Vietnam War (1955-75) Protracted effort by South Vietnam and the U.S. to prevent North and South Vietnam from being united under com¬ munist leadership. After the First Indochina War, Vietnam was partitioned to separate the warring parties until free elections could be held in 1956. Ho Chi Minh’s popular Viet Minh party from the north was expected to win the elections, which the leader in the south, Ngo Dinh Diem, refused to hold. In the war that ensued, fighters trained in the north (the Viet Cong) fought a guerrilla war against U.S.-supported South Vietnamese forces; North Vietnamese forces later joined the fighting. At the height of U.S. involvement, there were more than half a million U.S. military personnel in Vietnam. The Tet Offensive of 1968, in which the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attacked 36 major South Vietnamese cities and towns, marked a turning point in the war. Many in the U.S. had come to oppose the war on moral and practical grounds, and Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson decided to shift to a policy of “de-escalation.” Peace talks were begun in Paris. Between 1969 and 1973 U.S. troops were withdrawn from Vietnam, but the war was expanded to Cambodia and Laos in 1970. Peace talks, which had reached a stalemate in 1971, started again in 1973, producing a cease¬ fire agreement. Fighting continued, and there were numerous truce vio¬ lations. In 1975 the North Vietnamese launched a full-scale invasion of the south. The south surrendered later that year, and in 1976 the country was reunited as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. More than 2,000,000 people (including 58,000 Americans) died over the course of the war, about half of them civilians.
Vietnamese language Mon-Khmer language, the native language of 60-65 million people in Vietnam and a second language for many members of Vietnam’s more than 50 minority ethnic groups, with some 2 million speakers outside the country. For much of Vietnam’s history, Classical Chi¬ nese was the dominant literary language, and Chinese vocabulary given a Vietnamese pronunciation (“Sino-Vietnamese”) remains a significant part of the language’s lexicon. By the 13th century Chinese characters were adapted to write native Vietnamese words. In the 17th century Roman Catholic missionaries introduced a system of writing Vietnamese in the Latin alphabet with diacritics distinguishing vowel qualities and tones, a sys¬ tem that was widely adopted only in the 20th century.
Vigano \ve-'ga-no\, Salvatore (b. March 25, 1769, Naples, Kingdom of Naples—d. Aug. 10, 1821, Milan, Austrian Habsburg domain) Italian
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Vietnamese; minorities include Chinese, Hmong, Thai, Khmer, and Cham. Lan¬ guages: Vietnamese (official), French, Chi¬ nese, English, Khmer. Religions:
Buddhism, new religions, traditional beliefs, Christianity. Currency: new dong. Vietnam is about 1,025 mi (1,650 km) long, 210-340 mi (340-550 km) wide at its widest parts, and 30 mi (50 km) wide at its narrowest part. Northern Vietnam is mountain¬ ous; Fan Si Peak, the country’s highest mountain, rises to 10,312 ft (3,143 m). The Red River is the principal river. Southern Vietnam is dominated by the Mekong River delta. A long, relatively narrow coastal plain con¬ nects the two major river deltas. The densely forested Annamese Cordil¬ lera extends through west-central Vietnam. Northern Vietnam is rich in mineral resources, especially anthracite coal and phosphates. Some petro¬ leum deposits exist off the southern coast. Significant food crops include rice, sugarcane, coffee, tea, and bananas. Food processing and fishing are important industries, as are the manufacture of steel and phosphates. Viet¬ nam is a socialist republic with one legislative house; its head of state is the president, and its head of government is the prime minister.
A distinct Vietnamese group began to emerge c. 200 bc in the inde¬ pendent kingdom of Nam Viet, which was later annexed to China in the 1st century bc. The Vietnamese were under continuous Chinese control until the 10th century ad. The southern region was gradually overrun by Vietnamese from the north in the late 15th century. The area was divided
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Vigee-Lebrun ► Villafranca I 2005
dancer and choreographer. He studied dance with his father and toured in Spain (1788) and Vienna (1793-95, 1799-1803), where he began to cho¬ reograph works in a style synthesizing dance and mime, similar to Jean- Georges Noverre’s ballet d’action, which he called “coreodramma.” He created more than 40 works, including The Creatures of Prometheus (1801), Gli strelizzi (1809), Otello (1818), and The Titans (1819). In 1811 he became ballet master at La Scala in Milan, where he promoted the development of ballet in Italy.
Vigee-Lebrun \ve-'zha-la-'broe n \ / (Marie-Louise-) Elisabeth (b.
April 16, 1755, Paris, France—d. March 30, 1842, Paris) French painter. Taught first by her father, a pastel portraitist, she was also advised by Joseph Vernet. In 1779 she was summoned to Versailles to paint Marie- Antoinette, whom she would paint at least 25 more times. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, she left France and traveled abroad, painting portraits of such notables as Lord Byron and Germaine de Stael and play¬ ing a leading role in society. Her paintings are notable for their freshness, charm, and sensitivity, and she was one of the most technically fluent por¬ traitists of her era.
Vigny \ve-'nye\, Alfred-Victor, count de (b. March 27, 1797, Loches, France—d. Sept. 17, 1863, Paris) French poet, dramatist, and novelist. Vigny embarked on a military career but turned to writing Romantic poetry; his verse was critically and popularly acclaimed. His Cinq-Mars (1826) was the first important historical novel in French. Growing disillusioned, he wrote Stello (1832), on the advisability of sepa¬ rating the poetic life from the political. Chatterton (1835), his best play and one of the finest Romantic dramas, glorifies the anguish of the mis¬ understood artist. His pessimism was manifest also in The Military Neces¬ sity (1835), whose first and third stories are his prose masterpieces. In middle age he withdrew from Paris society. His later writings include poetry collected posthumously in Les Destinees (1864).
Vigo \ve-'go\, Jean (b. April 26, 1905, Paris, France—d. Oct. 5, 1934, Paris) French film director. The son of a militant anarchist who died in prison under suspect circumstances, he spent an unhappy childhood in boarding schools. His first film was the satiric social documentary A pro- pos de Nice (1930). He explored the subject of freedom versus authority in his celebrated Zero for Conduct (1933), which was branded “anti- French” by the censors and withdrawn from theatres. His last film, VAtalante (1934), tells the story of an unhappy marriage and is also regarded as a masterpiece. Vigo’s films blend lyricism with realism and Surrealism and distinguished him as an original talent.
Vijayanagar V.vi-jo-yo-'no-gorX Former Hindu kingdom, southern India, south of the Krishna River. Founded in 1336 by leaders of the Kanarese people, it became the greatest empire of southern India and for more than two centuries served as a barrier against Muslim raiders from the north. It was an important center of Brahman culture and Dravidian art. Its downfall began with the defeat at Talikota (1565) by a confed¬ eracy of Deccan Muslim sultans; the empire dissolved c. 1614. The king¬ dom’s capital, Vijayanagar, was destroyed in 1565. Its ruined site is located at modern Hampi, in southeastern Karnataka.