Vietnam and the West Until 1954

Site Search

Popular pages:

The French Reconquest of Vietnam

Page 5 of 6

In the end, under President Harry Truman, the American government’s consensus was that having France as an ally in Europe against Germany and then the U.S.S.R. was more important than any idealistic chatter about Asian independence.

Ho Chi Minh kept his eye on the goal of independence for Vietnam. He sought arms from any nation that would give the Vietminh arms. His soldiers rescued a downed American pilot from the Japanese during the war. And in fact the U.S. OSS  did supply Ho and his guerillas with small arms. A U.S. medic treated Ho for malaria and dysentery. Ho continued his attempts to enlist the United States, and its citizens, in the cause of Vietnamese independence. For instance, after the Japanese surrender, he held long talks with U.S. OSS Major Archimedes Patti and sent a letter through him to President Truman. [Karnow 138-139]

In September, 1945 the Vietminh gained control of Hanoi. After the Japanese surrender the OSS sent a number of operatives to Vietnam, but the main foreign occupiers were Britain and France.  One of the OSS officers, Major General Douglas Gracey, was killed in Saigon on September 26, 1945, possibly because he was mistaken by Vietnamese nationalists for a French officer. He was the first known American military casualty in the war for the independence of Vietnam. [Karnow 139-140]

Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh were not the only anti-colonial organization in Vietnam. There were also groups who were nationalist but pro-capitalism, and religious independence groups. The Japanese, French, and Americans all used these groups for their own purposes as best they could. In March of 1945, to prevent the French administration of Vietnam from realigning with the Free French under Charles de Gaulle, the Japanese put French troops under Japanese commanders, killing any that resisted. As a result there was no little armed French power in Indochina when the Japanese surrendered. In addition, the Japanese declared Vietnam to be independent (within the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere) and turned over power, at least on paper, to the traditional emperor, Bao Dai. However, Bao Dai had no real means of governing and little support among the people of Vietnam. [Karnow 144]

The situation in the summer and fall of 1945 was aggravated by a war-related famine in which an estimated 2 million Vietnamese died, mostly in northern Vietnam. The Vietminh were successful at organizing the populace in the north. On August 25, Bao Dai handed power over to a Vietminh government, which proclaimed its independence and called itself the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The new government courted the United States as best it could. [Karnow 146-147]

At the Potsdam Conference, held in defeated Germany, when it was clear to the Allies that the war with Japan would soon be won, the victors sat down to divide the spoils. Vietnam, like Korea, was not to be ruled by a democratically elected government of its own people. Vietnam would be returned to the French. However, since they did not have an army capable of re-occupying it, the nation would be divided at the 16th Parallel. North of that, the government of Chiang Kai-shek would accept the Japanese surrender. South of the parallel, the British would move in. In the second half of 1945 Chiang Kai-shek needed American help just to reoccupy China, so the Vietminh gained control of most of the north. The British moved into their area, as well as using their military to take back Hong Kong, which Chiang Kai-shek thought should be returned to China. [Karnow 147-148]

In the south, on September 21, the British declared martial law. On the 22nd in Saigon the French military attacked the Vietminh and Vietnamese civilians. The war for independence was on. The British used their Navy and Air Force to quickly move large numbers of French troops into Vietnam. The British wanted out; their troops were needed elsewhere. American equipment was transferred from the British to the French. [Karnow 148-151]

In the north a Chinese army invaded, looting all the way to Hanoi. But Chiang Kai-shek, like the Japanese, mainly wanted Vietnam as a bargaining chip. In February 1946 he traded north Vietnam, which was not his, for French withdrawal from concession areas (“spheres of influence”) in China proper. The French then did their best to re-occupy northern Vietnam. [Karnow 151-152]

Next Page
References