Biên Hòa 7.19

Biên Hòa is a city in Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam, about 20mi east of Hồ Chí Minh City (formerly Saigon), to which Biên Hòa is linked by Vietnam Highway 1.DemographicsIn 1989 the estimated population was 273,879. In 1999, the population was 435,400. 701,194 in 2009. In December 2012, the population of the city crossed the one million mark.HistoryBefore and during the Nguyen DynastyThe area around Biên Hòa was part of small kingdom prior to being annexed by Chenla. It was an agricultural and fishing region.The capture of Biên Hòa on December 16, 1861 was an important allied victory in the Cochinchina Campaign (1858–62). This campaign, fought between the French and the Spanish on the one side and the Vietnamese (under the Nguyen Dynasty) on the other, began as a limited punitive expedition and ended as a French war of conquest. The war concluded with the establishment of the French colony of Cochinchina, a development that inaugurated nearly a century of French colonial dominance in Vietnam.Republic of VietnamBiên Hòa grew into a major suburb of Saigon as the capital city of the Republic of (South) Vietnam grew. Following the First Indochina War, tens of thousands of refugees from the northern and central regions of Vietnam—a large portion of whom were Roman Catholics — resettled in Biên Hòa as part of Operation Passage to Freedom. During the Vietnam War, the United States Air Force operated Bien Hoa Air Base near the city. Mortar attacks on U.S. and ARVN targets were frequently staged from residential districts in Biên Hòa. Two of the better-known attacks took place during Tet of 1968 as well as 1969.