VIETNAM CIVIL AVIATION – PRE WW1 TO 2020

This book records some of the key civil aviation periods and events in Vietnam from Pre-WW1 until 2020. A time frame that includes the French colonial period up to the end of WW2, when Vietnam was known as French Indochina. Then the period from 1945 to 1975, when the country was divided during the First and then Second (American) Indochina Wars. Next is the period from the fall of Saigon in April 1975, when civil aviation, in a newly unified country, was severely limited due to the economic difficulties arising from doctrinaire communist economic policies and the restrictions imposed by the US/Vietnam Trade Embargo. The final period starts from 1986 when the Vietnamese government adopted a policy called “đổi mới” (renovation) which opened the economy to foreign investment and started the country on the road to the strong economic growth and greatly improved living standards we see today. Having been involved in assisting Vietnam Airlines make the transition to modern western aircraft from 1993 until 2001 and still living here almost 30 years later, I have been able to draw upon my personal experience and industry contacts to record, not just this more recent period, but also to delve deeper into previous aviation related historical events, several of which have been inaccurately recorded. — ISBN13: 9798779257916