Vietnam (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam), officially known as the State of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Quốc gia Việt Nam) is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. The name Vietnam translates as "South Viet", and was officially adopted in 1941. The country is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea (Vietnamese: Biển Đông, literally "East Sea") to the east. It covers a total area of approximately 331,210 sq km and has a population of almost 91 million. Its capital is Huế, while the largest city is Saigon and has a population about 7.4 million inhabitants.

French Indochina
Vietnam's independence was gradually eroded by France in a series of military conquests between 1859 and 1885. In 1862, the southern third of the country became the French colony of Cochinchina.

By 1887, the entire country formally became part of French Indochina along with Cambodia and Laos. Vietnam itself was divided into three regions: Tonkin in the north, Annam in the middle and Cochinchina in the south. The French administration imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese society. A Western-style system of modern education was developed, and Roman Catholicism was propagated widely.

Developing a plantation economy to promote the export of tobacco, indigo, tea and coffee, the French largely ignored increasing calls for Vietnamese self-government and civil rights. A nationalist political movement soon emerged, with leaders such as Phan Bội Châu, Phan Châu Trinh, Emperor Duy Tân, Cường Để, Hồ Chí Minh, Ngô Đình Diệm and Nhất Linh fighting or calling for independence. However, the 1930 Yên Bái mutiny of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng; VNQDD) was suppressed easily by the colonial government.

World War II
After the Fall of France, China launched an invasion to French Indochina on November 1, 1940. A month later, Thailand launched separate offensive, resulted to the French-Thai War. Joint invasions of the Chinese from the north and the Thais from the south driven the French out of Southeast Asia on February 4, 1941. Following the takeover of power, hundreds of VNQDD members returned from their exile in China. Vũ Hồng Khanh, a Vietnamese general served in the Chinese army, was appointed as the interim head of government of Tonkin by the Chinese military administration between February to June 1941.

On May 29, 1941, Khanh convened a national conference that was attended by representatives from Annam, Tonkin and Cochinchina in Hanoi, including Ngô Đình Diệm and Trần Trọng Kim. During those conference, Khanh promoted a unification of three regions as one national state. The motion was adopted on June 3, 1941 and the provisional government was set up on June 10, 1941. On June 19, 1941, the Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Dân Quốc) was declared in Da Lat with Khanh as its president.

Shortly afterward, China offered a protectorate treaty over Vietnam as well as a military alliance. Under this condition, Vietnam, although a de facto independent state, was controlled by China politically, economically and militarily. Vietnam also established military alliance with Thailand and Cambodia, created the so-called "Bangkok-Phnom Penh-Dalat Axis". This alliance actively participated during the invasions of northern Malaya in 1941 and of Burma in 1942. In 1944, the combination of economic mismanagement and natural disasters resulted to a famine in northern Vietnam, in which more than one million people died of starvation.

Internal resistance was formed during this period of famine. Vietnamese nationalists in Japan, led by Prince Cường Để, were contacted by Ngô Đình Diệm as late as 1944 to form a secret group that will attempted to overthrow the Republican government and installed Cường Để as the new head of state. On other hand, General Charles de Gaulle of the Free French Forces had considered to restore former Emperor Duy Tân, who joined the Free French, to the throne of Nguyen Dynasty. Tân was considered both a popular nationalist hero and an amicable ally for the French.

Union of Indochina
After the end of the war, Vietnam was succumbed into a power vacuum. The Republican government only retained a nominal control over the country. Between August and September 1945, the communist Viet Minh organization led by Hồ Chí Minh, launched a revolt and seized control in the north. In the south, Ngô Đình Diệm was appointed as the acting president, replacing Khanh, on August 18, 1945. During this period, Diệm struggled to maintain the government control over the southern regions against the communist insurrections.

In September 1945, the Allied forces entered Vietnam; the British, along with the French troops from French India, landed in the south on September 5 and the Japanese in the north on September 19. With the landings of Allied forces, the French were starting to reassert control over Indochina. On September 24, Cường Để arrived in Hanoi in a Japanese military aircraft and soon assumed the position of "Chief of State" of the Republic of Vietnam. On other hand, the French flown Duy Tân to Vietnam aboard a military plane and landed in Saigon on December 28. On his arrival, Duy Tân expressed his desire to negotiate with the Viet Minh and create a coalition government led either by him or Prince Cường.

On January 4, 1946, Cường Để, Duy Tân and Bảo Đại met in Hue and agreed to have Bảo Đại abdicated in favor of his ten-year old son, Bảo Long, with Cường Để as his regent. On other hand, Duy Tân received blessings from Cường Để and Bảo Đại to form a government on January 10, 1946. Duy Tân later represented Vietnam during the talks with the French in January and February 1946 in preparation to transform French Indochina into a semi-autonomous federation. After the failure in preventing the union plan, Duy Tân voluntarily resigned on March 3, 1946 and replaced by Bảo Đại. The Union of Indochina eventually formed on March 6, 1946.

In June 1946, the French scheduled for the elections of Legislative Assembly of Vietnam in September. The supporters of Duy Tân created the left-wing Democratic People's Rally, led by Hoàng Minh Giám and Eugène Dejean de la Bâtie. The supporters of Cường Để created the Vietnamese National Alliance, led by Ngô Đình Diệm and Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ. A smaller conservative group led by Bảo Đại himself formed the Constitutional Association. Notable minor parties included the Progressive Party, led by Nhất Linh; the Hòa Hảo-dominated Democratic Socialist Party, led by Huỳnh Phú Sổ; and the Liberal Party, led by Nguyễn Phan Long.

The Democratic People's Rally won 126 of 250 seats in the elections, giving Duy Tân a comfortable support from the Assembly. The Constitution of Vietnam was formally adopted on July 12, 1947 by the Head of State, Prince-Regent Cường Để, establishing Vietnam as a de facto republic with a parliamentary government.