The flag of South Vietnam was first introduced by the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam, later served as the national flag of the State of Vietnam (known as South Vietnam after 1954), and its successor, the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) from 1948 to 1975 until the fall of Saigon.
The design consists of a yellow background with three red horizontal stripes through the middle. It is used to represent the "Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag".
"Heritage and Freedom Flag" (Lá cờ Tự do và Di sản) "Yellow Flag with Three Red Stripes" (Cờ vàng ba sọc đỏ) | |
Use | Civil and state flag |
---|---|
Proportion | 2:3 |
Adopted | 2 June 1948 |
Design | A yellow flag with three horizontal red stripes. |
Designed by | Undetermined, various allegations |
Flag of the RVNMF | |
Use | War flag |
Design | A yellow flag with three red stripes, and the emblem of RVNMF (red eagle) in the middle. |
Designed by | Design is a variant of the flag of South Vietnam. |
Flag of the Viet Cong | |
Use | State and war flag, civil and state ensign |
Design | A large yellow star centered on a bi-colored red and azure field. |
Designed by | Huỳnh Tấn Phát |
The flag was designed by Lê Văn Đệ in 1948. The flag consists of a yellow field and three horizontal red stripes, and can be explained as emblematic of the common blood running through northern, central, and southern Vietnam.
Although South Vietnam ceased to exist in 1975, the flag is still represented among private citizens in other countries by some Vietnamese emigrés, particularly in North America and Australia of refugee-descent. Since June 2002, several American governmental bodies adopted resolutions recognizing the former flag as "Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag."
This section's factual accuracy is disputed. (August 2021) |
During the reign of Emperor Gia Long (1802–1820), the yellow flag was also used as the symbol of the Empire of Vietnam. This was continued as the emperor's flag when the court of Huế became a French protectorate. Later the flag added a red bend on two sides.
After the deportation and exile of the emperors Thành Thái and Duy Tân, the new pro-French puppet emperor Khải Định introduced new imperial flag as a yellow flag with single horizontal band of red, following the Imperial Order of the Dragon of Annam. Formally known as the "Long Tinh Kỳ ", the flag was the official flag of the Nguyễn court.
In 1945 with the French ousted by Japan, Prime Minister Trần Trọng Kim of the newly restored Empire of Vietnam adopted another variant of the yellow flag. It included three red bands, but the middle band was broken to form the Quẻ Ly Flag . Derived from the trigrams, Quẻ Ly is the third of the Bát Quái (the Eight Trigrams – Ba gua): Càn (乾), Đoài (兌), Ly (離), Chấn (震), Tốn (巽), Khảm (坎), Cấn (艮), Khôn (坤). It was chosen to symbolize the sun, fire, light, and civilization. And most importantly, it represents the southern lands under the "Later Heaven" order, that is Vietnam. This flag was used briefly from June to August 1945 when Emperor Bảo Đại abdicated.
On 2 June 1948, the prime minister of the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam, Brigadier General Nguyễn Văn Xuân, signed the decree with the specifications for the Vietnamese national flag as follows: "The national emblem is a flag of yellow background, the height of which is equal to two-thirds of its width. In the middle of the flag and along its entire width, there are three horizontal red bands. Each band has a height equal to one-fifteenth of the width. These three red bands are separated from one another by a space of the band's height."
The new national flag was raised for the first time on 5 June 1948 on a boat named Dumont d'Urville outside of Hạ Long Bay during the signing of the Halong Bay Agreements (Accords de la baie d’Along) by High Commissioner Emile Bollaert and Nguyễn Văn Xuân.
A detailed design of the flag appeared on the newspaper on 3 June 1948, and again on the next day (with correction to the flag ratio). The residents of Hanoi were requested to display the flag at their home on 5 June 1948 to celebrate the Hạ Long Bay event.
When the former emperor Bảo Đại was made chief of state in 1949, this design was adopted as the flag of the State of Vietnam.
The three red bands have the divination sign of Quẻ Càn, the first of the Eight Trigrams mentioned above. Quẻ Càn represents heaven. Based on the traditional worldview of the Vietnamese people, Quẻ Càn also denotes the South (as of the "Earlier Heaven" order), the Vietnamese Nation, Vietnamese people, and the people's power. Another interpretation places the three red bands as symbols of the three regions of Vietnam: North, Central, and South.
With the foundation of the republic in 1955, the flag was adopted by the successor state, the Republic of Vietnam (more commonly known as South Vietnam). It was the national flag for the entire duration of that state's existence (1955–1975) from the First Republic to the Second Republic. With the capitulation of Saigon on 30 April 1975, the Republic of Vietnam came to an end and the flag ceased to exist as a state symbol. Afterwards, it has been adopted by many in the Vietnamese diaspora to symbolically distance themselves from the Communist government and continues to be used either as an alternative symbol for ethnic unity or as a protest tool against the current government.
The flag of the former South Vietnam is popular with the case of Vietnamese Americans, Vietnamese Australians, and other Vietnamese around the world who fled Vietnam after the war, who call it the "Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag", and they started the Battle of Co Vang movement to struggle for recognitions for their political identity.
In the United States, few Vietnamese immigrants of that time period use the current flag of Vietnam, which many of them consider offensive. Instead, they prefer to use the flag of South Vietnam in its place. The same is true for Vietnamese Canadians in Canada, Vietnamese Germans in western Germany, for Vietnamese in the Netherlands, France, Norway and the United Kingdom, and for Vietnamese Australians in Australia for that time period as well.
A 2 June 1948 ordinance defined the construction of the flag in the following way: The national emblem is a flag of yellow background, the height of which is equal to two-thirds of its width. In the middle of the flag and along its entire width, there are three horizontal red bands. Each band has a height equal to one-fifteenth of the width. These three red bands are separated from one another by a space of the band's height. Hence it is blazoned as Or, three bars Gules.
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