Vovinam Lộc (1912 – 1960) in 1938, with the intent of providing practitioners with an efficient method of self-defense after a short period of study. Nguyễn believed martial arts would contribute to freeing Vietnam, which had been ruled by France since 1859, from outside domination. Vovinam, which Nguyễn synthesized from Chinese styles of kung fu, his own knowledge of traditional Vietnamese martial arts, and elements of Japanese and Korean systems, was thus created partially as a response to the French occupation, meant to promote a sense of national identity for the Vietnamese people. Vovinam thus has anticolonial origins. After being invited
Vovinam established in Houston, Texas, by Vietnamese emigrants in 1976, after the Fall of Saigon. By 2000, Vovinam schools had been established in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Vovinam now exists as "Vovinam Việt Võ Đạo", without the political overtones it originally carried. The Vovinam Việt Võ Đạo logo is framed in a yellow shape composed of a rectangle conjoined with a circle, angular at the top, round at the bottom. This shape symbolizes the perfection of the hard and soft. Within this yellow shape, the red text "Vovinam" is written above