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Case Number: 2008-0703-F
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a-textual record. This is- used as an
administrative marker by the Clinton Presidential
Library Staff.
Folder Title:
[Vietnam] [1]
Staff Office-Individual:
Speechwriting-Rosshirt, Thomas
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4020
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Vietnam, history of
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history of the area from prehistoric and ancient times to the
present.
Origins of the Vietnamese people
Relatively little is known about the origins of the Vietnamese.
They first appeared in history as the so-called "Lac" peoples,
who lived in the Red River delta region, in what is now
northern Vietnam. Some scholars have suggested that the Lac
were closely related to other peoples, known as the Viet (called ·
the Yiieh by the Chinese), who inhabited the coastal region of
East Asia from the Yangtze River to the Red River delta during
the 1st millennium BC. Others have expressed doubt about this
supposition, noting that modem-day Vietnamese share many
cultural and linguistic traits with other non-Chinese peoples
living in neighbouring areas of Southeast Asia. It is now
generally believed that the Lac peoples were the result of a
mixture between Austral a-Melanesian inhabitants who had
lived in the area since Paleolithic times and Asiatic peoples
who later migrated into the area from China. ·(See Vietnamese.)
Linguistic research, which offers a relatively reliable way of
distinguishing the various ethnic groups of Southeast Asia,
supports the mixed ethnic and cultural origin of the Vietnamese
people. Although the Vietnamese language is distinct, it
nevertheless can be described as a fusion ofMon-Khmer, Tai,
and Chinese elements. From the monotonic Man-Khmer
language family, Vietnamese derived many of its basic words;
from the Tai languages, it took tonality and a number of
grammatical elements; and from the Chinese, who at that time
were somewhat more culturally advanced than the peoples of
the Red River delta, it acquired not only a script but also most
of its political, literary, philosophical, and technical vocabulary.
Ethnographic study also reveals the degree to which ancient
Vietnamese culture was a composite of elements found among
many other peoples within the region. Totemism, animism,
tattooing, the chewing of betel nuts, teeth blackening, and many·
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�EncyClopaedia Britannica: Vietnam, history of
Page 2 of4
- marriage rituals and seasonal festivals indicate the relationship
between the Vietnamese and the_ n.~ighb_o.t!fil).g peoples in
Southeast Asia. f;\ltliougli-cfiinese civilization-laterl>ecame the
J.l}.ain·forcein shaping Vietnamese culture, the failure of the---,
Chinese-to.assimilate.the:--:Vietnamese--people· underscores the·'
facrtliafstrong elements of an authentic local culture must have
emerged in the Re-o River valley long before China established
its rllillennium of rule over- Vietnam. - -·~ ·-
----- -- ---------
I
NEXT ...
•
TABLE:Df"
CONTENTS
Vietnam, history of
• .,.. Introduction
• .,Origins of the Vietnamese people
• Earliest known history of Vietnam
o Legendary kingdoms
o Nam Viet
o Early society
• Vietnam under Chinese rule
• The first period of independence
o The Ly dynasty
o The Tran dynasty
• Expansion, division, and reunification
o The Later Le dynasty
o Two divisions ofVietnam
• State and society of precolonial Vietnam
• Western penetration into Vietnam
• The conquest of Vietnam by France
• Colonial Vietnam
o French administration
o Effects of French colonial rule
• Movements of national liberation
o Modem nationalism
o Vietnamese communism
• World War II and independence
• The First Indochina War
• The two Vietnams (1954-65)
• The Second Indochina War
o Growing American involvement in the war
o Withdrawal of American troops
• The Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• Bibliography
Search for related Internet links that use the term "Vietnam,
history of'.
Vietnam, history of
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�Encyclopaedia Britannica: Vietnam, history of
~ RftAN'NlCA.
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Page 1 of 4
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Vietnam, history of
Earliest known history of Vietnam
Legendary kingdoms
---~-
--
According to the ;rri.Ost-authoritativelegends~the history of the
\Vietruiinese people·oegiD.Swith King De Minh, descendant of
\___adivine-Ghinese~rulerwho was also the legendary father of
Chinese agriculture. De Minh and an immortal fairy of the ~ .
mountains produced Kinh Duong, ruler of the Land of Red · · ,
Demons, who !Darried -the-daughter of the Dragon Lord of the
Sea. Their son~ Lac Long Quan ("Dragon Lord-ofl,-ac"), is
regarded as th<first authentic Vietnamese king. T() make peace
with the Chinese; L-ac Long Quan married Au Co, a Chinese
immortal, who bore him 100 eggs, from which sprang 100 sons.
Later, the king and queen separated; Au Co moved with 50 of
her sons into the mountains, and Lac Long Quan ~egt_!}le other
._50_sons_and continued to rule over the lowlands:-tac Long-~
l_Qual!~S eldest son ~ucceeded him as the first ofihe Hung (or'
Hong Bang~ kings '(vuong), and he is regarded as the rear
founder of the-Vietnamese nation and of the first Vietnamese
dynasty.
1t
This legend and other related legends, most of which received
their literary form only after AD 1200, describe in mythical
terms the fusion, conflicts, and separation of peoples from the
north and south and of peoples from the mountains and the
coastal lowlands. The legends show the immortals as mountain
dwellers, while the people along the coast are represented by
the dragon lords--a division found in many legends throughout
Southeast Asia. The retreat of Au Co and 50 of her sons into the
mountains may well be a mythical recQ_@_gfas~paration among
the proto-Vietnamese in the Re(fRiver delta: tho'se who left the
lowlands could be the ancestonmfthe-Muorig, who still live in
the hills surrounding the delta and who are the only ethnic
minority of Vietnam closely related in language and customs to
the Vietnamese.
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�Encyclopaedia Britannica: Vietnam, history of
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·;
A,ccording·fo legeno;the Hung--dynasty liacfT8kings-:-each ol:)
_whom :r:uledJor_abo11t 150 y~ars. Their country, called Van . ,1
~Lang.(YLand of the Tattooed Men"), is said to have included
n6f only the Red River delta but also much of southern China.
The last of the Hung kings was overthrown in 258 or 257 BC
by a neighbouring warlord, Thuc Phan, who invaded and
conquered Van Lang, united it with his kingdom, and called the
new state.Au.Lac,_which.he-then-ruled-underthe-name-An
Duong.S\u Lac existed only until 207 BC, when it was I ---- ·· -~
[ i_!!~orporated by a former Chinese general, Trieu Da (Chao T'</
,in Chinese), ~to-the kingdom ofNam Viet(N_an, Y:Ueh in ___ j
!.__Chin~s-~). __ _.;~
... PREVIOUS
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.,.,
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CONTENTS
Vietnam, history of
• Introduction
• Origins of the Vietnamese people
• ..,.Earliest known history of Vietnam
o ..,.. Legendary kingdoms
o Nam Viet
o Early society
• Vietnam under Chinese rule
• The first period of independence
o The Ly dynasty
o The Tran dynasty
• Expansion, division, and reunification
o The Later Le dynasty
o Two divisions ofVietnam
• State and society of precolonial Vietnam
• Western penetration into Vietnam·
• The conquest of Vietnam by France
• Colonial Vietnam
o French administration
o Effects of French colonial rule
• Movements of national liberation
o Modem nationalism
o Vietnamese communism
• World War II and independence
• The First Indochina War
• The two Vietnams (1954-65)
• The Second Indochina War
o Growing American involvement in the war
o Withdrawal of American troops
• The Socialist Republic ofVietnam
• Bibliography
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Vietnam, history of
Nam Viet
Thi§_kingdom~covered
much of southern China and was ruled
Da-from his capital near the present site of Canton. Its
population consisted chiefly of the Viet who had earlier been
driven by the Chinese_from_t~ir kingdoms south of the
·i
Yangtze Rive{ Trieu Da, after thioWirig off Chinese· s5vereigi1fyand killing all officials loyal to the Chinese
)
__ dnperor, adopted the customs of the Viet and made himself the,
!'!!~!_of a vast P.?P.:-~hi.!l~S_e (!_~pire. Aft,er it had:incorporated
·
Au Lac, Nam Vtet mcluded not only-the Red River delta but
also the coa~~a!l~dsasfar south as ropqe!fi-d~y Da Nang,i'The-- i
- "'end· oLt\u Lac ·in-·2.0:Z BCmarks the ·epd of legendary history- _j
1
-~;-:-anchhe beginning· of Vietnamese history, as recorded~ in,
-'
'--:Chinese· historical annals.
·f · · - ·
;
bfTrj~u
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After almost 100 years of diplomatic and military duels
between the Han Chinese empire and Trieu Da and his
successors, Nam Viet was conquered (Ill BC) by the Chinese~.. ___ <
under the Han emp_~~QLW\t-:tif-Tliu·s:1lie territories ·Qccilpied by
~:-toe ancesforsofthe Vietnamese fell under Chinese rule. Nam-.,~- Viet-became the'Ghinese_provitic~ _Giao Chi (later Giao Chau),
wliich·was-divided intQ. nine military districts: The three .~
southemmost.:oHhese:covered the northern half ofwhat.is now
zY_ietnaw. --'--·=----(See China, history of.)
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• Introduction
• Origins of the Vietnamese people
• Earliest known history of Vietnam
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••••
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Vietnam, history of
Early society
When China extended its rule over Vietnam, the people of the
Red River delta were in transition from the Bronze to the Iron
Age, although some stone implements were also still in use.
These ancestors of the Vietnamese were already experienced at
cultivating rice. They had learned how to irrigate their rice
· fields by using· the tides that backed up the rivers. Plows and
water buffalo were still unknown (the !and.was.prepare&for--·--->
~---"c-=ultixation. with.polished-stone hoes), but the proto-Vietnamese )
are thought to have been able to produce two rice crQp~ --~--- _
\
~ -'~annually. They SU}Jplelllented _tb.eir diet by fishing and_huntirig~ '
'. _ -Their weapons-were mainly bows and arrows; the bronze heads
of their arrows often were dipped in poison to facilitate killing
such larger animals as elephants, whose tusks were traded for
iron from China.
The social organization of the early Vietnamese, before Chinese
rule, was hierarchical, forming a kind of feudal society that
until the mid:-20th century existed among tQ.e Tai ·an.d Muong·· ]
minoritJ-populati()ns of northern Vietmim~Power was held-by
tribal-chiefs at the head of one or several communities. These
chiefs were civil, religious, and military leaders, and their
power was hereditary; they were large landowners who kept the
mass of the people in virtual serfdom. At the head of this
aristocracy stood the king, probably the most powerful of the
tribal chiefs. (See feudalism.)
Religion was characterized by the kind of animistic, beliefs in
supernatural beings and spirits that· are common among
pre literate agricultural and hunting peoples. Some of the spirits
were those of dangerous animals, while others were of deceased
important persons who needed to be propitiated. A great
religious festival, almost a carnival, was held at the beginning
of spring and was marked by abandon and promiscuity.
In all these respects, the inhabitants of the Red River delta,
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�Encyclopaedia Britannica: Vietnam, history of
Page 2 of4
prior to their subjugation by the Chinese, showed numerous
affinities with m__QsjoJJ@_p~qpl_e_qf~ainland and island
Southeast AsiaJit was not until several centuries-after-the-- ,
~i~tion-of Chinese ruJe that the Vietnamese developed-more
---aistinctethnic~characteristics.
"=-- :-=-:----==--:..:::• ---'I--
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l!ONTENTEl
Vietnam, history of
• Introduction
• Origins of the Vietnamese people
• Earliest known history of Vietnam
o Legendary kingdoms
o Nam Viet
o ..,. Early society
• Vietnam under Chinese rule
• The first period of independence
o The Ly dynasty
o The Tran dynasty
• Expansion, division, and reunification
o The Later Le dynasty
o ·Two divisions ofVietnam
• State and society of precolonial Vietnam
• Western penetration into Vietnam
• The conquest of Vietnam by France
• Colonial Vietnam
o French administration
o Effects of French colonial rule ·
• Movements of national liberation
o Modern nationalism
o Vietnamese communism
• World War II and independence
• The First Indochina War
• The two Vietnams (1954-65)
• The Second Indochina War
o Growing American involvement in the war
o Withdrawal of American troops
• The Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• Bibliography
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Vietnam, history of
• Cambodia
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�Encyclopaedia Britannica: Vietnam, history of
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Vietnam, history of
Vietnam under Chinese rule
r-The-ni.SfOrYof theVi~tnamese p~~ple ~d~~-~ore- thana
~-millennium of Chinese rule reveals an evolution toward
tnational-identity;-whic r- _p_aren ly came about as tile result of
three developments. T eJirst o .these was the introduction into
the Red River delta oft e more advanced civilization of China,
including technical and administrative innovations and the
mors:_sophisticated-level-ofChinese-learning, wllic_h made the
~ietname~JUOSt advanced.people of mainlandSoutheasf-- .-- _7
Asia-:-Th~q -~as the efforts of the Chinese governors to
· -.achieve complete Sinicization through the impositioE?-·-_ Chinese culture, customs, and political institutions. e_Jhir
->7
and _!Ilost sjgnifif_ap.t d_s:y_elopment during this .period_ . . · -e_ __r resistance oftheVietnamese people to total assimilation and }
the use they made of the benefits derived from Chinese r· -·
( cirilizatio!l in their struggle against Chinese political_ rule: (Se/
. acculturatiOn~}--- ---- -·
.
'
\
Soon after extending their domination over what is now
northern Vietnam, the Chinese constructed roads, waterways,
and harbours to facilitate communications within the region and
to ensure that they maintained administrative and military
control over it. They improved _local agriculture by introducing
better methods of irrigation and the use of metal plows and
draft animals. They brought with them new tools and weapons,
advanced the art of pottery, and used new mining techniques.
For more than a century after annexing Nam Viet, however, the
Chinese abstained from interfering with the local
administration. In the Chinese province of Giao Chau, the
hereditary lords exercised control over the peasant population,
just as th~y: had do!le_while_Giao_Chau w.as__~province ofNam
Viet._
_Thus, although Vietnam was divided into military --- ---_"districts headed by Chinese governors, it remained, in fact, a
-:·.. ·,. leniently. governed Chinese protectorate.
- ---- --------- ---- --
:~-----~
-
1
/
.::-
This form of government changed in the 1st century AD, when
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�Encyclopaedia Britannica: Vietnam, history of
Page 2 of5
an energetic governor realized that the sway of the local Viet
lords over the pop__1.1l_ation was_ an obstacle to Sinicization. The
desire to exploit the fertile Red River delta andjts mountainous- '
backcountry wascertainly one-reason why the expansioriisfHan_j
dynasty wanted to hold on to Vietnam: there were vast forests
and precious metals in the mountains, pearls in the sea,
elephants with tusks of ivory, and a peasantry that could be
taxed and recruited for forced labour. China's main interest in
)~
holding the Red River delta, however, was its value as an
important stopover for ships engaged in the Han dynasty's
nascent maritime trade with the East Indies, India, and even the
Md idd le_E_d&st.JVessei~ firoin ipanydc-oukntdries whithh wbhich Chf.il1ha
~ •.
eve ope .commercia1 re1atwris · be e· .at t e ar ours o t e
{
'
\VIetnamese coast, not only bringing new goods but also __ ·
·~establishing contacts with a wider world and thus promoting the
development of the country. In this process, which began early
in the 1st century AD, economic, cultural, and political
functions developed that the hereditary local lords were unfit to
discharge--another reason why direct Chinese rule through the
importation of an increas~ng number of Chinese officials
became necessary.
1
,---------~~
As in all regions conquered by the Chi'nes_e:Han_dynasty (206
BC-AD 221, with a brief interruption in AD 8-23), efforts to set
up direct Chll!eserul.e w~re~:tccompaniedby.a.variety_of___ _
~ttempts to trans£orm the people of the Re,~ River delta into
(Chinese .. Local customs. were Sl!ppressed, and Chinese customs,
·
"'rites, and institutions were impos~d by force:-Taoist and
Confucian teachings were-pressed, together with instruction in
the Chinese language; even Chinese clothing and hairstyles
became obligatory. Many of these Chinese innovations were
beneficial to the Vietnamese and_ ~~r~_r_eadily integrated jnjg_
the indigenous local culture, but Sinicization never succeeded.
in reconciliiJ.gJhe Vietn@l_t!~e people, especially their leaders;
with Ghinese political domination. ~ot only the masses of the
peoplkbu:teven tlie educated Vietnamese who knew Chinese
and wrote only in Chinese hel<ronro-·me-rocafspoRen fanguage:-l
I
\
- -
~--
_.'
\T}; fir;t-IJ:lajor -r~b~lli~~-ag~i~~t Chi~e~~ ~iein:bke out in AD
40, led by the noblewomari Trung Trac, who$e husband, a tribal
lord, had been executed by the Chinese. S~e,'and hersister; --~
Jrung Nhi, gatlierecrt<Ygether-the trioarclii~fs and their armed .,
followers, .'!ttE.ck~Q: M4 9yerwhelmedJhe Chinese stroQ.ghol4s; .J
and-had-themselves proclaimed queens of an independent
Vietnamese kingdom. Three years later a powerful army sent
by the Han emperor reestablished Chinese rule; the local
aristocracy was deprived of all power, Vietnam was given a
centralized Chinese administration, and Sinicization was
resumed with increast;:dintensity.l The Tiurig sisters apparend)i - '
1were-punodeathby their conquerors. · 1 - - - - - - · - --- - - - - - - - - - - -. J
Chinese rule, although challenged several more times, remained
secure so long as China itself was effectively controlled by its
own emperors. When the T'ang dynasty (618-907) fell into
decay in the early lOth century, a series ofuprisings broke out
in Vietnam, which led in 939 to the restoration ofVietnamese
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Encyclopaedia Britannica: Vietnam, history of
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Vietnam, history of
The first period of independence
The Ly dynasty
(~-~ --·~
-·-. .
•.
- .-·
..
.l
Ngo Quyen,fthe Vietnamese commander who had defeated the
;Chinese-in 939, became the first head of the new state of
1
(Yietnam. For more than a half century, however, independence 1 ,.<.¥'
;brought neither peace nor political stability to Vietnam. In the,- ; \l\lt\J
Learly-1-lth-century, Vietnam finally was brought together under
a centralized administration by Ly Thai To, the founder of the
Ly dyt:tasty- (sometimes- called the -Later Ly dynasty; 1009- _
1225).lThe Ly rulers established their capital at Hanoi, in the
he_'![!: of the Red River delta, modernized the agri~ul~ui"al
system,·a.nd-replaced the· divisive local lords with a system of
state officials trained in a civil service institute set up on the
Chinese model in 1076.
Although the new state, called Dai Viet, made considerable
political, economic, and cultural progress, it soon encountered
problems with its neighbour to the south, the Isl~mic,
Indianized state of Champa on the central coast. Dai Viet and
Champa fought several wars in the 12th and 13th centuries. Dai
Viet also clashed with the Khmer (Cambodian) state of Angkor,
then the greatest power in mainland Southeast Asia.
The Tran dynasty
By then, the Ly dynasty was already in a state of decline. It was
succeeded, after a period of civil strife, by a new dynasty called
the Tran, which reigned from 1225 to 1400. For most of their
rule, the Tran kings pursued the same policies that had made
the country strong under the Ly; the Tran continued to clash
with Champa, but they also were able to maintain several
periods of peaceful coexistence. The primary· challenge to
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Vietnamese independence, however, came from the north. The
Yiian (Mongol) dynasty, which had come to power in China in
1279, sent armies estimated at more than 300,000 soldiers to
restore the Red River delta to Chinese rule. The Tran resisted
stubbornly and eventually were able to drive out the invaders.
The general who commanded the Vietnamese forces, Tran
Hung Dao, is still venerated as one of the great heroes of
Vietnamese history.
The drain of these wars on Vietnam's resources, together with
the declining vigour of its rulers, brought on a deep economic
and social crisis and the overthrow of the Tran dynasty in 1400.
The deposed Tran ruler appealed to China to help him regain
the throne. China, by then ruled by the Ming dynasty-(1368---,.
1644), readily_9_Qmpliedwith-the request; and China again __ /
jinvaoed-Vietnam in 1407. The Ming set up a direct Chinese
l..administration; and these officials resumed the policies of
assimilation begun by their imperial predecessors.
Expansion, division, and reunification
By t~eginning of-the-15th-century,tlleCUHural evolut~f~}
(the_Vietnamese people had reached a point at which any
i
:attempt to make them Chinese could only strengthen their
.:tnationalist. sentiments and arouse th~ir d~termi~atio~ to tlu:ow ·
pffthe Chmese yoke. T.:Jnderthe leadership ofi:eLo1, a wealthy
landowner in the province of Thanh Hoa south of the Red River
delta, a movement of national resistance started in 1418; after a
10-year struggle, the Chinese were forced to evacuate. Le Loi,
wb.p_ascended.the. throne _shortly_thereafter under.the_name_of ___ .
\Le Thai To, became the founder of the third great Vietnamese
}
~ynasty;ftlie Later Le (sometimes simply referred to as the Le).- .
Altliough the Later Le was not actually in power after 1600, it
nominally headed the state until 1788.
The Later Le dynasty
Like the better rulers of the Ly and Tran dynasties, Le_Th(li Tg
and some of his suc~~~~ors_Ll.ltroduced.manyreforms~ They
l
\gave V!et_!!ani"the most advanced legal code in Southeast Asia; ..]
-- promoted art, literature, and education; advanced agriculture;
protected communal lands against the greed of large
landowners; and even enforced a general redistribution of land
among the entire population at the expense of the large
landowners. The problem of the landless remained acute,
however, because of population increases and the limited
amount of available land in the north. The lack of land was one
of the reasons the Le dynasty pursued a policy of territorial
expansion, and it was a chief motive behind their efforts to
drive the Chams from the small but fertile deltas to the south.
Most of Champa was conquered in 1471 under the leadership of
Le Thanh Tong (ruled 1460-97). Soldiers in the advancing
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-~
~-----~--
Page 3 of20
----- -·--
~~t~ames~-apnyrw~re settled in newly established--villages
;
Ssmtfi::from_the'yicinity ofDa Nang to the neighbourhood oL '_
NhaTrang, in whatDecame the first great Vietnamese pusJ'l into ,.c.-the sg!Iili: The elimination of Champa was followed by,
(incursions i11to the C::amoodian territory of the Mekong delta, - -,
3
~hi_ch t~~-~~diniRg:J<hm~r empir_~(no loqg~r was able lo
_ ,
(d~fe~d~ ~e;ugon J?_ecame ytetname.se shortly before 1190, ~d ·• .;
(tlle rest ofthe s,q!,lthJolloweq durmg the next 60 years~ Wtth the __ ~-:::_,
'e~ceptimf of the s6uthein province of Soc Trang, wliich wa:s·no(,-- -··
anHexed until 1840,. Vietnam had reached its present ·size by.J
1~5-~: -·· , f
)
-mlies --- . )
This_extension-ofV~~tnam to_ a-ie-~~h~f~o~e 1,000
altered the historical~evolutiort~.6ftne.state: 'up to_that point,
.
Vjetnam'§~~hi~f qpaJ;ii¢te,ristic~ha:d been the existence·ofa· :.__
-.:_..,
rstro.ng eeri!tahp()wer'at:the head_pf a unified administration.
'
'--The·country subsequently was divided twice, and its partitioned
governments were at war with each other for decades.
/
Two divisions of Vietnam
The first and shorter division of the country occurred soon after
the elimination of Champa. The governor of Hanoi, Mac Dang
Dung, made himself master ofVietnam in 1527. The deposed
Le rulers and the generals loyal to them regained control of the
lands south of the Red River delta in 1545, but only after nearly
50 years of civil war could they reconquer Hanoi and the north.
l
Of much longer duration and greater historical significance was
the second division of Vietnam, which occurred about 1620,
wh~l!_the_noble ~guyeri fWliily;' wh0'haa "gg~~ijlecf the country's
growi_ng sout~~-tfr-provin_£e._s~from Hue_since f5'58, rejecte~
-Hanm's-suzeramty. In Hanm the Le monarchs were rulers m
name only after the country was reunited following its first
division; all real power was in the hands of the Trinh family,
who had made themselves hereditary princes in charge of the
government. For 50 years the Trinh rulers tried in vain to regain
control of the southern half of the country by military means.
The failure of their last campaign in 1673 was followed by a
100-year truce, during which both the Nguyen and the Trinh
paid lip service to Vietnamese unity under the Le dynasty but
maintained separate governments over the two halves of the
country.
i
National unity was reestablished only after a 30-year period of
revolution, political chaos, and civil war (1772-1802).
Although the revolution started in the south, it was directed
against the ruling houses of both south and north. It was led by
three brothers, whose ~@le_in history--Tay Son--was that o(
Jheir_natiye_village.tTh:e Tay Sons overthrew th~ so_uthefJ1_ 1
\ regi~e in 1777 and kiHed the rulingfamily:·While the Tay
Sons-waged-war agairist the north, one member of the southern
royal family-- Nguyen Anh, who had escaped the massacre--
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regained control of Saigon and the deep south in 1778, but he
was driven out again by the Tay Sons in 1783. When the Tay
Sons also defeated the Trinh in 1786 and occupied Hanoi,
Vietnam was briefly reunited under Tay Son rule. In 1788 the
Chinese tried to exploit the crisis in Vietnam, but the Tay Son
rulers--who had abolished the Later Le dynasty--were able to
defeat the Chinese invaders. During that same year, however,
Nguyen Anh succeeded, with French military assistance, in
occupying Saigon and the Mekong delta. I_n a s_eries_ of .
campaigns that lasted 14 ye(lfs, Nguyeri-Anh defeated the Tay , --,
Sons and -gained control of the entire country': When Jiue and
'
~
,Hanoi fell to his anriies in 1802, he proclaimed himself
iemperor,- under the name Gia Long, of a reunited Vietnam.
f
L._ ___________
--
--
-·-
- ···-
--
-
--
-
-
.
(See Tay Son rebellion, Gia Long.)
State and society of precolonial
Vietnam
The rule of Gia Long and his successors until the conquest of
Vietnam by France in the late 19th century brought no
innovations in the organization of the state, the basic character
of which already had been firmly established by the Ly
emperors during the 11th century. The Ly had successfully
fought the revival of a local feudalism, which was rooted in the
powers ex~rcised by the tribal chiefs before. the.coming-ofthe-Chin~se,From the 11th century on, Vietnam remained a
L_~entrali~ed state. headed by a monarch wh.ose absolute pow~~~
, were said to denve from a mandate from heaven--one aspect of-- ----:;
L-- Hhe-thoroughly Conffic~an character of the Vietnamese state.
_ ·-·
· :_The -I::.y-established a fixed hierarchy of state officials that
followed the Chinese model; it consisted of nine degrees of
civil and military mandarins who were appointed by the
emperor and were responsible to only him. All mandarins-those at the very top at the imperial court as well as those in the
lowest ranks of the provincial and local administration--were
recruited in only one way: through civil service examinations
taken after years of study. As a rule, only .!il~~~a_!thy could
spend the time r_equired for these studies:Nevertheless~·except·-,
~I1·periods:otdynast-~c.declinewheii Offices sometimes we~e £_or---- )
~_ale~;:the:road to positions of power was through scholarship,
";
. ·not wealth.
-=-:. -· - ---- - -
I
;
._
-~------<-
_)
The concept of a division of powers was alien to the precolonial
rulers. The emperor, with the help of high court mandarins, was
not only the supreme lawmaker and head of all civil and
military institutions but also the dispenser of justice in both
criminal and civil cases, and he delegated his powers to the
hierarchy of mandarins in the provinces and villages. Even
public functions of a religious character were the sole
prerogative of the emperor and his representatives in the lower
levels of the administration. No military caste ever exercised
control over the state, no religious hierarchy existed outside the
mandarins, and no aristocracy with political influence was
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allowed to arise. Titles of nobility, bestowed as honours, were
not hereditary.
·
The economic policies of the great Vietnamese dynasties also
favQ!I[e__Q.Jhe_m.aintenance of imperial and_m~n~tarin power_.. ___
,·
\.Thrpl!gh the 900 years of independence between Chinese
domination and French colonial rule, the country's economy--'-- remained almost exclusively agricultural. Art:isan and fishing.. ;
villages existed, and there was some mining;' but the mass of
people were engaged in the cultivation of rice, and neither
national nor international trade was systematically promoted.
No property-owning middle class of merchants ever threatened
the authority of the scholar mandarins, and the periodically
rising power of great landowners was diminished from time to
time through the redistribution of land. Gia Long and his
successor, Minh Mang, actually abolished all huge
landholdings during the first half of the 19th century.
Theoretically, the emperor owned all the land, and it was by
imperial decree that the settlers on newly conquered territories
received their plots in the villages that sprang up south from the
Red River delta to the Mekong delta.
Vietnam~s-rigid.absolutism was !!wited-to-a certain.extent by .
\the~?~fucian ~on~~R_t th~t h.eld;the f£l!ll!ly .tQ. be ~he _!J~sic_~it
(
',of civihzed society; submissiOn to-th:e authonty of tlie family - - J
head thus was the foremost moral obligation of every citizen.
The autocratic character of society also was eased slightly by
the limited authority granted to the village administration,
whose purely local affairs were handled by a council of
notables elected, as a rule, from the more prosperous or
otherwise prominent citizens. Among the duties of these
notables were the enforcement of law, the conscriptiol)_o_f_army.......,
)and-f~rced-la~~.~ rec~ruits,. and.the ~ssessment of ~~e;_s._]'J ext to !··- · •1
r."'devotlQI!::.tO-frumly, loyalty to the VIlJ.~ge__W~S. tr~<~lJ1JQnally the.:-::.::;---- - -._ ~
'-first duty-oTev~ry-Vietnamese.
.·
17
/fJt!J.A
~
1 . fJ
~
>
)
Western penetration into Vietnam
In 1516 Portuguese adventurers arriving by sea inaugurated the
era of Western penetration into Vietnam. They were followed
in 1527 by visiting Dominican missionaries, and eight years
later a Portuguese port and trading centre was established at
Faifo (modem Hoi An), south of present-day Da Nang. More
Portuguese missionaries arrived later in the 16th century, and
they were followed ~y othe_!. g_Ul"9Pe~-~ The p_e~!~~own o~ _____ _
these w~he_Erench Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rliooes,
·}
~lio completed a transcription ofth,e Vietnamese language into/ · -·
roman script that later was adopt~d by 1lloc!em Vietnamese as ~i
thyir official writing·system~-quoc ngu ("national language")._'_
-;"'
(See·quoc-ngu.)---- ------ ~ · .. - --a ____ ····----·. _ __
By the end of the 17th century, however, the two rival
Vietnamese states had lost interest in maintaining relations with
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European countries; the only window left open to the West was
at Faifo, where the Portuguese retained a trading mission. For
decades the French had tried without success to retain some
influence in the country. Only at the end of the 18th century
was a missionary named Pigneau de Behaine able to restore a
French presence by assisting Nguyen Anh in wresting control
of the country from the Tay Sons.
'Uponl5ecoming emperor;-however; Nguyen Anh-(now Gia __
Lo~g) did not favour Christianity. Under hisstrongly antiWestern successor, Minh Mang (ruled 1820-41), all French
advisers were dismissed, while seven French missionaries and
an unknown number of Vietnamese Christians were executed.
'A:fter-1840-Ffencl:l RomanTa:tholic interests openiy demaiided ·
inilitary intervention to prevent the persecution of missionaries.
rh-1847 the French took r~prisalsagainsCVi~tP~I!l_for ~xpelling - ·
additional missionaries, ~ut 10 years passed before Paris - )
rprepareda military expedition against Vietnam.
)
L--- - - ------··--.-
··-
The conquest of Vietnam by France
r------------~---
"-T~e
- - - ------ ---- . - - - - - - - - - ;.
decision to invade Vietnam was maqe by Napoleon III in
l July 1857. It was the result riot' only of missionary propaganda
~butalso,-after 1850, ofthe upsurge ofFrench capitalism, which
generated the colonial concept of a·need for overseas markets
and the collateral request for a larger French share in Asian
territories conquered by the West. The naval commander in
East Asia, Rigault de Genouilly, long an advocate of French
military action against Vietnam, was-orderedt<;> attack the
h.w-_b_o_ur.and-city_oLTQutai_{e (modem Da Nang)' and to tum it
Jinto a French milita]y base. Oenouilly arrived afTourandn ____ ~)
L August 1858.withJ4.-v_ess~l~ an.d 2,500 men; the French __ ,;-··
L~~~rmed the har\wur defenses~on-Septeinber l-and occupied th~
to'wn,Jl ~ay later. G~nouilly soon recognized, howey~r,~that he )
:courd make no further progress aroundTourane and decid~d to
f attack Saigon. Leaving a- smcilr garrison 'behind to hold~-~
L. Towantf,_ne_saile_d_SQ.!l!lnyard in February 1859 @d~~i?:ed-;J
Saigon two weeks later. -~
I
l_ - - .
.
- -··- , .. -
Vietnamese resistance prevented the French from advancing
beyond Saigon, and it took French troops, under new
command, until1861 to occupy the three adjacent provinces.
The Vietnamese, unable to mount effective~resistance to_the_
invaders andtheir l!lQ_@m :weapons,~ concluded a peace treaty----_~)
~ith-FranceinJune 1862, which ceded the conquered territori~s
to the latter. Fiv~·years later additional territories in the southwere placed tinder French rule. The entire colony was named
Cochinchina.
It l).ad taken the French slightly more than eight years to make
themselves masters ofCochinchina (a protectorate already had
been imposed on Cambodia in 1863). It took them 16 more ·
years to extend their control over the rest of the country. They
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made a first attempt to enter the Red River delta in 1873, after a
French naval officer and explorer named Francis Garnierl:u:1g
shown,jn_a hazardo1:1s exp~_9ition, that tlle Mekong River could }
dot serve as a trade route into southwestern China. Gamier had
<some support from the Ftench_ governor of coch.1nchina, but
when he was killed in a battle with Chinese pirates near Hanoi,
the attempt to conquer the north collapsed.
Within a decade, France had returned to the challenge. In April
1882, with the blessing of Paris, the administration at Saigon
sent a force of 250 men to Hanoi under Captain Henri Riviere.
When Riviere was killed in a skirmish, Paris mov~d_to_impose_____
its rule gy force over the entire Red River delta. In' August 1883
7
t~e-Vietnamese court signed a treaty that turned northern _·
'
[Vietnam (naJl!e.d Tonkin by the French) and central Vietnam /
\ (named Annam, based on an early Chinese name for the region) /
·jnto Frem:h protectorates: Tepyears laterJhe French annexed
C_!-aos ~-g ;:!ddeo it to the so-called Indochinese U nion,_which ___ _
the French created in 1887. Tlie \inion consisted of the colony /
,orcochin~h!l1a ~d_the four protectorates ·o[-Anna.P:I, ToiikinJ '
·.-~
r. -- . ~
Cambodia ancfGios. ·
J
l
~----..../
'
1
Colonial Vietnam
French administration
The French now moved to impose a Western-style
administration on their colonial territories and to open them to
economic exploitation. Under Governor-General Paul Doumer,
who arrived in 1897, French rule was imposed directly on all
levels of administration, leaving the Vietnamese bureaucracy
without a trace of real power. Even Vietnamese emperors were
deposed atwilLai1d replac~dby_others willing_to serve the
French~_Alrimportant gositions within the bureaucracy were - -\ ·staffed~withoffi~i~ls imp~ortedfrom Fra11ce;.even in the 1930s, .Lafter several·petwds of reforms and concessiOns to ·local ·
nationalist sentiment, Vietnamese officials were employed only
in minor positions and at very low salaries, and the country was
still administered along the lines laid down by Doumer. (See
colonialism.)
Doumer's economic and social policies also detgp:lill.~g,for the
entire P;eriod-pf French rule, the developi?ent of French )
Jndochma, as the colony became known m the 20th century.
T-he-railroads, highways, harbours, bridges, canals, and other
public works built by the French were almost all started under
Doumer, whose aim was a rapid and systematic exploitation for
the benefit of France oflndochina's potential wealth; Vietnam
was to become a source of valuable raw materials and a market
for tariff-prote~t€?ci_g()ods of French industfies.iJ.ll~~~Rl~itat!o~
1-ofnatUrarresources for direct e?Cport was the chief purpose of
l.[a~~Fren~h i~~~st_I!H~ntsL~~~ r!c~, coal, rat:e minerals, and later
)
I
I
- - -- >
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also rubber as the main products. Doumer and his successors up
to the eve of World War II were not interested in promoting
industry, the development of which was limited to the .
production of goods for immedi'!-te local consumption. Among
these industries--located chiefly at Saigon, Hanoi, and
Haiphong--were breweries, distilleries, small sugar refineries,
rice and paper mills, and glass and cement factories. The
greatest industrial establishment was a textile factory at Nam
Dinh, which employed more than 5,000 workers. The total
number of workers employed by all industries and mines in
Vietnam was 100,000 in 1930. Because the aim of all
investments was not the systematic economic development of
the colony but the attainment of immediate high returns for
investors, only a small fraction of the profits was reinvested.
Effects of French colonial rule
_____:....-----~---~-
-----·---
-~
----
----·-------- ---
-----
Whatever economic prQgr_e.ss Vietnam made_ !ll!derthe French_after 1900 b-enefited only the French and the smalfclas-s ·of rich~Vietnam_ese cr~a_ted by the_colonial regime; The ·masses of theVietnamese people were deprived of such benefits by the social
policies inaugurated by Doumer and maintained even by his
more liberal successors, such as Paul Beau (1902-07), Albert
Sarraut (1911-14 and 1917-19), and Alexandre Varenne (192528). Through the construction of irrigation works, chiefly in the
Mekong delta, the area of land devoted to rice cultivation
quadrupled between 1880 and 1930. During the same period,
however, the individual peasant's rice consumption decreased
without the substitution of other foods. The new lands were not
distributed among the landless and the peasants but were sold
to the highest bidder or given away at nominal prices to
Vietnamese collaborators and French speculators. These
policies created a new class of Vietnamese landlords and a class
of landless tenants who worked the fields of the landlords for
rents of up to 60 percent of the crop, which was sold by the
landlords at the Saigon export market. The mounting export
figures for rice resulted not only from the increase in cultivable
land but also from the mounting degree of peasant exploitation.
The peasants who owned their land were rarely better off than
the landless tenants. The peasants' share of the price of rice sold
at the Saigon export market was less than 25 percent. Peasants
continually lost their land to the large owners because they
were unable to repay loans given them by the landlords and
other moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates. As a result, the
large landowners of Cochinchina (less than 3 percent of the
total number of landowners) owned 45 percent of the land,
while the small peasants (who accounted for about 70 percent
of the owners) owned only about 15 percent of the land. The
number of landless families in Vietnam before World War II
was estimated at half of the population.
The peasants' share of the crop after the landlords, the
moneylenders, and the middlemen (mostly Chinese) between
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producer and exporter had taken their share was still more
drastically reduced by the direct and indirect taxes the French
had imposed to finance their ambitious program of public
works. G>ther -ways- ofmakiiig-tlie-Vietnamese pay for the
p!Qj ects' undertakenJor the-benefit of the French were the __·_:-..~.
/ecruitment of forced labour for ·public works and-the absence
?of any protection against ~xploitatio-n~intne mines and_ rub.lJ~~ )
)"plantations, although the scandalous working conditions, the
~low salaries, and the-lack ofmedical care were frequently
\ l~ttackedinthe French·Ghamber of Deputies in-Paris~The mild
social legislation decreed in the late 1920s was never
adequately enforced.
Apologists for the colonial regime claimed that French rule led
to vast improvements in medical care, education, transport, and
communications. The statistics kept by the French, however,
ypp~castdoubLon such.assertions. In 1939; for t::xaiilple, -\ __ _
~~o more than 15 percent of all school-age children received any
)'
rkind of schooling, and ~bout 80 percent of the population was ~.
' illiterate, in contrast to precolonial times when the majority of· J
'--tn£-.t>eople possessed some degree of literacy. With its more
than 20,000,000 inhabitants in 1939, Vietnam had but one
university, with fewer than 700 students. Only a small number
of Vietnamese children were admitted to the lycees (secondary
schools) for the children of the French..Medical-care-was well-·organize_9_~or_ the Erench inthe_cities,_Q,ut in 1939 there were _
jo~ly 2- physici~s for. every 1oo,_ooo Yietname.s~, C?mpared
w1th 76 per 100,000 m Japan and 25 m the Phthppmes.
Two other aspects of French colonial policy are significant
when considering the attitude of the Vietnamese people,
e~p_e_<::jaJ}y their educated minority, toward the-colonial regime:- -,
bne was the absence of any kind of civil liberties for the native )
,-=-population,--and:the other was the exclusion of the Vietnamese
r
.
~from: the modern sector of the economy, especially industry and
trade. Not only were rubber plantations, mines, and industrial
enterprises in foreign hands--French, where the business was
substantial, and Chinese on the lower levels--but all other
business was as well, from local trade to the great exportimport houses. The social consegu~nce ofthis policy was that,
apart from the 1~4!<:>r4~, jio propeqy~owniQ.g indigenous . }
111iddle·ctass-developed in colonial Vietnam. Thus, capitalism
appeared -to the Viefilamese to be a· product of foreign rule, a
fact that, together with the lack of any Vietnamese participation
in government,.profoundly influenced the nature and
orientation of the national resistance movements.
Movements of national liberation
rT-he-anticolonial movement iii VIetnam can be said to ·have 1
(_, started with the establishment of French rule. Many-local "
L- -officialsofCochinchina refused to collaborate with the French.
Some led guerrilla groups, composed of the remnants of the
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defeated armies, in attacks on French outposts. A much broader
resistance movement developed in Annam in 1885, led by the
great scholar Phan Dinh Phung, whose rebellion collapsed only
after his death in 1895.
The main characteristic of the national movement during this
first phase of resistance, however, was its political orientation
toward the past. Filled with ideas of precolonial Vietnam, its
leaders wanted to be rid of the French in order to reestablish the
old imperial order. Because this aspiration could have little
meaning for the generation that came to maturity after 1900,
this first stage of anticolonial resistance did not survive the
death of its leader.
Modern nationalism
-
----------
~
---- - - - -
---
--
--- -
~
---~---
- - - - - ------L...----
'A. ne'Ynational movement arose in the early 20th century. Its
/
most prominent spokesman was Phan Boi Chau, with whose
rise the old traditionalist opposition gave way to a modem
nationalist leadership that rejected French rule but not Western
ideas, science, and technology. In 1905 Chau went to Japan.
His plan, mildly encouraged by some Japanese statesmen, was
to free Vietnam with Japanese help. Chau smuggled hundreds
of young Vietnamese into Japan, where they studied the
sciences and underwent training for clandestine organization,
political propaganda, and terrorist action. Inspired by Chau's
effective writings, nationalist intellectuals in Hanoi opened the
Free School of Tonkin in 1907, which soon became a centre of
anti-French agitation and consequently was suppressed after a
few months. Also, under the inspiration and guidance of Chau's
followers, mass demonstrations demanding a reduction of high
taxes took place in many cities in 1908. Hundreds of
demonstrators and suspected organizers were arrested--some
were condemned to death, while others were sent to Poulo
Condore (Con Son) Island in the South China Sea, which the
French turned into a penal camp for Vietnamese nationalists.
Phan Boi Chau went to China in 1910, where a revolution had
broken out against the Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty. There he set
up a republican govemment-in-:exile to attract the support of
nationalist groups. After the French arranged his arrest and
imprisonment in China (1914-17), however, his movement
began to decline. In 1925 Chau was seized by French agents in
Shanghai and brought back to Vietnam for trial; he died under
house arrest in 1940.
After World War I the movement for national liberation
intensified. A number of prominent intellectuals pursued the
hope of obtaining political concessions from the colonial
regime through collaboration with the French. lfhe failure of -)
sucli reformist ·efforts led to a revival of clandestine and
)
(revolutionary groups, especially in Annam and Tonkin; among
tpese was the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VietNam Quoc.
Dan Dang, founded in 1927 and usually referred to as the · ·
\...
----
~
.
-
--
- ..
.
.
.
-
.
0
l
--
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VNQDD). The VNQDD preached terrorist action and
penetrated the garrisons of indigenous troops with a plan to
oust the French in a military uprising. On the night of Feb. 910, 1930, the troops of only one garrison in Tonkin killed their
French officers, but they were overwhelmed a day later and
summarily executed. A wave of repression followed that took
hundreds of lives and sent thousands to prison camps. The
VNQDD was virtually destroyed, and for the next 15 years it
existed mainly as a group of exiles in China supported by the
Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang).
Vietnamese communism
/
For yet another reason, the year 1930 was an important one in
the history of Vietnam. Five years earlier, a new figure,
destined to become the most prominent leader in the national
movement, had appeared on the scene_as_an_exiled_ -· ____ ·
revolutionary in South China. He was1 Nguyen Ai Quoc, better
t ·known by his ·later pseudonym of Ho Chi Minh. In June 11925
'~H.Q~Jli.Minh founded the Revolutionary Youth League 1of
Vietnam, the predecessor of the Indochinese Communist Party.
Ho Chi Minh had left Vietnam as a young seaman in 1911 and
traveled widely before settling in Paris in 1917. He joined the
Communist Party of France in 1920 and later spent several
years in Moscow and China in the service of the international
communist movement. After making his Revolutionary Youth
League the most influential of all clandestine resistance groups,
. he succeeded in early 1930 in forming the Vietnamese
Communist Party--from late 1930 called the Indochinese
Communist Party-':.-fr()m a number of competigg ~ommunist
organizations. lri May -1930-the coinmunists exploited
1..
con~itions-ofnear starvation over large areas of central
~
/=Vietnam by staging a broad peasant uprising, during which
.
\. ~numerous Vietnamese officials and mJ!lly_LandlQt:ds were killed,:-- ·~
'--and-'~Soviet'l-administrations
up in severafproviii.ces·of- ·.
Annam. It took the French until the spring of 1931 to suppress
this movement and, in an unparalleled wave of terror, to
reestablish their own control.
were-set
Unlike the dispersed and disoriented leadership of the VNQDD
and some smaller nationalist groups, the Indochinese
Communist Party recovered quickly from the setback of 1931,
relying on cadres trained in the Soviet Union and China. After
1936, when the French extended some political freedoms to the
colonies, the party skillfully exploited all opportunities for the
creation of legal front organizations, through which its
influence on intellectuals, workers, and peasants was increased.
When political freedoms were again curtailed at the outbreak of
World War II, the Communist Party, now a well-disciplined
organization, was forced back into hiding.
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World War II and independence
For five years during World War II, Indochina was a Frenchadministered possession of Japan. On Sept. 22, 1940, Jean
Decoux, the French governor-general appointed by the Vichy
government after the fall of France, concluded an agreement
with the Japanese that permitted the stationing of 30,000
Japanese troops in Indochina and the use of all major
Vietnamese airports by the Japanese military. The agreement
made Indochina the most important staging area for all
Japanese military operations in Southeast Asia. The French
administration cooperated with the Japanese occupation forces
and was ousted only toward the end of the war (in March
1945), when the Japanese began to fear that the French forces
might tum against them as defeat approached. After the French
had been disarmed, Bao Dai, the last French-appointed emperor i
ofVietnam, was allowed to proclaim the independence of his ·
country and to appoint a Vietnamese national government at
Hue, but all real power remained in the hands of the Japanese
military commanders.
Meanwhile, in May T94T: at Ho Chi Minh's urging, the _ _ _ __
CommunistP"a:ify formed a broad-nationalist alliance under its
\-le~dership called the League for the Independence of Vietnam, '
·'-Which subsequently _Qecame known as the Viet Minh. After' a
short period injailfHo waslreleased by !h~Ghi!!~~~-amLb_~g:m.__ _
. --;!
to cooperate with Allied forces 11:iy providing information on
J
troop movem~nts .in Indochina. At the siiine time;· he soughnecognitio-ri of the Viet Minh as the legitimate,---- _
representative of Vietnamese nationalist aspirations. ~en the }
rJapanese~urreridered-in-~ugust 1945,the communist-1ed Viet \..Minh ordered a general uprising, and; with no one organized to
oppose them, they were able to seize po~t:r in Hanoi. Bap Dai:
tne-'Vietnamese emperof,-abdicafed a few days later and
declared his fealty to the newly proclaimed Democratic
Republic ofVietnam.
@aiiese
Clearly the Communist Party had gained the upper hand in its
struggle to outmaneuver its_ disorganized rivals, such as the . . .
noncommunist VNQDD.kThe French, however, were
-~
,~aetermined to restort=;.their oWn colonial presence in Indochina
~nd, with the aid of British occupation forces, seized control qf
g:ochinchina. Thus,.at the.beginning of 1946, there were two,
VietnamS:· a communist north and a noncommtiiiist south: --'
-,
(J.Bu~/W~J:D:) -.- -·· ----- ------------ --- ----.
. . . :)
The First Indochina War
Negotiations between the French and Ho Chi Minh led to an
agreement in March 1946 that appeared to promise a peaceful
solution. Under the agreement France would recognize the Viet
Minh government and give Vietnam the status of a free state
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within the French Union. French troops were to remain in
Vietnam, but they would be withdrawn progressively over five
years. For a period in early 1946 the French cooperated with Ho
Chi Minh as he consolidated the Viet Minh's dominance over
other nationalist groups, in particular those politicians who
were backed by the Chinese Nationalist Party.
Despite tactical cooperation between the French and the Viet
Minh, their policies were irreconcilable: the French aimed to
reestablish colonial rule, while Hanoi wanted total
independence. French intentions were revealed in the decision
ofGeorges-Thierry d'Argenlieu, the high commissioner for ·
Indochina, to proclaim Cochinchina an autonomous republic in
June 1946. Further negotiations did not resolve the basic __:__
differences between the French and the Viet Minh. In late /
~ovemberl94·6-Fr~nchnavai vessels bombarded Haiphong, ,,
causing several thousand· civilian casualties; the subsequent
<Yiet Minh attempt to overwhelm French troops in Hanoi in
December generally is considered to be the beginning ·oft}Ie -:.- _First Indochina War.~-= ·
·
·
Initially confident of victory, the French-longig~~r~d the~~----- .. )
r--Political-cause-ofthe wa:r:.:the desire ofthe Vietnamese people, -.
' __ including their anticommtrnist leaders, to achieve unity and
}
independence for-their colintry: french efforts to deal with this
problem were devious and ineffective. The French reunited
Cochinchina with the rest ofVietnam in 1949,proclaiming the
Associated State of Vietnam, and appointed the former
emperor Bao Dai as chief of state. Most nationalists, however,
denounced these maneuvers, and leadership in the struggle for
independence from the French remained with the Viet Minh.
rMeanwhile, the Viet Minh waged an increasingly successful /
1
'2 guerrilla war, aided after 1949 by the newcommunist
_(_
·--government of China. The:lJnited States, fearful ofthe spread
of ,conimunisfl1 in Asia, sent large amounts-of aid to the Frenc}I.
But tl}e French were shaken by the fall of their garrison at Dien
;Bien Phu in May 1954 and agreed to negotiate an end to tlie
L war at an intematicmal conference ·in Geneva.-- - -: := ·
(_________
-7
J
-
The two Vietnams (1954-65)
The agreements concluded in Genevacill-A:pfil:.Tulyl954/
(collectively called the~va Accords), which were signed by
French and Viet Minh representatives, provided for a cease-fire
and for a temporary division of the country into two military
zones at latitude 17° N. All Viet Minh forces were to withdraw
north of that line, and all French and Associated State of
Vietnam troops were to remain south of it; permission was
granted for refugees to move from one zone to the other within
a given time limit. An international commission was
established, composed of Canadian, Polish, and Indian
members under an Indian chairman, to supervise the execution
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of the agreement.
)ThiS -~meiit fef,ftlie Democratic-Republk of Vietiiannn.·- l_
[COntrol of OJ!ly the northern half of the country. /fhe last of the
'·Getieya Accords--called tlfeFinal Declaration--provided, fof
elec;tions, supervised by the co~ission, to· be held throughout
V~~tnam_ in J_!l!yJ<)5_6-;ino:rd~r t~,Mflifyth~ country:Vi~t I\;lirih'-~
lead~rs_appeare9 certam to wm the_se electwns, and-the~Umted
States-and South Vietnam would not approve or sign the Filial
Decl¥ation; elec_tions were never held. (See FinalDedatationoftne Geneva Conference-. f
- - - - - . - · ··
L ... ·-----
---
-
The two Vietnams now began to reconstruct their war-ravaged
country. With assistance from the Soviet Union and China, the
Hanoi government in the north embarked on an ambitious
program of socialist industrialization; they also began to
collectivize agriculture in earnest in 1958. In the south a new
governmentappginted_by B~o Dai began to build a new
country. Ngo Dinh Diem, a 1Roman Catholic, was named prime ·
minister and succeeded with American support in stabilizing
the anticommunist regime in Saigon. He eliminated pro-French
elements in the military and abolished the local autonomy of
several religious-politic~Lg:roups. Then, in a government------ ..
controlled r~ferendum in_October 1955, Diem removed Bao
.
Qai-as chief of state and made himself president of the Republic·-7
(~fVietnam.-- -~ -- · ·
··
· · ·
· -Diem's early success in consolidating power did not result in
concrete political and economic achievements. Plans for land
reform were sabotaged by entrenched interests. With the
financial backing of the United States, the regime's chief
energies were directed toward building up the military and a
variety of intelligence and security forces to counter the stillinfluential Viet Minh. Totalitarian methods were directed
against all who were regarded as opponents, and the
favouritism shown to Roman Catholics alienated the majority
Buddhist population. Loyalty to the president and his family
was made a paramount duty, and Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh
Nhu, founded an elitist party to clandestinely_spy QD-_Qf:[l~ials,
army Qfficers, and prominentJocal citizens:~Pieil!: als(_)-refiised--:-/
cto participate in the all-Vietnamese elections describ_~d i_ll-tlie-. ---;
(]Final Declaration. With suppor_!_from_the north, communist-l~d
'forces--popularly called the \Viet Cong--launched an insurgency i
. movement-to seize power-arid reunify the country,. The.
!
fnsurrection-appeared close to succeeding, when Diem's army
overthrew him in November 1963. Diem and his brother Nhu
were killed in the coup.
The Second Indochina War
The government that seized power after Diem's ouster,
however, was no more effective than its predecessor.. A.period _________ _
of political instability followed, lplf!!}he_military fipnly seized -- - _ _
·::-_-:--~ .
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r---------- ---
- -
·.
Page 15 of20
_· ·----- --- -.
control in.June 1965 under Nguyen Cao Ky. The militant ; _
Buddhists who ha:d helped-overthrow Diem strongly opposed
Ky's government, but he was able to break their resistance.
Civil liberties were restricted, political opponents--denounced ·
as neutralists or pro-communists--were imprisoned, and
political parties were allowed to operate only if they did not
openly criticize government policy. The character of the regime
remained largely unchanged after the presidential elections in
September-1967, which led to the election of General Nguyen
[~Ihie_uas president. (Se~Vietnam War.}
,.
.c.:Jf
\
No less evident than the oppressive nature of the Saigon regime
was its inability to cope with the VietCong. Aided by a steady
infiltration ofweapqns and advisers from the north,}tliefigliting J
c::'~!rel!~th:-ofthe insurgent move~ent grew fro~ about 3_0,_000 ·
- men m 1963 to about 150,0001111965 when, mthe opmwn of f
inany American intelligence analysts; the survival of the Saigon
,regime was seriously threatened. In addition, the political
opposition in the south to Saigon became much more·
organized. The National Front for the Liberation of the South,
popularly called the National Liberation Front (NLF), had been
organized in late 1960; within four years it had a huge
following.
·
Growing American involvement in the war
Until_1960 the United States had supported the Saigon regime
and its army only with military equipment, financial aid, and, as
permitted by the Geneva Accords, 700 advisers for training the
army. The number of advisers had increased to 17,000 by the
end of 1963' and they were joined by an increasing number of
American helicopter pilots. All this assistance, however, proved
i
· tl~alt the advance of the Viet Cong,.and in · \_
~~j
S. President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the· - ..
L __ : _
_go North Vietnam, hoping to prevent_further
---.Ljnfilt~<l:tio~ of,~~_ and troo.p~ into t~e south. Four. weeks after
·the bombmg began, the Umted States started sendmg troops
_south.l3y July the number ofU.S.troops had reachedc ,
into the_
[ _75,00{fi_fc.ontinued.to climb until it_stqod·'at more than ;--- · }
500,000 early in 1968. Fightin~ beside the Americaiis ~ere
~some~600;000 regular South VIetnamese troops and regwnal
,~
, \: _ _
m
r~ontingentsJrom
1
....:::~::::::::::=::J.C~~::::::'s:~';:-;:::__:.s:_!r~_a_~li~,~-d~
_ -~ _ , _..
Three years of intensive bombing of the nort an figl:iting in
the south, however, did not weaken the will and strength of the
VietCong and their allies from the.north.Jnfiltration.of____ _
personnel and supplies down the\famous Ho Chi.Minh Trail
continued at an escalated level, and regular troops from the
north--now estimated at more than l 00,000--played a growing
role in the war. The continuing strength oftl!_~ iD-S:tlfgent forces
became evident in the so-calle;d- Tet Uffellsive that Began in late
January 1968, during which the-Viet·Cong and North
Vietnamese attacked more than 100 cities and military bases,
holding on to some for several weeks .. After that, a growing
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..
~-
�Encyclopaedia Britannica: Vietnam, history of
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conviction in the U.S. government that continuing the war at
the current levels was no longer politically acceptable led
President Johnson to order a restriction of the bombingjn_the
north. This decision op~ned the way for U.S. negotiations with
Hanoi;which-began in Paris in May 1968. After theoombing
was hilted-overthe entire north in November 1968: the Paris
talks were enlarged to include representatives of the NLF and
the Saigon regime.
The war continued under a new American president, Richard
M. Nixon. Nixon began to withdraw U.S. troops gradually, but
publ~Qpposition to the war escalated at):er he ordered attacks ·,
c_op the Ho Chi Mirth Trail in Laos and Viet Cong sanctuaries·-- ·
Tnside Camboc!i£t; Jii.Jhe m(;!cmt_i.me, 1h~ pe(lce talks went on in · -· · · · ··· · -- ·
\Paris ;--~
1
(J:Bti:/M.E.O./W.J.D.)
Withdrawal of American troops
~-------~-~---------
---
-----------
---------------
·-;.-
(Final!y,in January 1973 a peace treaty was signed by the
<_l:JniiecfStates -ana alnh!eeViefnamese parties. It provided for
thecompletewithdrawal of U.S. troops within 60 days and
created a political process for the peaceful resolution of the
conflict in the south. Nothing was said, however, about the
presence of more than 100,000 North Vietnamese troops in
South Vietnam. The signing of the Paris Agreement did not
bring an end to the fighting in Vietnam. The Saigon regime
made a determined effort to eliminate the communist forces
remaining in the south, while northern leaders continued to
strengthen their own military forces in preparation for a
possible future confrontation. By late 1974 Hanoi had decided
that victory could be achieved only through armed struggle, and
early the next year North Vietnamese troops launched a major
offensive against the south. Saigon's forces retreated in panic_
and disorder, and President Thiel!_or.deredJhe abandonm~nt of
__several.northem provin~es. tfhieu's effort to stabilize the_
;
('situation was too late, however, and on April30, 1975, the
coillinunists entered Saigon in trh.1JI1ph~ The Second Indochina ,·war was finally at an end.
·
L.
(See Nguyen Van Thieu.)
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Following the communist Y;ictory, Vietnam remained
theoretically divided until July 2, 1976, whenthe Socialist
Republic of Vietnam was officially proclaimed, with its capital
at Hanoi. Vietnam at peace faced formidable problems. In the
south alone, millions of people had been made homeless by the
war, and more than one-seventh of the population had been
killed or wounded; the costs in the north were probably as high·
or higher. Plans to reconstruct the country called for the
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expansion of industry in the north and of agriculture in the
south. Within two years of the communist victory, however, it
became clear that Vietnam would face major difficulties in
realizing its goals .
. Hanoi had been at war for more than a generation--indeed, Ho
Chi Minh had died in 1969--and the bureaucracy was poorly
trained to deal with the problems of peacetime economic
recovery .. The government encountered considerable resistance
to its policies, particularly in the huge metropolis of Saigon
(renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976), where members of the
commercial sector--many of whom were ethnic Chinese-sought to avoid cooperating in the new socialist economic
measures and resisted assignment to "new economic zones". in
the countryside. During the late 1970s the country also suffered
__ .. .
major floods and drought that severely reduced-food
producti<?!!·_ Wlien.the regime suddenly announced a program J
[ call~11& fo[):}j~sociali~~-io!_'! ofjndustry and ~griculture in ~he ·}
sq:uth-m-early 1978, liundreds ofthousands of people (mamly· 1
ethnic_Chines~)_:!l~d the country on foot or by boat.·
'
\.-----
-- --
-
~
---
.
--
-~
These internal difficulties were compounded by problems in
foreign affairs. Perhaps unrealistically, the regime decided to
pursue plans to form a close alliance with new revolutionary
governments in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia
(Kampuchea). Such plans risked incurring not only the hostility
ofthe United States but also that of China, which had its own
interests in those countries; Ks ·sino-Vietnamese relations··· ~,
~--.soured~ .Hanoi turned to Moscow and signed a treaty of ~- '
L~. friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union. In the:·
'-meantime, relations with the revolutionary Democratic
Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) government in Cambodia rapidly
deteriorated when it refused Hanoi's offer of a close
relationship agiQ~g th~thtee _countries o[the I_ll~~chinese
Peninsula. Savage herder fighting culminated in a Vie1rtamese
in{rasion ofCarnb.o.dia.in December 1978. The.Khmer Rouge;
were-aislodged from power, and a pro-Vietnamese government
was installed in Phnom Penh.
Khmer Rouge forces now took refuge in isolated areas of the
country and began a guerrilla war of resistance against the new
government, the latter~~a~J<:~<Lby_sofile_20_Q,PQQ \'ietnamese
)
troops. In tne-meantime, China launched a brief buttierce- .
/·
. )·punitive invasion along the Sino-Vietnamese border in early
; 1979 in response to Vietnamese actions in Cambodia. During . J
L -the.,month-long war the Chinese destroyed major Vietnamese
tq\vns and inflicted heavy damage in the frontier zone, but they
also suffered heavy.. casualties-from -the-Vietname~e_(l~f~nders.
Vietnam was now ne ' i[clated in tfi world._ Apart from the
protege regime in Phnom- e
e governlnenf of Laos,
which also was heavily dependent on Vietnamese aid for its
survival, the country was at odds_}Vjtltth.e re!ll:llill<!er of its
regional neighbours:--'Fhecrriember states· of the Association of-- -,
Southeast Asian_ N_(ltionsQJ?posed_the_Y.ietnamese occupationoL '
'Cambodia. ________ . w1th Clrtiia m supportmg guemlla
L ___ and JOmed
.
.
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/
(I,
resistance forces represented by the I<luJ!~r _Ro.ug~_and various
noncommunist Cambodian groups.,\An-economic trade embargo
with ~ietnam-was imposeo by llie- United Statesand'most '- -;
'C:::other~Western countries. Only the Soviet Union and its allies in
eastern-Europe ~tood by Vietnam. - :
-,
Under such severe external pressure, Vietnam suffered
continuing economic difficulties. The cost of stationing troops
in Cambodia and of maintaining a strong defensive position
along the Chinese border was especially heavy. To make
matters worse, the regime encountered continuing problems in
integrating the southern provinces into a socialist economy. In
the early 1980s the government announced a number of reforms
to encourage efforts to build up the ec_onomy ..Then,-with the
death of veteran party chief Le DuaninJ 986 (Le !>J.lim had ___ _
.
succeeded Ho Chi Minh as party chief in 1960), t~e party
_I
. -launched a major program- patterned aftenhe-soviell:Jnion!s~ :'- -- .:__
Lstrategy of perestroika (restructuring).- Vietnam also offered a
number of concessions to bring about a peace settlement in
Cambodia.
The results of these changes have been inconclusive. New party
leaders have announced their willingness to abandon
doctrinaire Marxist-Leninist ideology in order to achieve rapid
economic growth, but they have been unwilling_to_share pqwer
with non~QIJlmunistelemenfs; a new constitution enacted in
1992, however, was seen as a step toward loosening party /
'-.
·- - control of the goveririlient.-In-the meantime, a final peace
settlement in Cambodia has remained elusive. Since the
breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Hanoi has
improved relations with China, but its full acceptance into the
family of nations has yet to be realized.
(M.E.()./W.J.l).)
.
..... PREVIOUS
TABLE
I
OF
.
.
.
.
.
..
·-· .
.
NEXT.
CONTENTS
Vietnam, history of
• Introduction
• Origins of the Vietnamese people
• Earliest known history of Vietnam
o Legendary kingdoms
o Nam Viet
Early society
• Vietnam under Chinese rule
• ...,._The first period of independence
o ...,._The Ly dynasty
o • The Tran dynasty
• ...,._Expansion, division, and reunification
o ...,._The Later Le dynasty
o ...,._Two divisions of Vietnam
• .... state and society of precolonial Vietnam
o
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�...
Encyclopaedia Britannica: Southeast Asian arts
Page 1 of5
...,.
I
!Vietnam
'"-~
ENGYCLOPEDIA
r
'"~'~"""~"'"'" _ _,,,,,,.~,j
r
OICTIONA.RY
-r:•····
.... PREVIOUS
I
ON
NEXT.
THI:S
TOPIC:,
!IIIEARTICLE
IF INDEX ENTRY
FINTERNET LlNKB
Southeast Asian arts
RELATE C•
Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam
ToP~ C S,
more general
-art
Laotian literature was in many respects a dialect branch ofTai
literature, and, as in Thailand, it was the creation of the royal
court. A number ofpopular romantic poems and prose lives of
famous monks were composed, but their authors were
unknown: all works, in fact; were by custom written
anonymously.
-southeast Asia
The kings of Cambodia, fallen from high estate and often mere
vassals of Thailand, could not inspire the rise of a vernacular
literature. Only in the monasteries was there any literary
activity, and this was written in the Pali language.
I
In Vietnam, the emperors ofthe Tran dynasty (13th-14th
century) were themselves poets and patronized new literature-which, nevertheless, was still written in Chinese and was
therefore national rather than vernacular. The writings
themselves, however, were by no means a mere branch of
Chinese literature. The country was afterward conquered once
more by China and it was not until it regained independence
that, under the patronage of the Le dynasty emperors (15th-16th
century), a new age of literature began. Although the Chinese
language was still used, some writers were beginning to use the
vernacular (employing Chu-nom script, consisting of modified
Chinese characters). Nguyen Trai, Emperor Le Thanh Tong,
and Nguyen Binh Khiem were the great poets of this period. In
1651 Father Alexandre de Rhodes, a Roman Catholic
missionary priest, invented a new romanized script (Quoc-ngu)
that became the national script. Literature then began to reach
the common people.
a
Literary works written before the end of the 18th century have
not survived; the best known are those written in the 19th
century, before the country became a French colony in 1862.
Ho Xuan Huong, Nguyen Cong Tru, Chu Manh Trinh, and
Tran Ke Xuong were famous court poets. Nguyen Du (17651820) wrote moral tales in verse that appealed not only to the
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v
_ Encyclopaedia Britannica: Southeast Asian arts
Page 2 of5
court but to the common people. His most famous work was
Kim Van Kieu, a poem of 3,253 lines, showing a strong Chinese
influence (the plot was taken from a Chinese historical novel,
and its ethical basis was both Confucian and Chinese
Buddhist). The plays of the period, although written in
Vietnamese, followed Chinese dramatic traditions because the
Vietnamese theatre was still Chinese in style and practice .
.... PREVIDUB
I
A 13 L E
'o
I
F
NEXT ...
t:
0 N T E NT S
Southeast Asian arts
• Introduction
• The cultural setting of Southeast Asian arts
o External influences
o Indigenous traditions
• The role of royal patronage and religious
institutions
• Predominant artistic themes
o The unique aesthetic of the region
• Literature
o General considerations
• Regional distinctions
• Prestige of the writer
o Pre-European colonial period
• Burma
• The 15th century
• The 16th century
• Golden age of literature
• Thailand
o
• First golden age: King Narai (1657-
_rn
• Second golden age: King Rama II
(1809-24)
• ..,. Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam
• Malaysia and Indonesia
o European colonial and modem periods
• Burma
• Thailand
• Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam
• Malaysia and Indonesia
• The Philippines ,
• Music
--o-General characteristics
• Society and music
• Rural and urban music
• Relation to social institutions
• The relation of music to dance and theatre
• Musical traditions and practice
• Vocal music
• Instrumental music
• Tonal systems
• Musical time and improvisation
http://search.eb.com/bol/topic?eu= 117648&sctn= 15
10/30/2000
�Clinton Presidential Records
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Title
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Speechwriting Office - Thomas Rosshirt
Creator
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National Security Council
Speechwriting Office
Thomas Rosshirt
Date
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1999-2001
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<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36327" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7585792" target="_blank">National Archives Collection Description</a>
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2008-0703-F
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<p>Rosshirt prepared speech remarks delivered by President William J. Clinton and National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger between 1999 and 2001.</p>
<p>Rosshirt’s speechwriting efforts for President Clinton concerned the President’s trip to Vietnam; remarks at the Memorial Day Ceremony in Arlington, Virginia; remarks at Camp Foster Marine Base in Okinawa; remarks at the Council of the Americas 30th Washington Conference; the debt cancellation announcement for Jubilee2000; the Armed Forces Farewell at Fort Myer, Virginia; remarks to the Israeli Policy Forum; and awarding the Medal of Honor to both former President Theodore Roosevelt and to Captain Ed W. Freeman. Rosshirt’s speechwriting efforts also included National Security Advisor Berger’s remarks at Tel Aviv University and an article concerning Saddam Hussein.</p>
<p>This collection was made available through a <a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/freedom-of-information-act-requests">Freedom of Information Act</a> request.</p>
Provenance
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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Adobe Acrobat Document
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51 folders in 5 boxes
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Paper
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[Vietnam] [1]
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National Security Council
Speechwriting Office
Thomas Rosshirt
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2008-0703-F
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Box 5
<a href="http://clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/2008/2008-0703-F.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7585792" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Provenance
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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Adobe Acrobat Document
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Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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Reproduction-Reference
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5/13/2014
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42-t-7585792-20080703f-005-007-2014
7585792