Yearbook 2005
Vietnam. According to countryaah, Hanoi is the capital and one of the major cities within the country of Vietnam. Vietnam was the country most affected by the dreaded and well-known bird flu during the year. In October, 41 people in Vietnam had died of the disease and 91 cases had been documented since the outbreak of the epidemic in January 2004. The country’s management determined that the fight against viral disease was of the highest priority. Millions of poultry were slaughtered in an attempt to prevent the spread. In February, Vietnam appealed to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN agricultural body FAO for help in curbing the infection.
- Also see abbreviationfinder.org for how the acronym VM stands for the country of Vietnam and other meanings of this two-letter abbreviation.
In connection with the celebration of the New Year in February, approximately 8,300 prisoners were released. Of these, six were political prisoners. According to human rights organizations, the abuses in northern Vietnam continued against the Christian so-called Montagnards, which since 2001 have protested against religious oppression and for ownership of the land they use.
The first Vietnamese attempt to claim damages from US manufacturers of the detergent agent orange failed in a US court in March. The three Vietnamese believed that the diseases and defects they suffered were caused by the dioxin-based agent orange used by the Americans during the Vietnam War 1962-71. However, the Court found that the relationship between Agent Orange and the diseases was not established and that the companies could not take responsibility for what the US military did with the plant poison.
In June, Prime Minister Phan Văn Khai visited US President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington. It was the first time since 1975, when the US lost the Vietnam War, that a Vietnamese Prime Minister visited the White House.
Nearly 60 people were killed when the typhoon Damrey crossed northern Vietnam on September 27.
Collapse in Eastern Europe
In August, the CCP Central Committee accused the West of trying to destroy the socialist world. Nguyen Van Linh called for the rejection of bourgeois liberalizations, political pluralism and opposition parties that are on the verge of shattering socialism. Despite this outcome, the participation of non-communist candidates in the 1989 National Assembly elections was allowed. And a year later, the establishment of the Vietnam Veterans Association was allowed. But this liberalization was followed by an emphasis on the continuing leadership role of the CCP, by arresting several supporters of political pluralism, on the one hand, and by firing 18,000 public servants, accused of corruption.
Throughout the 1980s, substantial “illegal emigration” had taken place as tens of thousands of Vietnamese tried to flee to neighboring countries from Vietnam’s miserable living conditions. The Western countries’ resistance to accepting these refugees in greater numbers meant that they were crammed into overcrowded refugee camps. Especially in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong. In 1989, Britain began deporting them from there. A project that was only suspended after international protests. It was not until 1991 that repatriation resumed when the British government initiated a forced return of 64,000 Vietnamese refugees to Vietnam.
In June 1991, VKP conducted its 7th party congress. On it, it reaffirmed its mission for building a socialist society – “the only correct choice”. At the same time, Van Linh was replaced by Du Muoi as the party’s secretary general. He continued the renewal process – called Doi Moi – initiated in 1986. The new political leadership consisted of 13 members and the Central Committee (CK) was reduced to 146 members – all appointed unlike the former CK with 124 appointed and 49 candidate members. Trong My Moa is the first woman in the country’s new leadership. She is a member of CK’s secretariat of 9 members. The proportion of women in the population is high in proportion to the proportion of men due to the large number of people killed as a result of the war. In the 25-44 age group there are 115 women for every 100 men. This is a serious problem,
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the CCP reaffirmed its policy on the single political system, but at the same time it decided to continue implementing a number of political changes. In this way, a consolidation of the renewal policy, which was initiated with the more flexible economic policy expressed in the efforts to develop a mixed economy with the creation of private companies and foreign investment, was implemented.
In October 1991, at the initiative of the United Nations and the four warring factions in Kampuchea, an agreement was signed that removed the obstacles to solving the Kampuchea problem. This was a necessary step for the normalization of relations between China and Vietnam. The ideological and political rupture between Beijing and Moscow in 1963 had also led to increasing distance between Vietnam and China. The final rupture occurred in 1979, when the China-backed Khmer Rouge regime in Kampuchea was overthrown with the help of Vietnam.
Vietnam’s new constitution, adopted in April 1992, allows the election of independent candidates in the elections. Still, 90% of the candidates in the July election were VKP. In September, the new parliament appointed General Le Duc Anh as president. He was Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet’s ally. In November, a commission of U.S. senators visited the country to discuss the problem of the 2,000 North American soldiers from the Vietnam War, whose fate remained uncertain.
