South Vietnam

A state that existed for twenty-one years, was governed for most of them by soldiers, and collapsed within two years of losing its foreign support. The Republic of Vietnam was established in 1955 in the territory south of the seventeenth parallel after Ngo Dinh Diem deposed the former emperor in a referendum whose reported result was not credible. Diem was a Catholic nationalist governing a mostly Buddhist country, and his rule became narrower and more familial over time; his repression of Buddhist protest in 1963, including the self-immolation of a monk photographed for the world's press, cost him American support, and he was overthrown and killed in a coup Washington had approved. Nine changes of government followed in under two years. The insurgency grew and American ground troops arrived in 1965, eventually numbering over half a million. The war devastated the countryside through bombing, defoliation and forced relocation, and drove millions into the cities. The Paris accords of 1973 removed American forces while leaving northern troops in place. Congress then cut funding sharply. The final northern offensive in 1975 took the country in under two months. Helicopters evacuated the last Americans from Saigon in April. Hundreds of thousands of former officials were sent to re-education camps. Over a million people eventually left by boat. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. The republic existed from 1955 to 1975 with Saigon as its capital. It held around 19 million people. Around 58 thousand Americans died in the war. Vietnamese dead on all sides are estimated in the millions.

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