Kon Tum is the capital town of Kon Tum province

Kon Tum Province

Kon Tum province lies in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam and shares borders with Laos and Cambodia. It has an area of 9,934 square km and a population of approximately 330,000. The economy is primarily agricultural.-Name:...

 in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. It is located inland in the Central Highlands

Tây Nguyên

Tây Nguyên, translated as Western Highlands and sometimes also called Central Highlands, is one of the regions of Vietnam. It contains the provinces of Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Lâm Đồng....

 region of Vietnam, near the borders with Laos

Laos

Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...

 and Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

.
After the People's Army of Vietnam

Vietnam People's Army

The Vietnam People's Army is the armed forces of Vietnam. The VPA includes: the Vietnamese People's Ground Forces , the Vietnam People's Navy , the Vietnam People's Air Force, and the Vietnam Marine Police.During the French Indochina War , the VPA was often referred to as the Việt...

 invaded South Vietnam

South Vietnam

South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...

 on March 30, 1972 during the Easter Offensive, two divisions attempted to capture

Battle of Kontum

The lead-up to the Battle of Kontum began in mid-1971, when North Vietnam realized that its victory at Operation Lam Son 719 meant it was ready for larger offensives that could end the war sooner...

 Kontum, but failed. In March 1975, however, Kontum was overrun during the Ho Chi Minh Campaign

Ho Chi Minh Campaign

The Hồ Chí Minh Campaign was the final title applied to a series of increasingly large-scale and ambitious offensive operations by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam which began on 13 December 1974...

 and large numbers of refugees were forced to flee east to the south central coast.

Kon Tum has several vestiges of the French colonial period, as well as several tribal villages directly in the suburbs of the Vietnamese-reconstructed town. Among the town's landmarks, there is a Roman Catholic wooden church

Wooden church

Wooden church may refer to :*Articular church*Wooden Church , Hungary*Wooden Churches Trail around Puszcza Zielonka, west-central Poland*Wooden Church , Serbia*Carpathian Wooden Churches...

 on discrete stilts and a large French-built seminary which hosts a small museum on local hill tribes

Montagnard

The French term Montagnard, meaning "People from the mountain" refers to an indigenous people group generally from the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It includes individuals from multiple tribal groups, including the Bahnar, Jarai, Koho, Mnong and E De peoples...

. French missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 presence in Kon Tum traces back to 1851.

External links

• Kontum government home page (Vietnamese)
• The Battle of Kontum