Report - The First Indochina War

French Indochina also known as the French Indochina War, the The Anti-French War, the Franco-Vietnamese War, the Franco-Vietminh War, the Indochina War and the Dirty War in France and in

Vietnam National University HCMC

International University

 Course: Vietnamese History and Culture

Report

The First Indochina War

Lecturer: Vo Van Sen Student: Trần Minh Tú – BAFNIU13194

Vietnam has a long history which was full of wars and blood of Vietnamese people for one general purpose, independence The First Indochina War was the beginning of

“The resistance of 30 years” of Vietnam to completely gain freedom The victory of Dien Bien Phu battle, the last battle in the First Indochina War, was one of the most memorable event because it put an end on eighty-year domination of French colonial

In this report, based on many books, resources and websites, the reasons, the happening and the result of the First Indochina War is mentionedfor us to have a clearly view of what happening at that time and how Vietnam, which was a small country can defeat a powerful French colonial

THE FIRST INDOCHINA WAR

Background Information on Indochina

French Indochina was the part of the French colonial empire in Indochina in Southeast Asia

French Indochina was formed in October 1887 from territories Annam, Tonkin, Cochinchina (who together form modern day Vietnam) and the Kingdom of Cambodia Laos was added after the Franco-Siamese War of 1893

The capital of French Indochina was the city of Hanoi, they spoke French and their form of government was a Federation, this represented the firm grip that France had over Indochina, an influence that was not always appreciated by the natives of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and similar countries

French Indochina (also known as the French Indochina War, the The Anti-French War, the Franco-Vietnamese War, the Franco-Vietminh War, the Indochina War and the Dirty War in France and in contemporary Vietnam, as the French War)

The First Indochina war was a war fought in French Indochina that the French occupied from 1887-1954

Who were the combatants?

The French Union that contained-France, the State of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (with the United States provide a little support) Commanded by the following leaders (a brief description of each is given):

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque (1945-1946) was the Free France general during

World War II; he became Marshal of France, in 1952 As new commander of the Far East French Forces, Leclerc's forces set forth in October 1945 in French Indochina, first cracking a Viet Minh blockade around Saigon, then driving through the Mekong delta and up into the highlands Admiral d'Argenlieu criticized Leclerc saying "I am amazed - yes, that is the word, amazed - that France's fine expeditionary corps in Indochina is commanded by officers who would rather negotiate than fight" General Leclerc, returned to Paris from Vietnam, now warned, "Anti-communism will be a useless tool unless the problem of nationalism is resolved." But his wisdom was ignored Jean-Étienne Valluy then replaced him

Jean-Étienne Valluy (1946-1948) attempted to wipe out the Viet Minh in one stroke,

but failed "If those gooks want a fight, they'll get it," said Valluy as he landed in Haiphong on December 17, his temper boiling over the slaughter of three French soldiers by Viet Minh militia in Hanoi that day The French surrounded the Viet Minh base, Viet Bac in 1947 by securing its only two roads and dropping paratroopers They almost captured Ho Chi Minh, who slipped into a camouflaged hole at the last minute But General Valluy, whose experience until then had been in Europe, quickly sized up his efforts as possible With a total of some fifteen thousand men, he was trying to defeat sixty thousand enemy troops over nearly eighty thousand square miles of almost impenetrable forest Unlike his 19th-century predecessors, he was up against not small insurgent bands but a disciplined army He could only withdraw to a thin string of forts along Route 4, a twisting road running through ravines and over high passes between the towns of Lang Son and Cao Bang Chronically exposed to Viet Minh ambushes, French soldiers dubbed it the Rue sans Joie, or Street without Joy

Roger Blaizot (1948-1949) General Officer Commanding 1st Motorized Colonial

Division, General Officer Commanding 9th Colonial DivisionFrench Liaison Officer

to Supreme Allied Commander South-east Asia- 1945,General Officer Commanding Forces FrancaisesExtrême Orient He fought in a couple of battles but they resulted in

a French Union defeat He was replaced by Carpentier in 1949

Marcel-Maurice Carpentier (1949-1950) was a French military officer who served

in World War II and First Indochina War In 1949 he was appointed commander-in-chief of French Union forces in Indochina, but in 1950 De Lattre replaced him

Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (1950-1951) commanded French troops in Indochina

during the First Indochina War He won three major victories at Vinh Yen, Mao khé and Yen Cu Ha and defended successfully the north of the country against the Viet Minh but his only son, Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny, was killed in action during the war In 1951, illness forced de Lattre de Tassigny to return to Paris where he later died

of cancer; he was posthumously made Maréchal de France After his return to France, his successors Salan and Navarre were far from having an equal success in Indochina

Raoul Salan (1952-1953) Salan became the commander-in-chief in Indochina.

Although he was probably the most experienced officer in Indochina, the new government led up by René Mayer wanted a new policy in Indochina and replaced him

in January 1953 with Henri Navarre, who was previously in charge in the intelligence service, not on field operations

Henri Navarre (1953-1954) In May of 1953, Navarre replaced Raoul Salan as

commander of French forces in Indochina, in the midst of a war with the Viet Minh that was going badly for the French Navarre was charged to bring the war to an honorable end He quickly switched the French strategy from defensive to offensive operations Navarre created mobile strike forces and sent a large number of troops to Dien BienPhu, where they would sit on an important Viet Minh transport route and also perhaps draw the Viet Minh into a pitched battle in which the French forces would presumably have complete air and artillery superiority However, the French underestimated the capacity of the Viet Minh, who managed to place the French position under heavy artillery fire and eventually achieved a decisive victory that more

or less ended the First Indochina War

Vietnamese National Army

Nguyen Van Hinh (1950-1954) Nguyen Van Hinh was appointed the Vietnamese

National Army Chief of State by Emperor Bao Dai On November 8, 1954, after the First Indochina War he left South Vietnam in exile for France

Ho Chi Minh After the August Revolution (1945) organized by the Viet Minh, Ho

became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and issued a declaration of independence that borrowed much from the French and American declarations Though he convinced Emperor Bao Dai

to abdicate his government was not recognized by any country He repeatedly petitioned American President Harry Truman for support for Vietnamese independence, but Truman never responded In 1945, in a power struggle, the Viet Minh killed members of rival groups, such as the leader of the Constitutional Party, the head of the Party for Independence, and Ngo Dinh Diem's brother, Ngo DinhKhoi Purges and killings of Trotskyists, the rival anti-Stalinist communists, have also been documented In 1946, when Ho traveled outside of the country, his subordinates imprisoned 25,000 non-communist nationalists and forced 6,000 others to flee Hundreds of political opponents were also killed in July that same year All rival political parties were banned and local governments purged to minimize opposition later on

Vo Nguyen Giap Principal battles: Lang Son (1950); HoaBinh (1951-1952); Dien

Bien Phu (1954)

Vo Nguyen Giap (1911-2013)

How and why did it occur?

The First Indochina War was one of a series of many wars and conflicts in Vietnamese history The nation of Vietnam has been oppressed many times throughout history and the Vietnamese have always opposed this If you look at the past record of Vietnam, this war was a natural reaction to the oppressive French forces, and the introduction of

Ho Chi Minh's communist principles would have further flamed the fire of independence, this would have resulted in the many conflicts that followed

The build up to the First Indochina War is not a very smooth ride The lead up involves many other countries aiding and opposing Vietnam along the way These countries include Japan, Britain, China and the United States The United States supported the French, as they were afraid of a communist outbreak in South-East Asia

So the U.S chose the French China and Russia who were communist helped the Viet Minh as they were also communist and they disliked the U.S French President De Gaulle quotes that if France loses Indochina that France may not be well respected and powerful which implied war

A brief summary of the key figures and events that led up to the war are given below, note that political unrest elsewhere on the globe would have influenced many of these events (these include the Cold War, unrest in many Asian and African countries and a dogmatic western culture)

2 September 1945:Ho Chi Minh issues his Declaration of Independence from the

French Ho Chi Minh then declares himself president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and pursues American recognition but is repeatedly ignored by President

2 September 1945:On the deck of the U.S.S Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japanese

representatives sign the Instrument of Surrender proclaiming their unconditional surrender, formally ending World War II

13 September 1945:British forces arrive in Saigon to disarm the Japanese in South

Vietnam

22 September 1945:In South Vietnam, 1400 French soldiers released by the British

from former Japanese internment camps enter Saigon and go on a deadly rampage, attacking Viet Minh and killing innocent civilians including children, aided by French civilians who joined the rampage

24 September 1945:Viet Minh successfully organize a general strike shutting down

all commerce along with electricity and water supplies In a suburb of Saigon, members of BinhXuyen (a Vietnamese criminal organization), retaliate by massacring

150 French and Eurasian civilians, including children

26 September 1945:The first American death in Vietnam occurs, during the unrest in

Saigon an OSS officer named Lt Col A Peter Dewey is killed by Viet Minh guerrillas who mistook him for a French officer Before his death, Dewey had filed a report on the deepening crisis in Vietnam, stating his opinion that the U.S "ought to

October 1945:35,000 French soldiers under the command of World War II General

Jacques Philippe Leclerc arrive in South Vietnam to restore French rule Viet Minh immediately begin a guerrilla campaign to harass them The French then succeed in

November 1945:Ho Chi Minh attempts a compromise with the French by dissolving

the Indochinese Communist Party

February 1946:In a separate agreement with France, Chiang Kai-shek agrees to

withdraw Chinese troops from Vietnam and allow the French to return in exchange for French concessions in Shanghai and other Chinese ports

6 March 1946:Ho Chi Minh signs the Primary Agreement with France which allowed

French forces back into Vietnam to replace Nationalist Chinese forces, in exchange for French recognition of his Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a free state within the Indochinese Federation and French Union Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh welcome the French, saying, "I love France and French soldiers You are welcome You are heroes."

March 1946:Nationalist Chinese troops depart Hanoi and Vietnam.

March-July 1946:Armed and backed up by the French, the Viet Minh set about

executing leaders and members of nationalist Vietnamese groups Ho Chi Minh’s

lieutenant Le Duan said, "to wipe out the reactionaries" Known as the "Great Purge", the goal was to eliminate everyone thought dangerous to the Vietnamese Communist Party, and tens of thousands of nationalists, Catholics and others were massacred from 1946-1948

May 1946:Ho Chi Minh spends four months in France attempting to negotiate full

independence and unity for Vietnam, but fails to obtain any guarantee from the French

June 1946:In a major affront to Ho Chi Minh, the French high commissioner for

Indochina proclaims a separatist French-controlled government for South Vietnam (Republic of Chochin China)

July 1946:With French armored personnel carriers cordoning off the areas, the Viet

Minh storm the headquarters of remaining nationalist groups, arresting most remaining opposition leaders who were later executed

27 August 1946:French President De Gaulle declares, "France is a great power.

Without the overseas territories which she would be in danger of no longer being one" French policy was now clear

23 November 1946:The French bombard HaiPhong and occupy it, killing 6,000

Vietnamese civilians Ho appeals to the US for the last time “To support independence" The American’s were split They either had to support the Viet Minh’s push for independence or support the French so there would be no communist outbreaks in Southeast Asia

November-December 1946:After a series of violent clashes with Viet Minh, French

forces bombard Haiphong harbor and occupy Hanoi, forcing Viet Minh forces to retreat into the jungle

Where were the significant turning points in the war?

There were 14 major battles or operations during the conflict Most have being won by the French, but the Viet Minh ended up winning the war How is that so? This is because the battle of Dien Bien Phu was a key strategic victory that paved the way for the Vietnamese victory and the surrender of 20,000 French troops On top of that, the commander of the Viet Minh, Ho Chi Minh, did not command one single battle they

were all commanded by Vo Nguyen Giap and why did not the American’s participate with force like they did in the Second Indochina War otherwise known as the Vietnam War, after all they were worried about communism and supported the French at the Geneve Conference

FRENCH TAKE ADVANTAGE 1946-1950

January1947 General Giap's Viet Minh forces join Ho at Tan Trao From the northern

border jungles of Lang Son and westward to Truong Son (later to be known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail) the Viet Minh charter bases and hideouts 15,000 French troops hunt

Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh leaders with no success French begin punitive raids

on villages supporting the Viet Minh General Giap adopts a policy of avoiding all-out confrontation and conforms with Mao Tse-tung's key principal on warfare, "always maintain the initiative"

4 February1947 French opinion poll shows 36% favored force, 42% favored

negotiations, 8% thought France should leave Indo-China altogether 14% had no opinion

7 October-22 December1947 French Operation Lea, a series of attacks on Viet Minh

guerrilla positions in North Vietnam near the Chinese border, results in over 9,000 Viet Minh causalities, although most of the 40,000 strong Viet Minh force slips away through gaps in the French lines

Operation Lea.