Vietnamese Nationalism
and the First Indochina War: 1900–1954
Early Nationalist
Movements
In the early twentieth century, Vietnamese
nationalism against the French surged. In 1919, Ho Chi Minh, a
Vietnamese socialist activist living in France at the time, submitted eight
demands to the French at the Versailles Peace Conference that
followed the end of World War I. The list included representation in the French
parliament, freedom of speech, and release of political prisoners. When France
ignored these demands, several nationalist and Communist organizations sprang
up in Vietnam.
The French tried to counter the nationalist
movements by appealing to traditional authority, propping up the Vietnamese
emperor, Bao Dai, who took power in 1926. Indeed, many of the new
nationalist and Communist movements in Vietnam were urban-based militant
insurgencies, and none met with much success. However, the movements did create
several enduring organizations, including the Vietnamese Nationalist
Party (VNQDD), formed in1927, and the Indochinese Communist Party
(PCI), founded in 1930 by Ho Chi Minh himself.
Japanese Rule and the
Viet Minh
During World War II, when France
fell to Germany, Japan occupied Vietnam from1940 to 1945. Ho saw the
Japanese invasion as a chance to build up a new nationalist force, one that
appealed to all aspects of Vietnamese society. Therefore, in 1941, he founded
the Viet Minh (the League for Vietnamese Independence).
Americans opposed the Japanese in World War
II, so Ho was able to convince U.S. leaders to secretly supply the Viet Minh
with weapons to fight their new Japanese oppressors. General Vo Nguyen
Giap fought successfully against the Japanese after Ho convinced him
to adopt guerrilla tactics. Throughout the course of World War II, the Viet
Minh successfully expanded its power base in Tonkin and Annam. It helped
peasants in the region during a wartime famine, which won the organization
immense popularity.
The August Revolution
and DRV
In August 1945, near the end of the war and with
Japan’s attention completely diverted, the Viet Minh conquered Hanoi in what
became known as the August Revolution. Emperor Bao Dai abdicated
his throne in late August, and just a week later, on September 2, the Japanese
signed a formal surrender to end World War II.
Upon Japan’s defeat, Ho Chi Minh declared
Vietnam to be independent, naming the country the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam (DRV). The French did not recognize Ho’s
declaration, however. French forces returned to Vietnam and drove the Viet Minh
into the north of the country but were unable to penetrate farther.
Later in 1945, Ho wrote a number of letters to Harry
S Truman, the U.S. president, appealing for official U.S. recognition of
the DRV. However, the United States was becoming embroiled in postwar tension
with the Soviet Union—tension that would quickly escalate into the Cold
War. Wary of Ho’s Communist leanings, the United States refused his
request, denounced him, and offered to help the French. Within a year, American
ships were transporting French troops into Vietnam.
Nationalism and
Communism
One of the things that made the Vietnam War so
morally confusing for Americans was the fact that the Viet Minh were both
nationalists and Communist. Americans, brought up extolling the glory of the
freedom fighters of the American Revolution, generally viewed nationalism and
self- determination as a good thing. In this light, Ho Chi Minh’s courageous
fight against French imperialism seemed heroic. However, as the United States
was a capitalist country that at the time was engaged in a paranoid ideological
battle with the Communist USSR, Americans also were concerned with and frightened
by Ho’s socialist beliefs.
Importance of the Viet
Minh
Although a number of Vietnamese groups engaged
in several separate nationalist initiatives against the French, only the Viet
Minh finally hit on the right formula. The Viet Minh leadership was remarkably
experienced, its abilities honed by a lifetime of conflicts opposing France and
then reinforced by the struggle against the Japanese in World War II. The fight
against Japan also helped the Viet Minh become enormously popular among the
Vietnamese people.
The brilliant tactician Ho Chi Minh perfectly
surveyed the political situation during World War II, playing upon the United
States’ anti-Japanese priorities in order to obtain weapons and supplies that
would help the Viet Minh establish a northern power base. Thus, the early
successes of the Viet Minh were ironically accomplished via U.S. support.
The Viet Minh
Leadership
The Viet Minh had a slew of other unusually
talented and committed leaders in addition to Ho. The hawkish Le Duan controlled
DRV guerrilla operations in southern Vietnam. Truong Chinh, a
Marxist theorist who adopted a name that means “Long March” (in reference to
Mao Zedong’s exploits in China), advocated land reforms following the Chinese
model, which were ultimately unsuccessful. Finally, Pham Van Dong was
an able negotiator who often represented the Viet Minh in its dealings with
outside groups. The experienced, patient, dedicated leadership of these men
made them immensely popular with the Vietnamese peasants—and contrasted sharply
with the unpopular, corrupt governments in South Vietnam, both the kingdom of
Bao Dai and the U.S.-backed government that would emerge later.
Groups in South
Vietnam
At the time of the French return to Vietnam,
three other important groups in southern Vietnam commanded large followings and
existed outside the Viet Minh influence. The first was the Cao Dai,
the adherents of an eclectic cult that combined aspects of Eastern religions
and Western pop culture. The Hao Hoa, meanwhile, combined Buddhism
and nationalism and maintained a sizable army. Finally, theBinh Xuyen,
headquartered in a Chinese-dominated suburb of Saigon called Cholon, were
essentially the Vietnamese mafia. All three groups had considerable influence
in southern Vietnamese politics, which was extremely factionalized and corrupt.
The First Indochina
War
With France’s return to Vietnam, the ranks of
the Viet Minh swelled, and fighting quickly broke out between French and Viet
Minh forces. Almost immediately after the war, the French, who did not
recognize Ho Chi Minh’s government, set up a rival government in the south. By
1949, when the French reinstalled Bao Dai as figurehead, the two sides had
fought to a standstill. The fighting between the French and Viet Minh came to
be called the First Indochina War and would last for another
five years, until 1954.
Dien Bien Phu
As the war progressed, the French developed a
military strategy based on maintaining fortresses, called “hedgehogs,” in DRV
territory. The French also developed a strategy that called for the occupation
of the outpost of Dien Bien Phuin the mountains of northern
Vietnam, near the border with Laos. The French would build a large central base
there and surround it with three artillery bases, luring Viet Minh forces into
assaulting the central base and then destroying them in the crossfire from the
artillery bases. French forces took Dien Bien Phu in late 1953 and then
put their plan into action.
As expected, the Viet Minh did attack Dien
Bien Phu in early 1954, but Viet Minh commander General Vo Nguyen Giap saw through
the French plan. He had Vietnamese peasants on bicycles carry components of
artillery guns piece by piece into the mountains surrounding Dien Bien Phu,
often right under the eyes of French troops. Viet Minh forces then reassembled
the artillery pieces in the mountains. Using these strategically placed guns to
destroy the French airstrip supplying the central base, Giap launched an
offensive with 40,000 troops,
and Dien Bien Phu fell to the Viet Minh on May 7, 1954.
Although Dien Bien Phu was a stunning
Vietnamese victory, many more Vietnamese actually died than French. Historians
are quick to highlight Vo Nguyen Giap’s military brilliance, but his victory
came at a high cost, with probably around ten Viet Minh casualties for every
French casualty. As in the war with the United States that would come later,
the Communist Vietnamese forces proved far more willing to accept a high death
toll than their enemies.
The Geneva Conference
The defeat at Dien Bien Phu humiliated the
French and turned the tide of French public opinion against the war. The French
government, wanting to end the fighting, organized the Geneva
Conference, which lasted until July 1954. At the conference, diplomats from France,
Vietnam, the United States, the USSR, Britain, China, Laos, and Cambodia
declared a cease-fire and decided to split Vietnam officially at the 17th parallel,
into Communist-controlled North Vietnam (under Ho and the Viet
Minh) and South Vietnam (under Bao Dai).
The Geneva Accords, as these
agreements were called, also required French withdrawal from North Vietnam and
Viet Minh withdrawal from South Vietnam. The accords also promised
reunification of Vietnam after free elections, which were to be to be held by
July 1956.
As it turned out, these elections were never held.
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