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| Water puppet of Le Loi. Kinh people; Hanoi; late 20th century. Craig Chesek / AMNH |
Vietnam is an ancient country. The story revealed by its artifacts, its monuments and its heroes both legendary and real is one of repeated struggles against foreign domination. The conflict known in Vietnam as the American War (1964-1975) represents but one brief, painful episode of a history reckoned in thousands of years rather than centuries. As an American veteran observed, "The country is not the war; the war was not the country."
| 30,000 BC |
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Prehistory
First inhabitants. Farming, pottery and metalworking develop. |
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| 800 BC |
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Early states period
Small states rise and fall. Chinese invasions. |
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| 1000 AD |
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Monarchy
Independent kingdoms start with Ly dynasty. Chinese invasions resisted. Champa kingdom flowers and declines. |
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| 1858 |
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French colonial period
French dominate first south, then center, then north. |
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| 1945 |
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Indochina wars
August Revolution. French colonists expelled. American War. |
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| 1975 |
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Unified Vietnam
War with Cambodia and China. Refugees depart by sea. Renovation of economy. |
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