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South Vietnam

Republic of Vietnam
Việt Nam Cộng Hòa
越南共和
République du Viêt Nam
1955–1975
Flag Coat of arms
Motto
"Tổ quốc - Danh dự - Trách nhiệm"
(English: "Fatherland – Honor – Duty")
Anthem
"Tiếng Gọi Công Dân"
(English: "Call to the Citizens")
Location of South Vietnam in Southeast Asia from 1954 to 1976
Capital Saigon
Languages Vietnamese (official) French (de facto co-official)
Religion Buddhism
Roman Catholicism
Confucianism
Taoism
Government Unitary presidential constitutional republic (1955–1963 and 1967–1975)
Military junta (1963–1967)
President
 •  1955–1963 Ngô Đình Diệm
 •  1963–1964 Dương Văn Minh
Nguyễn Khánh
 •  1964–1965 Phan Khắc Sửu
 •  1965–1975 Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
 •  1975 Trần Văn Hương (acting)
 •  1975 Dương Văn Minh (acting)
Prime Minister
 •  1963–1964 (first) Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ
 •  1975 (last) Vũ Văn Mẫu
Historical era Cold War · Vietnam War
 •  Referendum 26 October 1955
 •  1963 coup 2 November 1963
 •  Paris Peace Accords 27 January 1973
 •  Fall of Saigon 30 April 1975
Area
 •  1955 173,809 km² (67,108 sq mi)
Population
 •  1955 est. 12,000,000 
     Density 69 /km²  (178.8 /sq mi)
 •  1974 est. 19,582,000 
     Density 112.7 /km²  (291.8 /sq mi)
Currency đồnga
Preceded by
Succeeded by
State of Vietnam
Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam
Today part of  Vietnam
a. Gradually phased in to replace the piastre.
South Vietnam
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet Nam Việt Nam
Chữ Nôm 南越南
Republic of Vietnam
Vietnamese alphabet Việt Nam Cộng hòa
Chữ Nôm 越南共和

South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam was a state governing the southern half of Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. It received international recognition in 1949 as the "State of Vietnam" (1949–55), and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" (1955–75). Its capital was Saigon. The term "South Vietnam" became common usage in 1954, when the Geneva Conference provisionally partitioned Vietnam into communist and non-communist parts.

The Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed on 26 October 1955 with Ngô Đình Diệm as its first president. Its sovereignty was recognized by the United States and by some eighty-seven other nations. It had membership in several special committees of the United Nations, and would have been a member of the United Nations itself had it not been for a Soviet veto in 1957.

South Vietnam's origins can be traced to the French colony of Cochinchina, which consisted of the southern third of Vietnam and was a subdivision of French Indochina. After World War II, the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, proclaimed the establishment of a Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi in September, 1945. In 1949, anti-communist Vietnamese politicians formed a rival government in Saigon led by former emperor Bảo Đại. Bảo Đại was deposed by Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm in 1955, who proclaimed himself president after a referendum. After Diệm was killed in a military coup led by general Dương Văn Minh in 1963, there was a series of short-lived military governments. General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu led the country from 1967 until 1975. The Vietnam War began in 1959 with an uprising by Viet Cong forces armed and controlled by Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Fighting reached a climax during the Tet Offensive of 1968, when there were over 1.5 million South Vietnamese soldiers and 500,000 U.S. soldiers in South Vietnam. Despite a peace treaty concluded in January 1973, fighting continued until the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong armies overran Saigon on 30 April 1975, marking the end of the South Vietnamese state.


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