The DRV invaded Saigon in 1975 and ceased to exist the following year when it merged with the south to become the current Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

[7][8][9][10][11][12] Meanwhile, France moved in to reassert its colonial dominance over Vietnam in the aftermath of WW2, eventually prompting the First Indochina War in December 1946.

Supervision of the implementation of the Geneva Accords was the responsibility of an international commission consisting of India, Canada, and Poland, respectively representing the non-aligned, the capitalist, and the communist blocs.

By 1973, the United States and its allies withdrew from the war, and the unsupported South Vietnam was swiftly overrun by the superior Northern forces.

In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the unified Vietnamese state experienced economic decline,[20] refugee crises and conflicts with the Khmer Rouge in 1977 and China in 1979.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was opposed to a return to French rule in Indochina, and the U.S. was supportive of the Viet Minh at this time.

The successive collapse of French, then Japanese power, followed by the disputes among the political factions in Saigon, had been accompanied by widespread violence in the countryside.

Public enthusiasm for this event suggests that the Việt Minh league enjoyed a great deal of popularity at this time, although there were few competitive races and the party makeup of the Assembly was determined in advance of the vote.

[32][33] On 6 January 1946, President Hồ Chí Minh held the nationwide General Election which voted for the first time and passed the Constitution.

When the Chinese nationalist army withdrew from Vietnam on 15 June 1946, in one way or another, Võ Nguyễn Giáp decided that the Việt Minh had to completely control the government.

On 19 June 1946, the Việt Minh Journal reportedly vehemently criticized "reactionaries sabotage the Franco-Vietnamese preliminary agreement on 6 March".

Shortly thereafter, Võ Nguyễn Giáp began a campaign to pursue opposition parties by police and military forces controlled by the Việt Minh with the help of the French authorities.

[43] The Viet Minh sought to detain or otherwise prevent would-be refugees from leaving, such as through intimidation through military presence, shutting down ferry services and water traffic, or prohibiting mass gatherings.

[51][52][53] In recognising the traditional separatism of tribal minorities, this policy of accommodationism gave them self-government in exchange for acceptance of Hanoi's control.

Other nations, including Australia, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and New Zealand also contributed troops and military aid to South Vietnam's war effort.

China, DPRK and the Soviet Union provided aid to and troops in support of North Vietnamese military activities.

In addition to the Viet Cong in South Vietnam, other communist insurgencies also operated within neighboring Kingdom of Laos and Khmer Republic, both formerly part of the French colonial territory of Indochina.

[61] Implementation, however, was delayed by North Vietnamese demands that Japan pay the equivalent of US$45 million in World War II reparations in two yearly installments, in the form of "economic cooperation" grants.

[62] Earlier, the Japanese already gave similar funding to the South Vietnamese, which also re-established official diplomatic relations with Japan during the same period.

[61] Of this money, 8.5 billion yen would be used to purchase heavy farmland cultivation machinery as well as public works provided by Japanese-owned corporations.

The program, proceeded by a Three Year Plan (1957–1960), lifted agricultural production to 5.4 million tonnes or over double pre-Indochina War levels.

[66] Executions and imprisonment of persons classified as "reactionary and evil landlords" were contemplated from the beginning of the land reform program.

[68] However, other scholarship has concluded that the higher estimates were based on political propaganda which also emanated from South Vietnam with the support of the US, and that the actual total of those executed was significantly lower.

Scholar Balasz Szalontai wrote that documents of Hungarian diplomats living in North Vietnam at the time of the land reform provided a minimum number of 1,337 executions.

[71] Economist Vo Nhan Tri reported uncovering a document in the central party archives which put the number of wrongful executions at 15,000.

From discussions with party cadres, Vo Nhan Tri concluded that the overall number of deaths was considerably higher than this figure.

[73][74] In early 1956, North Vietnam initiated a "correction of errors" which put an end to the land reform, and to rectify the mistakes and damage done.

On 18 August 1956, North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh apologised and acknowledged the serious errors the government had made in the land reform.