Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam

The government of the Republic of South Vietnam called itself the "Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam" (Vietnamese: Chính Phủ Cách Mạng Lâm Thời Cộng Hòa Miền Nam Việt Nam), often abbreviated as PRG (eng. provisonary revolutionary government).

History

The Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG) was a provisional government that was in opposition to the Nguyễn Văn Thiệu Government of the Republic of Vietnam on 8 June 1969.

The PRG was formed by the National Liberation Front (NLF), the Alliance of National, Democratic and Peace Forces, and the People's Revolutionary Party, and thus held a range of nationalist, anti-imperialist, and communist political views, including the Vietnam Workers' Party.

After the military and political results of the 1968 Tet Offensive and the related military offensives in the south, in which the NLF suffered heavy military losses, the PRG was envisaged as a political force that, against international influence, could bring public opinion to support national independence and resist the US and the Republic of Vietnam.

The PRG's stated goal was a formal state structure for the NLF and the strengthening of its claim of "the southern people". This strategy sought a negotiated settlement to the war and reunification. It was during the first phase of the U.S. policy of Vietnamization that U.S. President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger put into their administration early on, emulating the earlier jaunissement policy by the French during their colonial rule in Indochina.

During the 1969-1970 period, most of the PRG cabinet ministries operated near the border with Cambodia. These areas were hit by the invasion of Cambodia by ARVN and US forces in April 1970. The PRG's central offices functioned much like a government in exile. The PRG had diplomatic relations with many so-called "non-aligned" countries, such as Algeria, as well as with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

After five years of negotiations, the agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam (in short: Treaty of Paris) and the gradual withdrawal of all US troops was reached on 27 January 1973.

After the surrender of Saigon on 30 April 1975, the PRG held power in the south and subsequently achieved the political reunification of the entire country.

Staff