The communists attacked South Vietnamese targets during the 1968 Tết Offensive. The campaign failed militarily, but shocked the American establishment and brought American public opinion against the war. [138] During the offensive, communist forces massacred more than 3,000 civilians in Huế. [139] [140] In the face of mounting casualties, growing domestic opposition to the war, and growing international condemnation, the United States began withdrawing from ground combat roles in the early 1970s. This included unsuccessful efforts to strengthen and stabilize South Vietnam. [141] According to the Paris Peace Agreement of January 27, 1973, all U.S. combat troops were withdrawn on March 29, 1973. [142] In December 1974, North Vietnam seized Phước Long province and launched a full-scale offensive, culminating in the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. [143] South Vietnam was ruled by a provisional government for nearly eight years while under North Vietnamese military occupation. [144] Since 905, Tĩnh Hải County has been governed by local Vietnamese governors as an autonomous state.
[56] Tĩnh Hải County had to pay tribute to the later Liang dynasty in exchange for political protection. In 923, the Southern Han invaded Jinghai, but were repulsed by the Vietnamese leader Dương Đình Nghệ.[57] [58] In 938, the Chinese state of Southern Han again sent a fleet to subdue the Vietnamese. General Ngô Quyền (r. 939–944), son-in-law of Dương Đình Nghệ, defeated the Southern Han fleet at the Battle of Bạch Đằng (938). He then proclaimed himself King Ngō, established a monarchy government in Cổ Loa, and effectively began Vietnam`s age of independence. A few years later, French troops landed in North Vietnam (which they called Tonkin) and captured Hà Nội twice, in 1873 and 1882. The French managed to keep Tonkin under control, although their main commanders, Francis Garnier and Henri Rivière, were twice ambushed and killed while fighting Black Flag Army pirates hired by the mandarins. The France took control of all of Vietnam after the Tonkin Campaign (1883-1886). Indochina was formed in October 1887 from Annam (Trung Kỳ, Central Vietnam), Tonkin (Bắc Kỳ, North Vietnam), Cochinchina (Nam Kỳ, South Vietnam and Cambodia, Laos added in 1893). Within French`Indochina, Cochinchina had colony status, Annam was nominally a protectorate in which the Nguyễn dynasty still ruled, and Tonkin had a French governor with local governments headed by Vietnamese officials. [ref. needed] It is in this environment that the Vietnamese people have lived, fought and prospered.
The Vietnamese were an ethnic group established around 200 AD, but they were neither united nor independent. The Vietnamese, who lived mainly in modern northern Vietnam, were just a people vying for power in Southeast Asia. From about 200 BC. In 938 AD, Vietnam was ruled by a number of Chinese emperors. After defeating their imperial overlords, the Vietnamese began to consolidate their nation, although almost constant conflicts with the Chinese, Khmer (indigenous Cambodians), Chams (the people of Champa, a southern kingdom), and fighting between rival Vietnamese rulers kept the nation weak. In 1428, a period of Chinese occupation ended with an indigenous Vietnamese rebellion, and the commander of these rebels became the ruler of Vietnam. With the establishment of the Le dynasty, this dynasty defeated the Champas kingdom of the south and fully established Vietnamese rule in the south. Between 1627 and 1775, two powerful families had divided the country: the Nguyễn lords ruled the south and the Trịnh lords ruled the north. The Trịnh-Nguyễn War gave European traders the opportunity to support each side with weapons and technology: the Portuguese supported the Nguyễn in the south, while the Dutch helped the Trịnh in the north.
Trịnh and Nguyễn maintained relative peace over the next hundred years, during which both sides achieved significant successes. The Trịnh established centralized government offices responsible for the state budget and currency production, unified units of weight into a decimal system, set up printing presses to reduce the need to import printed materials from China, opened a military academy, and compiled history books. In 1600, Nguyễn Hoàng also declared himself lord (officially “Vương”, popularly known as “Chúa”) and refused to send more money or soldiers to help the Trịnh. He also moved his capital to Phú Xuân, present-day Huế. Nguyễn Hoàng died in 1613 after ruling the south for 55 years. His 6th son, Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, succeeded him, also refused to recognize the power of Trịnh, but nevertheless swore allegiance to the Lê monarch. [105] The Han and other prosperous Chinese dynasties learned a lesson from the Trưng uprising and took steps to eliminate the power of Vietnamese nobles. [38] Vietnamese elites were educated in Chinese culture and politics. A prefect of Giao Chỉ, Shi Xie, ruled Vietnam for forty years as an autonomous warlord and was posthumously idolized by later Vietnamese monarchs. [39] [40] Shi Xie swore allegiance to the Eastern Wu of the Three Kingdoms period in China. Eastern Wu was a formative period in Vietnamese history. According to Stephen O`Harrow, Shi Xie was essentially “the first Vietnamese”.
[41] Nearly 200 years passed before the Vietnamese attempted another uprising. In 248, a Yue woman, Triệu Thị Trinh, along with her brother Triệu Quốc Đạt, popularly known as Lady Triệu (Bà Triệu), led a revolt against the Wu dynasty. Once again, the uprising failed. The Wu Dynasty sent Lu Yin and 8,000 elite soldiers to suppress the rebels. [42] He succeeded in pacifying the rebels with a combination of threats and persuasion. According to the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư (Complete Annals of Đại Việt), Lady Triệu had long hair that reached her shoulders and fought over an elephant. After several months of war, she was defeated and committed suicide. [43] In 207 BC. Former Qin general Zhao Tuo (Trieu Da in Vietnamese) founded an independent kingdom in the present-day Guangdong/Guangxi region of China`s southern coast. He proclaimed his new kingdom as Nam Việt (Pinyin: Nanyue), which was to be ruled by the Zhao dynasty.[33] [33] Zhao Tuo later proclaimed himself commander of Central Guangdong, closed the borders and conquered neighboring districts, and called himself “King of Nanyue.” [33] 179 BC. J.-C. He defeated King An Dương Vương and annexed Âu Lạc.[34] In the period between the beginning of the Chinese era of fragmentation and the end of the Tang dynasty, several uprisings against Chinese rule took place, such as that of Lý Bôn and his general and heir Triệu Quang Phục.
All ultimately failed, but the most notable were those of Lý Bôn and Triệu Quang Phục, who ruled the briefly independent kingdom of Van Xuan for nearly half a century, from 544 to 602, before Sui China reconquered the kingdom. [46] Trần Thủ Độ viciously purged members of the Lý nobility; some Lý princes fled to Korea, including Lý Long Tường.