Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Vietnamese_Demilitarized_Zone".

Map of the Demilitarized Zone

Photo taken from the north side of the DMZ at the Route 1 crossing. The guard tower on the left is a re-creation and spires seen in the distance through the arch are a new monument.

The Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone was established as a dividing line between North and South Vietnam as a result of the First Indochina War.

During the Second Indochina War (popularly known as the Vietnam War), it became important as the battleground demarcation separating North Vietnamese territory from South Vietnamese territory.

Geography

The DMZ ran east-west near the center of present-day Vietnam (spanning more than a hundred kilometers) and was a couple of kilometers wide. It reached across into a beach on the east. An island nearby was controlled by North Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War. Although it was nominally described as being at "the 17th parallel," almost all of the zone lies to the south of the parallel, with only a small portion of the zone near the eastern shore actually including the parallel.

It was around a hundred kilometers north of the city of Huế.

The First Indochina War

Main article: First Indochina War

The First Indochina War (also called the French Indochina War) was fought in Southeast Asia from 1946 through 1954 between the French Union's colonial forces and the State of Vietnam's National Army on the one side, and the communist forces of Ho Chi Minh, called the Viet Minh, on the other.

The Viet Minh, seasoned by combat against occupying Japanese soldiers during World War II, launched a rebellion against the colonial authority governing French Indochina. After seven years of bloody conflict, the French made their last stand at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, where they were engaged by the forces of General Vo Nguyen Giap. Thanks to massive support from China, General Giap was able to manage heavy artillery pieces which isolated the French garrison by destroying its vital airstrip. Despite devastating human losses, the outnumbering and outpowering Viet Minh were successful in this 57-day siege. The war in Indochina was not very popular with the French public, but the political stagnation of the Fourth Republic (following the World War II German occupation) resulted in ongoing prosecution of the war. The United States supported France in the war politically and financially.

Establishing the DMZ

The Geneva Conference on July 21, 1954, recognized the 17^th parallel as a "provisional military demarcation line" temporarily dividing the country into two states, Communist North Vietnam and "Free" South Vietnam.

The Geneva Accords promised elections in 1956 to determine a national government for a united Vietnam. However because Ho Chi Minh and the Communists immediately began trying to destabilize the free and democratic south, these elections were never held. Emperor Bảo Đại, from his home in France, appointed Ngô Đình Diệm as Prime Minister of South Vietnam. With American support, in 1955, Diệm used a rigged referendum to remove the Emperor and declare himself president of the Republic of Vietnam.

Thus the competition for the whole of Vietnam began; Diệm's military was unable to prevail in the civil war which escalated, as a result of international intervention, into the Vietnam War, which is also referred to as the Second Indochina War.

See also

• Ben Hai River
• First Indochina War
• Vietnam War
• Demilitarized zone
• Clear Path International: An American NGO assisting victims of bombs and landmines left over from the Vietnam War in Central Vietnam
• DMZ tours

External links

• Travel Guide to DMZ with good photos
• More Photos
• Vietnam adventure guides
• Washington Post map of the DMZ