[1][2] Until WOSM recognition returned in 2019, Vietnam was the largest nation in population to have Scouting that is not recognized by the organization.

From its establishment in 1930, the Vietnamese Scout Association experienced many stages of development, and attracted many figures who later played important roles in the political stage of both North and South Vietnam, including North Vietnamese Minister of Defense Tạ Quang Bửu, Mayor of Hanoi Trần Duy Hưng, composer Lưu Hữu Phước, physician Tôn Thất Tùng, Võ Thành Minh, physician Phạm Ngọc Thạch, Vice Premier of South Vietnam Trần Văn Tuyên, physician Phạm Biểu Tâm, South Vietnamese Senator Trần Điền, and writer Cung Giũ Nguyên.

During that time, Hoàng Ðạo Thúy was the General Secretary of the Annamese Scouting Association.

André Lefèvre, chief of the Éclaireurs de France, set up a training camp for 60 Scoutmasters from all over French Indochina.

At the end of 1937, French Scouting sent Scoutmaster Raymond Schlemmer to the Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese areas of Indochina to oversee the setting up of the Fédération Indochinoise des Associations du Scoutisme (FIAS, Indochinese Federation of Scouting Associations) in all three regions.

From 1939 through 1945, the political situation affected Scouting activities all across the country, as World War II engendered a movement for an independent Vietnam.

On the other hand, where conditions were not favorable, and anti-Japanese sentiments were likely to be nurtured through Scouting, the authorities would prohibit it entirely.

After the coup in March 1945, Bao Dai was installed as the puppet ruler, and Vietnam was nominally independent.

[3] In 1946, the National Scoutmaster Conference unified the Scouting movements in the three regions of Vietnam, and the General Committee was established.

The Scout Constitution was drawn up in 1952, with the approval of the Ministry of Youth Affairs, and international recognition was given at the beginning of 1957.

In April 1975, South Vietnam was overrun by the Viet Cong, and the Vietnamese Scout Association was banned.

In December 1970, the National Jamboree was held in Suối Tiên (Thủ Đức) with the name Giữ Vững (Steadfast), marking 40 years of the movement.

In 1974, the National Jamboree was held in Tam Bình, Gia Định (modern-day Ho Chi Minh City) under the name Tự Lực (Self-sufficiency).

In the first few months of 1975, many Scouting members followed the wave of refugees leaving the country and the Association ceased operating.

The communist authorities replaced Scouting with the local Pioneer Movement, the Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneer Organization, established in North Vietnam on 15 May 1941[4] At the fall of Saigon in 1975, the Vietnamese Scout Association was finally banned by the communist government and its headquarters at 18 Bui Chu, Saigon was taken over.

Since its birth, the International Central Committee of Vietnamese Scouting has organized and managed ten International Vietnamese Scouting Jamborees named Thang Tien (Moving Forward) in France (1985, 1993), Canada (1988), the United States (1990, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2014) and Australia (1996), as well as many other smaller camps and jamborees.

In late 1991, Vu Xuan Hong, Secretary of the Movement of Marxist Youth, approached the Asia-Pacific Regional Office of the WOSM.

The General Secretariat of the international movement did not follow up on this approach, since the organization cannot give allegiance to a political or national entity.

[citation needed] The Scout Motto is Sắp Sẵn, translating as Be Prepared in Vietnamese.

In South Vietnam, Vietnamese Scout Association maintained the same structure as before, except there were no geographical regions.