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On September 29, 1953, the US government gives France $385 million for combat in Indo-China. From the article:
"America`s Vietnam War in Indochina
Abuses perpetrated against the North Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian people, which began as far back as the French occupation in the 1840s, galvanized many to fight a 30-year battle for their eventual freedom from foreign occupation. The United States involvement in the struggles of French Indochina began in 1945 at the Potsdam Conference and continued through many phases, culminating in a final withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975. Billions of dollars spent in military aid and equipment from the United States ended after more than 58,000 American lives were lost and another 153,000 were wounded in what is sometimes called “The Impossible War." The Indochinese Peninsula consists of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, formerly Burma; Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. French Indochina included Cambodia and Laos plus Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin China. The latter three later united to form Vietnam.
End of Japanese occupation
Directly after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Vietnam's communist Viet Minh National Congress met in Tan Trao to ratify the Central Committee’s recommendation to begin a general uprising in the hopes of ousting the Japanese military command. The Congress also elected nationalist Ho Chi Minh, leader of the National Liberation Committee, as the head of the provisional government. When the news of Japan’s surrender in World War II arrived, the local Japanese military command turned over governance to the local authorities. Once Hanoi fell, the Viet Minh declared its independence, established the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), and made Ho president and minister of foreign affairs. In a speech given on September 2, 1945, Ho announced the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, modeled nearly verbatim after the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, to half a million people assembled in Ba Dinh Square.
Ho’s attempt to garner support from the United States was useless because, unknown by him, the fate of Indochina had already been decided at the Potsdam Conference. The Allies had agreed to a Japanese surrender of their occupation of Indochina above the 17th parallel and the British surrender south of that line. Instead of supporting Ho, the United States gave their support to France, which demanded to re-colonize Vietnam under threats of France’s non-cooperation in helping to rebuild Europe if the U.S. refused. Secretary of State Dean Acheson stated that France’s demand was nothing short of "blackmail." The United States also saw the Indochina situation as a potential example of the Domino Theory, which holds that if a country falls to communism, weaker surrounding nations also eventually fall. Due to political pressure from anti-communist Republican Joseph McCarthy and others in Washington, D.C. who were seen as soft on communism’s spread throughout the world, President Harry S. Truman stepped up America’s involvement in the French re-colonization of Indochina under the Truman Doctrine.
Anxious to re-establish their colony of 60 years, the French brought in forces in 1946 that included soldiers from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. The colony had once supplied the French with not only important raw materials, but also vast wealth from its opium drug trade. French businessmen and a small number of Vietnamese became wealthy, while most became poorer. Citizens were often held in prison for long periods without being charged, or they died from malaria, tuberculosis, or malnutrition. By refusing to educate most Vietnamese children, literacy of France's re-colonized people reversed from 80 percent literate to 80 percent illiterate when the French left in 1954.
Having traveled to France to sign a cease-fire agreement and to negotiate eventual freedom for the Vietnamese people, Ho Chi Minh felt betrayed by the French government when the puppet government of Bao Dai was established in his absence in 1947. Although Dai had come from a long line of royal leaders, he had no talent for governing, nor did he have the desire to do it.
Ho was forced to assent to French re-occupation. Given the choice, however, Ho preferred French occupation over the Chinese in Vietnam, knowing the French would be easier to depose than the Chinese.
Map of Indochina pre-1975
First Indochina War
The beginning of the First Indochina War was marked by an outbreak of fighting as a result of a violation in the cease-fire agreement when Viet Minh soldiers refused a French demand to leave Haiphong. Fighting broke out and approximately 1,000 Vietnamese were killed in a battle fought with armored units against a French gunboat firing from the harbor.
After seven years of fighting against the Viet Minh, the French governance in Indochina ended shortly after the bloody battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 when, at the brink of surrender, they were unable to obtain U.S. reinforcements or additional military aid.
The United States had funded approximately one third of France’s attempt to retain control of Indochina. After inheriting the engagement from Truman, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, continued to support French occupation without much deviation from Truman’s policy. Eisenhower surmised that continued support would eventually lead to the liberation of the Vietnamese people from communism. The tide of U.S. support receded when the hopelessness of a full-scale occupation of Indochina against the Viet Minh was realized in 1953. The French also had requested an additional $400 million in assistance but, due to pressure from Washington for the French to make good on their promise to cooperate in Europe, they received only $385 million.
By the end of the First Indochina War, 75,867 French soldiers had lost their lives and $3 billion had been spent in a war that led to the withdrawal of French troops after the 1954 Geneva Accords were signed. At the Geneva Conference in Switzerland in July 1954, not only did the Geneva Accords effectively end French control over Indochina, but Cambodia and Laos were also granted independence from France, thus bringing an end to French Indochina. Maintaining the partitioning of North and South Vietnam by the 17th parallel that was first established at the Potsdam Conference, Ho Chi Minh was given the territory north of the 17th parallel while Emperor Bao Dai was given the area south of the 17th parallel. Vietnam was temporarily divided, but an agreement had been reached for free elections to be held in July 1956 to unify the two regions. Emperor Dai’s rule was short lived in that by 1955, Dai was overthrown and U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem was instated as president.
United Action
Rather than bear the entire burden of containment in Southeast Asia, the U.S. began to favor what Secretary of State John Foster Dulles called “United Action." Under the plan, a coalition of local forces would be called upon to assist with disputes. Out of the “United Action" approach came the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, referred to as the Manila Pact. The pact was signed by Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States on September 8, 1954, in Manila. The aim of the Manila Pact was to find peaceful means to resolve differences in Southeast Asia by establishing a council to determine how to implement the treaty and to provide consultation for military and other planning within the treaty area.
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), whose principal architect was Secretary Dulles, was originated from that defense treaty in an effort to stem further communist takeovers of countries in the Pacific region and to legitimize the United States' presence in South Vietnam. Representatives from the eight original signatories pledged to defend against what it saw as an increase of communist military aggression against democracy. But in the end, the United States carried the heaviest burden in defending against that aggression.
Due to Diem’s success against the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao religious sects and other political factions in South Vietnam in 1955, the U.S. began to believe Diem could stave off the Viet Minh with military assistance, and thus engaged in a deeper commitment to their freedom from the communist threat. But because of political instability in South Vietnam and fears that a communist leadership would not allow free elections, Dulles later argued that it was in the best interest of the U.S. to allow Diem to hold a rigged referendum ahead of the elections that had been mandated by the Geneva Conference. The decision not to allow free elections fueled the Viet Minh’s resolve to re-unify Vietnam.
As the threat of a communist takeover of South Vietnam and a possible later capitulation of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, and Indonesia came closer to becoming a reality, President John F. Kennedy began to increase the number of “military advisors" in South Vietnam. Military advisors were used to train and equip South Vietnamese troops. Where there had only been 700 advisors at the end of President Eisenhower’s administration in 1961, Kennedy increased that number to 12,000. Covert operations involving Special Forces (Green Berets) moved the United States closer to an open conflict with North Vietnam and the Vietcong (communist guerillas fighting in South Vietnam).
"America`s Vietnam War in Indochina
Abuses perpetrated against the North Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian people, which began as far back as the French occupation in the 1840s, galvanized many to fight a 30-year battle for their eventual freedom from foreign occupation. The United States involvement in the struggles of French Indochina began in 1945 at the Potsdam Conference and continued through many phases, culminating in a final withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975. Billions of dollars spent in military aid and equipment from the United States ended after more than 58,000 American lives were lost and another 153,000 were wounded in what is sometimes called “The Impossible War." The Indochinese Peninsula consists of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, formerly Burma; Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. French Indochina included Cambodia and Laos plus Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin China. The latter three later united to form Vietnam.
End of Japanese occupation
Directly after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Vietnam's communist Viet Minh National Congress met in Tan Trao to ratify the Central Committee’s recommendation to begin a general uprising in the hopes of ousting the Japanese military command. The Congress also elected nationalist Ho Chi Minh, leader of the National Liberation Committee, as the head of the provisional government. When the news of Japan’s surrender in World War II arrived, the local Japanese military command turned over governance to the local authorities. Once Hanoi fell, the Viet Minh declared its independence, established the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), and made Ho president and minister of foreign affairs. In a speech given on September 2, 1945, Ho announced the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, modeled nearly verbatim after the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, to half a million people assembled in Ba Dinh Square.
Ho’s attempt to garner support from the United States was useless because, unknown by him, the fate of Indochina had already been decided at the Potsdam Conference. The Allies had agreed to a Japanese surrender of their occupation of Indochina above the 17th parallel and the British surrender south of that line. Instead of supporting Ho, the United States gave their support to France, which demanded to re-colonize Vietnam under threats of France’s non-cooperation in helping to rebuild Europe if the U.S. refused. Secretary of State Dean Acheson stated that France’s demand was nothing short of "blackmail." The United States also saw the Indochina situation as a potential example of the Domino Theory, which holds that if a country falls to communism, weaker surrounding nations also eventually fall. Due to political pressure from anti-communist Republican Joseph McCarthy and others in Washington, D.C. who were seen as soft on communism’s spread throughout the world, President Harry S. Truman stepped up America’s involvement in the French re-colonization of Indochina under the Truman Doctrine.
Anxious to re-establish their colony of 60 years, the French brought in forces in 1946 that included soldiers from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. The colony had once supplied the French with not only important raw materials, but also vast wealth from its opium drug trade. French businessmen and a small number of Vietnamese became wealthy, while most became poorer. Citizens were often held in prison for long periods without being charged, or they died from malaria, tuberculosis, or malnutrition. By refusing to educate most Vietnamese children, literacy of France's re-colonized people reversed from 80 percent literate to 80 percent illiterate when the French left in 1954.
Having traveled to France to sign a cease-fire agreement and to negotiate eventual freedom for the Vietnamese people, Ho Chi Minh felt betrayed by the French government when the puppet government of Bao Dai was established in his absence in 1947. Although Dai had come from a long line of royal leaders, he had no talent for governing, nor did he have the desire to do it.
Ho was forced to assent to French re-occupation. Given the choice, however, Ho preferred French occupation over the Chinese in Vietnam, knowing the French would be easier to depose than the Chinese.
Map of Indochina pre-1975
First Indochina War
The beginning of the First Indochina War was marked by an outbreak of fighting as a result of a violation in the cease-fire agreement when Viet Minh soldiers refused a French demand to leave Haiphong. Fighting broke out and approximately 1,000 Vietnamese were killed in a battle fought with armored units against a French gunboat firing from the harbor.
After seven years of fighting against the Viet Minh, the French governance in Indochina ended shortly after the bloody battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 when, at the brink of surrender, they were unable to obtain U.S. reinforcements or additional military aid.
The United States had funded approximately one third of France’s attempt to retain control of Indochina. After inheriting the engagement from Truman, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, continued to support French occupation without much deviation from Truman’s policy. Eisenhower surmised that continued support would eventually lead to the liberation of the Vietnamese people from communism. The tide of U.S. support receded when the hopelessness of a full-scale occupation of Indochina against the Viet Minh was realized in 1953. The French also had requested an additional $400 million in assistance but, due to pressure from Washington for the French to make good on their promise to cooperate in Europe, they received only $385 million.
By the end of the First Indochina War, 75,867 French soldiers had lost their lives and $3 billion had been spent in a war that led to the withdrawal of French troops after the 1954 Geneva Accords were signed. At the Geneva Conference in Switzerland in July 1954, not only did the Geneva Accords effectively end French control over Indochina, but Cambodia and Laos were also granted independence from France, thus bringing an end to French Indochina. Maintaining the partitioning of North and South Vietnam by the 17th parallel that was first established at the Potsdam Conference, Ho Chi Minh was given the territory north of the 17th parallel while Emperor Bao Dai was given the area south of the 17th parallel. Vietnam was temporarily divided, but an agreement had been reached for free elections to be held in July 1956 to unify the two regions. Emperor Dai’s rule was short lived in that by 1955, Dai was overthrown and U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem was instated as president.
United Action
Rather than bear the entire burden of containment in Southeast Asia, the U.S. began to favor what Secretary of State John Foster Dulles called “United Action." Under the plan, a coalition of local forces would be called upon to assist with disputes. Out of the “United Action" approach came the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, referred to as the Manila Pact. The pact was signed by Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States on September 8, 1954, in Manila. The aim of the Manila Pact was to find peaceful means to resolve differences in Southeast Asia by establishing a council to determine how to implement the treaty and to provide consultation for military and other planning within the treaty area.
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), whose principal architect was Secretary Dulles, was originated from that defense treaty in an effort to stem further communist takeovers of countries in the Pacific region and to legitimize the United States' presence in South Vietnam. Representatives from the eight original signatories pledged to defend against what it saw as an increase of communist military aggression against democracy. But in the end, the United States carried the heaviest burden in defending against that aggression.
Due to Diem’s success against the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao religious sects and other political factions in South Vietnam in 1955, the U.S. began to believe Diem could stave off the Viet Minh with military assistance, and thus engaged in a deeper commitment to their freedom from the communist threat. But because of political instability in South Vietnam and fears that a communist leadership would not allow free elections, Dulles later argued that it was in the best interest of the U.S. to allow Diem to hold a rigged referendum ahead of the elections that had been mandated by the Geneva Conference. The decision not to allow free elections fueled the Viet Minh’s resolve to re-unify Vietnam.
As the threat of a communist takeover of South Vietnam and a possible later capitulation of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, and Indonesia came closer to becoming a reality, President John F. Kennedy began to increase the number of “military advisors" in South Vietnam. Military advisors were used to train and equip South Vietnamese troops. Where there had only been 700 advisors at the end of President Eisenhower’s administration in 1961, Kennedy increased that number to 12,000. Covert operations involving Special Forces (Green Berets) moved the United States closer to an open conflict with North Vietnam and the Vietcong (communist guerillas fighting in South Vietnam).
America`s Vietnam War in Indochina
Posted from u-s-history.com
World History
American History
Military History
Vietnam War
Warfare
Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 8
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Great history lesson on the former French Indo-China, a lot of needless loss of life and money spent on this.
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SGT (Join to see) great lessons on conflict, war, and death such as this should be enough to help the country's leadership to strategize towards peaceful understandings, preservation of life, and deciding if another country's policies conflict with its' own.
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