Timeline Vietnam 1974-2012
Return to home
1974 Jan
17-1974 Jan 19, China occupied the Paracel Islands following the
Battle of Hoang Sea, a bloody skirmish with Vietnam.
(Econ, 3/31/07, SR
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hoang_Sa)
1974 Feb 21, A report claimed
that the use of defoliants by the U.S. had scarred Vietnam for
century. Defoliation was meant to save lives by denying the enemy
cover. But for some the 'cure' was worse than the problem.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1974 Mar 22, The Viet Cong
proposed a new truce with the United States and South Vietnam, which
included general elections.
(AP, 3/22/99)
1974 Oct, The Politburo in
North Vietnam decided to launch an invasion of South Vietnam in
1975.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1975 Jan 7, Hanoi troops took
Phuoc Binh in new full-scale offensive.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1975 Jan 8, NVA general staff
plan for the invasion of South Vietnam by 20 divisions is approved
by North Vietnam's Politburo. By now, the Soviet-supplied North
Vietnamese Army is the fifth largest in the world. It anticipates a
two year struggle for victory. But in reality, South Vietnam's
forces will collapse in only 55 days.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1975 Mar 10, The final North
Vietnamese Army offensive began as 25,000 troops attacked the South
Vietnamese town of Ban Me Thout, in the central highlands.
(HN,
3/10/99)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1975 Mar 18, South Vietnam
abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi.
(HN, 3/18/02)
1975 Mar 21, As North
Vietnamese forces advanced, Hue and other northern towns in South
Vietnam were evacuated.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1975 Mar 25, Hue was lost and
Da Nang was endangered. The U.S. ordered a refugee airlift to remove
those in danger. The South Vietnamese army is now in full retreat.
(HN,
3/24/98)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1975 Mar 30, As the North
Vietnamese forces moved toward Saigon, desperate South Vietnamese
soldiers mobbed rescue jets. Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap masterminded the
North Vietnamese victory. Da Nang fell as 100,000 South Vietnamese
soldiers surrender after being abandoned by their commanding
officers.
(SFEC, 4/9/00,
p.C16)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1975 Apr 4, The first group of
boat people from Vietnam began arriving in Malaysia. More than 1
million people fled from the close of the war to the early 1980s.
(SFC, 4/17/96, p.A-9)
1975 Apr 4, Some 155 people,
most of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force C-5A
transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans as part of "Operation
Babylift" crashed shortly after takeoff from Saigon.144 adults and
76 babies were killed. There were over 170 survivors.
(AP, 4/4/97)(SFC, 4/3/00, p.A8)
1975 Apr 21, Nguyen Van Thieu,
the last South Vietnamese President, resigned after 10 years in
office condemning the United States. Thieu resigned and was
succeeded by Vice President Tran Van Huong. With the collapse of the
Saigon regime imminent, Thieu addressed his nation on April 21,
accused the U.S. of breaking its promises of support and military
aid, and then resigned. Huong took control but at the National
Assembly meeting on April 27, he named General Duong Van Minh to
become president and end the war. On April 30, President Minh
announced the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam to the
Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam.
(AP, 4/21/97)(HN, 4/21/99)(HNQ, 6/5/00)
1975 Apr 25, Former Foreign
Minister Vu Van Mau (d.1998 at 84) was named prime minister.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.C3)
1975 Apr 27, Saigon was
encircled by North Vietnamese troops. NVA fire rockets into downtown
civilian areas as the city erupts into chaos and widespread looting.
(HN,
4/27/99)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1975 Apr 28, Gen. Duong Van
Minh was named the interim President of South Vietnam and promised
to seek reconciliation with North Vietnam.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A20)
1975 Apr 29, US forces pulled
out of Vietnam. The U.S. embassy in Vietnam was evacuated as North
Vietnamese forces fought their way into Saigon. Just hours after the
last American was lifted out by helicopter from the roof of the
embassy, James Reston of the NY Times issued an apologia for the
press. NVA shell Tan Son Nhut air base in Saigon, killing two U.S.
Marines at the compound gate. Conditions then deteriorate as South
Vietnamese civilians loot the air base. President Ford orders
Operation Frequent Wind, the helicopter evacuation of 7000 Americans
and South Vietnamese from Saigon. At Tan Son Nhut, frantic civilians
begin swarming the helicopters. The evacuation is then shifted to
the walled-in American embassy, which is secured by U.S. Marines in
full combat gear. But the scene there also deteriorates, as
thousands of civilians attempt to get into the compound. Three U.S.
aircraft carriers stand by off the coast of Vietnam to handle
incoming Americans and South Vietnamese refugees. Many South
Vietnamese pilots also land on the carriers, flying American-made
helicopters which are then pushed overboard to make room for more
arrivals.
(WSJ, 10/5/98,
p.A21)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1975 Apr 29, The last four
Americans killed in action in Vietnam included two Marines: Lance
Corporal Darwin Judge of Marshalltown, Iowa, and Corporal Charles
McMahon Jr. of Woburn, Massachusetts, by rocket and artillery
bombardment following an air raid on Tan Son Nhut. Two Marine
helicopter pilots died when their chopper crashed into the sea near
an aircraft carrier taking part in the evacuation: Captain William
Craig Nystul of Coronado, California, and First Lieutenant Michael
John Shea of El Paso, Texas.
(www.dixiedavis.com/michaelshea.htm)
1975 Apr 30, The city of Saigon
fell to the North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front forces.
The last American forces evacuated Saigon as South Vietnam
surrendered unconditionally to the Communist North Vietnamese. At
8:35 a.m. the last Americans, ten Marines from the embassy, departed
as North Vietnamese troops pour into Saigon and encounter little
resistance. By 11 a.m. the Viet Cong flag flew from the presidential
palace. President Minh broadcast a message of unconditional
surrender. Graham Martin, the US ambassador to South Vietnam, made a
hasty departure. The city was renamed Ho Chi Minh City and Nguyen
Huu Tho was the first mayor. The war left 58,200 Americans dead,
153,300 wounded, and 2,124 missing in action. The Communists listed
1 million dead, 300,000 missing and 2 million dead civilians.
President Gerald Ford, closing a chapter in United States history,
called upon Americans "to avoid recriminations about the past, to
look ahead to the many goals we share."
(SFC, 5/10/97,
p.A1)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1975 May 7, President Ford
formally declared an end to the "Vietnam era."
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)
1975 May 7, The Viet Cong
staged a rally to celebrate the takeover of Ho Chi Minh City --
formerly Saigon.
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)
1975 Aug 11, The United States
vetoed the proposed admission of North and South Vietnam to the
United Nations, following the Security Council's refusal to consider
South Korea's application.
(AP, 8/11/97)
1975 The film "The People's
War," shot in North Vietnam by Robert Kramer (d.1999 at 60) in 1969,
was released in the US. Kramer's work also included the opposition
war films "Ice," "In the Country," and "The Edge."
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D6)
1975 Upon re-unification Nguyen
Huu Tho (1910-1996) was appointed vice-president of Vietnam and
served to 1992.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)
1975 By the end of the
Vietnam war, Vietnamese SA-2 missile effectiveness had been reduced
to a kill-ratio of less than 2 percent. Elint (Electronic
Intelligence) collected information on and analyzed the strengths
and weaknesses of all forms of hostile electronic transmissions.
Focusing on the "Fan Song" radar system that acquired targets for
and then guided the dreaded SA-2 SAM, Elint was able to identify
four key weakness that pilots could use to defeat the missile.
(HNQ, 11/23/01)
1975 After Saigon fell some
65,000 South Vietnamese were killed as the North Vietnamese overran
the south. Thousands of boat people died fleeing the communist
regime. An estimated 250,000 South Vietnamese died in re-education
camps.
(WSJ, 4/7/09, p.A13)
1976 Jul 2, North and South
Vietnam were officially reunified.
(HN,
7/2/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War)
1976 Aug 6, Thailand and
Vietnam established diplomatic relations.
(WSJ, 3/5/97,
p.A16)(www.vietnamembassy.or.th/relations.html)
1976 Sep 13, The United States
announced it would veto Vietnam's UN bid.
(AP, 9/13/98)
1976-1987 Pham Van Dong headed the reunified
Vietnam.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A24)
1977 Mar 9, Pres. Carter
proposed an end to travel restrictions to Cuba, Vietnam, N. Korea
and Cambodia effective as of March 18.
(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=7139)
1977 Mar 18, The Vietnamese
"discovered" and returned to the US the remains of Bruce C. Ducat.
For eleven years, Ducat, alive or dead, was a prisoner of war.
(www.pownetwork.org/bios/b/b107.htm)
1977 Jul 20, The UN Security
Council voted to admit Vietnam to the world body.
(AP, 7/20/07)
1977 Dec 31, Cambodia broke
relations with Vietnam.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1977 Gloria Emerson
(1929-2004), Vietnam war correspondent, authored “Winners &
Losers: Battles, Retreats, Gains, Losses, and Ruins From a Long
War,” based on interviews with people involved in the Vietnam War.
(SFC, 8/6/04, p.B7)
1978 Jan 3, Vietnamese troops
were reported to be occupying 400 square miles in Cambodia. North
Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops were using Laos and Cambodia as staging
areas for attacks against allied forces.
(HN, 1/3/02)
1978 Dec 25, Vietnam invaded
Cambodia and drove the Khmer Rouge into sanctuaries along the Thai
border, finally ending the mass genocide depicted in the 1984 film
"The Killing Fields." It was the first full-scale war between the
two countries since 1917. 400 people were killed in initial clashes.
(NG, 5/85, p.574-5)(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)(SFC,
6/14/97, p.A15)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A11)
1978 Gen. Van Tien Dung
published "Our Great Spring Victory." He described how the loss of
political will in Washington helped shape Hanoi's decisions.
(WSJ, 10/21/99, p.A20)
1978 Ulysses Grant Sharp Jr.
(d.2001 at 95), US Admiral, authored "Strategy for Defeat: Vietnam
in Retrospect." He criticized American strategy and believed the war
could have been won.
(SFC, 12/15/01, p.A25)
1978 The Vietnamese government
loosened its policy on bourgeois dance after officials visiting Cuba
witnessed dancers doing the Cha Cha.
(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A24)
1979 Jan 7, The Vietnamese army
captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh overthrowing the Khmer
Rouge government. The People's Party, a Hanoi installed Khmer Rouge
faction, took power with Hun Sen as prime minister. This finally
ending the mass genocide depicted in the 1984 film "The Killing
Fields." The Khmer Rouge retreated into sanctuaries along the Thai
border, set up bases and picked up support from Thailand and China.
(NG, 5/85, p.574-5)(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)(SFC,
6/14/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 5/3/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A8)(AP, 1/7/98)
1979 Jan 7, The Vietnamese army
captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh overthrowing the Khmer
Rouge government. The People’s Party, a Hanoi installed Khmer Rouge
faction, took power with Hun Sen as prime minister. This finally
ended the mass genocide depicted in the 1984 film "The Killing
Fields." The Khmer Rouge retreated into sanctuaries along the Thai
border, set up bases and picked up support from Thailand and China.
(NG, 5/85, p.574-5)(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)(SFC,
6/14/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 5/3/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A8)(AP, 1/7/98)
1979 Jan 15, The Soviet Union
vetoed a United Nations resolution and called for the withdrawal of
all Vietnamese troops from Cambodia.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1979 Feb 17, China invaded
Vietnam and began a "pedagogical" war against Vietnam. China
completed its withdrawal on March 19. In China’s border war with
Vietnam deputy commander Zhang Wannian led a victorious division
offensive in the battle of Liang Shan.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/prc-vietnam.htm)(SFC,
9/18/97, p.C2)
1979 Mar 6, Chinese forces
occupied the city of Lang Son. They claimed the gate to Hanoi was
open, declared their punitive mission achieved, and withdrew
quickly.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War)
1979 Nov 24, U.S. admitted that
thousands of troops in Vietnam were exposed to the toxic Agent
Orange.
(HN, 11/24/98)
1980-1991 Nguyen Co Thach (d.1998 at 75) served as
the foreign minister of Vietnam.
(SFC, 4/13/98, p.C3)
1981 Hoang Dang, Vietnamese
artist, painted his A Corner of the Fish Market.
(SFC, 5/19/96, DB, p.15)
1982 Thich Nhat Hanh,
Vietnamese Zen master, founded Plum Village, a Buddhist community in
southern France.
(SFC, 10/12/97, Z1 p.3)
1982 Retired Gen. William
Westmoreland (1914-2005) filed a $120 million libel suit against CBS
News for its documentary “The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception.”
The documentary charged that Westmoreland had directed a conspiracy
to suppress and alter critical intelligence on the enemy in 1967 and
1968 in order to deceive Americans into believing the war in Vietnam
was being won. The suit was settled out of court and CBS
acknowledged that the documentary was seriously flawed.
(SFC, 7/19/05, p.B5)
1983 Stanley Karnow published
"Vietnam: A History."
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A19)
1983 PBS first showed the
13-hour series "Vietnam: A Television History" in the US. It won
every award in TV. It was rebroadcast in 1989 and 1997. The 6-year
work was produced by Richard Ellison (1924-2004).
(SFC, 10/12/04, p.B8)(SFC, 5/26/97, p.B1)
1983 Gen. Duong Van Minh
(d.2001), the President of South Vietnam in April 1975, was allowed
to emigrate to France.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A20)
1984 Apr, Chinese launched
renewed attacks against Vietnam.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War)
1985 Jan 7, Vietnam seized the
Khmer National Liberation Front headquarters near the Thai border.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1985 Feb 14, Hanoi troops
surrounded the main Khmer Rouge base at Phnom Malai, Cambodia.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1986 Duong Thu Huong, dissident
author, wrote her 1st novel "Beyond Illusions," set in Hanoi. She
later authored "Novel Without a Name" and Memories of a Pure
Spring." In 1991 she was imprisoned for 7 months.
(SSFC, 2/10/02, p.M4)
1986 Douglas Eugene Pike
(d.2002 at 77), former US State Dept. officer, authored "PAVN:
People's Army of Vietnam" a study of the North Vietnamese Army. In
1966 he authored "Viet Cong."
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A22)
1986 Vietnam introduced doi moi
(renovation), a policy of economic renovation, that sparked massive
economic change. It gradually shifted the centrally planned economy
to a market economy.
(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.9)(NG, May, 04, p.96)(SFC,
5/30/06, p.C1)
1986-1991 Nguyen Van Linh (d.1998) served as the
Communist party general-secretary. He urged free-market policies and
wrote a newspaper column titled "Things That Must Be Done
Immediately." He ended collective farming and loosened government
controls over state factories. He ended the decade long occupation
of Cambodia and normalized relations with China.
(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A16)
1987 Thich Nhat Hanh,
Vietnamese Zen master, published "Being Peace," the first of his 35
books and tapes.
(SFC, 10/12/97, Z1 p.3)
1987 By this year China had
stationed nine armies (approximately 400,000 troops) in the
Sino-Vietnamese border region, including one along the coast. It had
also increased its landing craft fleet and was periodically staging
amphibious landing exercises off Hainan Island, across from Vietnam,
thereby demonstrating that a future attack might come from the sea.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/prc-vietnam.htm)
1988 Vietnam began letting US
military search teams into the countryside to look for the remains
missing US servicemen.
(SFC, 5/25/98, p.A4)
1988 Chinese troops killed over
70 Vietnamese sailors in clashes over the Spratly Islands.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.40)(Econ, 10/22/11, p.53)
1988 Vietnam’s exports totaled
about $1 billion. In 2004 exports reached $30 billion.
(SFC, 5/30/06, p.C1)
1989 Sep 26, The last
Vietnamese soldiers left Cambodia. Vietnam withdrew the last of
26,000 troops.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(PC, 1992 ed, p.1113)
1989 Dec 12, Amid international
criticism, Britain forcibly removed 51 Vietnamese from Hong Kong and
returned them to their homeland.
(AP, 12/12/99)
1990 Oct 13, Le Duc Tho,
co-founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party, died in Hanoi at age
79. He was the 1975 North Vietnamese negotiator in Paris.
(AP, 10/13/00)(MC, 10/13/01)
1990 Dec 14, In Hong Kong 10
Vietnamese boat people set fire to themselves to protest screening
policy that could prevent them from settling in the West.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1990 The 1st case of AIDS was
reported in Vietnam.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A15)
1991 Nov 9, Police in Hong Kong
forcibly repatriated 59 Vietnamese boat people, carrying them onto a
transport plane.
(AP, 11/9/01)
1991 Pham Dai, an artist from
Hue, produced an ink painting: Flocks of Wicked Birds. He adopts the
pictorial language of surrealism in depicting crazed raptors as
figures for human evil.
(SFC, 6/8/96, p.E3)
1992 Sep, In Vietnam Ly Tong
hijacked a Vietnam airlines jet from Thailand and dropped 50,000
anti-government leaflets over Ho Chi Minh City. He parachuted down
and was arrested. He was released in a 1998 amnesty.
(SFC, 9/2/98, p.A9)
1992 Nov 17, Sens. John Kerry
of Massachusetts, Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Hank Brown of
Colorado made an unprecedented tour of Vietnam's military
headquarters but found nothing to substantiate reports of American
prisoners sighted there after the Vietnam War.
(AP, 11/17/97)
1992 Dec 14, Easing a 17-year
trade embargo, the United States allowed its companies to sign
contracts in Vietnam.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1992 The Asian Development Bank
began building and improving transport and telecom links between
China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.42)
1992 The Greater Mekong
Subregion was created grouping 5 South-East Asian countries
(Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) and 2 Chinese
provinces.
(Econ, 2/6/10,
p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Mekong_Subregion)
1992-1993 Nguyen Dinh Huy founded the "Movement to
Unite the People and Build Democracy" after 7 years in prison for
opposing communist rule. He was arrested 6 months after release and
was tried in 1995 and convicted of subversion.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.A17)
1993 Oct 2, In Son La, Vietnam,
53 members of the Thai minority died in a mass suicide organized by
Ca Van Lieng, leader of a doomsday cult.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A19)
1993 Vietnamese border
crossings with China were opened for trade.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.A12)
1993 Jimmy Tran was sentenced
to 20 years in prison for plotting to explode bombs in Ho Chi Minh
City. He was released in a 1998 amnesty.
(SFC, 9/2/98, p.A9)
1993-2004 The proportion of Vietnam’s population
that the government deemed poor fell from 58% in 1993 to 20% in
2004.
(Econ, 11/26/05, p.49)
1994 Jan 27, The US Senate
passed a non-binding resolution, 62-38, calling on the Clinton
administration to lift the U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam.
(AP, 1/27/04)
1994 Feb 3, President Clinton
lifted the 19-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A9)(AP, 2/3/99)
1994 In Vietnam worker strikes
were made legal.
(SFC, 6/23/97, p.A10)
1994 Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, was
named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
(SFEC, 7/18/99, p.T1)
1994 In California Paul
DeCillis, Vietnam war veteran, donated his collection of over 800
books and 650 videotapes on the Vietnam War to DeAnza Community
College in Cupertino.
(SFC, 2/12/98, p.A19)
1994 Ha Long Bay was named a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
(SFEC, 7/18/99, p.T1)
1994 Laos signed a bilateral
Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Vietnam.
(AFP, 10/10/06)
1995 Apr 30, More than 10,000
soldiers, students and children in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam,
celebrated the 20th anniversary of the end of the war.
(AP, 4/30/00)
1995 Jul 11, Full diplomatic
relations were established between the United States and Vietnam
following an order by Pres. Clinton.
(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.9)(HN, 7/11/98)(SSFC, 8/24/03,
p.I6)
1995 Jul 28, Vietnam joined the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations. ASEAN was established in
Bangkok by the five original Member Countries, namely, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
(www.aseansec.org/64.htm)
1995 Aug 5, Secretary of State
Warren Christopher arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, to "build a bridge of
cooperation." Christopher was the first US secretary of state to
visit Vietnam since the war and the first ever to go to Hanoi.
(AP, 8/5/00)
1995 Vietnam joined the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.D3)
1996 Mar, In Vietnam the first
new bowling alley opened in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in
District 10.
(WSJ, 8/29/96, p.A8)
1996 Jun 11, Vietnam’s Deputy
Foreign Minister Le Mai (1940-1996) died. He was a junior member of
the team that negotiated US withdrawal in 1973 and chief architect
of the recent campaign for diplomatic relations with the
US.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.A25)
1996 Jun 28, Vietnam’s PM Vo
Van Kiet, Party General Secretary Do Muoi and President Le Duc Anh
were expected to stay put amidst rumors of leadership changes.
(WSJ, 6/28/96, p.A6)
1996 Jun, The Vietnamese trade
deficit for the first half of the year was projected to total $1.77
bil.
(WSJ, 6/4/96, p.A18)
1996 Aug 21, In Vietnam the Red
River flooded to its worst level since 1971 and hundreds were forced
to evacuate.
(SFC, 8/22/96, p.E3)
1996 Oct, The Vietnamese
government introduced the death penalty for corruption cases that
involved serious losses to the state.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A13)
1996 Nov 11, Phan Thi Kim Phuc
laid a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. John
Plummer, Vietnam era helicopter pilot, met with Phan Thi Kim at the
Vietnam Memorial in Washington in reconciliation. Phan Thi Kim had
suffered severe napalm burns after a napalm bombing of her village
in Jun 1972.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A3)(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.A1,12)(AP,
11/11/01)
1996 It was reported that
deaths in Vietnam from land mines, unexploded bombs and artillery
shells totaled 38,248 in the 1st 23 years following the end of the
war.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, p.A12)
1997 Jan 6, It was reported
that Vietnam’s national Post and Telecommunications "108"
information service responded to citizens questions. Operators
handled about 250 calls per day and the service costs about 2.7 US
cents.
(WSJ, 1/6/97, p.B1)
1997 Jan 31, In Vietnam a
Communist Party member and three associates were sentenced to death
after being convicted of bribery, embezzlement and gambling. They
were responsible for losses of $27 million at the state-run Tamexco
import-export company.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A13)
1997 Mar 10, Vietnam agreed to
repay the US millions of dollars in debts incurred by the former
South Vietnam. The debts were currently worth $140 mil.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A11)
1997 Apr 9, A War-era bomb
exploded on the grounds of a school in central Vietnam and killed 7
children. A teacher and 33 other children were wounded.
(WSJ, 4/10/97, p.A12)
1997 May 14, In Vietnam the
Supreme People’s Court sentenced 8 state police officials to death
after convicting them of drug smuggling.
(SFC, 5/15/97, p.A13)
1997 Jun 23, From Vietnam it
was reported that worker strikes were increasing in factories
controlled by foreign investors. The minimum wage in shoe factories
that produce Adidas, Fila, Nike and All-Star shoes was about .20
cents an hour.
(SFC, 6/23/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 27, The US announced
agreements with Vietnam to expand ties.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 31, Bao Dai (85),
former emperor of Annam [now Vietnam] and chief of state of French
Indochina, died in France.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)(MC, 7/31/02)
1997 Sep 3, In Cambodia a
Vietnam Airlines, Tupelov 134, Soviet jet crashed on approach
to Phnom Penh airport and killed 65 people. One child, 1-year-old
Chanayuth Nim-Anong, survived. A 2nd child about 4 also survived.
(WSJ, 9/3/97, p.A1)(SFC, 9/4/97, p.A12)(SFC,
9/5/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 17, In Vietnam Tran
Duc Luong (60) was nominated to be the country’s president. Vice
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai (64) was nominated to be the new prime
minister. A week later Luong was elected by the National Assembly
and Khai was confirmed as premier.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.A11)(WSJ, 9/25/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 13, In Vietnam
journalist Nguyen Hoang Linh of the business newspaper Enterprise,
was arrested on charges of revealing state secrets. He had been
investigating government corruption.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A12)
1997 Nov 3, In Vietnam typhoon
Linda swept across the south and left almost 100 people dead. As
many as a thousand were missing in fishing boats. The death toll
reached at least 3,406.
(SFC,11/4/97, p.A8)(SFC,11/5/97, p.A14)(WSJ,
11/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Nov 25, President Clinton
and Pacific Rim leaders meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia,
approved a rescue strategy for Asian economies shaken by plunging
currencies, bank failures and bankruptcies. The 2-day APEC summit in
Vancouver closed and leaders agreed to an IMF bailout plan. Forum
leaders also agreed to admit Russia, Vietnam and Peru into the
organization as of 1998.
(SFC,11/26/97, p.C2)(HN, 11/25/98)
1997 Dec 11, From Vietnam it
was reported that 56 people have died of dengue fever in southern
Kien Giang province following Typhoon Linda.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.C7)
1997 Dec 30, Hardline Gen'l. Le
Kha Phieu (66) replaced Do Muoi as the general secretary of the
communist party, the country's top leader.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A8)
1997 The book "Requiem: By the
Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina" was compiled by
photojournalists Tim Page and Horst Faas.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A1)
1997 In Vietnam about 55
million rats were killed this year.
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr 24, From Vietnam it
was reported that 14 attacks had recently occurred on children aged
3-14 riding on the backs of motor scooters, caused by a slasher
riding a Vina Suzuki scooter.
(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Apr, Injuries in Vietnam
from land mines, unexploded bombs and artillery shells totaled
60,064 since the end of the war.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, p.A12)
1998 Aug 7, Vietnam devalued
its currency 7%.
(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A10)
1998 Sep 1, Vietnam freed 5,000
inmates.
(SFC, 9/2/98, p.A9)
1998 Oct, A 5-year study by a
Canadian government research group found high levels of dioxin in
the soil, fish and animal tissue, and the blood of people born after
the war in the Aluoi Valley in central Quang Tri province of
Vietnam.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.A20)
1998 Nov 11, It was reported
that Pfizer and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation initiated a $66
million effort to attack trachoma, a disease of the eye caused by
chlamydia. A one-gram dose of zithromax given once a year would
treat the disease. Focus was to be on Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Tanzania
and Vietnam.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.D6)
1998 Dec 15, The 2-day ASEAN
summit opened in Hanoi. Cambodia was admitted informally.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A19)
1998 Dec 16, In Hanoi the
ASEAN nations approved the "Hanoi Action Plan," a 34-point
declaration that emphasized economic recovery based on free-market
policies.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C6)
1998 Dec 26, In Vietnam it was
reported that foreign investment had dropped 46% this year due to
difficult business conditions that included a "nightmarish
bureaucracy," inefficient dual-pricing, and partnerships that placed
total risk on foreign investors.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A9)
1998 Edward A. Gargan made a
trip downriver on the Mekong and in 2002 authored "The River's Tale:
A Year on the Mekong.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.C7)
1998 Karin Muller published
"Hitchhiking Vietnam: A Woman's Solo Journey in an Elusive Land."
(SFEC, 9/6/98, BR p.7)
1998 Jeffrey Record published
his book: "The Wrong War," based on the premise that the Vietnam war
was unwinable.
(WSJ, 6/22/99, p.A24)
1998 The documentary film
"Regret to Inform" by Barbara Sonneborn was about the effects of the
Vietnam War on American and Vietnamese war widows.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, DB p.48)
1998-2001 UNICEF reported that at least 60,000
Vietnamese women were trafficked into China’s Guangxi Zhuong
autonomous region during this period.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.B6)
1999 Feb 26, The $64 million,
colonial-style, Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel opened.
(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.B1)
1999 May 10, In Vietnam a huge
corruption trial began against 77 defendants, who included powerful
bankers and business executives. The charges involved a shell game
where the Minh Phung and Epco companies colluded with bankers to
obtain huge loans with phony collateral. The scheme was said to have
cost the government up to $280 million.
(SFC, 5/25/99, p.A7)
1999 Jul 16, A photograph of a
Javan rhinoceros of Vietnam, thought to have been extinct, was made
public. Only 6-8 were believed to be alive.
(SFC, 7/17/99, p.A6)
1999 Jul 25, The US and Vietnam
agreed to normalize relations after 3 years of negotiations.
Commercial ties were expected to follow.
(SFC, 7/26/99, p.A8)
1999 Sep 7, In Vietnam
Madeleine Albright commissioned the new US consulate in Ho Chi Minh
City.
(WSJ, 9/8/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 3, In Vietnam storms
caused massive flooding in Quang Nam province and 150,000 homes were
under water. The Citadel at Hue was under 10 feet of water.
(SFC, 11/4/99, p.A18)
1999 Nov 4, The death toll from
flooding in Vietnam rose to 225.
(SFC, 11/5/99, p.A17)
1999 Nov 7, Continued heavy
rain in central Vietnam caused more flooding and the death toll rose
to over 450.
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.A12)
1999 Nov 19, It was reported
that the work week was being cut from 48 to 40 hours per week in
Vietnam.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.A19)
1999 Nov, The worst flooding in
a century in central Vietnam killed 592 people with damages
estimated at $235 million.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.C2)
1999 Dec 5, In Vietnam 4 days
of rain caused flooding that left 109 people dead.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)(SFC, 12/7/99, p.B3)
1999 Michael Lind published
"Vietnam: The Necessary War."
(WSJ, 10/21/99, p.A20)
1999 Andres X. Pham authored
"Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and
Memory of Vietnam."
(SFEC, 11/28/99, BR p.3)
1999 Richard H. Shultz Jr.
authored "The Secret War Against Hanoi."
(SFC, 11/5/99, p.D4)
1999 Lewis Sorley published his
book: "A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of
America's Last Years in Vietnam" in which he argues that the US won
the war but failed to support South Vietnam after the Paris Peace
Accords.
(WSJ, 6/22/99, p.A24)
2000 Feb 18, Vietnam’s
government announced plans for a 1,000 mile, $375 million road from
Ha Tay to Ho Chi Minh City along the old Ho Chi Minh Trail.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.C1)
2000 Apr 24, Nguyen Thi Hiep,
arrested in 1996 for drug smuggling, was executed in Vietnam. The
execution prompted Canada to suspend contacts and meetings for
development aid.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A10)
2000 Apr 29, In Vietnam Pham
Van Dong (94), former revolutionary and prime minister, died.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A24)
2000 Jul 13, It was reported
that the US and Vietnam had completed a trade agreement for
generally unfettered commerce between the two countries.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 20, The Stock Trading
Center of Vietnam (STC), located in Ho Chi Minh City, was officially
inaugurated. Trading commenced on July 28, 2000.
(http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/abacus-stocks-Vietnam-stock-exchange.html)
2000 Jul, The Vietnamese
government inaugurated the $1.8 million Saigon Software Park
building with 25 high-tech companies.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A18)
2000 Aug 18, It was reported in
Vietnam that the former Ho Chi Minh Trail, known as Highway 14 from
Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, was being expanded in a 4-year project at
a cost of $400 million to become the Ho Chi Minh Highway.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D2)
2000 Aug, Tropical Storm Kaemi
was responsible for 14 deaths in central Vietnam.
(SFC, 8/26/00, p.A20)
2000 Sep 1, The mandatory use
of helmets became effective in Vietnam. An estimated 20 people per
day were being killed on the nation's highway system. 80% of the
victims rode 125-cc motorcycles.
(SFEC, 9/17/00, p.A10)
2000 Sep 14, In Cambodia and
Vietnam the Mekong River flooded. At least 89 people had died in
Cambodia and 8 in Vietnam since the floods began in July.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A18)
2000 Oct, Flooding in the
Mekong Delta, the worst in 40 years, killed close to 500 people.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.C2)
2000 Nov 16, Pres. Clinton
arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, to develop economic and political ties.
(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A14)(SFC, 11/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 17, The Clinton family
was warmly received in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Vietnam introduced a
liberal companies law. Over the next 3 years 54,000 private
businesses sprang up.
(Econ, 4/17/04, p.63)
2000 Vietnam served as the
chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
(SFC, 11/17/00, p.A14)
2001 Jan, The state announced
the 'Ho Chi Minh Road of the 21st Century" program. It aimed to have
1.6 million Internet users online by 2005. Current users numbered
about 113,000.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A18)
2001 Feb 19, In Vietnam a rare
earthquake, magnitude 5.3, hit Dien Bien Phu.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Feb, In Vietnam some
20,000 Montagnards, members of mostly Christian hill tribes,
participated in protests against state land confiscations in the
highland cities Buon Ma Thuot, Pleiku and Kontum. Many were then
forced to seek refuge in Cambodia. Dozens were later imprisoned for
organizing illegal migration.
(SFC, 6/26/01, p.A8)(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A12)
2001 Apr 7, A Russian-made M-17
helicopter carrying a team searching for American MIAs crashed and
all aboard were reported killed. Rescuers recovered the bodies of 9
Vietnamese and 7 Americans the next day.
(SSFC, 4/8/01, p.C2)(SFC, 4/9/01, p.A7)
2001 Apr 17, In Vietnam Sec.
Gen. Le Kha Phieu was removed from office by the 150-member Central
Committee due to disenchantment with his conservative style. Nong
Duc Manh of the ethnic Tay minority was expected to succeed.
(SFC, 4/18/01, p.A12)
2001 Apr 22, Nong Duc Manh
(60), rumored to be the illegitimate son of Ho Chi Minh, was elected
Vietnamese general secretary.
(WSJ, 4/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 5, Flooding from
Typhoon Durian killed 25 people in Vietnam.
(WSJ, 7/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 22, Nguyen Ton Hoan,
former deputy premier of South Vietnam, died in Mountain View, Ca.,
at age 84.
(SFC, 9/27/01, p.C2)
2001 Sep 29, Nguyen Van Thieu
(b.1923), former President of South Vietnam, died in Boston.
(AP, 9/29/02)(NW, 12/31/01, p.107)
2001 Oct 24, Deaths from
flooding in Central Vietnam reached 341 and included at least 250
children.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.C2)
2001 Nov 12, Typhoon Lingling
hit Vietnam. 18 people were reported killed and 12,000 were left
homeless.
(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A14)(SFC, 11/17/01, p.A24)
2001 Vietnam and the US signed
a bilateral trade agreement.
(Econ, 6/25/05, p.34)
2001 Vietnam banned abortions
on the basis of fetal sex.
(Econ, 12/3/05, p.42)
2001 Gen. Duong Van Minh, the
President of South Vietnam in April 1975, died at age 86 in
Pasadena, Ca.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A20)
2002 Jan 1, It was reported
that the number of Vietnamese AIDS cases, people living with HIV,
had reached 40,000. 12-18k new cases were predicted for the coming
years.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A15)
2002 Jan 6, It was reported
that 94% of Vietnam's population is literate.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.C8)
2002 Jan 20, It was reported
that 4 of the world's most endangered primates were endemic to
Vietnam: the Tonkin snub-nosed langur (~200), Delacour's langur
(~200), the Gray-shanked couc langur (~6) and the Golden-headed
langur (~55).
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A16)
2002 Mar 3, In Hanoi a 3-day
US-Vietnamese conference on Agent Orange began. High dioxin levels
were found in people 30 years after spraying ended.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A11)
2002 Mar 17, Gen. Van Tien Dung
(84), commander of the North Vietnamese forces that captured Saigon
in 1975, died.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A25)
2002 Apr 20, In Vietnam a fire,
raging for weeks, was reported to have destroyed half of U Minh
National Park in Kien Giang province. Extended drought was blamed.
(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A24)
2002 Apr 22, Vietnamese groups
planned demonstrations in over 20 cities to protest the recent
ceding of some 800 miles of land and water on the northern border of
Vietnam to China without public input.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A24)
2002 May 19, Vietnam claimed
almost 100% turnout in the mandatory single party national
elections. All 759 candidates were approved by the Fatherland Front.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A7)
2002 Jul 25, In Vietnam the
National Assembly approved a 2nd term for PM Phan Van Khai (68).
(SFC, 7/26/02, p.A17)
2002 Aug 30, Floodwaters along
the lower stretches of the Mekong have wreaked havoc in Laos,
Cambodia (18), Thailand (12) and Vietnam (25), claiming at least 55
lives and leaving thousands homeless across the region.
(AP, 8/30/02)
2002 Sep 18, The World Bank
reported that the Vietnamese natural environment, which supports one
of the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems, has
deteriorated rapidly over the past 10 years.
(AP, 9/18/02)
2002 Oct 29, In Vietnam at
least 60 people were killed, including 22 linked to American
International Assurance (AIA), when fire engulfed a commercial
building in Ho Chi Minh City, state media and officials.
(Reuters, 10/30/02)
2002 Nov 4, China signed a
landmark agreement, “Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the
South China Sea,” with ASEAN (Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines,
Vietnam) on avoiding open conflict in the disputed South China Sea
Spratly Islands. Indonesia objected and Taiwan was barred from
signing.
(Reuters, 11/4/02)(Econ, 5/22/04,
p.40)(www.aseansec.org/13163.htm)
2002 Nov 24, The government of
Vietnam estimated AIDS at 107,000 cases and pointed to the estimated
40,000 prostitutes as the chief source. AIDS workers said 70% of the
infected were drug users and claimed 200,000 cases.
(SSFC, 11/24/02, p.A3)
2002 The documentary film
“Daughter from Danang” was created by Gail Dolgin (d.2010 at 65).
The film was about the reunion of an Asian American woman and her
mother in Vietnam, separated in the 1975 “Operation Babylift.”
(SFC, 10/22/10, p.D9)
2003 Apr 2, Vietnam's PM Phan
Van Khai spoke with Thich Huyen Quang, the leader of a banned
Buddhist church, about religious freedoms. Quang has been under
house arrest in 1982.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 Apr 19, Hong Kong reported
12 SARS patients died in a single day. Malaysia banned workers from
Vietnam, which considered sealing its border with China due to the
disease.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 May 2, In Vietnam an aging
Russian-made bus, carrying more than 40 passengers, burst into
flames. 6 people died and 70 were badly burned. Flammable cargo was
suspected.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Vietnam Truong
Van Cam, reputed underworld boss, was found guilty of 7 crimes. 154
alleged associates included high-ranking government officials. He
was sentenced to death the next day.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A3)
2003 Aug 15, The World Bank
said it is lending Vietnam $100 million over the next 3 years to
support reforms, reduce poverty, develop a market economy and help
devise a modern legal system.
(AP, 8/15/03)
2003 Aug, Vietnam took
possession of the 1st of 4 new Boeing 777-200 ER jetliners purchased
in part with a loan from the Export-Import Bank of the US.
(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.I6)
2003 Sep 29, Vietnam refused to
recognize Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, Pope John
Paul II's new appointment, as the new cardinal for Ho Chi Minh City.
(AP, 9/29/03)
2003 Oct 8, Vietnam and the
United States tentatively agreed to allow the first commercial
flights between the two countries since the end of the Vietnam War.
(AP, 10/8/03)
2003 Nov 13, In central Vietnam
Tropical Storm Nepartak triggered floods and landslides that killed
at least 49 people.
(AP, 11/15/03)
2003 Nov 19, An American guided
missile frigate sailed into Ho Chi Minh City flying the US and
Vietnamese flags, becoming the first US warship to dock in the
communist country since the Vietnam War.
(AP, 11/19/03)
2003 Dec 31, Vietnam sentenced
Nguyen Vu Binh (35) to 7 years in jai and 3 years house arrest for
writing an article in 2002 that circulated on the Internet
criticizing a border agreement between Vietnam and China.
(SFC, 12/31/03, p.A3)
2004 Jan 30, It was reported
that Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange had filed their 1st suit
against the US companies that produced the toxic defoliant used by
American forces during the Vietnam War.
(AP, 2/4/04)
2004 Apr 10, In Vietnam's
troubled Central Highlands province of Daklak ethnic minority
villagers protested over religion and land issues.
(AP, 4/10/04)
2004 Apr 30, In southern
Vietnam a tourist boat carrying about 130 passengers sank off the
coast. Authorities recovered 22 bodies, including one 8-year-old
boy.
(AP, 5/1/04)
2004 Jun 3, Nam Cam (Truong Van
Cam, 57), an alleged Vietnamese crime "godfather," and four of his
gangster colleagues were executed by firing squad after being
convicted in a major crackdown on crime that is said to have reached
into the ruling Communist Party.
(AP, 6/3/04)
2004 Jun 14, Typhoon Chanthu
killed 7 people and left seven more missing when it swept through
central Vietnam over the weekend.
(AP, 6/14/04)
2004 Jun 21, Vietnam's central
bank said it has given approval to the US-based Far East National
Bank to open a branch in Ho Chi Minh City, the 3rd US bank branched
in Vietnam.
(AP, 6/21/04)
2004 Jul 28, The second wave in
the biggest mass defection of North Koreans to South Korea arrived
on a flight from Vietnam, bringing the total in the two-day airlift
to nearly 460.
(WSJ, 7/27/04, p.A1)(AP, 7/28/04)
2004 Aug 26, In northern
Vietnam a boat capsized in heavy winds on a river, killing 16
people.
(AP, 8/28/04)
2004 Oct 4, It was reported
that Vietnam had embarked on a major overhaul of its debt-laden
companies as it opens up its economy.
(WSJ, 10/4/04, p.A15)
2004 Dec 9, United Airlines was
scheduled to begin service to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
(SFC, 7/23/04, p.C1)
2004 Dec 10, A US passenger
jet, United Flight 869, landed in Vietnam, the first since the
Vietnam War ended nearly 30 years ago.
(AP, 12/10/04)
2004 Vietnam’s exports reached
$30 billion, up from $1 billion in 1988.
(SFC, 5/30/06, p.C1)
2005 Jan 1, Vietnam was
forecast for 6.8% annual GDP growth with a population at 83.7
million and GDP per head at $560.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.92)
2005 Feb 16, Vietnam banned all
poultry raising in the southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City
this year to limit the risk of bird flu transmitting to humans.
(AP, 2/16/05)
2005 Feb, Vietnam signed an
agreement with the World Society for the Protection of Animals to
phase out its bear bile farms, where an estimated 3,000 bears were
held for their bile. In China an estimated 7,000 caged bears were
milked for their bile.
(SFC, 4/25/05, p.A8)
2005 Mar 12, In central Vietnam
an express passenger train derailed, killing at least 11 people and
injuring some 200.
(Reuters, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 25, Cambodia and
Vietnam each confirmed an additional death from bird flu, raising
Southeast Asia's death toll to 48.
(AP, 3/25/05)
2005 Apr 20, Oxfam reported
that Vietnam’s Red River was at its lowest point for 100 years, and
if the drought persisted beyond May then significant numbers of
people will need food aid.
(www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/emergencies/country/eastasia/)
2005 Apr 21, In Vietnam 31 war
veterans including 14 women and a driver were killed in a bus crash
while en route to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the end of the
Vietnam War.
(AP, 4/21/05)(WSJ, 4/22/05, p.A1)
2005 May 17, In Vietnam an
international consortium led by French group Technip signed a
1.5-billion-dollar deal to build Vietnam's first oil refinery.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 25, Steve Mason (65),
considered the poet laureate of the Vietnam War, died in Ashland,
Ore. His books included “Johnny’s Song: Poetry of a Vietnam Veteran”
(1986).
(SFC, 5/31/05, p.B4)
2005 Jun 15, Vietnam reported 6
new cases of bird flu in the past week.
(WSJ, 6/15/05, p.A15)
2005 Jun 19, Vietnam’s PM Phan
Van Khai (71) arrived in Seattle. The first visit to America by a
prime minister from Vietnam in 30 years was greeted by demonstrators
shouting "Down with communists!" and calling for an end to political
and religious persecution in Vietnam. Khai hoped to strengthen ties
with Washington during his weeklong US tour.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 20, In Vietnam
officials said 2 more people from northern Vietnam have been
sickened with bird flu, and thousands of chickens have dropped dead
in the south.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 21, President Bush
told Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai that he supports
Vietnam's bid to join the WTO, in the first visit by the Vietnamese
leader since the war.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 29, Vietnam said it
would begin in August vaccinating poultry nationwide against bird
flu.
(SFC, 6/30/05, p.A10)
2005 Jul 20, Cambodia handed
over some 107 Montagnards, a largely Christian hilltribe people, to
Vietnamese authorities. More than 1,000 Montagnards fled to Cambodia
after security forces put down demonstrations in Vietnam's Central
Highlands in 2001 against land confiscation and religious
persecution of ethnic minorities. In January, Vietnam, Cambodia and
the UNHCR signed a memorandum of understanding to resettle or
repatriate about 700 ethnic minority Vietnamese who were estimated
at the time to be in Cambodia.
(AFP, 7/20/05)
2005 Aug 24, In Vietnam a man
died of bird flu in Hanoi raising the regional toll to 62.
(WSJ, 9/1/05, p.A13)
2005 Sep 27, After killing at
least 31 people in China and the Philippines, Typhoon Damrey slammed
ashore in Vietnam, forcing the evacuation of nearly 300,000 people.
(AP, 9/27/05)
2005 Sep 29, Northern Vietnam
reported at least 57 people dead and widespread destruction from the
aftermath of Typhoon Damrey.
(AFP, 9/29/05)
2005 Oct 12, Vietnam presented
donor nations an emergency six-month plan to battle bird flu, amid
fears of a new outbreak of the deadly disease and delays in a
poultry vaccination scheme.
(AFP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 14, A researcher said
bird flu virus found in a Vietnamese girl was resistant to the main
drug that's being stockpiled in case of a pandemic, a sign that it's
important to keep a second drug on hand as well.
(AP, 10/14/05)
2005 Oct 24, Vietnam lifted its
30% cap on foreign ownership of listed companies to 49%.
(WSJ, 10/21/05, p.C16)
2005 Oct 27, Vietnam issued its
1st overseas government bond. Demand pushed the size from $500
million to $750 million with a yield of 7.125%.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.82)
2005 Oct 29, Vietnam demanded
that the US remove it from a State Department blacklist of religious
rights violators.
(AFP, 10/29/05)
2005 Oct 31, China's Pres. Hu
Jintao arrived in Vietnam on a mission to expand booming trade ties
between the communist nations.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Nov 4, Vietnam confirmed
bird flu outbreaks in three communes north of Hanoi.
(AFP, 11/4/05)
2005 Nov 8, Vietnam, the
country hit hardest by bird flu, reported its 42nd death, which
occurred Oct 29, raising the toll in Asia to at least 63. The Swiss
maker of Tamiflu said it had stopped selling the antiviral drug in
China and was turning over supplies to the government.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 8, The US State
Department issued its 7th annual report to Congress on religious
freedom. It cited Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi
Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam as restricting religious freedom.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 18, US officials said
that US and Canadian police have arrested 291 people in a major drug
bust that was given unprecedented cooperation by Vietnamese agents.
The 2-year operation covered ecstasy, which was shipped into Canada
in powder form, turned into pills and then smuggled across the
border along with massive amounts of marijuana.
(AFP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 22, Vietnamese health
officials said a teenager has been confirmed with the H5N1 bird flu
virus.
(Reuters, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 22, Pope Benedict XVI
created the diocese of Ba Ria, in the Vietnam province of the same
name, by dividing up the existing diocese of Xuan Loc. He named
Monsignor Thomas Nguen Van Tram bishop of Ba Ria. Vietnam had an
estimated 6 million Catholics.
(AP, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 25, Indonesia said it
would begin producing the bird flu drug Tamiflu, while Vietnam and
China reported new outbreaks of the virus among poultry.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 25, In Vietnam former
British glam rocker Gary Glitter was charged with committing
"obscene acts with children" and could face more serious charges
that carry the death penalty.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 29, Thousands of
people lined the streets as the Roman Catholic Church ordained 57
new priests in an unprecedented ceremony that added the single
largest number of priests in Vietnam at one time.
(AP, 11/29/05)
2005 Dec 15, Taiwan said it was
building a landing strip on one of the Spratly Islands, whose
ownership was contested by Vietnam.
(Econ, 1/28/06, p.42)
2005 Dec 17, In Vietnam
disaster officials said floods and landslides have claimed at least
47 lives in central Vietnam in the past two weeks.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2005 Dec 19, In Vietnam Trinh
Huu (53), an Australian of Vietnamese origin, was convicted and
sentenced to death by firing squad for trafficking heroin.
(Reuters, 12/20/05)
2005 Dec, In Vietnam wildcat
strikes swept through the industrial zones surrounding Ho chi Minh
City. Tens of thousands of workers joined protests over wages and
conditions.
(Econ, 1/28/06, p.42)
2005 Some 74% of Vietnam’s 84
million population still lived in the countryside.
(Econ, 11/26/05, p.49)
2006 Jan 4, Intel asked the
Vietnamese government for a license to build a chip plant worth 605
million dollars in southern Ho Chi Minh City. Regulators approved
the plans in February.
(AFP, 1/5/06)(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 6, Vietnam said it was
prepared to join some UN peacekeeping operations for the first time
in a move seen as a major shift in its attitude towards the world
body.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Feb 1, In Vietnam a
government mandated minimum wage increase in foreign-owned factories
went into effect. Starting pay was raised 40% to $45 per month.
(Econ, 1/28/06, p.42)
2006 Feb 11, It was reported
that drought in northern Vietnam threatened 740,000 acres of rice as
the level of the Red River continued to fall to its lowest level in
over 100 years.
(SFC, 6/4/04, A1)
2006 Feb 20, A senior US
official said Vietnam and the US have resumed their human rights
dialogue after a three-year suspension, renewing links with
"productive" talks.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Mar 2, Vietnam announced
it has commuted the death sentence of Nguyen Van Chinh (45), a
convicted Australian drug trafficker, to life imprisonment after
heavy lobbying by the Australian government.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 29, In Vietnam
activists and Vietnam War veterans wrapped up a global conference on
Agent Orange with a plea to the US government and chemical companies
to take responsibility for health problems linked to the wartime
defoliant.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Apr 3, Dao Dinh Binh (61)
Vietnam's transport minister resigned and his deputy was arrested in
a major corruption scandal in which public officials embezzled
millions of dollars in government funds. The reformist newspapers
Thanh Nien (Young people) and Tuoi Tre (Youth Daily) had published a
joint expose of the transport ministry’s road building unit. In 2009
the government refused to renew the contracts for the papers.
(AFP, 4/4/06)(Econ, 1/17/09, p.43)
2006 Apr 18, Vietnam's
communist party opened its 10th five-yearly congress. The 8-day
session, likely to reshuffle the national leadership, opened
with a stern warning from party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh that
corruption threatens the regime's survival. During the session Bloc
8406, a new dissident group, emerged with a “manisfesto on freedom
and democracy.”
(AFP, 4/18/06)(Econ, 4/26/08, SR p.16)
2006 Apr 22, Vietnam welcomed
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who then spoke in Hanoi on Vietnam’s
potential in IT development.
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.A14)
2006 Apr 24, Vietnam's ruling
Communist Party re-elected its leader, General Secretary Nong Duc
Manh (65), for a second five-year term. The Congress approved a new
five-year plan with targets for improving infrastructure and making
Vietnam a modern industrial nation by 2020.
(AFP, 4/24/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.38)
2006 Apr 28, An official said
Vietnam needs more than $400 million to fight bird flu and prepare
for a potential pandemic over the next five years, and expects about
half to come from international donors.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 May 13, Pope Benedict XVI
named a new bishop for Vietnam, a country that lacks ties with the
Vatican but has the second highest number of Catholics in Southeast
Asia.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 14, Vietnam’s state
media said the US had clinched a bilateral market access deal with
Vietnam that will help clear the path to its former wartime enemy
joining the World Trade Organization.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 16, Vietnam's PM Phan
Van Khai (70) said he has nominated Deputy PM Nguyen Tan Dung (56)
as his successor.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 19, In Vietnam 5
people convicted of heroin dealing were executed by firing squad.
About 100 people were executed in Vietnam each year for drug-related
offenses.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 19, An official said
at least 150 Vietnamese fishermen were missing at sea and another 28
were found dead after getting caught in Typhoon Chanchu.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 20, Chanchu, the most
powerful storm to strike the South China Sea this early in the
typhoon season, killed nearly 90 people in Asia over the past week.
It was now weakened to a tropical storm and hovering off southern
Japan. 198 Vietnamese fishermen remained missing.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 31, The US and Vietnam
signed a trade pact that removes one of the last major hurdles in
Hanoi's bid to join the World Trade Organization.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 Jun 4, US Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Vietnam for a visit aimed at
boosting security ties with a former foe that now shares American
wariness about China's rising military might.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 24, Vietnam's
president, prime minister and chief of parliament all submitted
their resignations, bowing out in a long-awaited internal shuffle to
make way for a new generation of leaders.
(AP, 6/24/06)
2006 Jun 27, Vietnamese
legislators elected Nguyen Minh Triet (63), the Communist Party
chief for Ho Chi Minh City, as the country's new president in a
leadership shuffle. Triet, in turn, nominated Deputy Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung, 56, to become the next PM.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jul 31, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez praised Vietnam for its battle against
"imperialism" and pledged to help the communist country develop its
nascent oil and gas industry during a two-day state visit.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Sep 7, A Thai court
decided to extradite a Vietnamese dissident to face charges of
violating airspace for a stunt that involved hijacking a plane and
dropping 50,000 anti-communist leaflets over Ho Chi Minh City. Ly
Tong, a South Vietnamese air force veteran who later became a US
citizen, hijacked the twin-engine plane from Thailand in November
2000.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 20, In Vietnam Pham
Xuan An (79), journalist and spy, died. He led a remarkable and
perilous double life as a communist spy and a respected reporter for
Western news organizations during the Vietnam War.
(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 21, Vietnam deported
an American pro-democracy activist, state-run television reported.
Cong Thanh Do (47) of San Jose, Ca., was accused of plotting to
overthrow the government.
(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Oct 1, Typhoon Xangsane
was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved inland from the
central Vietnam coast. At least 59 people were killed and thousands
of homes damaged. Damage was later estimated at $625 million.
(Reuters, 10/1/06)(AP, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 7, In central Vietnam
a boat carrying about 30 schoolchildren capsized on a river, leaving
one boy dead and 18 others missing and feared dead.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 10, Vietnam's
communist party chief Nong Duc Manh arrived in Laos at the start of
a four-day visit in a country where Vietnam still exerts
considerable influence.
(AFP, 10/10/06)
2006 Oct 12, In Vietnam the Lao
Dong (Labour) newspaper quoted a police doctor as saying tests in
September confirmed that Nguyen Thi Oanh (39), a convicted heroin
trafficker, was then 11 weeks pregnant. The death row inmate had
been held in solitary confinement for almost a year.
(Reuters, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 23, A WTO draft report
said Vietnam has succeeded in introducing the reforms necessary for
it to join the World Trade Organization and become the world body's
150th member.
(AP, 10/23/06)
2006 Oct 24, in northern
Vietnam a boat carrying traders with their chickens and pigs
capsized in a river with at least 20 passengers feared drowned.
(AP, 10/24/06)
2006 Oct 26, Thailand's
military-installed PM Surayud Chulanont visited Vietnam for the last
of a series of trips aimed at reassuring Bangkok's neighbors after
last month's coup.
(AFP, 10/26/06)
2006 Nov 7, The World Trade
Organization (WTO) has formally approved communist Vietnam's
membership of the global free trade system. The US government
congratulated Vietnam for winning entry to the WTO, and urged
Congress to enact regular trading ties with the communist nation.
(AFP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 10, In Vietnam 3
Vietnamese-Americans were convicted on terrorism charges after being
accused of trying to take over radio airwaves and call for an
uprising against Vietnam's communist government. A judge sentenced
the Americans and four Vietnamese to 15 months in prison, with
credit for time served.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 13, Vietnam deported
Nguyen Thuong "Cuc" Foshee (58), an American woman who was convicted
last week on terrorism charges for plotting to seize radio airwaves
to call for an uprising against the communist government. The US
removed Vietnam from a blacklist of countries that suppress
religion.
(AP, 11/12/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, p.44)
2006 Nov 15, In Vietnam envoys
meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific economic summit, tried
to cobble together a united strategy for upcoming talks aimed at
convincing North Korea to drop its nuclear weapons program.
(AP, 11/15/06)
2006 Nov 17, Pres. Bush arrived
in Vietnam ahead of a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders and individual
meetings with a handful of leaders.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 18, President Bush
lobbied world leaders in Vietnam and lined up support for pressuring
North Korea to prove it is serious about dismantling its nuclear
weapons program. Asia-Pacific leaders put their political muscle
behind the drive to free up global trade, but they struggled to find
common ground on how best to tackle the North Korea nuclear crisis.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 19, President Bush in
Vietnam sought Chinese President Hu Jintao's help on dual fronts,
aiming to rein in North Korea's nuclear ambitions and encourage the
Chinese people to buy more US goods. Pacific Rim leaders urged North
Korea to take concrete steps to live up to its commitments to stop
developing nuclear weapons.
(AP, 11/19/06)
2006 Dec 5, Typhoon Durian
slammed into Vietnam's southern coast as a tropical storm. A Dec 7
government report said nearly 100 people were killed or are missing
after the typhoon hit the southern coast.
(AP, 12/6/06)(Reuters, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec, Vietnam’s PM Nguyen
Tan Dung signed a directive to issue shares in its national airline
in 2008 and planned to partially privatize more than 50 other major
state-owned enterprises by 2010.
(AFP, 1/2/07)
2007 Jan 11, Vietnam became the
150th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a milestone
expected to launch an era of radical change as the communist nation
enters the global economic mainstream.
(AP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 25, Pope Benedict XVI
met with Vietnam's PM Nguyen Tan Dung. Their talks marked an
important step toward establishing diplomatic relations following
decades of tension.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 31, Officials said
Vietnam's ruling Communist Party and the military will relinquish
control of dozens of companies, ranging from hotels to telecoms, as
part of an ongoing government overhaul. An oil spill from an
unidentified source hit Vietnam's central coast, blackening popular
resort beaches as thousands of local people help with the cleanup.
(AP, 1/31/07)(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 3, In northern Vietnam
5 miners were killed when a large rock fell on them as they worked
to extract zinc ore.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 5, In Hanoi, Vietnam,
international aid experts from the World Bank, UN and other
development agencies and 40 nations met for the Third International
Roundtable on Managing For Development Results, a four-day
conference aimed at making global development efforts more
effective.
(AFP, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 9, In Vietnam the US
ambassador said the US government will give Vietnam $400,000 toward
cleaning up a former US military base contaminated by Agent Orange,
its biggest step yet toward resolving one of the most contentious
legacies of the Vietnam War.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 25, Vietnamese
officials and state media said police have accused Nguyen Van Ly, a
prominent dissident Catholic priest, of disseminating propaganda
intended to undermine the communist government. Van Ly founded Bloc
8406, which called for democracy, in 2006.
(AP, 2/25/07)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.49)
2007 Feb 28, It was reported
that international developers planned a $4 billion resort and casino
complex in Vietnam. The project, dubbed Ho Tram, would be on the
South China Sea, a 2-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City.
(WSJ, 2/28/07, p.B1)
2007 Mar 13, Vietnam's former
deputy trade minister and his son went on trial for accepting bribes
for quotas to export textiles to the US, in a major graft case with
14 defendants.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 30, A Vietnamese court
sentenced a dissident Catholic priest to eight years in prison for
anti-government activities after a dramatic trial in which the
defendant shouted denunciations of the ruling Communist Party. A
judge at Thua Thien Hue Provincial People's Court in central Vietnam
sentenced Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly on charges of disseminating
anti-government documents and communicating with pro-democracy
activists overseas.
(AP,
3/30/07)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y9Mzp-61fU)
2007 May 10, A Vietnamese court
sentenced 3 pro-democracy activists to prison after convicting them
of spreading subversive propaganda, as the communist country
continued its latest crackdown against dissent. Le Thi Cong Nhan
(30), human rights lawyer, was released in 2010 after serving a
3-year sentence for advocating for a multiparty government in
Internet posts. Nguyen Van Dai, a fellow lawyer who was convicted
along with Nhan, was sentenced to 5 years in prison. His sentence
was later reduced by one year. Nguyen Bac Truyen, a member of the
banned People's Democratic Party, was sentenced to four years. An
appeal court three months later reduced the term by six months.
Truyen was released on May 17, 2010.
(AP, 5/10/07)(AP, 3/8/10)(AP, 5/17/10)
2007 May 15, In Vietnam Tran
Quoc Hien, a trade union organizer and member of Bloc 8406, became
the 6th democracy campaigner to be imprisoned within a week.
(Econ, 5/19/07, p.45)
2007 May 20, Vietnam elected a
new National Assembly. Vietnam's communist party won more than 91%
of seats in elections for the new national assembly, which will
consist of 493 members.
(Econ, 5/19/07, p.45)(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 Jun 1, Vietnam became
Cuba's latest partner in oil exploration and drilling in the Gulf of
Mexico under one of several agreements signed during a visit by
Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 16, Official media
said Vietnam has confirmed its first human death from bird flu since
2005, as the latest flare-up of the virus ravaged poultry stocks.
Tests confirmed that a 20-year-old from northern Ha Tay province
died from the H5N1 virus on June 10.
(AP, 6/17/07)
2007 Jun 21, Vietnam's
President Nguyen Minh Triet heard a barrage of criticism during his
historic visit to Washington, with angry US lawmakers saying ties
between the former enemies will stagnate until Vietnam's dismal
human rights record improves.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jul 25, Vietnam’s
lawmakers overwhelmingly re-elected PM Nguyen Tan Dung, in hopes
that strong growth and economic reforms would continue under his
leadership.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Aug 6, Vietnam’s disaster
officials said the worst tropical storm to hit the country so far
this year has killed nine people, while 14 others remain missing.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 8, In Vietnam
officials said at least 34 people have died and 17 more were missing
and feared dead after Tropical Storm Pabuk lashed the country.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 13, In central Vietnam
the death toll from a tropical storm that caused widespread flooding
hit 70 after five more bodies were recovered, while six people were
still missing and feared dead.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Sep 1, The World Health
Organization (WHO) confirmed five human bird flu cases in Vietnam,
four of them fatal. The four, including two women, died between June
21 and August 3 while a fifth person, a 29-year-old man, had
recovered.
(Reuters, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 26, In southern
Vietnam a section of a bridge under construction collapsed, killing
at least 52 workers and injuring 97 others. The bridge was being
built across the Hau River, a branch of the Mekong River, in the
southern city of Can Tho.
(AP, 9/26/07)
2007 Oct 3, Disaster officials
began evacuating 400,000 people as a typhoon approached Vietnam's
central coast, packing winds up to 83 mph. Typhoon Lekima slammed
into Vietnam's central coast, killing two people, destroying
hundreds of houses and unleashing floods in one of the country's
poorest regions.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 6, In Vietnam floods
and landslides followed Typhoon Lekima and killed at least 86 people
with many missing and some villages cut off and inundated by water.
(Reuters, 10/6/07)(AP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 27, An official of the
Vietnamese embassy to South Africa was shot and seriously injured in
a robbery at his Pretoria residence.
(AFP, 10/28/07)
2007 Nov 5, In central Vietnam
residents braced for a tropical storm expected to make landfall
later this week after floods triggered by heavy rains killed at
least 24 people. People in seven coastal areas fell victim to the
latest floods, which began Nov 2. The floods were the third to hit
the region in three weeks.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 17, Police in Ho Chi
Minh City arrested two US citizens of Vietnamese descent, two
Vietnam citizens, one French citizen of Vietnamese descent and one
Thai citizen after "they participated in discussions with other
democracy activists on promoting peaceful democratic change."
Several were jailed in one-day trials for up to 8 years on charges
of defaming the Communist Party and "spreading propaganda against
the state."
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Dec 4, American officials
confirmed that Vietnam is holding four US citizens, hours after
gaining their first consular access to two of the detainees, both
Vietnamese-born pro-democracy activists.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2008 Jan 22, A US official said
thousands of Vietnamese living illegally in the US now face
deportation after the two countries completed an agreement following
a decade of work on the pact.
(AP, 1/22/08)
2008 Jan 30, Vietnam’s central
bank raised official interest rates up 1.5% to fight inflation which
had reached 14.1%, the highest since 1995.
(Econ, 2/2/08, p.46)
2008 Mar 10, Vietnam’s central
bank widened the band in which it allows the Vietnamese dong to rise
or fall against the dollar from .75% to 1%. The bank said it plans
to expand the band to 2% in an effort to unshackle its economy from
the sliding dollar.
(WSJ, 3/19/08, p.A8)
2008 Mar 18, An appeals court
in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced an Australian woman to death for
heroin trafficking. Vietnam-born Jasmine Luong (34), of Sydney, was
convicted during a one-day trial of trafficking 3 pounds of heroin.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Apr 1, A top US
immigration official said Washington has started deportation
proceedings against thousands of Vietnamese living illegally in the
US under a pact between the two countries.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, An Australian court
charged a Vietnam Airlines pilot with smuggling millions of dollars
in drug profits out of the country. Quoc Viet Lai (58,) faced 40
counts of money laundering after allegedly taking 3.7 million
dollars (3.4 million US) out of Australia between June 2005 and June
2006.
(AFP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Vietnam a small
military plane crashed near Hanoi, killing all five aboard.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 28, Officials said
Vietnam is ending a child adoption agreement with the United States
after being accused of allowing baby-selling and corruption.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, The Olympic torch
arrived in Vietnam from North Korea, where tens of thousands of
citizens were mobilized to celebrate the relay in Pyongyang in the
flame's first visit to the authoritarian nation.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 May 12, In Vietnam 2
reporters were arrested for their coverage of a bribery, gambling
and corruption scandal. Their arrests led to a highly unusual
confrontation between Vietnam's Communist government and the
country's state-controlled newspapers. The scandal, which erupted in
2005, led to the conviction of 9 people, including several
government officials.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 Apr, The population of
Vietnam was about 85 million.
(Econ, 4/26/08, SR p.3)
2008 May 31, In Vietnam some
1000 workers walked off the assembly line of a Panasonic plant as
inflation reached a 13-year high of 25.2%. Some 300 strikes took
place in the first quarter as compared to 103 in the first quarter
of 2007.
(WSJ, 6/3/08, p.A12)
2008 Jun 2, In central Vietnam
a collision between a speeding bus and a truck killed 14 people and
injured 18 others. Traffic accidents killed more than 13,000 people
last year in Vietnam.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 9, Budweiser, US beer
brewer, announced that it would go on sale in Vietnam.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.82)
2008 Jun 10, Vietnam devalued
its currency by almost 2% to bring the official exchange rate closer
to black market rates. The main interest rate was increased to 14%
from 12% in an effort to tamp inflationary pressure. A week earlier
PM Nguyen Tan Dung had said there was no reason to decrease the
value of the dong.
(WSJ, 6/11/08, p.A15)
2008 Jun 11, Vietnam devalued
its currency by 2% as inflation pushed over 25%.
(Econ, 6/21/08,
p.86)(http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=4709)
2008 Jun 11, Vo Van Kiet
(b.1922), former Vietnamese Prime Minister (1991-1997), died in
Singapore. The economic reformer had led the Communist nation away
from poverty and isolation and backed the normalization of ties with
the United States.
(AP, 6/11/08)(WSJ, 6/14/08, p.A7)
2008 Jun 16, A Vietnamese
soldier shot and killed four people and seriously injured five
others before shooting himself dead. Nguyen Manh Hung (23)
reportedly became enraged after being accused of stealing a mobile
phone.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jul 14, In Vietnam Dayana
Mendoza, Miss Venezuela, was crowned Miss Universe 2008 in a contest
marked by the spectacle of Miss USA falling down during the evening
gown competition for the second year in a row.
(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 21, Vietnam raised its
fuel prices by 31%.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A13)
2008 Aug 9, Disaster officials
said landslides and floods killed at least 101 people in northern
Vietnam, covering the homes of some victims as they slept in their
beds.
(AP, 8/10/08)(WSJ, 8/12/08, p.A8)
2008 Aug 15, In Beijing 2
positive dope tests by Asian athletes overshadowed Singapore's first
medal in 48 years and a podium for Malaysia with a North Korean
shooter and a Vietnamese gymnast exposed as cheats.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 19, Vietnamese
authorities freed British glam rocker Paul Gadd, aka Gary Glitter,
after nearly three years in prison on child molestation charges,
then moved immediately to deport him.
(AP, 8/19/08)(Econ, 8/36/08, p.36)
2008 Aug, In Vietnam several
people were arrested after they knocked down a section of the wall
surrounding a parcel of land once owned by Thai Ha Church and set up
an altar and a statue of the Virgin Mary. 7 of the defendants
received suspended sentences ranging from 12 to 15 months, and
another received a warning. They all got two years of probation.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2008 Sep 1, A US-Vietnam
adoption agreement expired with the two sides unable to resolve
disagreements over fraud and corruption, disappointing hundreds of
prospective parents who will have to seek children elsewhere.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 19, Ben Stocking (49),
an Associated Press reporter in Vietnam, was punched, choked and hit
over the head with a camera by police who detained him for a short
while as he covered a Catholic prayer vigil at the site of the
former Vatican Embassy in Hanoi. The city had started to clear the
site after announcing a day earlier that it planned to use the land
for a public library and park.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 25, Typhoon Hagupit
hit northern Vietnam. Floods triggered by the storm left at least 41
people dead and at least $65 million in damages.
(AP, 9/27/08)(AP, 9/28/08)(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Sep 30, Tropical Storm
Mekkhala slammed into Vietnam's central coast before moving to Laos
later the same day. At least 8 people were killed with 8 more
missing.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 3, Officials said
Vietnam's health ministry has discovered the industrial chemical
melamine in 18 food products imported from China and three other
countries and has ordered them recalled and destroyed.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 8, The US embassy said
in a statement that the United States and Vietnam have agreed to
lift restrictions on air cargo routes between the two countries.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 15, A Vietnamese court
sentenced journalist Nguyen Viet Chien (56) to two years in prison,
accusing him of writing inaccurate stories about one of the
country's most high-profile corruption cases. Fellow reporter Nguyen
Van Hai (33) was sentenced on the charges to two years of
"re-education without detention." The reporters were arrested in May
for writing about a 2005 scandal in which Transportation Ministry
officials were accused of gambling with allegedly embezzled funds.
Police Maj. Gen. Pham Xuan Quac (62) and investigator Dinh Van Huynh
were charged with "deliberately revealing state secrets," for giving
information to the journalists. Quac, who has retired, was given a
warning, while Huynh was sentenced to one year in prison.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 29, The US and Vietnam
launched three new programs to help provide job training and health
care to disabled people in Danang, where American troops stored and
mixed Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Nov 2, A week of flooding
triggered by torrential rains in northern and central Vietnam killed
some 92 people, 22 of them in the capital Hanoi hit by the worst
flooding in 35 years.
(Reuters, 11/2/08)(AP, 11/3/08)(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 13, Vietnam's premier
pledged to probe a corruption case in which Japanese businessmen
have admitted bribing a Vietnamese official in the latest scandal
involving a foreign aid-funded road project.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 16, In Vietnam weekend
flooding killed at least 11 people in the southern and central
regions, submerged thousands of homes in Ho Chi Minh city and
stranded air and railway passengers.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 20, Vietnam's
president Nguyen Minh Triet was set to meet Venezuelan leader Hugo
Chavez, during the first visit by a head of state from the communist
nation here, mainly focused on oil and gas ties.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Vietnam family
planning chiefs said officials in Communist Vietnam, alarmed by a
new baby boom, are to crack down on couples having more than two
children. The government first launched a two-child policy in the
early 1960s. A 2003 ordinance encouraged small families without
making it illegal for families to have a third child.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 25, Indochina
Airlines, Vietnam’s first privately owned airline, began operations.
(www.india-server.com/news/vietnam-launches-indochina-airlines-4811.html)
2008 Dec 8, In northern Vietnam
a blast at a coal mine killed at least seven workers and injured 15.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 18, Vietnam approved
new regulations banning bloggers from discussing subjects the
government deems sensitive or inappropriate and requiring them to
limit their writings to personal issues.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 25, Japan and Vietnam
signed an economic partnership pact with a promise to cut tariffs on
some 92% of goods and services traded between the two nations within
a decade.
(AFP, 12/25/08)
2008 Gordon Goldstein authored
“Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in
Vietnam.”
(AP, 10/11/09)
2008 Rufus Phillips authored
“Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned.”
(Econ, 10/3/09, p.55)
2008 The Vietnamese German
University (VGU) opened in Ho Chi Minh City. It focused on
engineering and economics with programs taught in English by
visiting German professors.
(Econ, 10/2/10, p.45)
2009 Jan 25, A small ferry
overloaded with holiday shoppers sank in central Vietnam, killing at
least 40 people ahead of the traditional Lunar New Year. Most of the
dead were women and children.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jun 13, In Vietnam civil
rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh (41) was arrested at his home in Ho Chi
Minh City. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on charges
of sabotaging the communist government. Three other pro-democracy
activists, Le Thang Long, Tran Thi Thu and Le Thi Thu Thu, were soon
arrested for colluding with Dinh.
(AP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jul 2, In Vietnam an
official said for every 100 girls born to Vietnamese families, there
are 112 boys born, a disparity in the sex ratio that has been
rapidly increasing in recent years. The rising imbalance was blamed
on a cultural preference for boys who can continue the bloodline and
the belief that boys can better care for parents as they age.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 31, A new study by the
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and Vietnam's ministry of
defense said more than one-third of the land in six central
Vietnamese provinces remained contaminated with land mines and
unexploded bombs from the Vietnam War.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 27, Vietnam police
took Bui Thanh Hieu, who writes a blog under the pen name Nguoi Buon
Gio, or Wind Trader, into custody for questioning. Pham Doan Trang,
a writer for the popular online newspaper VietnamNet, was detained
the day before. Both were released on Sep 6.
(AP, 9/6/09)
2009 Sep 2, Vietnamese
authorities arrested blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (30), who writes
under the pen name Me Nam, at her home in Nha Trang. Quynh's arrest
was the latest in a series of police moves against writers who
criticized government policies toward China. The government
tightened its rules for bloggers earlier this year, saying they must
restrict their writings to personal matters. Quynh was released on
Sep 12.
(AP, 9/4/09)(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 10, Vietnamese and US
scientists wrapped up their annual meetings on Agent Orange,
launching a task force to examine health issues in areas where the
defoliant was used during the Vietnam War. Vietnam has said 1
million to 4 million of its citizens may have suffered serious
health consequences after being exposed to dioxin, a highly toxic
element in Agent Orange.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 11, In Vietnam the
Canadian environmental firm Hatfield Consultants said new
environmental tests confirm extremely high levels of dioxin, the
toxic ingredient of Agent Orange, in people, fish and soil near
Danang airport, a former US air base where American troops stored
the herbicide during the Vietnam War.
(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 14, Vietnamese
scholars disbanded the Institute of Development Studies, the
country's first independent think tank, to protest a government
decree, effective Sep 15, restricting the right to conduct and
publish research.
(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 24, In Vietnam 9 North
Koreans took refuge in Denmark's embassy in Hanoi seeking political
asylum and passage to Seoul. On Oct 20 they left the mission and
were on their way to South Korea.
(Reuters, 10/20/09)(SFC, 9/25/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 25, An environmental
group said a gecko with leopard-like spots on its body and a fanged
frog that eats birds are among 163 new species discovered last year
in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, which included Laos,
Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 29, Typhoon Ketsana
slammed into central Vietnam, killing 74 as officials recovered more
bodies from the muck and swollen rivers along the country's long
coastline. 179 were reported injured and a dozen missing. In
neighboring Cambodia, at least 11 people were killed and 29 injured.
(Reuters, 9/29/09)(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Sep, In Vietnam some 400
disciples of Thich Nhat Hanh, who has popularized Buddhism in the
West and sold millions of books worldwide, were forcibly evicted
from the Bat Nha monastery in Lam Dong province. Since then, nearly
200 monks have taken refuge at the nearby Phuoc Hue pagoda, but they
have been ordered to leave by Dec. 31. On Dec 18 the disciples asked
for temporary asylum in France.
(AP, 12/17/09)(AFP, 12/18/09)
2009 Oct 9, In Vietnam a judge
in Haiphong sentenced 9 activists up to six years for hanging
democracy banners and other acts against the state, prompting tears
and condemnation from relatives. Some of the activists were linked
to an outlawed pro-democracy grouping called Bloc 8406. Nguyen Xuan
Nghia (60), the alleged leader of six activists, received the
heaviest penalty of six years in prison followed by three years of
house arrest.
(AFP, 10/9/09)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.55)
2009 Oct 15, It was reported
that the Taj network, funded by the National Science Foundation, now
connects India, Singapore, Vietnam and Egypt to the larger Global
Ring Network for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD) global
infrastructure, and "dramatically improves existing US network links
with China and the Nordic region," according to an NSF statement.
(www.livescience.com/technology/091015-global-gloraid-taj-cyber-net.html)
2009 Nov 2, Tropical Storm
Mirinae slammed into Vietnam's central coast, unleashing heavy rains
and winds and forcing more than 80,000 people to evacuate before
losing steam as it moved inland. The storm killed at least 98
people. Mirinae also killed two people in Cambodia and left 19
people dead and three missing in the Philippines.
(AP, 11/2/09)(AP, 11/3/09)(AFP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 6, Japan pledged $5.5
billion in aid over 3 years for Southeast Asia's 5 Mekong River
nations (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam), seeking to
deepen ties with the region amid growing influence from China.
(AFP, 11/6/09)
2009 Dec 11, At the Vatican
Vietnam’s President Nguyen Minh Triet met with Pope Benedict XVI for
40 minutes, twice as long as was scheduled and the first time that
the head of state of Vietnam has met with the pope since the
communists took power in 1954. Vietnam's 6 million Roman Catholics
is one of the largest Catholic communities in Asia.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 16, Vietnam said it
has ordered submarines and fighter jets from Russia, its former
communist ally, in a deal reportedly worth hundreds of millions of
dollars.
(AP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 28, A Vietnamese court
convicted Tran Anh Kim (60), a former army officer who had pressed
for democratic reforms of subversion, and sentenced him to 5.5 years
in prison. Kim was accused of "working to overthrow the state" by
joining the Democratic Party of Vietnam, publishing pro-democracy
articles on the Internet, and joining Bloc 8406, an organization
that promotes a multiparty state.
(AP, 12/28/09)
2010 Jan 1, A free-trade
agreement between China and the 10 members of the Association of
Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) came into effect. The 6 richest
members scrapped tariffs on 90% of goods. The 4 poorest (Vietnam,
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar) will not need to cut tariffs to the same
level until 2015.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 20, Vietnam convicted
4 democracy activists of trying to overthrow the communist
government and sentenced them to up to 16 years in prison for
promoting multiparty democracy. Le cong Dinh (41), a lawyer, was
sentenced for 5 years and activist Nguyen Tien Trung (26) was
sentenced to 7 years. In May a court upheld the 16-year sentence
against Internet entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc and the 5-year
sentence against U.S.-trained human rights attorney Le Cong Dinh. It
reduced the sentence of businessman Le Thang Long.
(AP, 1/20/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.52)(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Vietnam 19 rare
Asiatic moon bears, found at an illegal Taiwanese-owned operation in
southern Vietnam, reached a new home at Tam Dao National Park,
joining 29 bears already at the rescue center. Ultrasound tests had
found evidence of thickened gall bladders, a telltale sign of gall
bladder milking. Some may need to have the organ removed because of
extensive damage.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 29, A Vietnamese court
handed a four-year jail term to writer Pham Thanh Nghien (32) for
anti-state "propaganda," the latest in a string of jailings of
democracy activists by the communist state.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Feb 5, A Vietnamese court
convicted Tran Khai Thanh Thuy (49), a journalist and democracy
activist, of assault and sentenced her to three-and-a-half years in
prison in a one-day trial that rights groups said was meant to
silence government critics.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 10, Vietnam’s central
bank devalued its currency, the dong, by 3.4%. This followed a
devaluation of 5.4% last November.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.59)
2010 Mar 3, In Laos senior
officials from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam met in Luang
Prabang to discuss the Mekong River. The Mekong River Commission in
a draft report said severe drought has dropped the river to its
lowest level in nearly 20 years, halting some cargo traffic and boat
tours on the waterway, the lifeblood for 65 million people in six
countries.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 25, China agreed to
share water level data at 2 dams to ease pressure from nations
downstream, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Mar 30, Vietnam and the
United States signed a pact described as a key foundation for
development of peaceful atomic power in the communist country.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 31, Google Inc. says
malicious software has been used to spy on Vietnamese computer users
opposed to a controversial bauxite mine in the Southeast Asian
country. Computer security firm McAfee said the perpetrators may be
linked to the communist government.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Apr 29, In Vietnam a Javan
rhino, one of the world's rarest large mammals, was found shot dead
with its horn chopped off in a southern national park, a suspected
victim of poachers. There were only three to five Javan rhinos
believed left in Vietnam. The animal was first caught on camera at
the park in 1999.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 Jun 14, Vietnam and the US
agreed to US financing worth 500 million dollars aimed at boosting
American exports for high-priority infrastructure projects in the
communist country.
(AFP, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 17, Vietnam's
communist-dominated National Assembly voted to replace firing squads
with lethal injections.
(AFP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jul 15, Vietnam’s state
media reported that Vietnam has published the first issue of a human
rights magazine to help counter what it calls "erroneous and hostile
allegations."
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 17, Typhoon Conson
weakened as it headed toward Vietnam, after passing over the Chinese
island of Hainan where falling billboards killed at least two
people.
(Reuters, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 18, In Vietnam 17
people were left missing as the tail end of Typhoon Conson blew
ashore after battering the Philippines and China and killing dozens.
(AP, 7/18/10)(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jul 26, French Defense
Minister Herve Morin visited Vietnam marking the first time a French
defense minister traveled to the country since Vietnam's 1954
surprise defeat at Dien Bien Phu. The next day Vietnam’s state media
reported that Morin has agreed to help Vietnam modernize its
military.
(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Aug 1, UNESCO added five
cultural sites to its World Heritage List, including the Imperial
Citadel of Thang Long-Hanoi in Vietnam. The other new sites include
the historic monuments of Dengfeng in China, the archaeological site
Sarazm in Tajikistan, the Episcopal city of Albi in France and a
17th-century canal ring in Amsterdam.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 17, Vietnamese and US
officials held their first defense talks as the two countries
celebrated the 15th anniversary of normalizing relations.
(SFC, 8/18/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 24, In Vietnam at
least 9 people were killed when Typhoon Mindulle struck the central
coast.
(AFP, 10/17/10)(http://tinyurl.com/25z8plq)
2010 Aug 28, Vietnam's
president ordered 17,210 prisoners freed as part of the country's
annual National Day amnesty.
(AP, 8/28/10)
2010 Sep 11, China detained 9
Vietnamese fishermen near the disputed Paracel islands in the South
China Sea. Vietnam demanded their immediate release without
conditions, but China refused until the captain paid a fine for
having explosives aboard the boat. The fisherman returned home on
oct 26 after an ordeal that included a month of detention by China
and a week lost on stormy seas.
(AP, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 4, Vietnamese
officials said weekend floods triggered by heavy rains have
displaced thousands of villagers in central Vietnam, and left 3
people dead and 3 others missing.
(AP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 6, In Vietnam
fireworks intended for Hanoi's upcoming 1000th birthday celebration
exploded prematurely, killing four people and injuring three others.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 7, In Vietnam the
death toll from vicious rains nearly doubled to 48 after disaster
officials were finally able to access areas that had been cut off by
high waters. Another 23 people remained missing as villagers started
returning to areas where the water was receding.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 9, In central Vietnam
the death toll in devastating floods rose to 62 as authorities
rushed aid to about 100,000 people facing food shortages.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 17, Vietnamese
officials said more flooding has killed at least 14 people and
forced around 78,000 people to be evacuated from their homes in the
centre of the country.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 18, In Vietnam a local
official was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes on a
Japanese-funded road project he managed, in a scandal that prompted
Japan to suspend aid for several months. Huynh Ngoc Si was convicted
of receiving $262,000 from executives of Pacific Consultants
International, or PCI, a Japanese company hired as consultants.
(AP, 10/18/10)
2010 Oct 18, In Vietnam 20
people on a bus were swept away by strong currents from a flooded
river. They were presumed dead. Another 17 managed to save
themselves by swimming or clinging to trees or power poles.
(AP, 10/18/10)
2010 Oct 22, In Vietnam
disaster officials said the death toll from severe flooding in four
central provinces had climbed to 75, including 14 victims from a bus
swept off a road by strong currents, with six passengers still
missing.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 23, In Vietnam Le
Nguyen Huong Tra, who blogged under the pen name of Do Long Girl,
was taken into police custody from a home in Ho Chi Minh City for
allegedly slandering a senior government official. Police in Ho Chi
Minh City also arrested blogger Phan Thanh Hai, known as Anhbasg,
over the weekend and continued to detain Nguyen Van Hai, a blogger
known as Dieu Cay, even though he had served out his 30-month
sentence on "trumped-up" tax evasion charges.
(AP, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 29, A feud between
China and Japan deepened at the East Asian Summit in Vietnam, as
China accused its rival of making false comments and hopes for
landmark talks between their leaders evaporated.
(AFP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 31, Japan’s PM Naoto
Kan said Vietnam has chosen Japan as a partner to mine rare earth
metals and develop nuclear power.
(SFC, 11/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 2, State Vietnam News
said blogger Le Nguyen Huong Tra (35), who blogged as Co Gai Do
Long, has been detained for "infringing on the interests of the
state" after she criticized a security official and his family.
(AFP, 11/2/10)
2010 Nov 4, Vietnam disaster
officials say new flooding in the central part of the country has
killed 16 people, bringing the death toll over the past month to
159.
(AP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 21, A global tiger
summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, approved a wide-ranging
program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in
the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that
still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China,
India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam
and Russia. Experts wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if
countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect
their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Dec 16, A
Vietnam-registered fishing boat, named Phu Tan, capsized off the
Chinese coast leaving 27 fishermen missing.
(AP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 17, In Vietnam
Southeast Asia's largest hydroelectric power station began operating
to help ease an electricity shortage. The first of six turbines at
the Son La station was connected to the national power grid.
(AFP, 12/21/10)
2010 In Vietnam the state-owned
shipbuilder, Vinashin, imploded with debts of $4.5 billion.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.42)
2010 The population of Vietnam
was about 86 million.
(Econ, 9/4/10, p.46)
2011 Jan 5, In Vietnam police
roughed up Christian Marchant, an American diplomat, and repeatedly
slammed a car door on his legs when he went to visit a prominent
dissident. The encounter prompted a strong US protest.
(AP, 1/6/11)
2011 Jan 12, Vietnam’s
Communist Party leaders acknowledged that rampant abuse of power is
holding the country back, telling delegates during the opening of a
key meeting that cleaning up corruption would help solve the
country's economic woes.
(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 18, Vietnam's
Communist elite selected a new party boss, after a week of secret
meetings at which politicians jockeyed for power before choosing a
moderate now tasked with trying to sustain country's explosive
growth.
(AP, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 19, In Vietnam
reporter Le Hoang Hung (50) suffered burns on about half his body
following an attack in his house while he was sleeping. Hung died of
his injuries on Jan 29. His wife Tran Thi Thuy Lieu (40) was taken
into police custody on Feb 22.
(AP, 1/20/11)(AP, 1/29/11)(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Jan 20, The EU Naval Force
said that Somali pirates have seized a Vietnamese-owned bulk
carrier, the MV Hoang Son Sun, with 24 crew onboard. All crew
members returned to Vietnam on Sep 23 after shipping firm Hoang Son
Ltd Co. paid more than $2 million in ransom.
(AP, 1/20/11)(AFP, 9/26/11)
2011 Jan 21, Vietnam’s
state-controlled media said a cold spell over the past three weeks
has killed at least seven people as well as more than 20,000 cows
and buffalos.
(AP, 1/21/11)
2011 Jan 25, Human Rights Watch
called on the United States to return Vietnam to a list of the
world's worst abusers of religious freedom, accusing it of
continuously harassing some groups trying to worship peacefully.
(AP, 1/25/11)
2011 Jan 26, In Vietnam Vi Duc
Hoi (54), a communist official turned democracy campaigner, was
jailed for 8 years. Activists saw the case as part of a wider
crackdown on free speech.
(AFP, 1/26/11)
2011 Feb 6, Vietnamese police
said 9 friends died during a lunar New Year party after they started
a car parked inside a house to play music following an electricity
outage.
(AP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 17, In Vietnam 12
people from nine countries were killed in Vietnam's deadliest tour
boat accident since the country opened to foreign visitors 25 years
ago. Nine foreigners and six Vietnamese survived only by flinging
themselves overboard and swimming to other tour boats anchored
nearby in Ha Long Bay.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 28, Vietnam’s
state-controlled Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that Nguyen Dan Que
(69), one of the country’s most prominent pro-democracy dissidents,
was being held by police in Ho Chi Minh City for allegedly acting to
overthrow the government. His house was searched on Feb 26. Police
allegedly found 60,000 documents on his computer calling for a
revolution.
(AP, 2/28/11)
2011 Mar 31, A report by Human
Rights Watch said Vietnam has increased repression of indigenous
minority Christians in the Central Highlands. Hill tribe minorities,
known as Montagnards, converted to Christianity in large numbers
over the past half century.
(SFC, 4/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 4, In Vietnam Cu Huy
Ha Vu (53), the dissident son of a Vietnamese revolutionary leader,
was convicted of anti-state propaganda activities, including
advocating an end to one-party communist rule. His lawyers the next
day challenged his seven-year jail sentence, saying the judges
violated the law during his short trial.
(AFP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr 14, In Vietnam
authorities in the central Quang Nam province agreed to set up the
reserve dedicated to the secretive saola, a relative of antelopes
and cattle and one of the world's rarest animals, which was only
discovered in 1992. This was the second Sao La conservation zone in
Vietnam, after the first one located at the Bach Ma National Park in
the central province of Thua Thien-Hue.
(AFP, 4/18/11)(http://tinyurl.com/3u3l889)
2011 May 4, Vietnam’s central
bank raised a key interest rate to 14% presented a package of
commitments, titled Resolution II, to tighten money and credit.
Consumer prices had risen 17.5% in the year to April.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.79)
2011 May 5, Vietnamese
officials said security forces have quashed a rare protest of
hundreds of ethnic Hmong Christians calling for an independent
state.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 5, In Vietnam customs
officials intercepted 661 pounds (300 kg) of smuggled African
elephant tusks from Tanzania at a northern port city.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 20, In southern
Vietnam a tour boat cruising the Saigon River to celebrate a
3-year-old's birthday capsized during a violent storm, killing the
boy, four other children and 10 adults.
(AP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 22, Vietnam held
parliamentary elections.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 30, Authorities in the
Philippines detained 122 Vietnamese fishermen after seven boats were
intercepted in Philippine waters.
(AP, 5/30/11)
2011 Jun 17, Vietnam started
the first phase of a joint plan with the US to clean up
environmental damage left over from the chemical defoliant Agent
Orange.
(SFC, 6/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 22, Vietnam released
Tran Khai Thanh Thuy (50), a dissident writer and pro-democracy
activist, and deported her to the United States on humanitarian
grounds.
(AP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 23, In northern
Vietnam flash floods and whirlwinds killed seven people, left three
others missing and injured 60.
(AP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jul 10, Vietnamese police
forcibly dispersed an anti-China rally and arrested at least 10
people, including journalists, after a series of protests over
tensions in the South China Sea.
(AFP, 7/10/11)
2011 Jul 17, Vietnamese police
rounded up at least 10 people as they broke up an anti-China rally
for the 2nd weekend running in a series of protests over tensions in
the South China Sea.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 23, Nguyen Cao Ky
(b.1930), the flamboyant former air force general who ruled South
Vietnam with an iron fist for two years (1965-1967) during the
Vietnam War, died in Malaysia. In 2002 he authored "Buddha's Child:
My Fight to Save Vietnam."
(AP, 7/23/11)
2011 Jul 25, Vietnam named
Truong Tan Sang (62), a longtime rival of PM Nguyen Tan Dung, as its
new president, a largely symbolic post in the communist nation.
(AFP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 31, Tropical Storm
Nock-ten hit north-central Vietnam killing one person. The storm had
already left at least 50 people dead in the Philippines.
(SSFC, 7/31/11, p.A4)
2011 Aug 10, In Vietnam Pham
Minh Hoang (56), a French-Vietnamese math professor, was sentenced
to three years in prison for belonging to a banned pro-democracy
group and publishing an anti-Communist blog.
(AP, 8/10/11)
2011 Aug 14, Canada's trade and
agriculture ministers said Vietnam has lifted its eight-year-old ban
on Canadian live breeding cattle, sheep and goats, becoming the
first Asian country to do so since a 2003 discovery of mad cow
disease.
(Reuters, 8/14/11)
2011 Aug 18, Vietnam’s
government warned that it would no longer tolerate weekly
demonstrations that have taken place in Hanoi for the past 10
weekends over disputed territory in the South China Sea.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 19, Vietnamese
officials said hand, foot and mouth disease has killed 81 children
and continues to surge. PM Nguyen Tan Dung called for stepped up
efforts for prevention.
(SFC, 8/20/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 21, Vietnamese police
swooped in and crushed an anti-China rally, arresting dozens of
protesters who refused to stop chanting and forcing them onto two
buses that were driven away.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 29, The UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned about a new mutant strain of
the deadly bird flu H5N1 virus (H5N1 - 2.3.2.1.) in China and
Vietnam, saying there could be a "major resurgence" of the disease.
(AFP, 8/29/11)
2011 Sep 6, Thailand
authorities arrested two men in the northeast for trying to smuggle
more 120 dogs into Vietnam to be sold for human consumption. 31 of
the dogs were dead.
(AP, 9/6/11)
2011 Sep 12, In Vietnam Truong
Van Suong (68), a political prisoner, died in Ha Nam province
outside Hanoi after more than three decades in detention.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 28, Officials said
South Africa and Vietnam have launched talks toward an agreement to
curb rhino poaching, which has soared in recent years driven by
booming demand in Asia.
(AFP, 9/28/11)
2011 Sep 30, Typhoon Nesat
whacked into Vietnam, forcing 20,000 people to be evacuated.
Prolonged monsoon flooding, typhoons and storms have wreaked untold
havoc in Asian countries, leaving more than 600 people dead or
missing in India, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, China, Pakistan
and Vietnam in the last four months.
(AP, 9/30/11)
2011 Oct 11, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel met with her Vietnamese counterpart, PM Nguyen Tan
Dung, as part of a two-day visit to boost trade ties with the
Communist country.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 12, India and Vietnam
signed an accord to promote oil exploration in Vietnamese waters
that could escalate long-standing tensions with China as it presses
territorial claims to much of the South China sea.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 16, Scientists at the
Vietnam-based Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Program and the Oxford
University Clinical Research units in Kathmandu and Ho Chi Minh City
announced they had combined cutting-edge gene sequencing technology
with Google Earth to accurately map the spread of typhoid in
Kathmandu for the first time.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 31, Japan and Vietnam
agreed to move ahead with a plan to export Japanese nuclear
technology to build reactors in Vietnam despite Japan's ongoing
nuclear crisis. PM Yoshihiko Noda and his Vietnamese counterpart
Nguyen Tan Dung also agreed to jointly mine rare earth minerals in
Vietnam.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Nov 3, In Vietnam an
Interpol meeting in Hanoi unveiled a campaign to help save the
world's last wild tigers in the 13 Asian countries where they still
exist, winning praise from conservationists.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 6, Fishermen on a
Taiwanese boat fought back against Somali pirates and freed
themselves after a hijacking in the Indian Ocean. 5 Vietnamese war
vets on the Chin Yi Wen overcame the hijackers and then the boat met
up with British anti-piracy vessels nearby. The war fighters had
been recruited by Taiwan to be part of a 28-man crew on the 290-ton
vessel, along with 9 Chinese, 8 Filipinos and 6 Indonesians. The
crew forced the six armed Somali pirates to jump overboard, and
successfully took back control of the ship.
(AP, 11/6/11)(AFP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 8, In South Korea
Vietnam agreed to seek greater nuclear energy cooperation with South
Korea, opening the way for its participation in a project to build
atomic power plants at home.
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 10, The International
Union for Conservation of Nature said the Western Black Rhino of
Africa has been declared officially extinct. The Javan Rhino was
said to be "probably extinct" in Vietnam, after poachers killed the
last animal there in 2010. A small but declining population of the
Javan Rhino still survived on the Indonesian island of Java.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 25, Vietnam’s PM
Nguyen Tan Dung called for new legislation on protests "to ensure
people's rights to freedom and democracy under the constitution and
law." Vietnam's constitution allows for the right to demonstrate.
(AFP, 11/26/11)
2011 Dec 5, Vietnam officials
said more than 100,000 people have been killed or injured by land
mines or other abandoned explosives since the Vietnam War ended
nearly 40 years ago, and clearing all of the country will take
decades more. The United States used about 16 million tons of bombs
and ammunition while allied with the former South Vietnam
government.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 6, Animal Asia, an
animal protection group, said 14 Asiatic black bears have been
rescued from a bear bile farm in Vietnam after their owner decided
to renounce the illegal trade.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 25, The Vinalines
Queen disappeared on Christmas Day after passing the island of Luzon
in the Philippines. The Vietnamese ship had capsized, apparently
without sending a distress signal. A Vietnamese seaman survived five
days floating in open ocean with only a life jacket for protection
after his cargo ship sank and all his 22 crew mates died. The ship
was carrying more than 54,000 tons of nickel ore and was traveling
from Indonesia to China when it lost contact. Global ship owners
association Intercargo issued a statement in December 2010 warning
of the hazards of transporting nickel ore which, it said, may
liquefy and cause a ship to list if not loaded to international
standards.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 The population of Vietnam
was about 87 million.
(Econ, 9/10/11, p.48)
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End of file.