Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [341]
The August Revolution
The Japanese surrender left a power vacuum which Ho Chi Minh was quick to exploit. On August 15, Ho called for a national uprising, which later came to be known as the August Revolution. Within four days Hanoi was seething with pro-Viet Minh demonstrations, and in two weeks most of Vietnam came under their control. Emperor Bao Dai handed over his imperial sword to Ho’s provisional government at the end of August and on September 2, 1945 Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, cheered by a massive crowd in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square. For the first time in eighty years Vietnam was an independent country. Famously, Ho’s Declaration of Independence quoted from the American Declaration: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But this, and subsequent appeals for American help against the looming threat of recolonization, fell on deaf ears as America became increasingly concerned at Communist expansion.
The Potsdam Agreement, which marked the end of World War II, failed to recognize the new Republic of Vietnam. Instead, Japanese troops south of the Sixteenth Parallel were to surrender to British authority, while those in the north would defer to the Chinese Kuomintang. Nevertheless, by the time these forces arrived, the Viet Minh were already in control, having relieved the Japanese of most of their weapons. In the south, rival nationalist groups were battling it out in Saigon, where French troops had also joined in the fray. The situation was so chaotic that the British commander proclaimed martial law and, amazingly, even deployed Japanese soldiers to help restore calm. Against orders, he also rearmed the six thousand liberated French troops and Saigon was soon back in French hands. A few days later, General Leclerc arrived with the first units of the French Expeditionary Force, charged with reimposing colonial rule in Indochina.
Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945
Things were going more smoothly in the north, though the two hundred thousand Chinese soldiers stationed there acted increasingly like an army of occupation. The Viet Minh could muster a mere five thousand ill-equipped troops in reply; forced to choose between the two in order to survive, Ho Chi Minh finally rated French rule the lesser of the two evils, reputedly commenting, “I prefer to smell French shit for five years, rather than Chinese shit for the rest of my life.” In March 1946, Ho’s government signed a treaty allowing a limited French force to replace Kuomintang soldiers in the north. In return, France recognized the Democratic Republic as a “free state” within the proposed French Union; the terms were left deliberately vague. The treaty also provided for a referendum to determine whether Cochinchina would join the new state or remain separate.
While further negotiations dragged on during the summer of 1946, both sides were busily rearming as it became apparent that the French were not going to abide by the treaty. By late April the Expeditionary Force had already exceeded agreed levels, and there was no sign of the promised referendum; in September 1946 the talks effectively broke down. Skirmishes between Vietnamese and French troops in the northern delta boiled over in a dispute over customs control in Haiphong; to quell the rioting, the French navy bombed the town on November 23, killing thousands of civilians. This was followed by the announcement that French troops would assume responsibility for law and order in the north. By way of reply, Viet Minh units attacked French installations in Hanoi on December 19, and then, while resistance forces held the capital for a few days, Ho Chi Minh and the regular army slipped away into the northern mountains.
History |
The French War
For the first years of the war against the French (also known as the First Indochina War, or Franco-Viet Minh War) the Viet Minh kept largely