A Brief History
The Vietnamese began as a scattered people living in what is now South China and Northern Vietnam, just before the beginning of the Christian era. In 221 B.C. successive Chinese dynasties began to rule, until 938 when Vietnam regained its independence.
In the 19th century the country was colonized by France. During World War II, Japan expelled the French in order to occupy Vietnam, though they retained French administrators during their occupation. When the war was over France attempted to re-establish its colonial rule, without success. The Geneva Accords split the country in two, planning to hold democratic elections to reunite the country.
Rather than peaceful reunification, partition led to Civil War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War. During this time, China and Russia supported the North while America supported the South. After the American withdrawal from Vietnam in 1973, and millions of Vietnamese deaths, the war ended with the fall of Saigon to the North two years later.
The reunified Vietnam suffered greatly under a repressive Communist regime, and the continuing Cold War and Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia kept them isolated from the outside world.
In 1986, the Communist Party began economic reforms and the country has enjoyed substantial economic growth. The heavy-fisted rule over the nation has begun to ease, though corruption and persecution continue to oppress the Vietnamese people.
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