Ho Chi Minh City History

Pre 20th Century

From the first to the sixth centuries, the south of what is now Vietnam was part of the Indianised kingdom of Funan. The Hindu kingdom of Champa appeared around present-day Danang in the late 2nd century and had spread south to what is now Nha Trang by the 8th century. The Chinese conquered the Red River Delta in the 2nd century and their 1000-year rule, marked by tenacious Vietnamese resistance and repeated rebellions, ended in 938 AD when Ngo Quyen vanquished the Chinese armies at the Bach Dang River.

During the next few centuries, Vietnam - divided between the northern Trinh Lords and the Nguyen Lords of the south - repulsed repeated invasions by China, and the Nguyen expanded its borders southwards from the Red River Delta, populating much of the Mekong Delta. This area included the site of present-day Ho Chi Minh City. In 1858, French and Spanish-led forces stormed Danang after several missionaries had been killed. A year later, Ho Chi Minh City (then Saigon) was seized. By 1867, France had conquered all of southern Vietnam, which became the French colony of Cochin-China. The city became the capital of a large area including present-day Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in the late 19th century, with the French modelling the city after their own image. Ho Chi Minh City today still wears its French influence for all to see with wide boulevards, French architecture and a devout Catholic population. But the French never won over the hearts of the locals, so resorted to running the city as a ruthless, money-making enterprise based on opium, tea, coffee, rubber and alcohol.

Modern

Anti-colonial groups sprang up in the decades prior to WWII, with the most organised being the Communist Party, who organised several successful strikes before the government initiated a brutal crackdown on their activities.

During WWII, the Japanese occupied French-held regions in Asia; however, they - along with the French - met resistance from a force of communists called the Viet Minh, led by Nguyen Tat Thanh - better known as Ho Chi Minh. Due to their opposition to the Japanese, Ho's forces received funding from the Americans and the Chinese. Ho Chi Minh's declaration of Vietnamese independence after WWII sparked violent confrontations with the French, culminating in the French military defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

A peace agreement, negotiated in Geneva, divided Vietnam into north and south regions (always a sure recipe for everlasting peace). Ngo Dinh Diem, a communist-hater and fierce Catholic, took control of the south, with Saigon his capital. Almost a million refugees streamed from the communist north into Diem's region. When it came time for an election, Diem, sure that he would lose to Ho Chi Minh, held a rigged referendum and declared himself president of the republic of Vietnam. In December 1960 the north announced plans to 'liberate' the south with the formation of the National Liberation Front (known in the South as the Viet Cong). Meanwhile, unrest at Diem's tyrannical rule was boiling over into massive demonstrations and even acts of immolation by Buddhist monks. He was assassinated by his own troops in November 1963.

Throughout the 1960s, more and more American and other Western troops began pouring into Vietnam to assist the southerners in their guerilla-style war with the Viet Cong. Over 500,000 US troops were in Vietnam in 1969. The following few years saw the US withdraw from the seemingly unending conflict. In March 1975, with the Western forces long gone, the North mounted a surprise attack on South Vietnam's Central Highlands. The South Vietnamese decided to concede some ground, and retreated to a more defensible position. This unplanned withdrawal turned into a rout as the Southern army panicked and the Northern army kept marching. South Vietnam's President Thieu resigned on 21 April 1975 and fled the country, leaving his deputy in charge. He lasted a week, and his replacement survived for 43 hours before surrendering to the Communists. The first official act of the North Vietnamese was to change the name of Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City.

Easing into what was to become a brutal crackdown, the North's program of reunification (officially called liberation) was accompanied by large-scale political repression. The property of hundreds of thousands of people was confiscated, and many were imprisoned in forced-labour (or 're-education') camps. Revenge continued for well over a decade, with the children of suspected 'counter-revolutionaries' deprived of education and employment opportunities. Largely for this reason, Ho Chi Minh is a centre for widespread poverty, illiteracy and crime.

Recent

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the government - deprived of much-needed aid - had no choice but to seek reconciliation with the West. Ho Chi Minh City took doi moi, the period of rapid political and economic change of the 1980s and 1990s, to its heart, constructing new buildings and enthusiastically embracing opportunities for private enterprise. It stands poised to become one of Asia's great metropolises.