According to Truong Vinh Ky, the name “Saigon” was transliterated from the Khmer word “Prei Nokor.” “Prei” in Khmer means “forest,” and “Nokor” means “town.” Thus, “Prei Nokor” means “a town in the forest.” Gradually, people mispronounced “Prei” into “Rai,” and then into “Sai.” The word “Nokor” was read as “Kor,” and ...
French scholar Louis Malleret proposed that the meaning of Saigon originated from the term "Tay ngon," meaning "tribute from the west" (Tay Cong). The pronunciation of "Tay ngon" by the Chinese resulted in "Sai Gon."
Beginning in the 1620s, Prey Nôkôr was gradually settled by Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn War further to the north. In 1623, Khmer King Chey Chettha II (1618–1628) allowed the Vietnamese to settle in the area, which they colloquially referred to as Sài Gòn, and to set up a custom house at Prey Nôkôr.
Upon capturing the city during the Cochinchina Campaign in 1859, the French officially westernized the city's traditional name into “Saigon” (French: Saïgon).
North Vietnam captured Saigon, then the capital of South Vietnam, on 30 April 1975 as part of its 1975 spring offensive. This led to the collapse of the South Vietnamese government and the evacuation of thousands of U.S. personnel and South Vietnamese civilians, and marked the end of the Vietnam War.
The fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, marked the end of the decades-long Vietnam War. Images of overloaded evacuation helicopters remain among the iconic scenes of the 1970s. Fifty years later, the war's impact is still being felt by veterans and in America's popular culture.
Ho Chi Minh City (Former name Saigon) - The French nickname their dear city, “Pearl of the far East”. Chinese immigrants call it “Cho Lon”, meaning “Big market”. The Communist government renamed Saigon “Ho Chi Minh city” after the nationalistic revolutionary.
Central Vietnamese, centred in Hue, and Southern Vietnamese, centred in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), differ from the Northern norm in having fewer tones and in modifying certain consonants. All three use the same writing system, which is called Quoc-ngu.
At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China.
Annam, which originated as a Chinese name in the seventh century, was the common name of the country during the colonial period. Nationalist writer Phan Bội Châu revived the name "Vietnam" in the early 20th century.
1955-1975. The Vietnam War was a long, costly, and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
After the Japanese invasion of Indo-China in 1941, Ho returned home and founded the Viet Minh, a communist-dominated independence movement, to fight the Japanese. He adopted the name Ho Chi Minh, meaning 'Bringer of Light'. At the end of World War Two the Viet Minh announced Vietnamese independence.
Vietnamese independence was finally achieved, just six years after Ho's death in 1969 at age 79. The victory came at a staggering price: an estimated three million North and South Vietnamese were killed in the struggle.
Officially, the southern metropolis's name is Ho Chi Minh City, and has been for many years, but there are still a number of locals and visitors alike that call it Saigon. The importance of these two differing titles goes back to the Vietnam War, which ended not so long ago in 1975.
The war exacted an enormous cost: estimates of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed range from 970,000 to 3 million. Some 275,000–310,000 Cambodians, 20,000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 US service members died.
It has been a unified country since 1975, when the armed forces of the Communist north seized the south. This followed three decades of bitter wars, in which the Communists fought first against the colonial power France, then against South Vietnam and its US backers.
Despite occasional concerns such as petty crime and environmental hazards, Vietnam is overwhelmingly safe for international travelers. If you stay vigilant and take preventive measures, you can have a fantastic experience exploring this beautiful country.
Relations between the two countries continued to improve into the 21st century. Vietnam is now considered to be a potential ally of the United States, especially in the geopolitical context of the territorial disputes in the South China Sea and in the containment of Chinese expansionism.
Corruption in Vietnam is pervasive and widespread, due to weak legal infrastructure, financial unpredictability, and conflicting and negative bureaucratic decision-making.
Nixon's plan worked and in early January 1973, the Americans and North Vietnamese ironed out the last details of the settlement. All parties to the conflict, including South Vietnam, signed the final agreement in Paris on January 27. As it turned out, only America honored the cease-fire.
So many helicopters clogged the vessels that some were pushed overboard or purposely ditched at sea to allow others to land. At 7:53 a.m. on April 30, 1975, a Marine Corps CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter evacuated the last Marine security guards from the roof of the U.S. Embassy.
The cause of the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia was its shattered relationship with the Khmer Rouge, who the Viet Cong had helped remove the American backed Republic of Kampuchea government in 1975. But three years later, the Khmer Rouge had become a liability.
