French Indochina

• Vast majority of nineteenth-century Vietnamese were peasant rice growers, a communal activity. This communal spirit had helped fend off centuries of Chinese attempts to conquer. The Vietnamese had perfected guerrilla warfare techniques against the Chinese.
• During late 1800s, the French attacked Indochina. By 1887, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were collectively referred to as French Indochina.
• The French spoke of a ‘civilising mission’,but main concern was to exploit resources.
• French discouraged Indochinese manufacturing to make it a market for French goods.
• France took greater interest in the south due spot its natural resources. French emigrants tended to settle in the South. This meant the south experienced greater French economic exploitation, and Saigon became known as the ‘Paris of the Orient’.
• A Vietnamese nationalist movement began in first half of 1900s. Constitutionalist Party favoured non-violent reform and change to French colonialists policy whilst remaining in the French Indochinese Union
• The French ignored the the requests of the Constitutionalist Party in the 20s, causing it to decline. This inspired more militant anti-colonialism, notably the Indochinese Communist Party.
• Ho Chi Minh was the son of a Vietnamese nationalist and opposed French colonialism.
• Ho was impressed by communism, but said ‘it was patriotism and not communism that originally inspired me’.
• Ho established the Vietnamese Communist Party in Hong Kong in 1930.
• Throughout the 30s, Ho’ writings were smuggle into Vietnam as he studied communism in China and the USSR.
• Bao Dai’s association with the French compared unfavourably to Ho’s patriotism.
• People felt during WW2, Bao Dai had exchanged French for Japanese domination, and turned to Ho as an alternative.
• Ho and other ICP leaders established the Revolutionary League for the Independence of Vietnam in early 1941. Commonly known as Viet Minh.
• Aims of the Viet Minh:

  1. independence from foreign domination
  2. social reform
• Viet Minh’s programme of more equal wealth and power distribution and freedom from repressive French and Japanese had popular appeal.
• The fall of France to the German’s in 1940 destroyed the illusion of French power.
• WW2 discredited Bao Dai.
• WW2 brought Vietnam to US attention.
• State Department advise to Roosevelt:

  1. Far East division criticised French rule and predicted years of bloodshed if France didn’t grant independence
  2. Pro-French European specialists said France was an important ally and shouldn’t be alienated over Indochina
• Ho‘s early relationship with US:

  • US valued VM cooperation against Japanese
  • Ho hoped for US support for independence
  • Truman encouraged French to grant more self-government to Vietnamese, but sided with European state department specialists
• After Japanese surrender, Ho declared independence of Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 2 September 1945.
• Ho enlisted the help of Americans in writing his independence speech and quoted the American Declaration of Independence as well as Roosevelt.
• • French ignored Ho’s Declaration of Independence and there were clashes between VM and French soldiers within days. Some consider this outbreak of first Vietnam War.
• Initial clashes between VM and French escalated as British, who sympathised with French desire to retain empire, transported French troops to Indochina.
• Truman went along with the French initially as he was reluctant to alienate the French as Soviet-American relations deteriorated.
• Oct 1945 to Feb 1946, eight friendly messages from Ho to Washington went unanswered. Ho cynical about US by late 1945.
• Reasons for Truman’s involvement:

  • thought Ho was Stalin’s puppet
  • saw Vietnam as Cold War battleground
  • Under attack from Republicans for ‘losing’ China and from McCarthy for supposedly harbouring communists in State Department
  • told by JCS about strategically vital materials (rubber) in SEA, and that allies such as Japan and Australia maybe vulnerable to communist attack
  • Ho had persuaded China and Soviets to recognise DRV in Jan 1950
  • NSC-68
• Evidence Ho wasn’t Stalin’s puppet:

  • USSR still didn’t recognise French rule in Vietnam
  • pointed out by State Department officials in 1948 that Ho had made friendly gestures to US and VC were not subservient to Moscow
  • sought social justice and national sovereignty rather than participation in worldwide struggle to promote communism
• The US recognised the supposedly independent Associated State of Vietnam set up by French under nominal leadership of Emperor Bai Dai in 1949.
• Washington put intense diplomatic pressure on newly independent countries in S and SEA to recognise Bao Dai regime, but those countries generally viewed conflict as national struggle against colonialism instead of part of Cold War.
• Acheson and Truman saw France as important to stability of Western alliance and to NATO.
• France linked Franco-American cooperation in Europe with US aid in Indochina.
• Dean Rusk said Vietnam is ‘part of an international war’.
• By early 1950, China was supplying arms, equipment and sanctuary to VM.
• May 1950 - Truman offered $10 million to support French military and established US Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) in Saigon.
• North Korean invasion and entry of Chinese into Korea confirmed US fears of communist expansionism.
• Dec 1950 - US had given France $100 million, aircraft, patrol boats, napalm bombs and ground combat machinery.
• End of Truman’s term (Jan 53) US more invested than Vietnam than France, and paying 80% of French bill in Indochina.
• From 1950 to 1953, Truman gave over $2 billion to the French war effort, compared to $50 million for economic and technical aid to the Vietnamese people.