Vietnam, flag ofcountry occupying the eastern portion of mainland Southeast Asia.

Vietnam's (Vietnam) principal physiographic features are the Annamese Cordillera (French: Chaîne Annamitique; Vietnamese: Nui Truong Son), extending generally from northwest to southeast in central Vietnam and dominating the interior, and two extensive alluvial deltas formed by the Red (Hong) River (Red River) in the north and the Mekong (Cuu Long) River (Mekong River) in the south. Between these two deltas is a long, relatively narrow coastal plain.

Roughly triangular in shape, with its northeast and southwest sides bounded by the northern uplands, the Red River delta extends inland some 150 miles (240 km) and runs some 75 miles (120 km) along the Gulf of Tonkin (Tonkin, Gulf of). The delta can be divided into four subregions. The northwestern section has the highest and most broken terrain, and its extensive natural levees invite settlement despite frequent flooding. The low-lying eastern portion is less than seven feet (two metres) above sea level in the vicinity of Bac Ninh. Rivers there form small valleys only slightly lower than the general surface level, and they are subject to flooding by the area's unusually high tides. The third and fourth subregions consist, respectively, of the poorly drained lowlands in the west and the coastal area, which is marked by the remains of former beach ridges left as the delta expanded.

The most common domesticated animals in Vietnam are water buffalo, cattle, dogs, cats, pigs, goats, ducks, and chickens. Wild game in the central highlands includes elephants and tapirs; Sumatran rhinoceroses, believed to have become extinct by the 1960s, were sighted in the 1990s. Also found in the forests are large cats, including tigers, leopards, and ounces (snow leopards); several kinds of wild oxen, including gaurs and koupreys; and various types of bears, among them black bears and sun bears (honey bears). Deer are plentiful and include the small musk deer and muntjac (barking deer). Other common wild animals are wild pigs, porcupines, jackals, otters, mongooses, hares, skunks, and squirrels, including flying squirrels.

Diverse cultural traditions, geographies, and historical events have created distinct regions within the country. The lowlands generally have been occupied by ethnic Vietnamese, while the highlands have been home to numerous smaller ethnic groups that differ culturally and linguistically from the Vietnamese. The highland peoples can be divided into the northern ethnic groups, who have affinities with peoples in southern China who speak Tai languages; and the southern highland populations, who have ties with peoples in Cambodia, who speak Mon-Khmer languages (Austroasiatic (Austroasiatic languages) family), and peoples in Indonesia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, who speak Austronesian (Austronesian languages) languages. A north-south variation has also emerged among the ethnic Vietnamese as they have expanded southward from the Red River delta along the coastal plain and into the Mekong delta. The Vietnamese have long made a distinction between the northern region, with Hanoi as its cultural centre; the central region, where the Nguyen Dynasty established a capital at Hue; and the southern region, with Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) as its urban centre. After the mid-19th century, Vietnam was similarly divided by the French into Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and Cochinchina in the south.

Vietnam has one of the most complex ethnolinguistic patterns in Asia. The Vietnamese (Vietnamese language) majority was significantly Sinicized during a millennium of Chinese rule, which ended in AD 939. Indian influence is most evident among the Cham and Khmer minorities. The Cham formed the majority population in the Indianized kingdom of Champa in what is now central Vietnam from the 2nd to the late 15th century AD. Small numbers of Cham remain in the south-central coastal plain and in the Mekong delta near the Cambodian border. The Khmer (Cambodians) are scattered throughout the Mekong delta.

Vietnamese (Vietnamese language) is the official language of Vietnam. Although one of the Mon-Khmer languages of the Austroasiatic family, Vietnamese exhibits strong influences from Chinese (Chinese languages). The language of the Khmer minority also belongs to the Mon-Khmer group, whereas Cham belongs to the Austronesian (Austronesian languages) family.

Many Montagnard peoples—such as the Rade (Rhade), Jarai, Chru, and Roglai—speak Austronesian languages, linking them to the Cham, Malay, and Indonesian peoples; others—including the Bru, Pacoh, Katu, Cua, Hre, Rengao, Sedang, Bahnar, Mnong, Mang (Maa), Muong, and Stieng—speak Mon-Khmer languages, connecting them with the Khmer. French missionaries and administrators provided Roman script for some of the Montagnard languages, and additional orthographies have since been devised.

Confucianism, Daoism, and Mahayana Buddhism entered Vietnam over many centuries. Gradually they became intertwined, simplified, and Vietnamized to constitute, along with vestiges of earlier local beliefs, an indigenous religion that came to be shared to some considerable extent by all Vietnamese, regardless of region or social class. It is largely this religious amalgam that is practiced by the roughly half of the population that identifies itself as being Buddhist. The religion of Cao Dai, a synthesis of Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Roman Catholicism, appeared during the 1920s, and in the 1930s the Hoa Hao neo-Buddhist sect spread through parts of the Mekong delta. Cao Dai has about twice as many adherents as Hoa Hao, but both congregations are growing. Together, the two new-religionist movements have embraced a significant minority of the population. Local religions involving numerous spirits predominate in many upland communities, and most Cham are adherents of Islam.

Roman Catholicism was introduced into Vietnam in the 16th century by Portuguese explorers and Dominican missionaries and spread rapidly following the French conquest in the mid-19th century. The heaviest concentrations of Roman Catholics in Vietnam were in the north until 1954, when, after the partition of the country, many of them to fled to the south. Protestantism (Protestant Heritage) came to Vietnam in 1911 and spread mainly among small segments of the urban population in the central and southern regions.

There are several distinct rural settlement patterns in Vietnam. Especially in northern and central Vietnam, geomantic principles influence the orientation of houses and community buildings. In central Vietnam, many of these structures face the sea. In the densely populated Red River delta in the north, village buildings are often grouped closely together and are enclosed by a bamboo hedge or an earthen wall. Those along rivers, canals, or roads often abut each other, forming a single elongated settlement. Lowland Vietnamese villages on the central coastal plain are characteristically close-knit, small clusters of farmsteads near watercourses, and fishing villages are often situated in sheltered inlets. In the Mekong delta in the south many settlements are strung out along waterways and roads; most are loose-knit clusters of farmsteads, with some of them scattered among the rice fields. The settlements of the Cham and Khmer minorities closely resemble those of the Vietnamese. Most highland peoples build their houses on pilings.

Historically, Vietnam's major cities have been Hanoi, Hue, and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Throughout Vietnamese history the Hanoi area has been important and was the site of several early capitals. Hanoi also served as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 until 1954, and the city has retained the architecture of that era. The city's port of Haiphong was developed by the French in the late 19th century as a trade and banking centre. Hue was the seat of the Nguyen family, which controlled central and southern Vietnam from the late 17th to the late 19th century. Located on the Huong (Perfume) River, it was laid out in the early 19th century as a political and religious centre, and its economic functions were ancillary. Saigon was built largely by the French in the second half of the 19th century as the administrative capital and principal port of Cochinchina. The city's architecture recalls towns and cities in southern France. The adjoining city of Cholon has long been a major centre for ethnic Chinese.

Agriculture is fading as the most important economic sector in Vietnam. Although agriculture still employs more than half of the population and manufacturing accounts for a mere 8 percent of all employment, the output value of both manufacturing and services surpassed that of agriculture in the early 1990s. Yet, agriculture is the main source of raw materials for the processing industries and a major contributor to exports; by the late 1980s Vietnam was again exporting rice after years of shortages. Permanent cultivation covers large areas of the country's lowlands and smaller portions of the highlands. The primary agricultural areas are the Red River delta, the Mekong River delta, and the southern terrace region. The central coastal land, which is subject to destructive typhoons, is a region of low productivity. The central highlands area, traditionally one of low productivity, has been intensively cultivated since 1975, but with mixed results.

rice is the most important crop. It is grown principally in the Red and Mekong river deltas. Other major food crops are sugarcane, cassava (manioc), corn (maize), sweet potatoes, and nuts. Agriculture is highly labour-intensive in Vietnam, and much plowing is still done by water buffalo. There are many plantations of banana, coconut, and citrus trees, most of them found in the Mekong delta and the southern terrace regions. Coffee and tea are grown in the central highlands. The production of rubber was disrupted by the war but has been restored in the central highlands and southern terrace regions. Fields, groves, and kitchen gardens throughout Vietnam include a wide variety of fruit trees (banana, orange, mango, jackfruit, and coconut) and vegetables. Kapok trees are found in many villages, and the Vietnamese cultivate areca palms and betel peppers for their nuts and leaves and mulberry bushes to feed silkworms.

The export of such seafood as shrimp, squid, crab, and lobster has become a major source of foreign exchange. There also has been an increase in the number of commercial shrimp farms. The most important freshwater fisheries are located on the plains of the Mekong and Champasak (Bassac) rivers.

Following reunification and the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976, the government made a concerted effort rapidly to transform the privately owned, capitalist industry in the south into a state-owned, state-run sector. Many industrial operations there were nationalized or forced to become joint state-private enterprises. For industry as a whole, the productivity of both capital and labour declined, and gross output slumped. Heavy industry—plagued by waste and inefficiency, lack of spare parts and raw materials, energy shortages, and poor quality control—led the decline.

The first constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, adopted in 1980, established a Council of State as a collective presidency and a Council of Ministers. In 1992 this document was superseded by a second constitution, which, in addition to replacing the Council of State with an elected president and otherwise reforming Vietnam's government and political structure, also outlined major shifts in foreign policy and economic doctrine. In particular, it stressed the development of all economic sectors, permitted private enterprise, and granted foreign investors the right to legal ownership of their capital and assets while guaranteeing that their property would not be nationalized by the state.

Vietnam's Confucian heritage is evident in the importance the Vietnamese give to the family. Families are essentially patrilineal, but Vietnamese women work alongside men in many jobs and play a major role in raising children and managing family finances. When possible, the Vietnamese prefer to work from early morning until early evening, with an extended rest period during the midday heat. In rural areas, both men and women wear trousers and shirts or blouses. On formal occasions and in urban areas, Western-style clothing is common, including skirts and blouses for women. Women still sometimes wear a form of the traditional ao dai, a long, slit tunic worn over pants.

Ngo Quyen, a Vietnamese commander who defeated the Chinese in 939, became the first head of the new independent Vietnamese province. For more than a half century, however, independence brought neither peace nor political stability. In the early 11th century, the Vietnamese province was finally unified under a centralized administration by Ly Thai To, the founder of the Ly dynasty (sometimes called the Later Ly dynasty; 1009–1225). The Ly rulers established their capital at Thang Long ( Hanoi), in the heart of the Red River delta, modernized the agricultural system, and in 1076 replaced the divisive local lords with a system of administrative officials trained in a civil service institute based on the Chinese model.

The year 1930 was important in the history of Vietnam for yet another reason. Five years earlier, a new figure, destined to become the most prominent leader in the national movement, had appeared on the scene as an expatriate revolutionary in South China. He was Nguyen Ai Quoc, better known by his later pseudonym of Ho Chi Minh. In June 1925 Ho Chi Minh had founded the Revolutionary Youth League of Vietnam, the predecessor of the Indochinese Communist Party.

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 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.

Meanwhile, the Viet Minh waged an increasingly successful guerrilla war, aided after 1949 by the new communist government of China. The United States, fearful of the spread of communism in Asia, sent large amounts of aid to the French. The French, however, were shaken by the fall of their garrison at Dien Bien Phu (Dien Bien Phu, Battle of) in May 1954 and agreed to negotiate an end to the war at an international conference in Geneva.

In the midst of a mass migration of nearly one million people from the north to the south, the two Vietnams began to reconstruct their war-ravaged land. 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 government appointed by Bao Dai began to build a new country. Ngo Dinh Diem, a Roman 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-political groups. Then, in a government-controlled referendum in October 1955, Diem removed Bao Dai as chief of state and made himself president of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam).

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 still-influential 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 underground organization to spy on officials, army officers, and prominent local citizens. Diem also refused to participate in the all-Vietnamese elections described in the Final Declaration. With support from the north, communist-led forces—popularly called the Viet Cong—launched an insurgency movement to seize power and reunify the country. The insurrection appeared close to succeeding, when Diem's army overthrew him in November 1963. Diem and his brother Nhu were killed in the coup.

The government that seized power after Diem's ouster, however, was no more effective than its predecessor. A period of political instability followed, until the military firmly seized control in June 1965 under Nguyen Cao Ky. Militant Buddhists who had 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 Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu as president.

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 of this assistance, however, proved insufficient to halt the advance of the Viet Cong, and in February 1965 U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson (Johnson, Lyndon B.) ordered the bombing of North Vietnam, hoping to prevent further infiltration of arms and troops into the south. Four weeks after the bombing began, the United States started sending troops into the south. By July the number of U.S. troops had reached 75,000; it continued to climb until it stood at more than 500,000 early in 1968. Fighting beside the Americans were some 600,000 regular South Vietnamese troops and regional and self-defense forces, as well as smaller contingents from South Korea (Korea, South), Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand.

Three years of intensive bombing of the north and fighting in the south, however, did not weaken the will and strength of the Viet Cong and their allies from the north. Infiltration of personnel and supplies down the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail continued at a high level, and regular troops from the north—now estimated at more than 100,000—played a growing role in the war. The continuing strength of the insurgent forces became evident in the so-called Tet Offensive 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 conviction in the U.S. government that continuing the war at current levels was no longer politically acceptable led President Johnson to order a reduction of the bombing in the north. This decision opened the way for U.S. negotiations with Hanoi, which began in Paris in May 1968. After the bombing was halted over the entire north in November 1968, the Paris talks were enlarged to include representatives of the NLF and the Saigon regime.

Finally, in January 1973 a peace treaty was signed by the United States and all three Vietnamese parties (North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the Viet Cong). It provided for the complete withdrawal 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 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 Thieu (Nguyen Van Thieu) ordered the abandonment of several northern provinces. Thieu's effort to stabilize the situation was too late, however, and on April 30, 1975, the communists entered Saigon in triumph. The Second Indochina War was finally at an end.

David W.P. Elliot et al.,Vietnam: Essays on History, Culture, and Society (1985), is a solid and readable introduction. A comprehensive analysis of Vietnamese society and culture is Neil L. Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam (1993, reprinted 1995). Other studies of peoples and society include Pierre Gourou, The Peasants of the Tonkin Delta: A Study of Human Geography, trans. by Richard R. Miller, 2 vol. (1955; originally published in French, 1936), a monumental work; three books by Gerald Cannon Hickey, Village in Vietnam (1964), a classic ethnography of the upper Mekong delta in the 1950s, Sons of the Mountains (1982), a masterful overview of the evolving cultures of the Montagnards up to 1954, and Free in the Forest (1982), a scholarly description of the fate of the peoples of the central highlands from 1954 to 1976; and two studies by A. Terry Rambo, A Comparison of Peasant Social Systems of Northern and Southern Viet-Nam: A Study of Ecological Adaptation, Social Succession, and Cultural Evolution (1973), and “Vietnam: Searching for Integration,” in Carlo Caldarola (ed.), Religions and Societies: Asia and the Middle East (1982), pp. 407–444. Karen Fjelstad and Nguyen Thi Hien (eds.), Possessed by the Spirits: Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnamese Communities (2006), contains academic analyses of various shamanic activities. William J. Duiker, Vietnam: Revolution in Transition, 2nd ed. (1995), surveys a wide range of social, political, and cultural developments through the end of the war. Nigel Thrift and Dean Forbes, The Price of War: Urbanization in Vietnam, 1954–85 (1986); Keith Griffin (ed.), Economic Reform in Vietnam (1998); and Brian Van Arkadie and Raymond Mallon, Viet Nam: A Transition Tiger? (2003), are useful studies on these topics.

Keith Weller Taylor, The Birth of Vietnam (1983), is the definitive treatment of early history to the 10th century. Joseph Buttinger, The Smaller Dragon: A Political History of Vietnam (1958, reprinted 1966), is the standard history from the rise of the Vietnamese state to the colonial era. Alexander Barton Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model (1971, reprinted 1988), compares the governments of these two countries in the first half of the 19th century. Milton E. Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response (1859–1905) (1969), analyzes French policies during the first stages of colonial rule. Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution (1992, reissued 1996), plumbs the sources of anticolonial thought. David G. Marr, Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885–1925 (1971), is a sensitive account, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920–1945 (1981, reissued 1984), explores the social and intellectual changes taking place under colonial rule, and Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power (1995, reprinted 1997), explains the August Revolution. Ellen J. Hammer, The Struggle for Indochina (1954, reissued 1969), dramatically treats the final stages of French rule. Huynh Kim Khánh, Vietnamese Communism, 1925–1945 (1982, reissued 1986), is the definitive account of the rise of the Vietnamese communist movement. Alexander B. Woodside, Community and Revolution in Modern Vietnam (1976), argues that the search for community is a key factor in the Vietnamese revolution. Thomas Hodgkin, Vietnam (1981), recounts in detail the background of the Vietnamese revolutionary struggle. Bernard B. Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, 2nd rev. ed. (1967, reprinted 1984), dated but still useful, examines the period after the division of the country. William J. Duiker, Sacred War: Nationalism and Revolution in a Divided Vietnam (1995), focuses on Vietnamese communist perspectives and strategy, and his Ho Chi Minh (2000) is the most comprehensive account of the communist leader's life. David W.P. Elliott, The Vietnamese War: Revolution and Social Change in the Mekong Delta (2003), is a detailed analysis of communist techniques and popular responses; while Truong Nhu Tang, David Chanoff, and Doan Van Toai, A Vietcong Memoir (1985; also published as Journal of a Vietcong, 1986), is a firsthand account of the organization. Ken Post, Revolution, Socialism, and Nationalism in Vietnam, 5 vol. (1989–94), is a Marxist interpretation of the Vietnamese revolution. Jeffrey Race, War Comes to Long An (1972), is the classic study of factors behind the communist success in one province of South Vietnam. William S. Turley and Mark Selden (eds.), Reinventing Vietnamese Socialism: Doi Moi in Comparative Perspective (1993); and Börje Ljunggren (ed.), The Challenge of Reform in Indochina (1993), assess social, political, and economic developments since the war's end. Adam Fforde and Stefan de Vylder, From Plan to Market (1996), analyzes the causes and dynamics of the transition to a market economy. Sophie Quinn-Judge and Odd Arne Westad (eds.), The Third Indochina War: Conflict Between China, Vietnam, and Cambodia, 1972–1979 (2006), is a collection of essays based on more recently available archives that shed new light on Vietnam's wars with China and Cambodia.William S. Turley