Vietnam

Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia. It is officially known as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, the country was split in half between North and South Vietnam. Following the war, the two sides were reunified in 1976, with Hanoi becoming the capital city.

In the Marvel Universe, Vietnam played a key role in the original origin of Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. During the Vietnam War, Tony Stark traveled to Vietnam to inspect a testing site that was using munitions manufactured by Stark Industries. It was during this ill-fated expedition that Stark triggered a land-mine that sent a piece of shraphnel flying into his chest, embedding itself into his heart. He then became a prisoner of a Vietnamese warlord and was forced to work for him until he found his way to escape his captors by building himself a rudimentary suit of power armor. As time went on, and events from the comics were taking place further away from the Vietnam War era, the origin of Tony Stark had been updated first to a village in China, and later to Afghanistan.

On the AMC television series Preacher, members of a small impoverished Vietnamese village found a pig levitating in the air approximately three feet off the ground. This alleged miracle attracted the attention of a secret society known as The Grail. Grail leader Helmut Starr went to Vietnam to confirm the rumors. As the validity of such an even countermanded the Christian goals of The Grail, Herr Starr slaughtered not only the pig, but also all members of the village. Their deaths were publicly attributed to poison in the water systems.

Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from November 1st 1955 to the fall of Saigon on April 30th 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese army was supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies and the South Vietnamese army was supported by the United States, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies. The war is therefore considered a Cold War-era proxy war.

The Viet Cong, a South Vietnamese communist common front aided by the North, fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region, while the People's Army of Vietnam, also known as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), engaged in more conventional warfare, at times committing large units to battle. As the war continued, the military actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role and engagement of the NVA grew. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, and airstrikes. In the course of the war, the U.S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

North Vietnam
North Vietnam was a state in Southeast Asia which existed from 1945 to 1976. Vietnamese revolutionary leader Hồ Chí Minh declared independence from France on September 2nd 1945 and announced the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. France reasserted its colonial dominance and a war ensued between France and the Viet Minh, led by Ho. The Viet Minh ("League for the Independence of Vietnam") was a coalition of nationalist groups, mostly led by communists. In February 1951, the communists announced the creation of the Lao Động Party (Labor Party), gradually marginalizing non-communists in the Việt Minh.

South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam, was a state governing the southern half of the current Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. It received international recognition in 1949 as the "State of Vietnam" (as a self-governing entity in the French Empire), with a constitutional monarchy (1949–55), and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" (1955–75). Its capital was Saigon. The term "South Vietnam" became common usage in 1954, when the Geneva Conference provisionally partitioned Vietnam into communist and non-communist parts.


 * Ho Chi Minh City: Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon, is the second largest city in Vietnam. The metropolitan area, which consists of the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area, Thủ Dầu Một, Biên Hòa, Vũng Tàu, Dĩ An, Thuận An and surrounding towns, is populated by about 10 million people, making it the most populous metropolitan area in Vietnam.

TV shows that take place in

 * Preacher: Pig

Comics that take place in

 * Tales of Suspense 39

Notes & Trivia

 * Socialist Republic of Vietnam redirects to this page.


 * Vietnam War redirects to the appropriate section heading on this page.