Quang Ngai Province - History

History

The ancient Sa Huỳnh culture inhabited what is now Quảng Ngãi. Remains of it were found in Sa Huỳnh, Đức Phổ district. Within Champa, the region that is now Quảng Ngãi was less significant than Quang Nam Province and Vijaya. There are only a few Cham remains in the province. The area became part of Vietnam along with Vijaya (Bình Định province) in 1471. In the early 19th century the Long Wall of Quảng Ngãi was constructed in the province. It improved security among the Vietnamese and H're people and facilitated trade.

Quảng Ngãi province was one of the first provinces in central Vietnam (together with Quảng Trị) to organize self defense units in March 1945. The Ba Tơ Guerrilla Unit mobilized tens of thousands of peasants. It was known as an NLF (Vietcong) stronghold during the Vietnam War and was the site of the infamous Binh Hoa massacre (1966), the Dien Nien-Phuoc Binh Massacre (1966) and the My Lai Massacre (1968), as well as Operations Malheur I and Malheur II and Operation Quyet Thang 202. Quang Ngai was known to be a Viet Cong stronghold during the war, and the site of numerous ambushes and attacks against ARVN and American troops, particularly at night. The province produced famous war literature on both sides of the conflict: The now-famous wartime diary of NLF medic Đặng Thùy Trâm was written here, and from an American perspective, Quảng Ngãi province is the major setting of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried.