South Vietnam

The Republic of Vietnam (or South Vietnam) was created by the partition of Vietnam in 1954 after the defeat of France at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. South Vietnam's capital was Saigon and it was ruled by an anti-Communist government allied with the United States and fought with the aid of the US against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

US forces withdrew from South Vietnam in 1975. No longer able to succesfully defend itself, the South Vietnamese government surrendered to North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front (NLF) on April 30, 1975. The Communist Republic of South Vietnam took power and ruled until a unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam was inaugurated on July 2, 1976.