Vienna, Siege of (July 17-Sept. 12, 1683) Attempted capture of Vienna by Ottoman Turkey. On appeal from the Hungarian Calvinists to attack the Habsburg capital, the Turkish grand vizier, Kara Mustafa (1634-83), and his army of 150,000 laid siege to Vienna in July 1683, after capturing its outer fortifications. Pope Innocent XI convinced John III Sobieski of Poland to lead a combined army of 80,000 to relieve the siege. On Sept. 12, 1683, Sobieski, aided by Charles of Lorraine, led the attack from the surrounding hills and after 15 hours drove the Turks from their trenches around the city. Thousands were slaughtered or taken pris¬ oner. The event marked the beginning of the decline of Turkish domina¬ tion in eastern Europe.
Vienna, University of State-financed university at Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1365 on the model of the University of Paris, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. It was reorganized in 1384, becoming particularly noted for its faculties of medicine, law, and theol¬ ogy. It was a centre of revolution during the uprising of 1848, when Met- temich was forced from power. The modern university includes faculties of theology, social sciences and economics, medicine, sciences, math¬ ematics, and natural sciences.
Vienna Circle German Wiener Kreis Vve-nor-'krisX Group of phi¬ losophers, scientists, and mathematicians formed in the 1920s that met regularly in Vienna to investigate scientific language and scientific method. It formed around Moritz Schlick (1882-1936), who taught at the Univer¬ sity of Vienna; its members included Gustav Bergmann, Philipp Frank, Rudolf Carnap, Kurt Godel, Friedrich Waismann, Otto Neurath, Herbert Feigl, and Victor Kraft. The movement associated with the Circle has been called logical positivism. Its members’ work was distinguished by their attention to the form of scientific theories, their formulation of a verifi¬ ability principle of meaning, and their espousal of a doctrine of unified sci¬ ence. The group dissolved after the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938.
Vientiane \,vyen-'tyan\ Laotian Viangchan \,vyeq-'chan\ City (pop., 1999 est.: 534,000), capital of Laos. It is located north of the Mekong River. Founded in the late 13th century, it was made the administrative centre of an early Laotian kingdom in the mid-16th century. In 1778 it came under Siamese (Thai) control; in 1828 it was destroyed when the Laotian king revolted against the Siamese. The French made it the capi¬ tal of their colony on their takeover of the region in the 1890s; it remained the administrative centre after Laos gained independence in 1953. It is the commercial centre of the region and Laos’s principal port of entry.
Vierordt Vfer-.ortV, Karl von (b. July 1, 1818, Lahr, Baden—d. Nov. 22,1884, Tubingen, Ger.) German physician. He started a medical practice in 1842 and began teaching at the University of Tubingen in 1849. He dis¬ covered a way to make an exact red-blood-cell count (see blood analysis) and invented the sphygmograph, the first instrument to produce a pulse tracing, and the hemotachometer, which monitors blood flow velocity.
Viet Cong in full Viet Nam Cong San English "Vietnamese Communists" Guerrilla force that sought to reunify North and South Vietnam under communist leadership from the late 1950s through 1975. Originally a collection of various groups opposed to the government of South Vietnam’s Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem, the Viet Cong became the military arm of the National Liberation Front (1960) and later of the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG; 1969). Members were recruited largely from South Vietnam, but they received guidance, weapons, and reinforce-
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2004 I Viet Minh ► Vigano
ments from the north. The Viet Cong’s guerrilla war against the South Vietnamese government and its powerful U.S. allies was successful; the U.S. withdrew its troops from Vietnam between 1969 and 1973, and the PRG assumed power in South Vietnam in 1975, following a full-scale invasion. It became part of a National United Front the following year.
Viet Minh Vvyet-'minX in full Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi English "League for the Independence of Vietnam" Organi¬ zation that led the struggle for Vietnamese independence from French rule. Formed in 1941 by Ho Chi Minh, it was a national organization open to people of all political leanings, though it was led by communists. In 1943 the Viet Minh began guerrilla operations against the occupying Japa¬ nese; when the Japanese surrendered to the Allies, the Viet Minh seized Hanoi and proclaimed Vietnam’s independence. In the First Indochina War that followed, the Viet Minh (and the Vietnamese Workers’ Party [Lao Dong] that succeeded them) defeated the French. Elements of the Viet Minh also joined the Viet Cong to fight the U.S. in the Vietnam War. See also Vo Nguyen Giap.
Vietnam officially Socialist Republic of Vietnam Country, Southeast Asia. Area: 128,379 sq mi (332,501 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 82,628,000. Capitaclass="underline" Hanoi. The great majority of the population is
into northern and southern dynasties in the early 17th century, and in 1802 these two parts were unified under a single dynasty. Following several years of attempted French colonial expansion in the region, the French captured Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in 1859 and later the rest of the area, controlling it until World War II (see French Indochina). The Japa¬ nese occupied Vietnam in 1940-45 and allowed the Vietnamese to declare independence at the end of the war, a move the French opposed. The First Indochina War ensued and lasted until French forces with U.S. financial backing were defeated by the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu in 1954; evacu¬ ation of French troops followed. After an international conference at Geneva (April-July 1954), Vietnam was partitioned along latitude 17° N, with the northern part under the communist leadership of Ho Chi Minh and the southern part under the U.S.-supported former emperor Bao Dai; the partition was to be temporary, but the reunification elections sched¬ uled for 1956 were never held. An independent South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) was declared, while the communists established North Viet¬ nam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam). The activities of North Vietnam¬ ese guerrillas and procommunist rebels in South Vietnam led to U.S. intervention and the Vietnam War. A cease-fire agreement was signed in 1973 and U.S. troops withdrawn, but the civil war soon resumed; in 1975 North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam, and the South Vietnamese gov¬ ernment collapsed. In 1976 the two Vietnams were united as the Social¬ ist Republic of Vietnam. From the mid-1980s the government enacted a series of economic reforms and began to open up to Asian and Western nations. In 1995 the U.S. officially normalized relations with Vietnam.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Monument in Washington, D.C., designed by Maya Lin. It consists of two low, black granite walls that meet to form a wide V shape. Engraved on the mirrorlike surface are the names of the more than 58,000 U.S. dead and missing-in-action who served in the Vietnam War, listed by date of casualty. When Lin’s abstract design was announced, several veterans groups and others protested; eventually a traditional statue depicting three servicemen with a flag was commis¬ sioned, to stand at the entrance to the site. Since its dedication in 1982, the controversial wall has become one of the city’s most visited and most affecting tourist attractions.