ABSTRACT
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam was established on 2 July 1976 through the formal unification of the country, which had been effectively joined through force majeure at the end of April 1975. The title of the reunified state registered its political identity subject to the monopoly power of the Communist Party, which had been formed in 1930 as the Communist Party of Indochina when the country was under French colonial rule. That party in a changing nomenclature had led the nationalist movement in an armed struggle for independence from the end of the Pacific War. A Democratic Republic of Vietnam had been proclaimed in Hanoi by the Communist leader, Ho Chi Minh, on 2 September 1945 following the August Revolution but was displaced by the restoration of French rule. The French were obliged to abdicate their position after July 1954 when an international conference, leading to the Geneva Agreements on Indochina, endorsed a ceasefire agreement with a temporary division of the country along the line of the seventeenth parallel of latitude. That division hardened into a political boundary which endured for over twenty years. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam succeeded to power north of the line of division, while a US-backed State (subsequently Republic) of Vietnam assumed the administration to its south. The challenge of communist insurgency in the south of the country in the early 1960s led to progressive military intervention by the United States, including the aerial bombardment of the north. The failure of the United States to impose a political solution by military means and growing domestic opposition to the loss of blood and treasure led to the Paris Peace Agreements in January 1973. US military withdrawal followed soon after and a military offensive launched by the northern army in March 1975 paved the way to final military victory with the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.
