page_title: Ho Chi Minh City
section_title: Republic of Vietnam era
hierarchical_section_title: Ho Chi Minh City / History / Republic of Vietnam era
caption_attribution_description: Usually captioned as &quot;parliament sleeps here.&quot;
context_page_description: Ho Chi Minh City, also commonly referred to as Saigon, is the largest city of Vietnam. According to the 2019 census, Ho Chi Minh City has a population of over 8.9 million within city proper and over 21 million within the metropolitan area. Located in southeastern Vietnam, the city surrounds the Saigon River and covers about 2,061 square kilometres. Ho Chi Minh City is the economic and financial centre of Vietnam, and plays an important role in the country's culture and scientific developments.
  Prior to Vietnamese settlement in the 17th century, the city was a scarcely populated area that had been part of historic kingdoms of Funan, Champa, and Khmer successively. With the arrival of the Vietnamese, the area became more prosperous and officials began establishing the city from 1623 to 1698. After ceded by the last Vietnamese dynasty to the French in 1862, the name Saigon was adopted and the city underwent urbanisation to become an important economic centre in the region. The city was the capital of South Vietnam until the end of the Vietnam War with North Vietnamese victory in 1975.
context_section_description: The Viet Minh proclaimed the independence of Vietnam in 1945 after a combined occupation by Vichy France and Japan, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. The Viet Minh-held sections of Vietnam were more concentrated in rural areas. Following the death of Franklin Roosevelt and the abandonment of anti-colonialist policies, the U.S. (in an attempt to control the spread of communism) supported France in regaining its control over the country, with effective control spanning mostly in the Southern half and parts of the Red River Delta region like Hanoi, Haiphong and Thái Bình.
  Former Emperor Bảo Đại made Saigon the capital of the State of Vietnam in 1949 with himself as head of state. In 1954, the Geneva Agreement partitioned Vietnam along the 17th parallel (Bến Hải River), with the communist Việt Minh, under Ho Chi Minh, gaining complete control of the northern half of the country, while the Saigon government continued to govern the State of Vietnam which continued in the southern half of the country and the southern half gaining independence from France. The State officially became the Republic of Vietnam when Bảo Đại was deposed by his Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm in the 1955 referendum. Saigon and Cholon, an adjacent city with mostly Sino-Vietnamese residents, were combined into an administrative unit known as the Đô Thành Sài Gòn (Capital City Saigon), or Thủ đô Sài Gòn (National Capital Saigon).
  South Vietnam was a capitalist and anti-communist state which fought against the communist North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong proxy forces during the Vietnam War, with the assistance of the United States and other countries. The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, on the other hand, were supported by the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. During the 1968 Tet Offensive, communist forces launched a failed attempt to capture the city. On 30 April 1975, Saigon fell, ending the Vietnam War with a victory for North Vietnam.
caption: Saigon Opera House in 1967
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