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Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Coat of arms
| |
.svg) | |
| Capital | Hanoi |
| Largest city | Ho Chi Minh City |
| Government | Marxist-Leninist socialist state |
• General Secretary | Nguyễn Phú Trọng |
• President | Nguyễn Xuân Phúc |
• Vice President | Võ Thị Ánh Xuân |
• Prime Minister | Phạm Minh Chính |
• Deputy Prime Minister | Lê Văn Thành |
| History | |
• Reunification and end of US occupation | 2 July 1976 |
| Population | |
• 2021 estimate | 98,510,000 |
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is a country on the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia. The 2020 census counted a population of 98.51 million people.[1] The country borders China to the north and Cambodia and Laos to the west. The capital city is Hanoi while the most populous city is Ho Chi Minh City (also known by it's previous name of Saigon). The Vietnamese constitution states that Vietnam "is a socialist rule of law state of the People, by the People, for the People".[2]
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is one of only five Marxist-Leninist states in the world today (alongside China, Laos, People's Korea and Cuba). Since 1986, it has adopted the Doi Moi economic reforms, becoming a socialist-oriented market economy.
Politics
Vietnam is a Marxist-Leninist one party socialist republic. The ruling party is the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Economy
After reunification in 1975 Vietnam became a centrally planned economy. In the late 1980s the economy was suffering from a decline in Soviet aid, the decomposition of the Eastern Bloc and the effects of the post-war embargo by the USA. In 1986 the CPV adopted a series of market reforms known as Đổi Mới which would transition the country to a socialist-oriented market economy.
According to a forecast by PwC in February 2017, Vietnam may be the fastest-growing of the world's economies, with a potential annual GDP growth rate of about 5.1%, which would make its economy the 20th-largest in the world by 2050.[3]
History
After the second world war, Vietnam became independent from its former colonial rulers, France. However, while the north was under a socialist government led by Ho Chi Minh, the south was under a US puppet dictatorship. This led to the Vietnam war, in which the north fought against the south and the US. The north was also aided by communist guerrilas in the south, called the National Liberation Front, but often known by the nickname of "Viet Cong." The CIA targeted and killed tens of thousands of suspected guerrillas through the Phoenix Program. In March of 1968, American forces killed hundreds of civilians in the My Lai Massacre. The soldiers that tried to prevent the massacre were considered traitors by other soldiers and US congressmen. The US began withdrawing in 1969, and the south was liberated on April 30th 1975. The United States dropped more bombs on Vietnam than all of the bombs that were used in World War II and sprayed large amounts of Agent Orange, a chemical weapon, on Vietnam.