Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam

The Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG, Vietnamese: Chính phủ Cách mạng Lâm thời Cộng hòa miền Nam Việt Nam), was formed on 8 June 1969, by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) as an armed underground government opposing the government of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) under President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. Delegates of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Viet Cong), as well as several smaller groups, participated in its creation.

Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (1969–1975) Chính phủ Cách mạng Lâm thời Cộng hòa miền Nam Việt Nam Republic of South Vietnam (1975–1976) Cộng hòa miền Nam Việt Nam
1969–1976
National flags
Motto: Độc lập – Dân chủ – Hòa bình – Trung lập "Independence – Democracy – Peace – Neutrality"
Anthem: Giải phóng miền Nam "Liberate the South"
Military emblem of the Liberation Army of South Vietnam
Republic of South Vietnam (dark green) after the Fall of Saigon.
Status	Underground government in opposition to the Republic of Vietnam (1969–1975) Client state of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1975–1976)
Capital	Tây Ninh (1969–1972) Lộc Ninh (1972–1973) Cam Lộ (1973–1975) Saigon – Gia Dinh (1975–1976)
Common languages	Vietnamese
Religion	Vietnamese folk religion Buddhism Caodaism Christianity
Government	Unitary Marxist–Leninist provisional government
Chairman of Consultative Council
• 1969–1976	Nguyễn Hữu Thọ
Chairman of government
• 1969–1976	Huỳnh Tấn Phát
Legislature	People's Assembly
Historical era	Vietnam War Cold War
• Government formed	8 June 1969
• Fall of Saigon	30 April 1975
• Vietnamese reunification	2 July 1976
Area
1975	173,809 km^2 (67,108 sq mi)
Currency	Liberation dong
Preceded by Succeeded by Republic of Vietnam Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Today part of	Vietnam

The PRG was recognized as the government of South Vietnam by most socialist states and Malta. It signed the 1973 Paris Peace Treaty as an independent entity, separate from both South Vietnam and North Vietnam. After the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, the PRG formally replaced the Republic of Vietnam to become the nominal and representative government of South Vietnam under the official name Republic of South Vietnam (Vietnamese: Cộng hòa miền Nam Việt Nam), inheriting all properties, rights, obligations and sovereignty representation of the Republic of Vietnam. On 2 July 1976, the Republic of South Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam constitutionally merged to form the current Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

History

The Provisional Revolutionary Government was preceded by the Vietnam Alliance of National, Democratic, and Peaceful Forces (VANDPF)^{[failed verification – see discussion]} made up of anti-government forces and headed by Trinh Dinh Thao. The Alliance was a collection of individuals who wanted a new South Vietnamese government but disagreed with the ever-present Northern Communist presence.^{[citation needed]}

Discussions about forming an alliance had begun as early as 1966, but plans were disrupted when South Vietnamese intelligence agents apprehended a prominent anti-government figure, Ba Tra. Ba Tra gave the South Vietnamese government extensive information on anti-government forces working in the city. This setback was compounded by his identification of one of the key cadre in the financial division.

Under torture, Ba Tra identified more figures in the underground, who were then arrested. By 1967, the entire Saigon organization had been sent further underground.

In early 1969, the then-new American president, Richard Nixon, started a process of Vietnamization to allow the American Armed Forces to withdraw from South Vietnam.

1969–1975

On 8 June 1969 delegates from the Vietcong, the VANDPF, the People's Revolutionary Party (the South Vietnamese communist party) and "the usual assortment of mass organizations, ethnic groups, and geopolitical regions" met off Route 22 in Cambodia's Fishhook region and formed the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG). Banners displayed prominently at the convention proclaimed that "South Vietnam is independent, democratic, peaceful, and neutral".

Following the military and political results of the 1968 Tet Offensive and related military offensives in the South by Saigon and the United States, in which the Vietcong suffered serious military losses, the PRG was envisioned as a political counter-force that could influence international public opinion in support of reunification and in opposition to the United States and South Vietnam.

The declared purpose of the PRG was to provide a formal governmental structure to the NLF and enhance its claim of representing "the Southern people". Included in this strategy was the pursuit of a negotiated settlement to the war leading to reunification, organized during the initial phase of Vietnamization. According to Justice Minister Trương Như Tảng, the new group's main purpose was to help the NLF "acquire a new international stature."

During 1969–70, most of the PRG's cabinet ministries operated near the Cambodian border. Starting on 29 March to late April 1970, the US and South Vietnamese offensives forced the PRG to flee deeper into Cambodia. The stressful escape caused many of the PRG officials (such as Trương Như Tạng) to need extensive medical furloughs. After Trương Như Tạng returned, he noticed that new cadres from the north were causing problems for the non-communist members of the PRG. One member in particular, Ba Cap, harshly denounced most of the PRG as bourgeois. Tạng complained to the higher members of the DRV government, but was rebuffed. Tạng later saw this as the point when the PRG turned from being an independent South Vietnam-based alternative government to being a mouthpiece for the communist movement.

The central bodies of the PRG functioned as a provisional government. The PRG maintained diplomatic relations with many countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, such as Algeria and SFR Yugoslavia as well as with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

1975–1976

After the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, the PRG assumed power in South Vietnam and subsequently participated in the reunification of Vietnam.

According to professor Ngô Vĩnh Long (University of Maine), mid-July 1975, the delegates of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam () and the Republic of South Vietnam () applied to join the United Nations (UN) as two independent member states. However, both countries failed in joining the United Nations due to American vetoes on 11 August and 30 September 1975 as the USSR and China refused to allow South Korea to join the organization on 6 August. However, North Vietnam and North Vietnam-controlled South Vietnam became two UN observers in 1975. Kuwait was the last country to recognize and establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of South Vietnam on 22 and 24 January 1976, before North and South Vietnam were eventually reunited on 2 July 1976.

Government and politics

Cabinet

Post	Name	Took office	Left office	Party
Chairman of Consultative Council (Head of State)	Nguyễn Hữu Thọ	6 June 1969	2 July 1976	People's Revolutionary Party and Democratic Party of Vietnam
Chairman of Government (Prime Minister and de facto leader)	Huỳnh Tấn Phát	8 June 1969	2 July 1976	People's Revolutionary Party and Democratic Party of Vietnam
Vice-chairman		8 June 1969	1976	Democratic Party of Vietnam
Vice-chairman	Nguyễn Văn Kiệt	8 June 1969	1976
Vice-chairman		8 June 1969	1976
Minister of Presidential Palace of Government		8 June 1969	1976	People's Revolutionary Party and Democratic Party of Vietnam
Minister of Defense	Trần Nam Trung	8 June 1969	1976	People's Revolutionary Party
Minister of Foreign Affairs	Nguyễn Thị Bình	8 June 1969	1976	People's Revolutionary Party
Minister of the Interior		8 June 1969	1976
Minister of Justice	Trương Như Tảng	8 June 1969	1976
Minister of Economy and Finance	Duong Ky Hiep (acting from 1975)	8 June 1969	died 1971
Minister of Information and Culture	Lưu Hữu Phước	8 June 1969	1976
Minister of Education and Youth	Nguyễn Văn Kiệt	8 June 1969	1976
Minister of Health, Social Action and Disabled Soldiers	Dương Quỳnh Hoa	8 June 1969	1976	People's Revolutionary Party

Culture

Music

The national anthem of the Government was Liberate the South (Vietnamese: Giải phóng miền Nam). The song was written in 1961 by Lưu Hữu Phước (1921–1989) and adopted at that time as the anthem of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Viet Cong).

In 1966, Lưu Hữu Phước wrote a military song  [vi] (Tiến về Sài Gòn) as an encouragement the soldiers going to attack Saigon in the Tet Offensive. The song was spread again during the fall of Saigon.

Photos

• János Kádár and Nguyễn Văn Hiếu at SED party conference in East Berlin, 16 June 1971
• A youth representative of the PRG greets a young man from a Soviet-aligned unidentified African nation. Both are attending a 1973 World Youth Conference held in East Germany and organised by the Free German Youth.
• 1973 World Youth Conference held in East Berlin, 4 August 1973
• Signes of two primers (North) and Nguyễn Thị Bình (South) at the Paris Peace Accords, 27 January 1973
• NLF soldier on 12 February 1973

See also

• Vietnam portal
• Asia portal

• Vietnam War
• Geneva Accords

References

Citations

1. "giấy công tác đặc biệt" [Special Working Paper]. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2020. độc lập – dân chủ – hòa bình – trung lập
2. "Mintoff shows off his 'non-aligned manhood' and threatens to break relations with Israel". archive.maltatoday.com.mt. 18 April 2010. Archived from the original on 20 December 2024. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
3. Florian Grotz; Dieter Nohlen; Christof Hartmann, eds. (2001). Elections in Asia and the Pacific : A Data Handbook | Volume II: South East Asia, East Asia, and the South Pacific. OUP Oxford. pp. 333, 334, 337. ISBN 978-0-19-924959-6.
4. Porter 1993, pp. 27–29
5. Tảng 1985, p. 131
6. Tảng 1985, p. 132
7. Tảng 1985, p. 147
8. Tảng 1985, p. 146
9. Tảng 1985, pp. 146–147
10. Tảng 1985, p. 186
11. Tảng 1985, p. 188
12. Tảng 1985, pp. 188–189
13. Milutin Tomanović, ed. (1972). Hronika međunarodnih događaja 1971 [The Chronicle of International Events in 1971] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade: Institute of International Politics and Economics. p. 2664.
14. Chi Phan. "45 năm trước, có một chương trình phát thanh lịch sử". Báo Điện tử Chính phủ. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
15. "Toàn văn lời tuyên bố đầu hàng của Tổng thống VNCH Dương Văn Minh và sự tiếp nhận đầu hàng của đại diện quân giải phóng miền Nam". Cổng Thông tin Điện tử tỉnh Cà Mau.
16. "United Nations Official Document". United Nations. Archived from the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
17. "[53] Điểm qua các lần xin gia nhập Liên hợp quốc của Việt Nam". 23 December 2017.
18. "5. Cuộc tổng tuyển cử ngày 25 tháng 4 năm 1976 đánh dấu bước thắng lợi quyết định của nhân dân ta trên con đường thống nhất nước nhà về mặt nhà nước (Ngày 24 tháng 6 năm 1976)" [5. The general election on April 25, 1976 marked the decisive victory of our people on the path to national unification (June 24, 1976)] (in Vietnamese). Dangcongsan.vn. Retrieved 30 April 2018.

Sources

• Porter, Gareth (1993). Vietnam: The politics of bureaucratic socialism (1993 ed.). Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-2168-6.
• Tảng, Truong Như; David Chanoff, Van Toai Doan (1985). A Vietcong memoir (1985 ed.). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 978-0-15-193636-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

• Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (1969–1975)
• "Ethnic Music" Room ("Words" is Japanese version only.)
• Rulers (Vietnam)
• WORLD STATESMEN, Vietnam (including South Vietnam)

Preceded by Republic of Việt Nam

Provisional Revolutionary Government 1975–1976

Succeeded by Socialist Republic of Vietnam