Vietnam's capital was Saigon, and the majority of the population was Buddhist; however, their president Ngo Dinh Diem was a Roman Catholic. Diem was an oppressive man, and his massacre of Buddhists at their shrines and his corruption led to many Buddhists setting themselves on fire in protest. In addition, after September 1959 war broke out between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, with the Viet Cong communist rebels aiding the North Vietnamese. South Vietnam was aided by the United States, and after August 1964, the United States directly intervened in Vietnam, beginning the decade-long Vietnam War.
In 1963, Diem was assassinated in the back of an APC during a coup, and an unstable government was created in its place. Diem died the same month as US President John F. Kennedy, who authorized the buildup of US troops in Vietnam to 16,300 troops. South Vietnam and the United States worked together in search-and-destroy operations against the Viet Cong, and after November 1965, they began to fight the North Vietnamese Army itself. The South Vietnamese Army was poorly-led and demoralized, so the United States took to the front lines in their place. In 1965, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon was rocked by bombings by the Viet Cong and student protests, and Saigon fell under Viet Cong attack for the following years to come. In 1968, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese launched the combined Tet Offensive in January 1968 and overran much of South Vietnam; Viet Cong troops even reached the US consulate in Saigon before being turned back. In 1969, there were over 500,000 US troops in Vietnam assisting South Vietnam's army.
South Vietnam's near-overrunning by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong cast doubts over the odds of success in the war in the United States, and President Richard Nixon's Vietnamization policy (training South Vietnamese troops while pulling out US troops from Vietnam) was not as effective as planned. In the 1972 Easter Offensive, only American air power prevented the North Vietnamese Army from overrunning the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. South Vietnam was abandoned by US troops in August 1972 and in early 1973, the United States ended their air support to the South Vietnamese as the Paris Peace Accords ended.
In 1974 and 1975, conflict flared up again between South Vietnam and North Vietnam, and the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launched a new offensive against the South Vietnamese. The Americans gave limited aid, removing US citizens from the city of Saigon as the city fell into the grasp of communist forces. South Vietnam's capital fell in April 1975, and South Vietnam was united with North Vietnam to form a new socialist republic of Vietnam.
Culture[]
In 1974, South Vietnam had a population of 19,582,000 people. 90% were Kinh (Vietnamese) and the other 10% were, Hoa, Montagnards, French, Khmer Krom, Cham, and mixed ancestry. 80% of the population practiced Buddhism, while 20% were Cao Dai, Hoa Hao, Animist, and Roman Catholic. Buddhism was suppressed under President Ngo Dinh Diem, whose rule led to the deaths of many Buddhists through either massacre by government troops or self-immolation as an act of protest.