Vietnam (1983: Doomsday)

Vietnam, officially the Free 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, refered 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.

Pre-Doomsday
In 1983 Vietnam was lead by the communists of former North Vietnam. The ruling party had only been in power for eight years, and their grip on power was still shaky. The nation relied on fellow communists in the Soviet Union for economic and military aid. Thus officially the controls of the Vietnamese economy lay in Moscow, not in Hanoi.

Doomsday
Doomsday changed the Vietnamese nation forever. In one cataclismic event, the Warsaw Pact, China and NATO were all but wiped out. Vietnam was thrown into chaos as its economy was destroyed by the loss of its vital aid from the Soviet Union. Though Vietnam only suffered one impact on its territory, it would soon suffer more than its share of bloodshed.

Post-Doomsday
The devastated economy was the least of Vietnam's worries. They were in the middle of a war with Cambodia, and there was the matter of the Chinese refugees fleeing the destruction of China.

Vietnamese Civil War
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. On October 26th a group of military officers secretly formed a pact to liberate Vietnam from the inept communists ruling it. They use the forces under their command to seize control of the former South Vietnamese capital of Saigon and declared South Vietnam free once again. Allmost immediately their foces swelled as soldiers who hadn't been paid in years shot their commanding officers and defected. They were also aided by hordes of refugees that came to Vietnam after Doomsday. Many of these refugees were Vietnamese refugees eager to strike back at the regime that forced them to leave. Battle after bloody battle saw the fortunes of the Vietnam War reversed. Slowly but surely the new nation's border advanced north until in 1988 the new capital of Thai Nguyen liberated and the remains of the former government was arrested, tried, and swiftly executed. On May 4th 1988 South Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap declared Vietnam officially reunified under democratic control. In the first democratic ellection in Vietnam since communism took over in 1975 Giap was ellected the first President of the Free Republic of Vietnam.

Treaty of Saigon
Soon after the Vietnamese Civil War ended, 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 parts of the country were used to Vietnamese rule. On June 10th, 1988 Vietnamese President Giap met with Cambodian leader Pol Pot to sign the Treaty of Saigon. They both agree on status quo ante bellum. They also signed an trade agreement, which would cause the countries to recover quicker than they would otherwise.