Flag of Vietnam

The flag ofVietnamis red flag with a yellow star. This design was first used by the Viet Minh, the communist group led by Ho Chi Minh created in opposition to the Japanese occupation in 1941.

When the Japanese surrendered at the end of the Second World War, Ho Chi Minh made a decree establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with him as the president. On September 5, 1945 Ho Chi Minh signed a decree and the Viet Minh flag was adopted as the flag of the Republic of Vietnam. In accordance with the Geneva accord, the Republic of Vietnam became North Vietnam in 1954. In 1955, the flag was modified to make the star’s edges sharper. The same flag was adopted, when North and South Vietnam was unified and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was formed in July 2, 1976, after Saigon’s fall from the North Vietnamese army.

Who designed the flag is uncertain or, so far, unofficial. According to the research of writer Son Tung, the flag was designed by Nguyen Huru Tien, a leader of an uprising born in Lung Xuyen, on the northern village. Ho Chi Minh is said to have reproduced the flag based on the sketchy reports about the uprising broadcasted over the radio. From the poem that Tien wrote, the colors of the flag represent red blood and yellow skin as yellow is their “mother’s skin” while the five points of the star represent peasants, workers, traders, intellectuals, and army men united as one.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, however, stated in 2001 that there is no documented evidence to support Tien’s reports. Le Minh Durc, a Tien Giang province official, proposed that the flag was designed by Le Quang So, and the yellow represents Vietnam while the red was inspired by the red flag of the communist which is in honor to the flag of the Paris commune.