Plain of Reeds
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Plain of Reeds (in vi, Đồng Tháp Mười) is an inland wetland in Vietnam's
Mekong Delta The Mekong Delta ( vi, Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long, lit=Nine Dragon River Delta or simply vi, Đồng Bằng Sông Mê Kông, lit=Mekong River Delta, label=none), also known as the Western Region ( vi, Miền Tây, links=no) or South-weste ...
. Most of the wetlands are within Long An Province and Đồng Tháp Province.


Physical characteristics

Đồng Tháp Mười is a "back swamp" forming a large inundated depression of highly acidic soil. Until the 1970s, only primitive floating rice could be grown in the area. It is similar to a very large swampy floodplain stretching along the
Bassac River The Bassac River ( km, ទន្លេបាសាក់; Tonlé Bassac) is a distributary of the Tonlé Sap and Mekong River. The river starts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and flows southerly, crossing the border into Vietnam near Châu Đốc. The n ...
from
Châu Đốc Châu Đốc is a city in An Giang Province, bordering Cambodia, in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. As of 2013, the city had a population of 157,298, and cover an area of . The city is located by the Hậu River (a branch of the Mekong River ...
to the foot of the Takeo Plateau. It was around 1,000,000 hectares in the 18th Century, and is now half that size due to drainage. Within Đồng Tháp Mười the Tràm Chim National Park has been protected for the conservation of wetland ecosystems.


History

Pre-Angkor remains along the
Vàm Cỏ The Vàm Cỏ River (sông Vàm Cỏ) is a river in Vietnam, south of Ho Chi Minh City. It joins the Soài Rạp in the Cần Giờ Mangrove Forest Cần Giờ Biosphere Reserve (Khu dự trữ sinh quyển rừng ngập mặn Cần Giờ) is ...
indicate that the Vàm Cỏ originally connected with the main Mekong riverways at Dong Thap Muoi, and would have formed the main route from Cambodia to the South China Sea. However, when the river silted up the Khmers abandoned the area. Đồng Tháp Mười had served as a base for rebels and bandits throughout Vietnam's recent history. During the
First Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...
, the swamp frequently served as a base for the
Viet Minh The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...
, though the French anticipated and prevented this on at least one occasion. The area was used as a base by
Ba Cụt Lê Quang Vinh ( – 13 July 1956), popularly known as Ba Cụt (), was a Vietnamese military commander of the Hòa Hảo religious sect, which operated from the Mekong Delta and controlled various parts of southern Vietnam during the 1940s and ...
. During the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
the Plain covered an area of 2500 square miles across
Kien Tuong Kien or Kiens may refer to: * Kien, Bern, a village in Bern, Switzerland * Kien, Burkina Faso, a village * ''Kien'' (album), a 2008 album by the Japanese group Bleach * Pine Ridge Airport (ICAO: KIEN), Pine Ridge, South Dakota , US * Kiens, a comu ...
, Kien Phong, Hậu Nghĩa, Long An and Định Tường Provinces and again served as a base for
Vietcong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...
forces. From 1–8 January 1966 U.S., Australian and
Army of the Republic of Vietnam The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; french: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces, South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April ...
(ARVN) forces conducted
Operation Marauder Operation Marauder was an operation conducted by the 173rd Airborne Brigade and the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR) in the Plain of Reeds, Mekong Delta, lasting from 1 to 8 January 1966. Prelude The Plain of Reeds had long bee ...
/
Operation An Dan 564 Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
in the area.


See also

*
Láng Sen Wetland Reserve Lang Sen Wetland Reserve (Vietnamese language: ''Khu bảo tồn đất ngập nước Láng Sen'') is a wetland area in Dong Thap Muoi, Long An Province, Vietnam. Description The reserve covers an area of 5030 hectares. The area features the ...


References

{{coord, 10.5, N, 105.7, E, source:wikidata, display=title Base areas of the Viet Cong Wetlands of Vietnam Landforms of Long An province Landforms of Đồng Tháp province