The Chinese spent years trying to incorporate Vietnam into the Han Empire, massively influencing the country with the introduction of Confucianism, Chinese language and architecture, which is still evident in Ho Chin Minh today. Opposition to Chinese rule was strong, but ineffective. Independence was achieved in the 11th century under the rule of the Ly Dynasty. While China remained a threat to the north, tensions with the Khmer Empire to the west grew by the 15th century. Vietnam encroached on Khmer territory, gaining control of the Mekong Delta. This led to the persecution of Christians by the leaders until Emperor Napoleon III of France decided to take action by trying to force Vietnam into becoming a protectorate, and in 1862, many of the southern provinces came under French rule, evidence of which can still be seen today in the city’s buildings. Anti-French sentiments grew, with this culminating in the formation of the Ho Chi Minh-led Indochinese Communist Party, intent on revolutionising the country and expelling the French. The party had little success until the Japanese occupation of Vietnam in WWII, which minimised the French control on anti-government forces. A post-war uprising was planned by the Vietminh. When the French finally decided to pull out after the decisive battle of Dien Bien Phu, the country was divided along the 17th parallel, with the French and their supporters in the South and the Vietminh in the North. After twenty brutal years, the Vietnam War, in which the USA intervened in the dispute between Northern and Southern forces, came to a conclusion on April 30, 1975, when the city was stormed by the Vietnam People's Army, with famous the media immortalising this day, known as the ‘Fall of Saigon’, with images of tanks crashing into the gates of the Presidential Palace (now, the Reunification Palace). Over the next twenty years the country existed in virtual isolation, and despite aid from Communist countries, the economic prosperity of all Vietnam’s people slipped steadily backwards. Saigon was promptly renamed Ho Chi Minh City and many reminders of the colonial past or American occupation were removed. Finally in the mid nineties the Communist Politburo, now without the support of the defunct Soviet Union embarked on a policy of Doi Moi – free market economics, which saw astonishingly rapid growth and increased prosperity for all. Vietnam is now one of Asia’s most competitive nations, even if it’s people still have a long way to go in terms of prosperity and wealth. | 
