Vietnam, a nation located along the eastern coast of
mainland Southeast Asia, has had a turbulent history.
Emerging as a distinct civilization during the first
millennium BC, Vietnam was conquered by China during the
early Han dynasty and subjected to 1,000 years of foreign
rule. In AD 939 the Vietnamese restored their
independence and gradually expanded southward along the
coast from their historic homeland in the YUAN (Red) River
valley. In the 19th century Vietnam was conquered once
again and absorbed, along with neighboring Cambodia (now
Kampuchea) and Laos, into French INDOCHINA. Patriotic
elements soon began to organize national resistance to
colonial rule, however, and after World War II,
Communist-led Viet Minh guerrillas battled for several
years to free the country from foreign subjugation.

In 1954, at the GENEVA CONFERENCE, the country was divided
into Communist-led North Vietnam and non-Communist South
Vietnam. For the next 20 years, both North and South
Vietnam were involved in the VIETNAM WAR. That conflict
came to an end when Communist forces from the north
occupied Saigon (now HO CHI MINH CITY) in April 1975.
Today, the Vietnamese government is attempting to lead the
entire nation to socialism. But domestic unrest and
foreign-policy problems, compounded by renewed tensions
with China over the Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea,
keep Vietnam a garrison state.