Biyetnam

**Biyetnam** (Binyetnamita: **Việt Nam** ), opisyal nga ang **Sosyalistang Republika sa Biyetnam ** (**SRB**), maoy usa ka nasod sa sidlakang ngilit sa mainland Southeast Asia, uban sa usa ka dapit sa 331,700 km2 ug populasyon nga kapin sa 100&nbsp;milyon, naghimo niini sa kalibutan ikanapulo ug lima nga labing populasyon nga nasud. Ang Biyetnam nakigbahin sa mga utlanan sa yuta sa China sa amihanan, ug Laos ug Cambodia sa kasadpan. Nag-ambit kini sa mga utlanan sa dagat uban sa Thailand pinaagi sa Gulpo sa Thailand, ug sa Philippines, Indonesia, ug Malaysia agi sa South China Sea. Ang kapital niini mao ang Hanoi ug ang kinadak-ang siyudad niini mao ang Ho Chi Minh City (kasagarang gitawag sa kanhing ngalan niini, Saigon).

Ang Biyetnam gipuy-an sa Paleolithic nga edad, nga adunay mga estado nga gitukod sa unang milenyo BC sa Delta sa Pulang Suba sa modernong-adlaw amihanan nga Biyetnam. Ang Han dinastiya misakop sa Amihanan ug Sentral Biyetnam ubos sa pagmando sa China gikan sa 111 BC, hangtod nga mitumaw ang unang dinastiya niadtong 939. Ang sunud-sunod nga mga dinastiya sa monarkiya misuhop sa mga impluwensya sa China pinaagi sa Confucianismo ug Budhismo sa Biyetnam, ug mipalapad sa habagatan ngadto sa Mekong Delta, nagsakop sa Champa. Sa kadaghanan sa ika-17 ug ika-18 nga siglo, ang Biyetnam epektibong nabahin sa duha ka dominyo sa Đàng Trong ug Đàng Ngoài. Ang Nguyễn — ang kataposang imperyal nga dinastiya — misurender sa Pransiya niadtong 1883. Niadtong 1887, ang teritoryo niini gisagol sa Pranses nga Indochina ingong tulo ka managlahing rehiyon. Sa diha-diha nga pagkahuman sa Ikaduhang Gubat Kalibotanon, ang nasyonalistang koalisyon Viet Minh, nga gipangulohan sa komunistang rebolusyonaryo Ho Chi Minh, naglunsad sa Rebolusyong Agosto ug gideklarar Independence sa Biyenam niadtong 1945.

Ang Biyetnam miagi sa dugay nga pakiggubat sa ika-20 nga siglo. Pagkahuman Ikaduhang Gubat Kalibotanon, France mibalik aron bawion ang kolonyal nga gahum sa Unang Indochina Gubat, diin ang Biyetnam migawas nga madaogon niadtong 1954. Isip resulta sa mga tratado nga gipirmahan tali sa Viet Minh ug France, ang Biyetnam nabahin usab sa duha ka bahin. Ang Gubat sa Biyetnam nagsugod wala madugay pagkahuman, tali sa komunista Amihanan Biyetnam, gisuportahan sa Soviet Union and China, ug ang anti-komunista Habagatan Biyetnam, gisuportahan sa United States. Sa kadaugan sa North Biyetnam niadtong 1975, ang Biyetnam nahiusa pag-usab isip unitary sosyalistang estado ubos sa Partido Komunista sa Biyetnam (CPV) niadtong 1976. Usa ka dili epektibo nga giplano nga ekonomiya, usa ka embargo sa pamatigayon sa Kasadpan, ug mga gubat sa Cambodia ug China labi nga nakapiang sa nasud. Niadtong 1986, gisugdan sa CPV ang mga reporma sa ekonomiya ug politika nga susama sa reporma sa ekonomiya sa China, nga nagbag-o sa nasud ngadto sa usa ka ekonomiya sa merkado nga gipunting sa sosyalista. Ang mga reporma nagpadali sa Biyetnamita reintegration ngadto sa global nga ekonomiya ug politika.

Ang Biyetnam usa ka nag-uswag nga nasud nga adunay ubos-tunga-tunga nga kita nga ekonomiya. Kini adunay taas nga lebel sa korapsyon, censorship, mga isyu sa kinaiyahan ug dili maayo nga rekord sa tawhanong katungod;  ang nasud nahimutang sa taliwala sa labing ubos sa internasyonal nga mga sukod sa sibil nga kagawasan, kagawasan sa prensa, ug kagawasan sa relihiyon ug etnikong minorya. Kabahin kini sa internasyonal ug intergovernmental nga mga institusyon lakip na ang ASEAN, ang APEC, ang CPTPP, ang NAM, ang OIF, ug ang WTO. Kaduha na kini nakalingkod sa UNSC.

## Etimolohiya

Ang ngalan  (, chữ Hán: ), literal nga "Viet Habagatan", nagpasabut nga "Viet sa Habagatan" kada han-ay sa pulong sa Vietnam o "Habagatan sa Viet" kada Klasiko nga Intsik han-ay sa pulong. Usa ka kalainan sa ngalan, Nanyue (o Nam Việt, ), unang nadokumento sa ika-2 nga siglo BC. Ang termino "" (Yue) () sa Sayo sa Middle Chinese una nga gisulat gamit ang logograph nga "戉" para sa wasay (usa ka homophone), sa bukog sa orakulo ug bronse nga mga inskripsiyon sa ulahing bahin sa Shang dinastiya ( BC), ug sa ulahi ingon "越". Nianang panahona kini nagtumong sa usa ka katawhan o pangulo sa amihanan-kasadpan sa Shang. Sa sayong bahin sa ika-8 nga siglo BC, usa ka tribo sa tunga-tunga Yangtze gitawag ang Yangyue, usa ka termino nga gigamit sa ulahi alang sa mga tawo sa habagatan. Tali sa ika-7 ug ika-4 nga siglo BC Gihisgotan ni Yue/Việt ang Estado sa Yue sa ubos nga basin sa Yangtze ug ang mga tawo niini. Gikan sa ika-3 nga siglo BC ang termino gigamit alang sa dili-Intsik nga mga populasyon sa habagatang Tsina ug amihanang Vietnam, nga adunay partikular nga mga grupong etniko nga gitawag Minyue, Ouyue, Luoyue (Binyetnamita: Lạc Việt), ug uban pa..., kolektibo nga gitawag nga Baiyue (Bách Việt, ). Ang termino nga Baiyue/Bách Việt unang migawas sa libro nga *Lüshi Chunqiu* nga gihugpong mga 239 BC. Sa ika-17 ug ika-18 nga siglo AD, ang edukadong Vietnamese dayag nga nagtawag sa ilang kaugalingon nga *nguoi Viet* (mga tawo sa Biyetnam) o *nguoi nam* (mga tawo sa habagatan).

Ang porma  () unang natala sa ika-16 nga siglo nga orakular nga balak nga *Sấm Trạng Trình*. Ang ngalan nakit-an usab sa 12 ka estelo nga gikulit sa ika-16 ug ika-17 nga siglo, lakip ang usa sa Bao Lam Pagoda sa Hải Phòng nga petsa sa 1558. In 1802, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (who later became Emperor Gia Long) established the Nguyễn dynasty. In the second year of his rule, he asked the Jiaqing Emperor of the Qing dynasty to confer on him the title 'King of Nam Việt / Nanyue' ( in Chinese character) after seizing power in Annam. The Emperor refused because the name was related to Zhao Tuo's Nanyue, which included the regions of Guangxi and Guangdong in southern China. The Qing Emperor, therefore, decided to call the area "Việt Nam" instead, meaning "South of the Viet" per Classical Chinese word order but the Vietnamese understood it as "Viet of the South" per Vietnamese word order. Between 1804 and 1813, the name Vietnam was used officially by Emperor Gia Long. It was revived in the early 20th century in Phan Bội Châu's *History of the Loss of Vietnam*, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDĐ). The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when the imperial government in Huế adopted .

## Kasaysayan

### Prehistory and early history

Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age. Stone artefacts excavated in Gia Lai province have been claimed to date to 0.78 Ma, based on associated find of tektites, however this claim has been challenged because tektites are often found in archaeological sites of various ages in Vietnam.  *[[Homo erectus]]* fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest *[[Homo sapiens]]* fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, and include isolated tooth fragments from Tham Om and Hang Hum. Teeth attributed to *Homo sapiens* from the Late Pleistocene have been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. Areas comprising what is now Vietnam participated in the Maritime Jade Road, as ascertained by archeological research.

By about 1,000 BC, the development of wet-rice cultivation in the Ma River and Red River floodplains led to the flourishing of Đông Sơn culture, notable for its bronze casting used to make elaborate bronze Đông Sơn drums. At this point, the early Vietnamese kingdoms of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc appeared, and the culture's influence spread to other parts of Southeast Asia, including Maritime Southeast Asia, throughout the first millennium BC.

### Dynastic Vietnam

According to Vietnamese legends, Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings first established in 2879 BC is considered the first state in the history of Vietnam (then known as Xích Quỷ and later Văn Lang). In 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán. He consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương. In 179 BC, a Chinese general named Zhao Tuo ("Triệu Đà") defeated An Dương Vương and consolidated Âu Lạc into Nanyue. However, Nanyue was itself incorporated into the empire of the Chinese Han dynasty in 111 BC after the Han–Nanyue War. For the next thousand years, what is now northern Vietnam remained mostly under Chinese rule. Early independence movements, such as those of the Trưng Sisters and Lady Triệu, were temporarily successful, though the region gained a longer period of independence as Vạn Xuân under the Anterior Lý dynasty between AD 544 and 602. By the early 10th century, Northern Vietnam had gained autonomy, but not sovereignty, under the Khúc family.

In AD 938, the Vietnamese lord Ngô Quyền defeated the forces of the Chinese Southern Han state at Bạch Đằng River and achieved full independence for Vietnam in 939 after a millennium of Chinese domination. By the 960s, the dynastic Đại Việt (*Great Viet*) kingdom was established, Vietnamese society enjoyed a golden era under the Lý and Trần dynasties. During the rule of the Trần Dynasty, Đại Việt repelled three Mongol invasions. Meanwhile, the Mahāyāna branch of Buddhism flourished and became the state religion. Following the 1406–7 Ming–Hồ War, which overthrew the Hồ dynasty, Vietnamese independence was interrupted briefly by the Chinese Ming dynasty, but was restored by Lê Lợi, the founder of the Lê dynasty. The Vietnamese polity reached their zenith in the Lê dynasty of the 15th century, especially during the reign of emperor Lê Thánh Tông (1460–1497). Between the 11th and 18th centuries, the Vietnamese polity expanded southward in a gradual process known as  ("Southward expansion"), eventually conquering the kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Kingdom.

From the 16th century onward, civil strife and frequent political infighting engulfed much of Dai Viet. First, the Chinese-supported Mạc dynasty challenged the Lê dynasty's power. After the Mạc dynasty was defeated, the Lê dynasty was nominally reinstalled. Actual power, however, was divided between the northern Trịnh lords and the southern Nguyễn lords, who engaged in a civil war for more than four decades before a truce was called in the 1670s. Vietnam was divided into North (Trịnh) and South (Nguyễn) from 1600 to 1777. During this period, the Nguyễn expanded southern Vietnam into the Mekong Delta, annexing the Central Highlands and the Khmer lands in the Mekong Delta. The division of the country ended a century later when the Tây Sơn brothers helped Trịnh to end Nguyễn, they also established new dynasty and ended Trịnh. However, their rule did not last long, and they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyễn lords, led by Nguyễn Ánh. Nguyễn Ánh unified Vietnam, and established the Nguyễn dynasty, ruling under the name Gia Long.

### French Indochina

In the 1500s, the Portuguese explored the Vietnamese coast and reportedly erected a stele on the Chàm Islands to mark their presence. By 1533, they began landing in the Vietnamese delta but were forced to leave because of local turmoil and fighting. They also had less interest in the territory than they did in China and Japan. After they had settled in Macau and Nagasaki to begin the profitable Macau–Japan trade route, the Portuguese began to involve themselves in trade with Hội An. Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries under the *[[Padroado]]* system were active in both Vietnamese realms of *[[Đàng Trong]]* (Cochinchina or Quinan) and *[[Đàng Ngoài]]* (Tonkin) in the 17th century. The Dutch also tried to establish contact with Quinan in 1601 but failed to sustain a presence there after several violent encounters with the locals. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) only managed to establish official relations with Tonkin in the spring of 1637 after leaving Dejima in Japan to establish trade for silk. Meanwhile, in 1613, the first English attempt to establish contact with Hội An failed following a violent incident involving the Honourable East India Company. By 1672 the English did establish relations with Tonkin and were allowed to reside in Phố Hiến.

Between 1615 and 1753, French traders also engaged in trade in Vietnam. The first French missionaries arrived in 1658, under the Portuguese *Padroado*. From its foundation, the Paris Foreign Missions Society under ''Propaganda Fide'' actively sent missionaries to Vietnam, entering Cochinchina first in 1664 and Tonkin first in 1666. Spanish Dominicans joined the Tonkin mission in 1676, and Franciscans were in Cochinchina from 1719 to 1834. The Vietnamese authorities began to feel threatened by continuous Christianisation activities. After several Catholic missionaries were detained, the French Navy intervened in 1843 to free them, as the kingdom was perceived as xenophobic. In a series of conquests from 1859 to 1885, France eroded Vietnam's sovereignty. At the siege of Tourane in 1858, France was aided by Spain (with Filipino, Latin American, and Spanish troops from the Philippines) and perhaps some Tonkinese Catholics. After the 1862 Treaty, and especially after France completely conquered Lower Cochinchina in 1867, the Văn Thân movement of scholar-gentry class arose and committed violence against Catholics across central and northern Vietnam.

Between 1862 and 1867, the southern third of the country became the French colony of Cochinchina. By 1884, the entire country was under French rule, with the central and northern parts of Vietnam separated into the two protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. The three entities were formally integrated into the union of French Indochina in 1887. The French administration imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese society. A Western-style system of modern education introduced new humanist values. Most French settlers in Indochina were concentrated in Cochinchina, particularly in Saigon, and in Hanoi, the colony's capital.

During the colonial period, guerrillas of the royalist Cần Vương movement rebelled against French rule and massacred around a third of Vietnam's Christian population. After a decade of resistance, they were defeated in the 1890s by the Catholics in reprisal for their earlier massacres. Another large-scale rebellion, the Thái Nguyên uprising, was also suppressed heavily. The French developed a plantation economy to promote export of tobacco, indigo, tea and coffee. However, they largely ignored the increasing demands for civil rights and self-government. An increasing dissatisfaction, even led to half-hearted, badly co-ordinated, and still worsely executed plots to oust the French, like the infamous Hanoi Poison Plot of 1908.

A nationalist political movement soon emerged, with leaders like Phan Bội Châu, Phan Châu Trinh, Phan Đình Phùng, Emperor Hàm Nghi, and Hồ Chí Minh fighting or calling for independence. This resulted in the 1930 Yên Bái mutiny by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDĐ), which the French quashed. The mutiny split the independence movement, as many leading members converted to communism.

The French maintained full control of their colonies until World War II, when the war in the Pacific led to the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in 1940. Afterwards, the Japanese Empire was allowed to station its troops in Vietnam while the pro-Vichy French colonial administration continued. Japan exploited Vietnam's natural resources to support its military campaigns, culminating in a full-scale takeover of the country in March 1945. This led to the Vietnamese Famine of 1945 which killed up to two million people.

### First Indochina War

In 1941, the Việt Minh, a nationalist liberation movement based on a communist ideology, emerged under the Vietnamese revolutionary leader Hồ Chí Minh. The Việt Minh sought independence for Vietnam from France and the end of the Japanese occupation. After the military defeat of Japan in World War II and the fall of its puppet government Empire of Vietnam in August 1945, Saigon's administrative services collapsed and chaos, riots, and murder were widespread. The Việt Minh occupied Hanoi and proclaimed a provisional government, which asserted national independence on 2 September.

In July 1945, the Allies had decided to divide Indochina at the 16th parallel to allow Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China to receive the Japanese surrender in the north while Britain's Lord Louis Mountbatten received their surrender in the south. The Allies agreed that Indochina still belonged to France.

But as the French were weakened by the German occupation, British-Indian forces and the remaining Japanese Southern Expeditionary Army Group were used to maintain order and help France reestablish control through the 1945–1946 War in Vietnam. Hồ initially chose to take a moderate stance to avoid military conflict with France, asking the French to withdraw their colonial administrators and for French professors and engineers to help build a modern independent Vietnam. But the Provisional Government of the French Republic did not act on these requests, including the idea of independence, and dispatched the French Far East Expeditionary Corps to restore colonial rule. This resulted in the Việt Minh launching a guerrilla campaign against the French in late 1946. The resulting First Indochina War lasted until July 1954. The defeat of French colonialists and Vietnamese loyalists in the 1954 battle of Điện Biên Phủ allowed Hồ to negotiate a ceasefire from a favourable position at the subsequent Geneva Conference.

The colonial administration was thereby ended and French Indochina was dissolved under the Geneva Accords of 21 July 1954 into three countries—Vietnam, and the kingdoms of Cambodia and Laos. Vietnam was further divided into North and South administrative regions at the Demilitarised Zone, roughly along the 17th parallel north (pending elections scheduled for July 1956). A 300-day period of free movement was permitted, during which almost a million northerners, mainly Catholics, moved south, fearing persecution by the communists. This migration was in large part aided by the United States military through Operation Passage to Freedom. The partition of Vietnam by the Geneva Accords was not intended to be permanent, and stipulated that Vietnam would be reunited after the elections. But in 1955, the southern State of Vietnam's prime minister, Ngô Đình Diệm, toppled Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum organised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu, and proclaimed himself president of the Republic of Vietnam. This effectively replaced the internationally recognised State of Vietnam by the Republic of Vietnam in the south—supported by the United States, France, Laos, Republic of China and Thailand—and Hồ's Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north, supported by the Soviet Union, Sweden, Khmer Rouge, and the People's Republic of China.

### Vietnam War

From 1953 to 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted agrarian reforms including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in significant political repression. This included 13,500 to as many as 100,000 executions. In the South, Diệm countered North Vietnamese subversion (including the assassination of over 450 South Vietnamese officials in 1956) by detaining tens of thousands of suspected communists in "political reeducation centres". This program incarcerated many non-communists, but was successful at curtailing communist activity in the country, if only for a time. The North Vietnamese government claimed that 2,148 people were killed in the process by November 1957. The pro-Hanoi Việt Cộng began a guerrilla campaign in South Vietnam in the late 1950s to overthrow Diệm's government. From 1960, the Soviet Union and North Vietnam signed treaties providing for further Soviet military support.

In 1963, Buddhist discontent with Diệm's Catholic regime erupted into mass demonstrations, leading to a violent government crackdown. This led to the collapse of Diệm's relationship with the United States, and ultimately to a 1963 coup in which he and Nhu were assassinated. The Diệm era was followed by more than a dozen successive military governments, before the pairing of Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ and General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu took control in mid-1965. Thiệu gradually outmaneuvered Kỳ and cemented his grip on power in fraudulent elections in 1967 and 1971. During this political instability, the communists began to gain ground. To support South Vietnam's struggle against the communist insurgency, the United States used the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident as a pretext for increasing its contribution of military advisers. US forces became involved in ground combat operations by 1965, and at their peak several years later, numbered more than 500,000. The US also engaged in sustained aerial bombing. Meanwhile, China and the Soviet Union provided North Vietnam with significant material aid and 15,000 combat advisers. Communist forces supplying the Việt Cộng carried supplies along the Hồ Chí Minh trail, which passed through Laos.

The communists attacked South Vietnamese targets during the 1968 Tết Offensive. The campaign failed militarily, but shocked the American establishment and turned US public opinion against the war. During the offensive, communist troops massacred over 3,000 civilians at Huế. Facing an increasing casualty count, rising domestic opposition to the war, and growing international condemnation, the US began withdrawing from ground combat roles in the early 1970s. This also entailed an unsuccessful effort to strengthen and stabilise South Vietnam. Following the Paris Peace Accords of 27 January 1973, all American combat troops were withdrawn by 29 March 1973. In December 1974, North Vietnam captured the province of Phước Long and started a full-scale offensive, culminating in the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. South Vietnam was ruled by a provisional government for almost eight years while under North Vietnamese military occupation.

### Reunification and reforms

On 2 July 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The war devastated Vietnam and killed 966,000 to 3.8&nbsp;million people. A 1974 US Senate subcommittee estimated nearly 1.4&nbsp;million Vietnamese civilians were killed or wounded between 1965 and 1974—including 415,000 killed. In its aftermath, under Lê Duẩn's administration, there were no mass executions of South Vietnamese who had collaborated with the US or the defunct South Vietnamese government, confounding Western fears, but up to 300,000 South Vietnamese were sent to reeducation camps, where many endured torture, starvation, and disease while being forced to perform hard labour. The government embarked on a mass campaign of collectivisation of farms and factories. Many fled the country following the conclusion of the war. In 1978, in response to the Khmer Rouge government of Cambodia ordering massacres of Vietnamese residents in the border villages in the districts of An Giang and Kiên Giang, the Vietnamese military invaded Cambodia and removed them from power after occupying Phnom Penh. The intervention was a success, resulting in the establishment of a new, pro-Vietnam socialist government, the People's Republic of Kampuchea, which ruled until 1989. However, this worsened relations with China, which had supported the Khmer Rouge. China later launched a brief incursion into northern Vietnam in 1979, causing Vietnam to rely even more heavily on Soviet economic and military aid, while mistrust of the Chinese government escalated.

At the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in December 1986, reformist politicians replaced the "old guard" government with new leadership. The reformers were led by 71-year-old Nguyễn Văn Linh, who became the party's new general secretary. He and the reformers implemented a series of free-market reforms known as  ("Renovation") that carefully managed the transition from a planned economy to a "socialist-oriented market economy". Although the authority of the state remained unchallenged under *Đổi Mới*, the government encouraged private ownership of farms and factories, economic deregulation, and foreign investment, while maintaining control over strategic industries. Subsequently, Vietnam's economy achieved strong growth in agricultural and industrial production, construction, exports, and foreign investment, although these reforms also resulted in a rise in income inequality and gender disparities.

In 2021, General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, was re-elected for  his third term in office, meaning he is Vietnam's most powerful leader in decades.

## Geograpiya

Vietnam is located on the eastern Indochinese Peninsula between the latitudes 8° and 24°N, and the longitudes 102° and 110°E. It covers a total area of approximately . The combined length of the country's land boundaries is , and its coastline is  long. At its narrowest point in the central Quảng Bình Province, the country is as little as  across, though it widens to around  in the north. Vietnam's land is mostly hilly and densely forested, with level land covering no more than 20%. Mountains account for 40% of the country's land area, and tropical forests cover around 42%. The Red River Delta in the north, a flat, roughly triangular region covering , is smaller but more intensely developed and more densely populated than the Mekong River Delta in the south. Once an inlet of the Gulf of Tonkin, it has been filled in over the millennia by riverine alluvial deposits. The delta, covering about , is a low-level plain no more than  above sea level at any point. It is criss-crossed by a maze of rivers and canals, which carry so much sediment that the delta advances  into the sea every year. The exclusive economic zone of Vietnam covers  in the South China Sea.

Southern Vietnam is divided into coastal lowlands, the mountains of the Annamite Range, and extensive forests. Comprising five relatively flat plateaus of basalt soil, the highlands account for 16% of the country's arable land and 22% of its total forested land. The soil in much of the southern part of Vietnam is relatively low in nutrients as a result of intense cultivation. Several minor earthquakes have been recorded. The northern part of the country consists mostly of highlands and the Red River Delta. Fansipan (also known as Phan Xi Păng), which is located in Lào Cai Province, is the highest mountain in Vietnam, standing  high. From north to south Vietnam, the country also has numerous islands; Phú Quốc is the largest. The Hang Sơn Đoòng Cave is considered the largest known cave passage in the world since its discovery in 2009. The Ba Bể Lake and Mekong River are the largest lake and longest river in the country.

## Gobyerno ug politika

Vietnam is a unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist republic, one of the two communist states (the other being Laos) in Southeast Asia. Although Vietnam remains officially committed to socialism as its defining creed, its economic policies have grown increasingly capitalist, with *[[The Economist]]* characterising its leadership as "ardently capitalist communists". Under the constitution, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) asserts their role in all branches of the country's politics and society. The president is the elected head of state and the commander-in-chief of the military, serving as the chairman of the Council of Supreme Defence and Security, and holds the second highest office in Vietnam as well as performing executive functions and state appointments and setting policy.

The general secretary of the CPV performs numerous key administrative functions, controlling the party's national organisation. The prime minister is the head of government, presiding over a council of ministers composed of five deputy prime ministers and the heads of 26 ministries and commissions. Only political organisations affiliated with or endorsed by the CPV are permitted to contest elections in Vietnam. These include the Vietnamese Fatherland Front and worker and trade unionist parties.

The National Assembly of Vietnam is the unicameral state legislature composed of 500 members. Headed by a chairman, it is superior to both the executive and judicial branches, with all government ministers being appointed from members of the National Assembly. The Supreme People's Court of Vietnam, headed by a chief justice, is the country's highest court of appeal, though it is also answerable to the National Assembly. Beneath the Supreme People's Court stand the provincial municipal courts and many local courts. Military courts possess special jurisdiction in matters of state security. Vietnam maintains the death penalty for numerous offences.

In 2023, a three-person collective leadership was responsible for governing Vietnam. President Vo Van Thuong (since 2023), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (since 2021) and the most powerful leader Nguyen Phu Trong (since 2011) as the Communist Party of Vietnam’s General Secretary.

### Foreign relations

Throughout its history, Vietnam's main foreign relationship has been with various Chinese dynasties. Following the partition of Vietnam in 1954, North Vietnam maintained relations with the Eastern Bloc, South Vietnam maintained relations with the Western Bloc. Despite these differences, Vietnam's sovereign principles and insistence on cultural independence have been laid down in numerous documents over the centuries before its independence. These include the 11th-century patriotic poem "*[[Nam quốc sơn hà]]*" and the 1428 proclamation of independence "*[[Bình Ngô đại cáo]]*". Though China and Vietnam are now formally at peace, significant territorial tensions remain between the two countries over the South China Sea. Vietnam holds membership in 63 international organisations, including the United Nations (UN), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), International Organisation of the Francophonie (La Francophonie), and World Trade Organization (WTO). It also maintains relations with over 650 non-governmental organisations. As of 2010 Vietnam had established diplomatic relations with 178 countries.

Vietnam's current foreign policy is to consistently implement a policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, co-operation, and development, as well openness, diversification, multilateralisation with international relations. The country declares itself a friend and partner of all countries in the international community, regardless of their political affiliation, by actively taking part in international and regional cooperative development projects. Since the 1990s, Vietnam has taken several key steps to restore diplomatic ties with capitalist Western countries. It already had relations with communist Western countries in the decades prior. Relations with the United States began improving in August 1995 with both states upgrading their *[[:wikt:liaison|liaison]]* offices to embassy status. As diplomatic ties between the two governments grew, the United States opened a consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City while Vietnam opened its consulate in San Francisco. Full diplomatic relations were also restored with New Zealand, which opened its embassy in Hanoi in 1995; Vietnam established an embassy in Wellington in 2003. President of the United States, Bill Clinton, made a historic visit to Vietnam in November 2000. He was the first U.S. leader ever to officially visit Hanoi and the first to visit Vietnam since U.S. troops withdrew from the country in 1975. Pakistan also reopened its embassy in Hanoi in October 2000, with Vietnam reopening its embassy in Islamabad in December 2005 and trade office in Karachi in November 2005. In May 2016, US President Barack Obama further normalised relations with Vietnam after he announced the lifting of an arms embargo on sales of lethal arms to Vietnam. Despite their historical past, today Vietnam is considered to be a potential ally of the United States, especially in the geopolitical context of the territorial disputes in the South China Sea and in containment of Chinese expansionism.

### Military

The Vietnam People's Armed Forces consists of the Vietnam People's Army (VPA), the Vietnam People's Public Security and the Vietnam Self-Defence Militia. The VPA is the official name for the active military services of Vietnam, and is subdivided into the Vietnam People's Ground Forces, the Vietnam People's Navy, the Vietnam People's Air Force, the Vietnam Border Guard and the Vietnam Coast Guard. The VPA has an active manpower of around 450,000, but its total strength, including paramilitary forces, may be as high as 5,000,000. In 2015, Vietnam's military expenditure totalled approximately US$4.4&nbsp;billion, equivalent to around 8% of its total government spending. Joint military exercises and war games have been held with Brunei, India, Japan, Laos, Russia, Singapore and the US. In 2017, Vietnam signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

### Human rights and sociopolitical issues

Under the current constitution, the CPV is the only party allowed to rule, the operation of all other political parties being outlawed. Other human rights issues concern freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press. In 2009, Vietnamese lawyer Lê Công Định was arrested and charged with the capital crime of subversion; several of his associates were also arrested. Amnesty International described him and his arrested associates as prisoners of conscience. Vietnam has also suffered from human trafficking and related issues.

## Administratibo nga mga dibisyon
Vietnam is divided into 58 provinces (, chữ Hán: ). There are also five municipalities (), which are administratively on the same level as provinces.

Provinces are subdivided into provincial municipalities (, 'city under province'), townships () and counties (), which are in turn subdivided into towns () or communes ().

Centrally controlled municipalities are subdivided into districts () and counties, which are further subdivided into wards ().

## Kultura

Ang kultura sa Biyetnam giisip nga bahin sa sinosphere. Ang kultura sa Biyetnam milambo sulod sa mga siglo gikan sa lumadnong karaan Đông Sơn kultura nga adunay basa nga humay isip base sa ekonomiya niini.  Ang pipila ka mga elemento sa kultura sa nasud adunay mga Intsik nga gigikanan, nga nagkuha sa mga elemento sa Confucianism, Mahāyāna Buddhism, ug Taoism sa tradisyonal nga sistema sa politika ug pilosopiya niini. Ang katilingbang Binyetnamita kay gambalay sa palibot  (mga balangay sa katigulangan); tanan Biyetnamita marka a komon nga anibersaryo sa katigulangan sa ikanapulo nga adlaw sa ikatulo lunar nga bulan. Ang impluwensya sa kulturang Intsik sama sa mga kultura sa Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, ug Hainanese mas makita sa amihanan diin ang Budhismo kusganong nalambigit sa popular nga kultura. Bisan pa niini, adunay Chinatowns sa habagatan, sama sa , diin daghang mga Insek ang nakigminyo sa Kinh ug dili mailhan taliwala nila. Sa sentral ug habagatang bahin sa Biyetnam, mga bakas sa Champa ug Khmer kultura napamatud-an pinaagi sa mga salin sa mga kagun-oban, mga artifact ingon man sa sulod sa ilang populasyon ingon nga manununod sa karaan Sa Huỳnh kultura. Sa bag-ohay nga mga siglo, ang mga kultura sa Kasadpan nahimong popular sa mga bag-ong henerasyon sa Binyetnamita.

Ang tradisyonal nga pokus sa kultura sa Biyetnam gibase sa katawhan() ug panag-uyon () diin ang mga mithi sa pamilya ug komunidad gitamod pag-ayo.  Ang Biyetnam nagtahod sa daghang mga yawe nga simbolo sa kultura, sama sa Biyetnamita dragon nga gikan sa buaya ug bitin paghanduraw; Nasyonal nga amahan sa Biyetnam,  gihulagway nga usa ka balaang dragon. Ang  usa ka balaan nga langgam nga nagrepresentar sa nasudnong inahan sa Biyetnam, . Ang ubang prominenteng mga hulagway nga gitahud usab mao ang pawikan, kabaw ug kabayo. Daghang Biyetnamita usab ang nagtuo sa labaw sa kinaiyahan ug espiritismo diin ang sakit dad-on sa a tunglo o pamarang o tungod sa dili pagsunod sa usa ka relihiyosong pamatasan. Ang mga tradisyunal nga medikal nga practitioner, anting-anting ug uban pang matang sa espirituhanong proteksyon ug relihiyosong mga buhat mahimong gamiton sa pagtambal sa masakiton nga tawo. Sa modernong panahon, ang kultural nga kinabuhi sa Vietnam naimpluwensyahan pag-ayo sa kontrolado sa gobyerno nga media ug mga programa sa kultura. Sulod sa daghang mga dekada, ang mga impluwensya sa langyaw nga kultura, labi na ang gigikanan sa Kasadpan, gilikayan. Apan sukad sa bag-o nga repormasyon, ang Vietnam nakakita sa usa ka mas dako nga exposure sa silingang Southeast Asian, East Asian ingon man sa Western kultura ug media.

Ang nag-unang Vietnamese pormal nga sinina, ang  gisul-ob alang sa mga espesyal nga okasyon sama sa kasal ug relihiyosong mga pista. Puti  mao ang gikinahanglan nga uniporme para sa mga babaye sa daghang mga high school sa tibuok nasud. Ang ubang mga pananglitan sa tradisyonal nga Vietnamese nga sinina naglakip sa: ang , usa ka upat ka piraso nga sinina sa babaye; ang , usa ka porma sa  sa lima ka piraso nga porma, kasagaran gisul-ob sa amihanan sa nasud; ang , pang-ilalom nga sapot sa babaye; ang , rural nga nagtrabaho "pyjamas" alang sa mga lalaki ug babaye.

## Nota

## Tan-awa usab
* Outline sa Biyetnam

## Mga pakisayran

## Mga sumpay sa gawas
* Vietnam profile gikan sa BBC News
* Vietnam . *The World Factbook*. Central Intelligence Agency. (CIA)
* Vietnam gikan sa *UCB Libraries GovPubs*
* 
* Vietnam sa *Encyclopædia Britannica*
* 
* Key Development Forecasts for Vietnam gikan sa International Futures

### Gobyerno
* Portal of the Government of Vietnam 
* Communist Party of Vietnam – opisyal nga website (sa Biyetnamita)

### Media ug censorship
* Robert N. Wilkey. "Vietnam's Antitrust Legislation and Subscription to E-ASEAN: An End to the Bamboo Firewall Over Internet Regulation?" *The John Marshall Journal of Computer and Information Law*. Vol. XX, No. 4. Summer 2002. Retrieved 16 February 2013.

### Turismo
* Opisyal nga website sa turismo