Đồng Tháp Mười
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Plain of Reeds (in ) is an inland wetland in Vietnam's
Mekong Delta The Mekong Delta ( or simply ), also known as the Western Region () or South-western region (), is the list of regions of Vietnam, region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong, Mekong River River delta, approaches and empties into the sea th ...
. 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 A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...
stretching along the Bassac River from Châu Đốc 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 Angkor ( , 'capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura (; ),Headly, Robert K.; Chhor, Kylin; Lim, Lam Kheng; Kheang, Lim Hak; Chun, Chen. 1977. ''Cambodian-English Dictionary''. Bureau of Special Research in Modern Languages. The Catholic Uni ...
remains along the Vàm Cỏ 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 The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...
. 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, and alternatively internationally as the French-Indochina War) was fought between French Fourth Republic, France and Việ ...
, the swamp frequently served as a base for the communist-led
Viet Minh The Việt Minh (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a Communist Party of Vietnam, communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1 ...
, though the French anticipated and prevented this on at least one occasion. The area was used as a base by Ba Cụt, a Vietnamese military commander of the Hòa Hảo religious sect. During the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
the Plain covered an area of 2500 square miles across Kien Tuong, Kien Phong, Hậu Nghĩa, Long An and Định Tường Provinces and again served as a base for
Vietcong The Viet Cong (VC) was an epithet and umbrella term to refer to the Communism, communist-driven armed movement and united front organization in South Vietnam. It was formally organized as and led by the National Liberation Front of South Vi ...
forces. From 1–8 January 1966 U.S., Australian and
Army of the Republic of Vietnam The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; ) composed the ground forces of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces, South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Its predecessor was the ground forc ...
(ARVN) forces conducted Operation Marauder/ Operation An Dan 564 in the area.


See also

* Láng Sen Wetland Reserve


References

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