Flag of the Republic of Vietnam

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Flag ratio: 2:3

The flag of former South Vietnam was designed by Emperor Bảo Đại in 1948, and was the flag used by former South Vietnam until it was abolished by the communist North Vietnamese government on April 30, 1975, when the South unconditionally surrendered to the North. It is still used by some Vietnamese immigrants now living in other countries.

The flag consists of a yellow field and three horizontal red stripes that represent the blood running through North, Central, and Southern Vietnam.

1 Origins
2 Political significance
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Origins

First flag of the Nguyễn Dynasty, 1890 - 1920. Same as a flag of South Vietnam.

In 40, the yellow flag first appeared in the Vietnamese history when the Trưng Sisters, waved the yellow flag to fight against the Chinese army to regain independence for Vietnam.

In 1802-1820, Emperor Gia Long, the yellow flag was also used as the symbol of the Vietnam.

In 1916-1925, Emperor Khải Định, the two red bands were added to the yellow flag to form the Long Tinh flag (Dragon Flag).

Flag of the Empire of Vietnam which was a Japanese puppet state, 9 March 1945 - 22 August 1945.

In 1945, during Tran Trong Kim's government that is called the Empire of Vietnam by Japan, the middle broken red band was added to the flag in the position between the two red bands of the former yellow flag to form the Quẻ Ly Flag. The Quẻ Ly Flag was the official flag of Vietnam at that time. Quẻ Ly is a divination sign of "fabulous unicorn", sixth of the Bát Quái (the Eight Trigrams): Càn, Khâm, Cấn, Chấn, Tốn, Ly, Khôn, Đoài. This divination sign of fabulous unicorn represents the sun, fire, beam of light, and civilization. And more importantly, it also represents the direction of south, emphasizing that Vietnam, as the lands "passed the clouds" (see Yunnan) is southward from China.(See I Ching).

In 1948, when the former Emperor Bảo Đại became the Chief of State of Vietnam, he ordered to change the broken red band (which was then the central element of the Vietnamese flag) into a continuous red band, and form the Yellow Flag with three yellow red bands.

On 2 June, 1948, the Chief of the Temporary National Government of Vietnam, Brigadier General Nguyen Van Xuan, signed an ordinance to specify the characteristics of 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 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 worldview of Vietnamese people, Quẻ Càn indicates the South Sky, 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. The yellow or gold background on the flag represents the Vietnamese skin color.

The flag was used by the Republic of Vietnam (more commonly known as South Vietnam) for the duration of that state's existence (1954 - 1975). It was abolished by Vietnamese government on April 30, 1975, when the South unconditionally surrendered to the North.

[edit] Political significance

A Westminster, California street festooned with the flag

The flag of the former South Vietnam remains highly controversial, particularly in the case of Vietnamese Americans, who call it the Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag. In the United States, virtually no Vietnamese American use the current communist flag (it is a taboo) and instead use this flag as their symbol. (When a Vietnamese American displayed the communist flag in front of his store in Westminster, California in 1999, a month-long protest against it climaxed when 15,000 people held a candlelight vigil one night^[1]). A faux pas by the United States Postal Service in using the current Vietnamese flag in a brochure to represent the Vietnamese American community that it serves cause some outrage among Vietnamese Americans and resulted in an apology. In 2004, some Vietnamese American students at the California State University, Fullerton threatened to walk out on their graduation ceremony to demand that the university use the former flag of South Vietnam as well as the current flag of Vietnam to represent its Vietnamese students. This resulted in the university scrapping all foreign flags for the ceremony. In 2006, Vietnamese-American students at the College of Engineering, UTA requested that the university remove the communist flag displayed as a part of its student diversity in the Hall of Flags, Nedderman Hall. After several weeks of protests from the Vietnamese-American community in the area, the president removed all the flags from display in its Hall of Flags. The lobbying efforts of Vietnamese Americans resulted in the state governments of California^[2] and Ohio^[3] to adopt it to symbolize Vietnamese Americans in 2006. The Vietnamese government opposes these efforts and complained to the United States federal government on the grounds that it is a sovereign country with diplomatic relations with the United States.