people. Oceangoing ships steam through the delta from the sea to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

In the north, where the northeast monsoon brings the fall-to-spring rainy season, the predominant waterway is the Red River which rises in Yunnan Province and is navigable all the way from the sea to the Chinese border. The rice-rich delta formed by this river and its tributaries is the most densely populated region of North Vietnam and the site of its capital,

Hanoi.

Since the great majority of the inhabitants of Vietnam have lived in the deltas, north and south, and along the coastal lowlands, it was inevitable that inland waterways and their control would, along with maritime influence, play important roles in the history of Vietnam. These roles were in many ways extensions of sea power.

A Divided Land

Future conflict would be influenced by religious, cultural, and political divisions within Vietnam, a country never truly united and under single rule only for brief spans of time. The migration of peoples to Vietnam by sea and inland waters brought additional ethnic strains to those indigenous to the area. Along with traders, missionaries, and conquerors, ships also brought in foreign cultures and religions. The resultant sources of potential conflict between major and minor groupings within the area would persist into the twentieth century. The area where North and South Vietnam would be divided after the French-Viet Minh War was, in particular, the scene of many confrontations and a series of wars spanning the centuries.3

To the northern part of Vietnam, came early inhabitants from China down the Red River and along the coast. The predominant strain was a people known to the Chinese as the Yueh, who occupied river and delta regions in early times along the east coast of Asia. Reputedly, they were hardy seafarers skilled in boat building and navigation. Those occupying southern coastal regions were known by the Chinese as Nan (southern) Yueh (Viet), who spread south to occupy the Red River Delta.*

3 For a comprehensive discussion of Vietnam's history from early times to the establishment of French Indochina, see Joseph Buttinger, The Smaller Dragon: A Political History of Vietnam (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1958).

For overviews of the peopling of Southeast Asia and its early history, see Daniel G.E. Hall, A History of South-East Asia (London: Macmillan and Co., 1964); and FitzGerald, Southern Expansion.

These Nan Yueh in the region later known as Tonkin submitted to the rule of the Ch'in emperor when China became united during the third century B.C., but regained their independence when the dynasty came to an end in 205 B.C. A century later, in 111 B.C., the Han emperor, Wu, conquered Tonkin and Annam. Except for a brief period at the time of Li Bon's revolt in the sixth century A.D., the area would be ruled by China for more than a thousand years. Although the Chinese did not colonize the Red River Delta and the Yueh there were not assimilated to the extent of those further north, the long rule did result in the absorption of Chinese culture and customs, particularly by the political leaders and others of the educated class.

In early history, the area south of Tonkin was the land of the Chams. Largely of Indonesian descent, the inhabitants added cultures and religions imported from India. Controlling regions down to Cam Ranh Bay, the Kingdom of Champa's center of power was near the present city of Danang.

To the area that became Cambodia, came people down the Mekong River from the borders of Tibet. As elsewhere in Southeast Asia, seagoing Indonesians, or Malays, began to arrive several centuries before the Christian era. Ships later brought traders from India, followed by priests. Funan, a pre-Khmer kingdom, governed early Malay settlements along the Mekong between the sites of Phnom Penh, later to be the capital of Cambodia, and Chau Doc, in the Vietnam region of the delta. Additional territories were conquered under Funan's "Great King," Fan Shih-man. The fleet he built was said to have dominated the seas. Funan would be absorbed later into Cambodia.

Warfare between the Chams and the Chinese-contesting the territory between the Hai Van Pass (just north of Danang) and the "Gate of Annam" (at the 18th parallel)—is recorded as early as 248 A.D. Joined by Funan, Champa waged a fourteen-year war against the Chinese-ruled north. By 340 Champa was, for a time, in possession of the contested territory.

China brought its influence to bear on Champa by attacks from the sea. One such attack was repulsed in 431, but fifteen years later the Chinese plundered Hue, returning north with booty. This brought Champa and its tribute-bearing embassies in line for a number of years. Champa renewed its attacks in the sixth century. Once again China raided Hue and seized much of great value.

After a major uprising in 722, China maintained a large army in Tonkin

and renamed the country An Nan (Annam), the "Pacified South." Javanese raids kept Champa occupied during the last half of that century, but once the peril was over, the Chams renewed their attacks against the Chinese who again controlled the contested provinces.

When a rebellion in 934 led to the termination of China's direct rule, Tonkin's relationship with the "Middle Kingdom" became those of a tributary state. As a result, China would continue to exert her pervasive influence until a decisive naval action late in the nineteenth century brought the political relationships to an end. In the light of two millenia of close relationships, it is scarcely surprising that China's support and the threat of her intervention would play key, and perhaps decisive, roles in the Vietnam conflict in the twentieth century and have a major effect on the operations of the United States Navy.

Conflicts between the states in northern and central Vietnam were resumed later in the tenth and eleventh centuries. As result of a series of wars, Annam (the name having been retained) conquered and annexed territory down to the 17th parallel. By 1069 the Annamese had gained control of the entire area later known as North Vietnam.

Another source of conflict was Cambodia (Chenla), which started a series of campaigns against Annam and Champa in 1123. In an early example of riverine warfare, the Chams responded by building ram-equipped galleys. These proceeded up the Mekong River and looted the Khmer capital. Cambodia constructed a similar fleet, won a victory on the country's largest lake, Tonle Sap, and then headed down the Mekong. As a result, Cambodia dominated Champa from 1203 to 1220.5

The Extension of Chinese Influence by Sea

Seapower played key roles in China's exercise of suzerainty over lands to the south. Early in the twelfth century, the Southern Sung created the first Chinese navy organized on a permanent basis and functioning as an independent service. By 1237 the Southern Sung navy-equipped with incendiary weapons, rockets, and explosive weapons-had grown to twenty squadrons manned by over 50,000 men. China truly qualified as a naval

power for the next 200 years. Operations by the Sung navy included raids on Annam and Champa.R

Naval power was next brought to bear on Vietnam by the Mongols, whose first invasion of Annam, by land in 1257, had been unsuccessful. The Mongols brought about the final collapse of the Sung dynasty by destroying the Chinese fleet in the battle of Yai-shan off the South China coast in 1278. Later that century, 800 ships were employed to invade Annam and Champa. In a campaign mounted by Kublai Khan, a twopronged attack was launched, as one force struck Annam, the other Champa. A raid by the southern force into northern Cambodia resulted in an offer of tribute and recognition of Mongol suzerainty.

Annamite guerrilla-type actions during this period have been likened to those of the twentieth century. Although waterborne expeditions achieved success, land campaigns often met with frustrations. The terrain was hardly favorable for the usual cavalry tactics of the Mongols and the climate took its toll. When a Mongol force moved north from Champa through swampland and jungles to join the fight against Annam, it was defeated. Then, after Hanoi was taken in 1285, resistance outside the capital continued and the Mongols once again withdrew. Another Mongol invasion two years later met a similar fate.

One of the legends of Vietnamese history relates how Tran Hung Dao ordered his soldiers to drive stakes into the bed of the Red River during one of these attacks. By pretending a frantic flight the Vietnamese lured the Mongol ships upstream at high tide. As the tide ebbed the ships were impaled on the stakes, boarded, and captured. This was the battle of Bach Dang, the inspirational value of which would be exploited in a later era by the Vietnamese as an example of how to defeat a foreign invader.'

Seapower played an important part in the decline of Mongol power after the death of Kublai in 1294. One who rebelled against the Mongols was a ruler of the southern provinces of China, Fang Kuo-chen, a former salt merchant. Starting in 1348, his ships, gaining control of southern waters, intercepted rice shipments and tributes enroute to northern Chinese ports.

Charles P. FitzGerald. A Concise History of East Asia (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966), p. 101; Jung-Pang Lo, "The Emergence of China as a Sea Power during the Late Sung and Early Yuan Periods," The Far Eastern Quarterly. XIV, No. 4 (Aug. 1955), pp. 489–503. 'FitzGerald, Southern Expansion, pp. 26, 82-83; Reynolds, Command of the Sea, pp. 98-104; Buttinger, Smaller Dragon. p. 130; Vo Nguyen Giap, Banner of People's War, the Party's Mili tary Line (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970), p. xiii.

"FitzGerald, Southern Expansion, pp. 85-86.

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