The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN), or less commonly, Vietnamese Democratic Republic (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cộng Hòa) was a country on the northern half of Vietnam. It was proclaime by Hồ Chí Minh in Hà Nội on September 2, 1945 with a declaration of independence, following the August Revolution, as a communist provisional government. It gathered Tonkin and Annam, provinces of the French Indochina. North Vietnam won the Second Indochina War, which is known by most American citizens as the "Vietnam Conflict", the "war in Viet Nam" , or more simply, "Vietnam". The government ot North Vietnam took over South Vietnam and it became the larger Vietnam that it exists today with the same political system and organization.