b35_0383 - 1 Dong SOUTH VIETNAM 1955 P.11a

SOUTH VIETNAM

The Republic of Vietnam was born in 1955. Following the defeat of French troops at the Battle of Diên Biên Phu, the Geneva Accords were signed in July 1954. They ratified the provisional division of independent Vietnam between the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. pro-Communist Nam north of the 17th parallel and the pro-Western Republic of Vietnam to the south. Faced with the insurrection of the communist guerrillas and the political instability of the regime, the government of Saigon appealed for military support from the United States, a military aid that would lead to the Vietnam War. The Paris agreements of 1973 lead to American disengagement. The South Vietnamese army fails to stem the military advances of the North Vietnamese supported by the USSR and China. Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. Vietnam was officially reunified on July 2, 1976..