China and the Soviet Union recognized Hồ Chí Minh as the legitimate ruler of Vietnam and sent him more and more supplies and material aid. Later, as a concession to the new government and a way to increase their numbers, France agreed to the formation of the Vietnamese National Army commanded by Vietnamese officers. The war ended in 1954 but its sequel started in French Algeria where the French Communist Party played an even stronger role by supplying the National Liberation Front (FLN) rebels with intelligence documents and financial aid. This had the effect of weakening the regime, with the two most significant movements of this period, Communism and Gaullism, in opposition. A formal order was given to not use the white flag so that the action would be considered a ceasefire instead of a surrender. In September 1940, shortly after Phan Bội Châu's death, Japan launched its invasion of French Indochina, mirroring its ally Germany's conquest of metropolitan France. OSS officers met repeatedly with Hồ Chí Minh and other Việt Minh officers during this period. On March 2 of that year, the United States Navy transferred USS Agenor (ARL-3) (LST 490) to the French Navy in Indochina in accordance with the MAAG-led MAP. Nationalism grew until World War II, providing a break in French control. The conflict gradually escalated into the Vietnam War (1955-1975). [96] There were necessary conventional military knowledge such as how to conduct assaults, night attacks, company/battalion level exercises, commanding, tactics, navigation, communications and movements. The following year a pacifist event was organized, the "1st Worldwide Congress of Peace Partisans" (1er Congrès Mondial des Partisans de la Paix, the World Peace Council's predecessor), which took place March 25–28, 1948, in Paris, with the French communist Nobel laureate atomic physicist Frédéric Joliot-Curie as president. The USAF also provided C-124 Globemasters to transport French paratroop reinforcements to Indochina. On May 5 communist Ministers were dismissed from the government, marking the end of Tripartism. Neither our allies, nor our opponents must conserve the least doubt on the signification of our determination. [citation needed] The Việt Minh victory at Điện Biên Phủ heavily influenced the outcome of the 1954 Geneva accords that took place on July 21. The rapid turnover of governments (there were 17 different governments during the war) left France unable to prosecute the war with any consistent policy, according to veteran General René de Biré (who was a lieutenant at Dien Bien Phu). [citation needed] Initially, the Chinese kept the French Colonial soldiers interned, with the acquiescence of the Americans. [48], On October 9, 1945, General Leclerc arrived in Saigon, accompanied by French Colonel Massu's March Group (Groupement de marche). Giap re-organized his local irregular forces into five full conventional infantry divisions, the 304th, 308th, 312th, 316th and the 320th. The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina on December 19, 1946, and lasted until July 20, 1954. The French Indochina War broke out in 1946 and went on for eight years, with France’s war effort largely funded and supplied by the United States. Late in the year the French launched Operation Lea to take out the Việt Minh communications center at Bắc Kạn. Unlikely alliances had to be made between left- and right-wing parties in order to form a government invested by the National Assembly, resulting in parliamentary instability, with 14 prime ministers in succession between 1947 and 1954's Battle of Dien Bien Phu. In addition the Việt Minh had very little experience in warfare or government so the advice of the Japanese was welcome. In the French news, the Indochina War was presented as a direct continuation of the Korean War, where France had fought: a UN French battalion, incorporated in a U.S. unit in Korea, was later involved in the Battle of Mang Yang Pass of June and July 1954. The first few years of the war involved a low-level rural insurgency against the French. Also in this conference, Vietnam was divided into two regions: the North and the South with the boundary was the 17 th parallel. The Việt Minh were militarily ineffective in the first few years of the war and could do little more than harass the French in remote areas of Indochina. [56] On November 23, 1946, the French fleet bombarded the Vietnamese sections of the city killing 6,000 Vietnamese civilians in one afternoon. There had been fighting in Vietnam for decades before the Vietnam War began. Gratuit. The Việt Minh also used thousands of coolies to carry the Chu-Luc (regional units) supplies and ammunition during assaults. French colonial power ended after the 9-year First Indochina War, which was followed for more than 20 years by the Vietnam War. The Việt Minh arranged a relief effort in the north, winning wide support there as a result. France will remain present in Far-Orient. Salan took Phú Thọ on November 5, and Phu Doan on November 9 by a parachute drop, and finally Phú Yên on November 13. On August 22, 1945, OSS agents Archimedes Patti and Carleton B. In January, General de Lattre fell ill from cancer and returned to France for treatment. Fighting between French forces and their Việt Minh opponents in the south dated from September 1945. The first French movie about the war, Shock Patrol (Patrouille de Choc) aka Patrol Without Hope (Patrouille Sans Espoir) by Claude Bernard-Aubert, came out in 1956. [86] Another allied minority was the Muong people (Mường). Kentucky University Press, August 2019. [68] From his home in France, Bảo Đại appointed Ngô Đình Diệm as Prime Minister of South Vietnam. The French censor cut some violent scenes and made the director change the end of his movie which was seen as "too pessismistic". In Vietnam War: French rule ended, Vietnam divided The French Indochina War broke out in 1946 and went on for eight years, with France’s war effort largely funded and supplied by the United States. [95] Some Japanese were captured by the Việt Minh during the last months of the war and were recruited in to their ranks. The attacks fared no better and the three divisions lost heavily. "Building Ho's Army: Chinese Military Assistance to North Vietnam." [72][73] The first occurrence was probably at the National Assembly on March 21, 1947, when the communist deputies refused to back the military credits for Indochina. [85] The French Indochina state of Cambodia played a significant role during the Indochina War through its infantrymen and paratroopers. This is known as the Haiphong incident. Traductions en contexte de "the war in vietnam" en anglais-français avec Reverso Context : The next big issue of contention was the war in Vietnam. [38] The Imperial Japanese Army, being the only force capable of maintaining law and order, remained in power while keeping French colonial troops and Sainteny detained.[39]. Known as tripartisme, this alliance briefly lasted until the May 1947 crisis, with the expulsion from Paul Ramadier's SFIO government of the PCF ministers, marking the official start of the Cold War in France. Young communist militants (UJRF) were also accused of sabotage actions like the famous Henri Martin affair and the case of Raymonde Dien, who was jailed one year for having blocked an ammunition train, with the help of other militants, in order to prevent the supply of French forces in Indochina in February 1950. In December, hostilities between the Việt Minh and the French broke out in Hanoi, and Hồ Chí Minh was forced to evacuate the capital in favor of remote forested and mountainous areas. From 1950 to 1956, the Chinese government had also shipped 155,000 small arms, 58 million rounds of ammunition, 4,630 artillery pieces, 1,080,000 artillery shells, 840,000 hand grenades, 1,400,000 uniforms, 1,200 vehicles, 14,000 tons of food, and 26,000 tons of fuel to Vietnam. Declaration of Independence and the French Revolution’s Declaration of … In September, Truman sent the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to Indochina to assist the French. The French were backed by the Nung minority while Việt Minh were backed by the Tay minority.[55]. Another film was The 317th Platoon (La 317ème Section) was released in 1964, it was directed by Indochina War (and siege of Dien Bien Phu) veteran Pierre Schoendoerffer. By 1954, despite official propaganda presenting the war as a "crusade against communism",[62][63] the war in Indochina was still growing unpopular with the French public. CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (, Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Provisional Government of the French Republic, a referendum to remove the former Emperor, French Section of the Workers' International, 1st Worldwide Congress of Peace Partisans, Instruction Center for Pacification and Counter-Insurgency, Croix de guerre des théâtres d'opérations extérieures, Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aéroportés, "John Foster Dulles on the fall of Dien Bien Phu", "Viện trợ của Trung Quốc đối với cuộc kháng chiến chống Pháp của Việt Nam", http://geb.uni-giessen.de/geb/volltexte/2013/9311/pdf/DaoDucThuan_2013_02_05.pdf, "CNN.com – France honors CIA pilots – Feb 28, 2005", Chuyên đề 4 CÔNG TÁC TÌM KIẾM, QUY TẬP HÀI CỐT LIỆT SĨ TỪ NAY ĐẾN NĂM 2020 VÀ NHỮNG NĂM TIẾP THEO, datafile.chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn/Quản%20lý%20chỉ%20đạo/Chuyên%20đề%204.doc, "Battlefield Vietnam – Dien Bien Phu, the legacy", "WGBH Open Vault – Interview with Archimedes L. A. Patti, 1981", "日越関係発展の方途を探る研究 ヴェトナム独立戦争参加日本人―その実態と日越両国にとっての歴史的意味―", Text of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers General Order no. Giap withdrew, having lost around 500 troops (by Việt Minh estimation) to over 3,000 (by French estimation) dead and wounded by March 28. I have longly studied the report ... consulted the most qualified military and diplomatic experts. Early Vietnamese resistance centered on the intellectual Phan Bội Châu. Samuel Fuller's China Gate (1957). Lieutenant Kamo Tokuji - a platoon leader under Lieutenant Igari; he also became an instructor at the Quảng Ngãi Military Academy. Throughout the war theater, the Việt Minh cut French supply lines and wore down the resolve of the French forces. Benyoucef Benkhedda, later became the head of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, praised the Viet Minh feat at Dien Bien Phu as "a powerful incentive to all who thought immediate insurrection the only possible strategy". Neither the United States government nor Ngô Đình Diệm's State of Vietnam signed anything at the 1954 Geneva Conference. The prospect of a communist-dominated Southeast Asia was enough to spur the U.S. to support France, so that the spread of Soviet-allied communism could be contained. Although the French were outnumbered, their superior weaponry and naval support made any Việt Minh attack unsuccessful. The role played by Laotian troops in the conflict was depicted by veteran Pierre Schoendoerffer's famous 317th Platoon released in 1964. [88][89] Declassified information about the GCMA includes the name of its commander, famous Colonel Roger Trinquier, and a mission on April 30, 1954, when Jedburgh veteran Captain Sassi led the Meo partisans of the GCMA Malo-Servan in Operation Condor during the siege of Dien Bien Phu. One, Taiwan Documents Project, "The Vietnam War Seeds of Conflict 1945–1960", "Le Gouvernement provisoire et la Quatrième République (1944–1958)", "Dien Bien Phu, Chronicles of a Forgotten Battle", "France's war against Communists rages on", "Guerre d'Indochine: Libérez Henri Martin", "France History, IV Republic (1946–1958)", "We wanted a newspaper to tell what we wanted" interview by Denis Jeambar & Roland Mihail, "General Challe's appeal (April 22, 1961)", "USS Skagit and Operation Passage To Freedom", "UQAM | Guerre d'Indochine | TORTURE, FRENCH", Original audio recordings of General de Castries (Dien Bien Phu) and General Cogny (Hanoi) transmissions on May 7, 1954, during the battle of Dien Bien Phu (from the European Navigator based in Luxembourg), "Japan-Vietnam relations, were based on the performance of Japanese volunteers in Vietnam Independence War", "20th century - Which Japanese military officers helped Ho Chi Minh? However, they were willing to give it to Bảo Đại as he had freely collaborated with French rule of Vietnam in the past and was in no position to seriously negotiate or impose demands. The Union gathered combatants from almost all French territories made of colonies, protectorates and associated states (Madagascar, Senegal, Tunisia, etc.) Explorer. The operation was a tactical success for the French. In February, Giap seized the vulnerable 150-strong French garrison at Lai Khê in Tonkin just south of the border with China. Caught for the first time in the open and actually forced to fight the French head-on, without the ability to quickly hide and retreat, they were heavily attacked by concentrated French artillery and machine gun fire. Giáp launched yet another attack, the Battle of the Day River, on May 29 with the 304th Division at Phủ Lý, the 308th Division at Ninh Bình, and the main attack delivered by the 320th Division at Phat Diem south of Hanoi. The famous Communist propagandist Roman Karmen was in charge of the media exploitation of the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The United States began to give military aid to France in the form of weaponry and military observers. Taking advantage of this, de Lattre mounted his counteroffensive against the demoralized Việt Minh, driving them back into the jungle and eliminating the enemy pockets in the Red River Delta by June 18, costing the Việt Minh over 10,000 killed.[61]. In August 1884 French warships attacked Fuzhou and destroyed the Chinese fleet and dockyard there. Within 300 days of the signing of the accords, a demilitarized zone, or DMZ, was to be created by mutual withdrawal of forces north and south of the 17th parallel, and the transfer of any civilians who wished to leave either side was to be completed. She was used to support delta defenders in the Hạ Long Bay operation in May 1954. By and large, the mission civilisatrice was a thin facade. These facts were declassified and made public more than 50 years after the events, in 2005 during the Légion d'honneur award ceremony by the French ambassador in Washington.[109]. [4], The Viet Minh victory in the war had an inspirational effect to independence movements in various French colonies worldwide, most notably the FLN in Algeria. The DRV ruled as the only civil government in all of Vietnam for a period of about 20 days, after the abdication of Emperor Bảo Đại, who had governed under Japanese rule. French imperialism was driven by a demand for resources, raw materials and cheap labour. [citation needed] The fight for control of this position would be the longest and hardest battle for the French Far East Expeditionary Corps and would be remembered by the veterans as "57 Days of Hell". The Vietnam War had its origins in the broader Indochina wars of the 1940s and ’50s, when nationalist groups such as Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh, inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism, fought the colonial rule first of Japan and then of France.