What was the capital of South Vietnam before the Vietnam War?

Saigon was the capital of South Vietnam (the Republic of Vietnam) from the mid-1950s until 1975. After North Vietnamese forces captured the city on April 30, 1975, it was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. By contrast, Hanoi was the capital of North Vietnam, and Hue—though historically significant as the imperial capital of the Nguyen dynasty—was not the capital of South Vietnam. Saigon was a major political and cultural hub, nicknamed the “Pearl of the Far East” during French colonial times. To remember: South = Saigon, North = Hanoi. The city’s renaming after reunification underlines the war’s outcome and the shift in national identity, making “Saigon before, Ho Chi Minh City after” a handy memory cue.