South Vietnam, 1954-1963 Vietnam since 1975







South Vietnam, 1963-1975


Administration . On Nov. 2nd 1963 President Diem was ousted in a military coup d'etat. A Revolutionary Military Committee took over, on August 27th replaced by a Provisional Leadership Committee. Elections were held in 1964. Until June 14th 1965, the leaders changed frequently; from 1965 to 1975 Nguyen Van Thieu held the position of Chairman of the Provisional (since 1968 National) Leadership Committee. A new, specifically anti-Communist constitution was adopted in 1967.
In 1969 the South Vietnamese Communists established the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Vietnam.

Foreign Policy and Vietnam War . The Republic of Vietnam increasingly depended on U.S. financial, technical and military aid. From 1964 onward the Vietnam War escalated; North Vietnam was actively involved the rebellion of South Vietnamese communists; Cambodia pursued a policy benevolent to the rebels and in 1963 cut diplomatic relations with South Vietnam. The USSR, the PR China and the Communist bloc supported the North and the rebels in the South. In 1968 the Communists temporarily managed to get fighters on the roof of the U.S. embassy.
In the Vietnam War, on the side of the Republic of Vietnam soldiers from the U.S., Australia (1962-1973), New Zealand (1962-1973), the Republic of Korea (1964-1973), the Philippines and Thailand (1965-1971) fought. Negotiations between the U.S. and the P.R. China, beginning in 1971, began a process of deescalation. The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 between the Republic of Vietnam (the South), the U.S., the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (the North) and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (Communists) resulted in a truce which permitted the U.S. and other western nations to withdraw their troops. In 1975 the Republic of Vietnam fell in a quick campaign (Operation Ho Chi Minh).
Vietnam maintained diplomatic relationd with Australia, Belgium, the FR Germany, Italy, the Ivory Coast, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Laos, Luxemburg, Malaysia, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Senegal, Sweden, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, the U.K. and the U.S. (StYB 1970-1971 p.1478).

The Economy . In 1963, South Vietnam produced 5.3 million metric tons of rice, in 1973 7.0 million metric tons (IHS p.203).
The extensive usage of the defoliant Agent Orange by the U.S. airforce did not only have the immediate effect of making troop movements on the ground visible, but left large tracts of land intoxicated and thus unfit for rice cultivation.

Social History . The population of South Vietnam, for 1965, was estimated at 15.1 million, including 677,000 Montagnards and 454,000 Cambodians. In these figures, Vietnam's minority of ethnic Chinese, the Hoa, was included in the Vietnamese population. There were c.800,000 refugees from the North in the country (StYB 1970-1971 p.1475).
The war produced internal displacement. Jan Lahmeyer gives the population of the agglomeration of Saigon for 1960 as 1.1 million, for 1968 as 1.25 million, for 1970 as 2 million and for 1973 as 1.76 million.
An estimated 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers were killed during the Vietnam War; the number of South Vietnamese civilian dead, due to the war, is estimated at 2 million.

Cultural History . In 1965 television broadcasting began in South Vietnam.
South Vietnamese athletes participated in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo 1964, Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		The Fall of Saigon, 1975, from the New York Times Learning Center
Articles Military History of Australia during the Vietnam War, Vietnam War, New Zealand in the Vietnam War, Nguyen Van Thieu, South Vietnam, Paris Peace Accords, Ho Chi Minh Offensive, Vietnam at the 1964 Summer Olympics, Vietnam at the 1968 Summer Olympics, Vietnam at the 1972 Summer Olympics, Vietnam War Casualties, Agent Orange, from Wikipedia
DOCUMENTS South Vietnamese Statesmen, from World Statesmen, by Ben Cahoon
Historical Population Statistics of Urban Centers : Vietnam, from Population Statistics (Jan Lahmeyer).
REFERENCE IHS : International Historical Statistics : Africa, Asia & Oceania 1750-2000, edited by B.R. Mitchell, Basingstoke : Palgrave MacMillan 4th ed. 2003
Article : Vietnam, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1964 pp.856-857, 1965 pp.857-859, 1966 pp.797-801, 1967 pp.794-798, 1968 pp.798-802, 1969 pp.790-795, 1970 pp.788-793, 1971 pp.771-775, 1972 pp.725-729, 1973 pp.723-728, 1974 pp.720-726, 1975 pp.727-729, 1976 pp.725-728 [G]
Article : South Vietnam, in : The World in Figures 1st ed. 1976 pp.204-205 [G]
Article : Vietnam, in : Americana Annual 1964 pp.710-713, 1965 pp.733-736, 1967 pp.734-739, 1968 pp.731-738, 1969 pp.735-742, 1970 pp.736-742, 1971 pp.741-743, 1972 pp.739-741, 1973 pp.737-739, 1974 pp.647-649, 1976 pp.103, 588-591 [G]
Article : (South) Vietnam, in : The Statesman's Year-Book 1970-1971 pp. 1473-1479, 1975-1976 pp. 1471-1476 [G]
Marvin E. Gettleman (ed.), Vietnam. History, Documjents, and Opinions on a Major World Crisis, Grenwich : Fawcett Crest 1965 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on May 19th 2002, last revised on June 6th 2007

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