Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)

Republic of Vietnam Việt Nam Cộng hòa
Flag Coat of arms
Capital and largest city	Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City)
Official languages	Vietnamese
Dominant mode of production	Capitalism
Area
• Total	173,809 km²
Population
• 1974 estimate	19,582,000

The Republic of Vietnam (RVN), also known as South Vietnam, was a U.S. puppet state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. After the Liberation of Saigon, it reunified with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to form the modern Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The U.S. military divided South Vietnam into four tactical zones from north to south in addition to a special zone for the capital.

History

Bảo Đại Regime

After the defeat of the French colonizers in 1954, the Geneva Convention partitioned Vietnam into north and south and planned to reunify them in 1956 following an all-Vietnam election. The USA knew that Ho Chi Minh would win the election, since he was very popular and his people loved him, so America armed the south against revolutionary forces and installed Ngô Đình Diệm as the Catholic autocrat of the south.

Diệm' Regime

Under Diệm, South Vietnam developed into an authoritarian anti-communist state rather than a liberal democracy. Diệm refused to participate in the nationwide reunification elections called for after the Geneva settlement, while U.S. officials recognized that Hồ Chí Minh would likely have won a free election. Diệm's government repressed communists, Viet Minh supporters, opposition parties, and dissidents, while relying heavily on U.S. military and financial support.

The Strategic Hamlet Program, launched under Diệm with U.S. support, attempted to isolate rural peasants from the National Liberation Front by reorganizing or relocating villages into fortified settlements. The program deepened rural resentment toward the Saigon government and failed to defeat the insurgency.

Diệm's rule also produced a major religious and political crisis in 1963. Although South Vietnam's population was majority Buddhist, Diệm's Catholic-dominated regime was widely accused of favoritism toward Catholics and repression of Buddhists. In August 1963, Diệm declared martial law and his forces raided Buddhist pagodas connected to the protest movement. Later that year, South Vietnamese military officers overthrew and assassinated Diệm in a coup carried out with the prior knowledge of the U.S. government.

South Vietnam also became connected to the regional narcotics economy during the war. Rather than being a major producer of opium or heroin itself, South Vietnam functioned as an important wartime market and transit point for heroin produced in the Golden Triangle, especially Burma, Laos, and Thailand. Golden Triangle heroin refineries supplied South Vietnam, where U.S. soldiers could purchase heroin cheaply. The growth of this market reflected the wider destabilization of Southeast Asia during the U.S. war in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, where military intervention, covert operations, and regional client forces intersected with existing opium and heroin networks.