History

The origin of Vietnam's can be traced back to the union of Lac Long Quan (King of the Sea) and Au Co (Princess of the Mountains), or so legend as it. Vietnam's history can be characterized by its brutal struggle for autonomy firstly, from the China who governed Vietnam for almost an entire millennium. They were driven out in the 9th century. In the 19th century, Vietnam once again was occupied by a foreign power, this time by the French.

French rule abruptly ended with the Japanese invaded during WWII. However, by the end of WWII the mainly Communist Viet Minh who had the resisted the Japanese and French before them declared Vietnam an independent state. The French Indochina War followed which finally ended in defeat in 1954. The Geneva Accords officially divided the country into a Communist north and an anti-Communist south. Meanwhile the U.S. had promised aid and assistance to any government that requested help in preventing the spread of Communism.

The US began to sponsor the anti-Communist government of South Vietnam. As tensions rose between the Chinese and Russian backed North and the US and her allies sponsored South regime full-scale war finally commenced in 1964.

After eights years of attrition war the American administration finally declared the war unwinnable due to mounting public pressure both in the US and from around the world a cease-fire agreement was announced in 1973 to allow the US to withdraw their troops. The war continued to roar for a further two years until 1975 when finally the Southern capital Saigon fell to the Communist. After the fall of Saigon the daily life of the Vietnamese was wrought with hardship and repression which to high levels of emigration from Vietnam.

It was only in 1991 with the fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War that diplomatic links and trade relations with many western powers were re-established, the last of which was the US.