SUMMARY
[Note to reader: this Country page primarily contains brief information about state-based violence during the period 1946–1974, and to some extent 1975–1988. For more detailed information on organized violence after 1989, please consult the specific Conflict and Dyad pages available on the left-hand side of this page. These pages contain more detailed information regarding all three categories of organized violence in this country from 1989 and onwards (when applicable), as well as detailed information about state-based violence 1975–1988. The left-hand side menu also contains links to Actor pages for all groups involved in organized violence since 1989 in this country, as well as actors involved in state-based violence 1975–1988.]
The French colony of Indochina incorporated most of the territory that constitutes the present-day states of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. With the exception of a few small failed rebellions, resistance against the French became organized through the ICP (Indochinese Communist Party) which was dominated by the Vietnamese. Indeed, it was through Vietnamese communities that the party eventually spread across other parts of French Indochina. Even though different armed independence movements formed in the region, these remained in close cooperation with the Vietnamese Viet minh (Viet Nam doc lap dong minh hoi, Vietnam Independence League) which was the strongest both politically and militarily. Following an extra-state conflict in 1946–54, France renounced its colonial demands at an international conference held in Geneva.
At independence, the territory of present-day Vietnam formed two new states: the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north and the Republic of Vietnam in the south, with the border along the 17th parallel. North Vietnam was controlled by the communist Viet minh that established a one-party state led by Ho Chi Minh, while South Vietnam became closely linked to the USA and part of the Cold War superpower rivalry. Communist forces in South Vietnam rebelled against the government in 1955 and initiated an intrastate struggle that eventually evolved to an interstate conflict between North and South Vietnam from 1965 onwards. The conflicts in the region during this time period, including the intrastate conflicts in Laos and Cambodia, are often referred to as the Vietnam War, which concluded with the North Vietnamese victory over the South and the unification of the country in 1975.
The unified Vietnam immediately became involved in a conflict over the border territories with Cambodia in 1975–77. Another conflict erupted soon thereafter between Vietnam and China following the breakdown of relations between the two countries over the formers’ involvement in the intrastate conflict in Cambodia, as well as contending views on border demarcation. The interstate conflict China–Vietnam was active in 1978–81, 1983–84, and 1986–88. After the clashes in 1988, the two parties withdrew their forces despite continuing to hold competing views over the border, in particular the area of the Spratly islands.
During the greater regional Vietnam War period, North and South Vietnam were secondary warring parties to the opposing sides in the intrastate conflict in Laos 1963–73 and the intrastate conflict in Cambodia 1970–73. Vietnamese troops provided support to the opposition that ousted the Khmer Rouge government from power in Cambodia in 1978 as well as to the new Cambodian government in 1979–89.
Since 1946 Vietnam has experienced the extra-state, interstate, intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organized violence.
