Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc (Vietnamese) ("Independence - Freedom - Happiness") | |||||||
| Capital | Ha Noi | ||||||
| Largest city | Saigon-HCMC | ||||||
| Other cities | Da Nang, Hai Phong, Can Tho, Quang Ninh | ||||||
| Language | Vietnamese, Chinese | ||||||
| Government | Semi-presidential parliamentary republic | ||||||
| President | Hoàng Trung Hải | ||||||
| Prime Minister | Đào Ngọc Dung | ||||||
| Area | 331,690 km² | ||||||
| Population | 65,789,573 | ||||||
| Currency | Vietnamese Dong | ||||||
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by the remains of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea, referred to as the East Sea (Bien Dong in Vietnamese). With a population of over 65 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world.
History[]
Pre-Doomsday[]
In 1983 Vietnam was led by the communists of former North Vietnam. The country had just recently united with South Vietnam in 1975 after the end of the war and the annexation of the Republic of Vietnam. The nation relied on the Soviet Union for economic and military aid in order to keep the economy afloat and give stability to the government, the Soviet Union also give military aid to the Vietnamese government.
To make things more worse, there's an increasing trend of inflation due to the lack of productivity of the agriculture and the industry. As such, automatization of collectives was formed in 1981 to increase the agricultural productivity and to solve the real demand of the people. Further reforms were implemented with agricultural and industrial sector until Doomsday.
Doomsday[]
Doomsday changed the Vietnamese nation forever. In one cataclysmic event, the Warsaw Pact, China and NATO were all but wiped out. Vietnam also suffered nuclear strikes to its capitol Hanoi and Cam Ranh Bay, which was the largest Soviet naval port outside of the USSR. Vietnam was thrown into chaos as its economy was destroyed by the loss of its vital aid from the Soviet Union.
Post-Doomsday era (1984-96)[]
The devastated economy was one of the factors . They were in the middle of a war with Cambodia, and there was the new matter of the Chinese refugees fleeing the destruction of China. This divided government into two ways on the matter of refugee affairs. On one hand, let by the surviving Politburo member Lê Đức Thọ (one of the only few Central Committee members survived in Hanoi) wanted to give a hardline stance on the refugees. On the other hand, let by the Foreign Minister Nguyễn Cơ Thạch, wanted a softer stance, accepting refugees with some conditions (such as some limited restrictions on business while the nation is liberalizing the economy on unaffected areas of the country)
In 1984 it seemed like Vietnam was becoming more and more destitute with each passing day. The government's heavy-handed attempts to solve the problem only made it worse with the disobedience of the local officials. On October 26th, an extraordinary congress of the Communist Party was conducted at Hà Nam Ninh to resolve the Doomsday problems. It was agreed that the new Politburo was composed (mostly freshmen of the Central Committee) and the top priority of the nation was to recover the economic and social stability first before later decisions could be made. The government decided to put Hà Nam Ninh as the provisional capital as outskirts of Hanoi was in the process of recovering. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam would remained, but a new constitution was introduced to fit the current situation.
Soon after the recovery began, there was the matter of Cambodia. Both sides of the Vietnamese-Cambodian War were too preoccupied with economic recovery to actually fight. For the four years since Doomsday an unofficial truce was in place. The Cambodians in the Vietnamese-occupied People's Republic of Kampuchea of the country were used to Vietnamese rule. On June 10th, President Nguyễn Văn Linh met with Cambodian leader Hun Sen to agreed a partial withdrawing of Vietnamese troops, with five-thousand troops are allowed to stay in Cambodia, therefore forming the PAVN Volunteer Troops in Kampuchea.
After secure the stability in Laos and Kampuchea, the government began to implement a super-industrialization to recover the economy after Doomsday. Implementing the idea was the new Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyễn Văn Chính, the economic recovery programme concentrated on Central and Southern Region or provinces surrounding the nuked areas (i.e the provinces of Quang Nam-Da Nang, Bình Dương, Bắc Ninh, Thái Nguyen, Vĩnh Phúc), allowing easier and faster recovery for nuked regions.
At the same time, there are conflicts on social policy as they began to fully recover in Hanoi in mid-late 1990's. The de facto leader, President Lê Khả Phiêu wanted a more hardline approach, concerning for the post-Doomsday internal security, pointing the former Southern European states as an example. The liberal line was approached by Ngô Duy Đông (Chairman of the Council of Ministers), who survived after Doomsday explosions in Hanoi with other local-based Central Committee members. This was only settled after the IX Extraordinary Congress, of which the liberals triumphed over the conservatives and began to fully reform the nation.
Reform (1998-)[]
The IX Congress gave the nation a new leadership of reformers, including the new General Secretary Nguyễn Văn An, one of the proponents of market reform in the country. In 2000, the government officially allowed people to hold private properties (de facto in 1985 with unaffected areas), and introduced a Law on Foreign Investment, to attract FDI from developed countries, such as the Alpine Confederation, Siberia, and to fastened the recovery and development of the country. It also introduced the Labour Code in 2001, of which secure the worker's rights with some amendment to fit with the situation. The same year also announced the Resolution 10, which allow the private management of collectives, fully remove autarky and change to capitalist way of production. Those decrees were a part of the reform called "Renovation", of which allowing the capitalist way of production after ensuring the high productivity of industry and agriculture during the recovery period.
After ensuring drastic growth during the 9th Five-Year Plan and later, the government began to introduce the transition to a fusion of people's democracy, although actually a change to a dominant-party state. The government allow people to partially implement their freedom of speech, freedom of expression, but de facto not the right to protest. This would introduce other parties in the local assembly (the People's Council) and the Fatherland Front. Two newly formed parties are the Democratic Alliance and the Social Democratic Party, of which allied with the Socialist and Democratic Party in Vietnam, making the de facto opposition to the ruling Communist Party.
While the democratic reforms were slowly implemented to fit with the society, the country also began to observe the rise of the new oligarchs and an drastic increase on income gap due to the pro-market economic reforms. The one that was affected by this is the ICT sector of the nation, which was introduced in the late 90's and saw a big rise as the main sector to support Vietnamese industry and agriculture, which is the most vital part for the Recovery Programme, and an important part of contribution to the fast economic growth. The first protest of the workers in the ICT industry began on September 2005, continued until November of the same year, which only can be ended by the government repression and companies' assurance.
On 2008, the Social Democratic Party decided to unite with the Socialist Party of Vietnam to be the Party of Democratic Socialism and the Democratic Party joined the Democratic Alliance, a center to center-right coalition. Together they composed of 200 over 500 seats, with the Communist Party got the other 300 seats, forming the largest opposition within the National Front the government had seen. With that, the once-formidable Communists had to encountered a new shadow cabinet in a increasingly powerful National Assembly.
The implementation of democracy was reformed in favour of the opposition, of which emphasizing the reduction of importance of the Communist-controlled Fatherland Front on choosing candidates. This reform would be considered by some as a end to the expected democratic transition in Vietnam, turned to a three-party state, it would strengthen the stability of the nation, furthering on transition into a new regime. Technocrats within the country were promoted as to furthering the recovery of the economy and increase the international prestige of the new government. This would also furthering the economic growth and as such increase the stability of the nation.
Modern Times[]
The nation is quickly rising from the ruins and headed towards the new era, the moment that they had been waited for since the August Revolution, although the process of transitioning to a full market economy hasn't finished yet. The economy still rises and the peace and stability continues. It also emphasizes the cooperation between Vietnam and other states, such as ANZC, the new ally and Siberia, formerly the Soviet Union, the closest ally of Vietnam during the Vietnam War as a way to preserve its' security interests from their northern neighbour.
However, contemporary issues that the nation have to face with is the rampant corruption, within any parties or state institutions, which is common for every person in the society. Such things was so common that a high-ranking official admitted to the press that the current anti-corruption measures are not efficient as expected. As such, harsher measures was implemented, as a part of the new anti-corruption campaign, of which furthering the nationwide education about corruption, not just within the political circles.
Government[]
Vietnam (full name is Socialist Republic of Vietnam) has a new system since 2016, a parliamentary republic. The current constitution was amended from the 1992 Constitution, which recognized the multi-party, Western democratic system. A de facto three-party system was formed after the Communist Party gave in after losing the 2016 election. While maintaining that those parties would continue the progress towards socialism, there are indications that they actually had abolished the target after the economic reforms of 2005.
The government is composed of three branches:
- Legislative: The unicameral National Assembly makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government. Before 1998, it was considered a fully rubber-stamp assembly due to its' obedience to the leading Communist Party. After implementing the new constitution, it was more powerful and by 2016, dominated by the opposition. The National Assembly was led by a Chairman, who would be ranked third in the hierarchy.
- Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to National Assembly approval) and other high-ranking officers, which was the National Security and Defense Council, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies. While the President is the de jure head of state, the power was concentrated to the Prime Minister, which is the head of government
- Judicial: The Supreme People's Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are nominated by the president with National Assembly approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional. Below them are local "People's Court", which was responsible for judging defendants, affairs. The SPC is led by a Chief Justice, who is usually a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee or sometimes, the Standing Committee of the Federal Assembly.
- Procuracy: The Supreme People's Procuracy, whose procurators are nominated by the presidents with the National Assembly's approval (and in some cases, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly), presides, supervises or oversees any judicial activities, "helping the laws to be more effective and powerful", and have the right to initiate public prosecution within the law. The local People's Procuracy also have similar functions within their boundaries. The SPP is led by a Director.
On 2016, the Vietnamese government decided to abolish the death penalty with other economic crimes (which was not implemented in any sense) and replaced it with forced labour in general, combined with officially fix the Article 4 of the Constitution as "the three main parties, the Socialist Party of Vietnam, the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Democratic Party of Vietnam, together with other political organizations, can peacefully participate in political process and leading the nation", allowing one more step closer to the Western democracies.
Unification Palace in Saigon
Military[]
The Vietnamese maintain armed forces to defend themselves using old Warsaw Pact issued equipment as well as some new weaponry from the ANZC and other Pacific nations, primarily using it to protect the Vietnamese-Chinese border from refugees living in former Chinese territory. The Vietnamese Army has had moderate success beating back the armed refugees that streamed into Vietnamese territory.
Recently, arms deals with Siberia (the direct successor to the USSR) were negotiated, allowed the Vietnamese to modernize its' naval forces and air forces to counter with Chinese successor states at South China Sea (also known as East Sea in Vietnam) and in the Gulf of Thailand. Currently, Vietnam People's Navy, the main naval forces of the country recently obtained 6 Mirka-class frigates retired from the Soviet Navy, allowing it to counter the Chinese attacks, according to some sources.
Currently, the government still maintains a huge amount of soldiers, about 600,000 troops (of which 10,000 troops were in overseas divisions and about ) and forming the Soviet-modeled Strategic Missile Forces as a way to prevent and counter any attack like the Doomsday or to counter any attack from the former China, considering its' traditional strained relations. A similar modernization plan is also implementing with the Ground Forces and the Strategic Missile Force, to prepare for a future war, while some soldiers were appointed to join the reserve force, allow them to do their own business.
Vietnamese soldiers on the march
Economy[]
The Vietnamese economy has been blooming in recent years. It has become one of the "economic cubs" of East Asia. The ANZC aid strengthened the economic base of Vietnam, allowing it to fund increased industrial expansion. Before Doomsday most goods were imported from the USSR, and while it still imports goods from the ANZC, there's an increasing trend of amount of goods on the Vietnamese market were manufactured locally.
It also observes the incomes gap broaden due to the market reforms, therefore Vietnam observes the rise of Gini rate until very recently, which maintained at a normal rate.
Foreign Relations[]
The vital economic aid provided by the ANZC has forged strong relations between the former Cold War enemies. When contact was re-established with Siberia, relations were improved after the reformist leadership of Tuleyev rose in power. In recent years relations between Hanoi and Krasnoyarsk have thawed, forming the strategic partnership and renewed the Friendship Treaty once again. The Vietnamese Government have applied for League of Nations membership and was accepted in 2007.
Relations with former states of China was further strained by political crisis in the South China Sea, damaging the already bad relations due to the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War and border conflicts, combined with disputes in the South China Sea and economic benefits from the area. However, relations with Yunnan have been extensive and mutual beneficial, with the economies of the two states being closely interrelated.
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