How the First Vietnam War Began - Battle for Hanoi 1946 Documentary
Nearly 20 years before the first US combat troops stepped foot in Southeast Asia, another war in Vietnam began as communist forces rose on the streets of Hanoi to start an all out struggle against French rule. It was a struggle that would last for seven years and be every bit as brutal as the American war to come.
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0:00 - Intro
0:43 - Indochina under the French and Japanese
2:13 - A fleeting Independent Vietnam
2:47 - Britain gets the French in
4:36 - Forced Diplomacy
6:22 - The mood turns sour
8:13 - The Haiphong Massacre
9:47 - The Battle of Hanoi
Credits:
Artwork by:
/ chrisbyflanker
Written, Animated, Directed and Produced by:
/ addaway23
Come join the historigraph discord: / discord
Sources:
Max Hastings, Vietnam
John Springhall, "Kicking out the Vietminh: How Britain Allowed France to Reoccupy South Indochina", Journal of Contemporary History, Jan 2005 www.jstor.org/stable/30036312
George C. Herring, "The Truman Administration and the Restoration of French Sovereignty in Indochina", Diplomatic History, Spring 1977 www.jstor.org/stable/24909909
Ralph B. Smith, "The Japanese Period in Indochina and the Coup of 9 March 1945", Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Sep. 1978
www.jstor.org/stable/i20062721
Stein Tønnesson, Vietnam 1946: How the War Began
Christopher Goscha, The Road to Dien Bien Phu
Bernard Fall, Street without Joy: the French debacle in Indochina,
Music Credits:
"Rynos Theme" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
"Crypto" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
"Stay the Course" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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Other music and SFX from Epidemic Sound
Hope you enjoyed this video! This is the first video in what I anticipate is going to end up being a mammoth series on the vietnam war(s). We're hoping to cover topics all the way up to 1975, including some less well known events. If you'd like to help support the creation of this series, consider supporting on Patreon: it helps a lot! www.patreon.com/historigraph
Great work @historigraph! Looking forward to a follow-up video to this time in history. Will there be one?
Please carry on. You know that we want it.
That was absolutely excellent! Learnt so much. As a teenager in the 60s I remember daily reports about the USA involvement in 'stopping the spread of communism' and knew that there was a lot more to the story than we were being told via the media. My understanding of the background to Vietnam post WW2 was very limited. Your video has filled in huge gaps and, along with many, I can't wait to learn more. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and for producing such an excellent piece of information.
Please more video about french vietnam war.
Based
Gotta say it's funny hearing, " The British used Japanese soldiers to fight and die for French colonialism" Not something you hear that often
funny thing is japanese officers practically started the pavn. most vietminh officers were ex japanese officers.
Japanese soldiers heavily fought on both sides. European soldiers from either side, veterans of the war, also fought in the form of the Foreign Legion. There were German veterans but this is most likely heavily overstated as compared to the roughly 100,000 foreign troops already in the legion who served in Vietnam after the war and happened to be in a non-disbanded regiment over from that time. These foreign troops would go back to their homelands and be inspired directly by Vietnamese self determination, especially in Algeria. Considering the battle experience either side had, it wasn’t really surprising that the first Indochinese war took 9 years to conclude. It wasn’t until when unpopularity slowly but gradually reached France back home that the war was basically over for the French. France was, for some reason, determined to retain its colonies even after WW2 had ended and basically devastated any European empire status. France already had an ugly history with Vietnam but their future history with Algeria and Algerians down the road in ten years would be even uglier.
And won in 6 months.
Funny the usa used nazi war criminals to land on the moon
I love your animations, you and the operations room really hold the podium. Would love to see a video on the Suez Crisis.
Time ghost has a video series on that
seriously agreed! HistoriGraph and The Operations Room are absolutely amazing
Kings and Generals has a video on the Suez Crisis, I think
one key event that was left out, that was during 1944-1945 under Japanese and Vichy France, Vietnamese farmer was forced to sold all their stock of agriculture product which include pretty much the entire nation stockpile of rice and farmer were force to abandoned their rice field to work in rubber plantation, this lead to a massive famine that claim more than 2 million lives at that time when the Vietminh came into power, they raid the food stockpile that Vichy France and Japanese had kept and distribute them among the population , that combine with the former emperor Bảo Đại endorsement of Viet Minh goverment gain them massive support that last pretty much till the end while also sowed doubt among the population about the French force
As usual, the French did a great job at making countries hate them
When was Trần Trọng Kim emperor? I thought he was just a Prime Minister and wasn't related to the royal family
Lying is bad
@@basilemariton it's true though. Search Vietnamese famine of 1945
@@kevinduong337 bao đại my bad
The French never seemed to have grasped the sheer irony of re-establishing its colony in Indochina right after being freed from the German occupation. Many of the soldiers sent to Indochina had been resistance fighters against the Nazis for years..
I feel like the american war in vietnam takes all the spotlight and the french war in indochina is rarely discussed, way less often discussed than it deserves. Thanks for shedding some light on the topic.
As long as Vietnam is still ruled by the oppressive and exploitive Communist regime, her potential remains greatly diminished. For any 1% that wants to stay, 99% of the population wants to get out, and many have risked their lives doing just that (for example, 39 doomed lives found in UK container truck recently on the news, and that's only what's been reported), unfortunately. Yet another shocking and also recent example is that during the Covid pandemic when almost all countries assisted their citizens with financial aids in one form or another, the corrupt and murderous Vietnamese Commie regime saw it just as another opportunity not to help but to exploit its ruled citizens even more, essentially making money over the corpses of its citizens by presumably killing at least 30-50K of them, due to grossly misdiagnoses and being thrown into barbwired unhygenic living quarters for isolation, so that they had to sleep on concrete floor, even next to filled trashcans, with inadequate toilet, food, water, or medicine, like animals (searching hard enough, one is able to see shocking video clips on Facebook though the regime tried hard to crack down the leaks by Vietnamese citizen journalists), with the fake nostril Covid test kits, mislabeled as approved by World Health Organization (WHO) in Việt Á scandal, colluded by at least 4 different government agencies (Y Tế , Khoa Học, Công Nghệ, Quân y) and the top Politburo members, including Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Phạm Minh Chính, Nguyễn Xuân Phúc. Murderous Vietnamese Commie regime even had a thug murdered Christian pastor Giuse Trần Ngọc Thanh, like it has done with many other pastors across the nation. There is a reason why the current Commie Vietnam ranks at the bottom of the world in freedom of speech, (true) freedom of religion, and freedom of the press, barely above Commie China and Commie North Korea. There is no true freedom of religion in Commie Vietnam, as this corrupt Vietnamese Commie regime only authorized the fake organizations headed by Commie monks, many of whom were Commie Party officials, and those religious organizations not approved to be infiltrated by them or headed by their Commie agents are accused of malicious and nonexistent crimes and banned, with innocent religious leaders arrested and jailed, as in the recent case with Thiền Am Bên Bờ Vũ Trụ, a harmless Buddhist meditation monastery, for simply having many followers (hence, more influences that the regime fears it can't control) than the Commie Party's officially approved ones. Similarly, its passport ranks at the bottom, 89th out of 111 countries for a reason, barely above North Korea 104th rank. even below many African nations. For comparison, South Korea is at 2nd rank. That's what Republic of South Vietnam would have likely been ranked among at least the top 10 had it not been invaded and occupied by the North Vietnamese Commie terrorists, aided by Commie Soviet and Commie China. Search "cuop dat dan" (meaning "land-robbing of citizens") to see millions of footages across the country from North to South, spanning for decades, dated back to Ho Chi Minh's bloody land reform 1953-1956 that killed nearly 1 million North Vietnamese in only 4 years, or 250K people brutally slaughtered in torturous painful deaths (like being shot, stabbed, mutilated while being alive, or heads being plowed over by water buffaloes while bodies being buried underground) each year on average to rob their lands and homes. Even today, if the rightful owners refuse to have their homes or lands robbed, the ruthless Vietnamese Commie terrorist regime simply jail or massacre them, have tractors run over their bodies or openly assassinate them in their own homes. When it comes to robbing, these barbarian Vietnamese Commie bandits even prey on each other, just as the recent case with then 84-year-old Mr. Lê Đình Kình, a 55-year-Commie Party veteran from Dong Tam, near Hanoi, that got shot dead at 3am in his own home by the Vietnamese Commie terrorist regime. When his wife Mrs. Dư Thị Thành refused to lie about the incident as ordered, the Vietnamese Commie terrorist police brutally tortured her (see more details from "dandongtam" on Facebook). The corrupt Vietnamese Commie government officials routinely dine on lavish gold-plated Salt Bae steak $100K per meal with blood money not just from taxpayers but also from robbed-lands and robbed homes recently drew international condemnations, while many Vietnamese citizens, including elderlies in their 60's and 70's as well as kids as young as 6's to 16's selling lottery tickets on the streets to survive on $2-3 per day. Even Phạm Nhật Vượng the richest man in Vietnam (via his VinGroup) made the bulk of his wealth mainly by colluding with the barbarian Vietnamese Commie regime in selling their robbed-lands from Vietnamese citizens. Travelers to Vietnam in her current form (not at all like this before the Communists took over) should keep this in mind. Behind the beauty of the land and smiling faces at popular tourist destinations, there are a lot of darkness and tears, bloods, sweats, sorrow, horror, and sufferings all over the country.
Most definitely, the history of European colonies post WWI seems to be largely forgotten to history even though it's led to wars like the Vietnam War, both French and American, and the continued conflicts between Middle Eastern nations and Middle Eastern nations and the wider world.
We see the Allies actively funding native insurgent groups in so many countries, and then back-stabbing them with significant collated damage to the region! I guess what we see today is no different to back then, I shouldn’t be surprised by anything I see in the news anymore.
The United States' war in Vietnam simply doesn't happen without the French war. If you don't understand the First Indochina Conflict, then you can't understand the Second one (because you're missing critical context).
France were the ones who pushed the Domino Theory/communism scare and the USA gobbled it up hook line and sinker.
Great video. I wonder if a sister video about the Malay emergency could be done to see how the British and Malayan militaries succeeded where the French didn’t.
I would watch that
The communist in Malayan were weak and China couldn’t send much of its supplies to the commies due to the terrain. Vietnam is next to China so getting support is much easier.
You mean successful like at Batang Kali?
@@tuanz8009 The British in Vietnam in the early days were actually very effective in starving the Vietcong out of support and effectively weakening them using a Hearts and Minds approach which was to win over the support of the local villages and was hugely successful but when the French took full control, they decided on a more scorched Earth policy which gave the Vietcong more support from the local populace and allowed the Vietcong to grow.... A tactic the US carried on when they got involved.
In an ironic turn of events, America actively supported the Viet Minh to help them fight the Japanese, only to end up supporting France in reestablishing its rule in Indochina when WW2 finally ended. It should be noted that Ho Chi Minh, despite his "pro-communist" ideology, was initially very confident in the prospect of America continuing to support Vietnam's independent government after the Revolution - he even wrote to Truman several times, only to have no response. Ho Chi Minh continued to look for every possible opportunity to have friendly contact with the Americans, and it was only in 1950, when America openly supported France, that he became disillusioned and turned to China and the Soviet Union. So I think it can be said that it was America that pushed Viet Minh and the whole country of Vietnam to follow the communist path in the most decisive way. If they had realized what HCM's movement really was - in various ways, HCM could have become a second Tito - then they could have supported him early on and the entire series of tragedies that followed between the two nation will never happen.
Well said. I’d note that his September 2nd independence proclamation begins by quoting the American declaration of independence: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
It was a similiar deal with Cuba. Castro wanted to straddle the line and there never wouldve been a missile crisis had it not been for the bay of pigs.
but really, what option did America, either support France and push Viet Minh to the Reds or support Viet Minh and damage the relationship with France, which may affect the beginning of NATO. It was down to France or Vietnam for America, and looking at it with cold logic, you gain more by supporting France
@@kiankier7330 A very Realpolitik view but never the less an apt explanation of their logic.
@@kiankier7330Truman was a total idiot in Asia, he let the nationalist Chinese lose the war and then proceeded to support France in trying to keep her colonial ambitions. Truman’s failures in China would spill into Korea causing further death to American soldiers. He was a fool through and through
During the battle of Hanoi the young Viet Minh forces consist of only 2.561 soldiers, armed with: - 1.516 rifles - 3 sub-machine guns - 1 machine gun - 1 bazooka - 1.000 grenades - 80 lunge mines - 7 anti-aircraft guns - 1 75mm mountain gun - 1 25mm mountain gun - 2 60mm mortars However, the Viet Minh were supported by about another about 8.000 people with outdated weapons, including swords, bows, crossbows or pikes. Ho Chi Minh called for national resistance with the words: "Whoever have guns, use guns. Whoever have swords, use swords. Whoever don't have swords, use pickaxes, hoes or sticks". The Viet Minh started the war with so many hardship but nearly 45 days (excluded 15 days of armistice) of defense of Hanoi proved the determination of the Vietnamese to fight for the country. Hàng Thiếc street and Đồng Xuân Market were the 2 bloodiest locations of the battle, which took French a week to take stable control.
Many Hanoians knew that HCM and his cabinets were evacuating to Việt Bắc, yet they still fought their hardest to cover the central government retreat. They knew they had to buy time for the goverment to reestablish themselves to fight another day. Few peoples can be as understanding as they did at that time, most just senselessly vindicate their leaders as cowards for fleeing the capital. But we know better.
0:10 *US and Australian troops (and NZ and South Korean, Thai and Filipino). Australia sent 60,000 troops to Vietnam, there was a draft, most peoples dads (if you're a Millennial) were either drafted or were at risk of being drafted. Mine was lucky to get a 'non-picked' birthday, but a close family friend went to Nam and had severe physical and mental health issues as a result (he was exposed to an Agent Orange-type substance, his lungs are scarred) and he can't work. Nicest guy you'll ever meet, these wars affect more countries than just America and Vietnam.
Props for yesterday's livestream! Looking forward to more introductory videos like that
Cant wait for episode 2 next week. Love your content !
Very excited for this series
This video is so well written and edited that it sounds like an academic paper with the added bonus of fantastic visuals. Well done sir!
That live stream yesterday was a godsend to understanding why the tensions boiled over. Fantastic video, I'm looking forward to this series and I hope it gets the necessary views to keep it going
I really look forward to your work. I like the mix of media. I learn best with this kind of mix. Your narrative style and voice are very good and pro sounding which is definitely a good thing.
Worth to notice that the battle of Dien Bien Phu (the final defeat for France) is also known as "the last battle of the SS" as they were so many German former SS in the French Foreign Legion that they fought by the thousands in Vietnam, crazy...
most of them were actually young german guys who had not fought in ww2 and joined the FFL because of the low job prospects in West Germany
The foreign legion didn’t even made up half of the garrison strength in Dien bien phu, the battle was the one of the French paratroopers which were the real elite infantry present, they conducted the counter attacks and hold the ground such on Eliane, and hughette while the legion was less active and mostly hold as much ground as they could although suffering lots of casualties, by the way this battle isn’t known as the last stand of the SS it’s a myth and disrespectful for those who fought there since they mostly had nothing to do why naz! Ideology and were just French patriots.
Please delete your comment it’s really a shame to spread such disinformation which gives a false idea of those who had to go through this living hell
@@ethanw.1021 "please delete the truth that you I don't wanna face" :)
@@ethanw.1021 Where exactly did I write that the FFL and the SS were the majority of the fighting force ? I am waiting for the exact quote please. :)
I really appreciate your focus on less well covered events like this, where even though I know about this conflict more generlly and dien bien phu, I haven't ever learned about entire war.
Incredible documentary!
The first Vietnam war goes criminally undertaught. Very much! looking forward to this video series
this is incredibly insightful most KZheadrs just ignore this war and Việt Minh's role during the first war for Indochina and pretend that South Vietnam was a thing and distinctive identity. And one minor correction, the last stand in Hà Nội was supposed to only have 500 soldiers on the Việt Minh's side but additional 1000 decided to stay thus boosted the number to 1500.
Love the channel keep it up!
I always love your videos, they are so interesting
Imagine being one of those British or Indian deaths... fought and survived WW2, only to die for the sake of an already doomed empire that you're not even a part of. Britain should have just released the French, left the Japanese prisoners in their custody, and went home (or leave immediately with the Japanese).
That's basically exactly what they did
They should have left the French and the Japanese Troops in prison under Vietminh custody...
Thank you. Well done.
Watched the stream yesterday; I'll take whatever Historigraph content I can get!
What a start to the next series!
This is going to be a great series. I hope you do Ap Bac.
Can't wait for your video on Dien Bien Phu!
Good stuff
Wow, this is a masterpiece
Man, these Vietnamese have a point, Colonialism is horrendous.
How is communism any better?
@@livethefuture2492 Ummmmm sounds like you haven’t read enough about Imperialism.
@@Poverty-Tier how is communism any different from Imperialism under a different name?
@@livethefuture2492How is communism better during 20th century? Kicking out the french and reuniting the country
@@livethefuture2492 communism bad, upvote you the left. You’re screaming that so hard lol. You’re basically strawmanning right now. I bet if you had a chance you’d even say nazism is better than communism.
Please make videos on the Battle of Imphal-Kohima ww2 and the British Pacific Fleet operations
it'll come in time, fear not
@@historigraph 😅😅 But atleast tell me the approximate time ? In this year ? Or Next year approximate month ?
it'll be out when it's ready@@rajesrecipe2492
@@rymoo27 but when will he make it ? I want approximation to calm down my curiosity.
@@rajesrecipe2492 He's giving you stuff for free. Just be patient. I doubt he even knows exactly when it will be ready.
Extraordinario documental ....me han encantado los mapas y gráficos de los movimientos de las tropas ...muy bien explicado todo.enhorabuena y a seguir así
Nice video
wow this is really interesting, I have never seen this covered before
Pls more of that!
Japanese weapon stocks were still being occasionally used as late as the late 1960s, with the famous knee mortat sometimes being seen in the hands of Viet Minh fighters
I'd love a series on other seiges of WW2, the videos in the Budapest series were some of the best you've made and we're fantastic to watch. You could do stalingrad, leningrad or Berlin there's so many options.
Oh this series is gonna take a while haha
We lost Indochina in '45, and we should never have tried to take it back. It's a shame, for we could have done something diplomatically, but no, instead we chose force and made damn sure we'd lost all potential political/economic advantages we could have had in a post-colonial Indochina.
La première et la plus grande erreur de la France a été de sous-estimer l'intelligence de ces humbles agriculteurs et paysans des campagnes. _ The first and biggest mistake of France was underestimating the intelligence of these humble farmers and countryside peasants
Force by America was against communist expansion. That wasn't the US position in 1945. Truman had the reconstruction of Japan and Western Europe on his plate. Fights with France and the UK were too much. De Gaulle outright rejected alternatives. America got stuck with the mess.
@@jjng4857probably French have experienced poor and cowardice Vietnamese performance in the WWI when they were forced to fight for the French despite they don't want to 2 months for the defense of Hanoi was a very good performance of a new and untrained army
Recommended reading: Philippe de Pirey - Opération Gâchis (1955) strangely enough only translated to Swedish: 'Kamrat in i helvetet' [Comrade into hell] (according to Goodreads). Diary of a 19-year-old french grunt in Indochina. My favourite detail: Of course (french…) they had wine in their rations, but concentrated for logistical reasons, to be diluted with water. What do you think they did? :D
The Viet Minh were a coalition of different nationalist groups, not only communists.
Yeah, noticed he said that despite noting otherwise in the livestream yesterday. Curious why
Yeah but the communists would come to dominate the movement. So little point in taking up video time when he could talking about the actual battle
They were mostly Communist and dominated by the Communist so they were basically Communist. Just saying.
@@arwing20 Yes, but it's important to note that some forces inside the Viet Minh would form part of the south Vietnam government later, they weren't a homogeneous force is what I mean.
It was dominated by Communists tho
❤Yesterday during the live streaming, I saw in your house(on the wall) the plan of the Battle of Jutland with all the ships named in the battle line❤❤ That was a great sight 👍🏻 😂
Excellent content! Unfortunately I wasn’t taught about Vietnam prior to USA’s involvement in school. Thanks for the history lesson.
SUPER EXCIRED FOR VIETNAM SERIES
Oh yea baby!
Brilliantly put together and in doing so makes this era after ww2 a lot easier to understand thankyou .
After this can you make video about Dutch and Indonesia war ? The First Decolonization War in SEA
I want to whole of these footages 03:07 Where can I find these footages?
Can you consider operation typhoon October 2nd - 31st 1941?
If I remember right, the militia Vietnamese who fought inside Hanoi were named Suicide soldiers, they were there to die, so the main force of Vietnamese could retreat as far into the jungle as possible. One of some very common tactics used in China as well as South East Asia, when a number of troops volunteered to fight to their death to slow down the enemy. They used the same tactic against Mongolian, when they sent forward armies just to slow the Mongolian down, while their main force evacuated civilian as well as scorched the land. In the Siege of Hanoi, the majority of Vietnamese forces blended in with Vietnamese and Chinese civilians (which numbered more than 30000, 30% of them were Chinese) and retreated during the ceasefire. RoC played a major role in early days of Vietnam War, too bad, CCP replaced them.
I would add a few important points rarely discussed: France received $2.4 billion from the US for post-World War II reconstruction through the Marshall Plan, accounting for 18% of the total $13.3 billion allocated to Europe. By contrast, the US provided France with approximately $2.6 billion in material aid for the Indochina War, covering about 80% of the war's total cost. This support was crucial, as the Indochina War started in 1947, a time when France was still grappling with the devastation of World War II. The French population would continue living on food stamps throughout the entirety of the Indochina war, highlighting the prolonged economic struggle within the country during this period. The conflict in Indochina was deeply unpopular in France, often referred to as "la sale guerre" (the dirty war), which limited the French government's political maneuverability. To minimize domestic backlash, nearly all soldiers were recruited from France's other colonies. Furthermore, a mutual fear of communism's global spread united French and American leadership. This shared apprehension significantly motivated the US’s financial and military support for France during the Indochina conflict, reflecting the strategic interests behind the decisions on foreign aid and military support during this era.
Not bad graphics for a 1946 production
Could you please distinguish between casualties and fatalities? Your graphics say casualties but you say "at the cost of... lives". Which is it?
true, fair enough point. Think it is lives in this case iirc
Unfortunetly the US ended up backing the French instead of Ho Chi Minh who had thought the US would continue supporting him. If they hadn't been communist maybe the US would have gone a different route but still the US-Vietnam war ended up being a huge mistake for the US. An unnecessary political war that just ended up pushing Vietnam away for decades. From my understanding the Vietnamese had good feeling towards the US before the war.
Bạn sai rồi là mỹ đã bỏ qua Ho Chi Minh và giúp pháp , nên Ho Chi Minh chọn cộng sản , nhưng sự thật Vietnam mang hình thức chủ nghĩa dân tộc
Ho was a huge admirer of the American way, he even was ready to accept democracy, but they choose France instead...
Similar thing happen in indonesia then dutch east indies. With the british helping the dutch to establish the pre war status quo and it's colony. The dutch like the french also failed in their goal.
Thanks for the video. It should be mentioned that President Truman ordered the US Merchant Marine to transport French troops to Saigon for the French re-enslavement of that country. Sailors in the Merchant Marine objected and protested against that action.
So if the French just cut their losses early. The US wouldn’t have had an excuse to go into Vietnam?
Several countries, including South Vietnam, had plenty of opportunities to give in to Ho Chi Min. They each decided that the prospect of beating him was more important. Maybe they were correct, maybe they weren't.
In a more perfect world, France would have agreed to just rebuild France, as the US wanted. Ho Chi Minh could have been independent.
@@gvibration1Everyone is trying to find the best outcome for itself you must be foolish to believe that the common interest are the ones of the US. Also Vietminh and Ho chi min won’t have ever been a problem if the us had not chosen to support them instead of French forces during WW2 since their goal wasn’t only to fight the Japanese but also to make sure to undermined French claims, this has lead them towards the Vietnam war and I call it Karma
@@ethanw.1021 better karma would have been an independent Vietnam by the late 40s.
@@Septimus_iiThis is certainly not true. The government of South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam - RVN) had every opportunity to go through a DEMOCRATIC REFERENDUM along with DRVN, to form a single democratic government to represent the unified Vietnam, in fact, this referendum was guaranteed by the Geneva Accords, because the partial division of Vietnam was supposed to be temporary for only 2 years for the French to peacefully withdraw, and the referendum was supposed to end the partition and unify the country under a single democratic government. But the leader of RVN at that time, Ngo Dinh Diem, was extremely unpopular, he oppressed the Buddhists in a Buddhist majority country, so he wouldn't win any free election and he knew that. So he refused to let South Vietnamese participating in the referendum, then rigged his own election to make him the President of RVN. RVN didn't have a single fair election in their entire existence btw, South Vietnam was never a democracy. So peaceful resolution of Vietnam was out of the question because RVN under the dictatorship of Ngo Dinh Diem would not allow that. This came as a big blow to Ho Chi Minh with in the Politburo because he put all his chips in this peaceful resolution, when it proved to be impossible, he lost all his power to the radical communist faction led by Le Duan, who took over soon after. Ho Chi Minh was only a figure head in the Vietnam war.
This video omitted the role of Emperor Bảo Đại (or belittle him simply as "puppet" with no independent will), it was his own decision to abdicate his throne and also to proclaim the end of Nguyễn Dynasty. He could just flee somewhere or pass the throne to his offsping if he really wanted to, and most importantly he and his dynasty was still under the protection of Japanese army, at that time Viet Minh was no match for the Japanese. Only during the disarming of Japanese troops by Republic of China force later, Viet Minh managed to collect some Japanese weapons to bolster their strength in the later fight against the French. Bảo Đại's intention by ending the Nguyễn Dynasty is that, by doing so, any past accord/agreement between the French and Nguyễn Dynasty would no longer be valid. The new DRV government was formed not only by Viet Minh alone, there were nationalist parties like Việt Cách, Việt Quốc (Vietnam Koumintang), Đại Việt (Great Vietnam)... "The motto of Independence - Freedom - Happiness of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, despite its communist political background, was also taken from the Three Principles of People [of the Koumintang]". In the beginning, DRV was a multi party state. But soon after, Hồ Chí Minh (whose new 1943 pseudonym is after a Chinese Koumintang general - 侯志明 (1896～1980)) signed that March 6th Accord, which agreed to bring Vietnam back into French colonialism, a decision which outraged both the nationalists and Bảo Đại (now known as Supreme Counselor Vĩnh Thụy in Hồ's government). Since Hồ is the President at that time (while Việt Quốc leader Nguyễn Hải Thần was only Vice President), his influence is strong enough for the accord to be signed anyway, but there is still bitter ongoing argument between Viet Minh and other nationalist groups, and Bảo Đại left Hồ's gorvernment. To eliminate the risk, Viet Minh launched suprise raid into other nationalist parties' headquarters in Hà Nội, arrest and eliminate them, the incident known as "Ôn Như Hầu Street case", completely purged the nationalists out of the DRV government, effectively turned the DRV from a multi party system into a one party ruled. After attacking the French on 19-12-1946, Viet Minh quickly withdrew to Việt Bắc (areas including 6 rural northern-most provinces of Vietnam). This left Vietnam in a state of no functioning government, so Bảo Đại had to return to discuss with the French a new solution, which is to form the State of Vietnam, served by Vietnam nationalists who had survived Viet Minh's previous raids and assassination attemps. One of the most important conditions is that French must help Vietnam create its own army, in which Vietnamese troops must be led by Vietnamese officers. Before 1945, all Vietnamese troops were led by French officers. For the record, French did allow Vietnamese to climb the rank of officer, on the condition that Vietnamese officers must join French Army and lead French troops (Captain Đỗ Hữu Vị, Major Nguyễn Văn Hinh, Colonel Nguyễn Văn Xuân...), while Vietnamese soldiers in the colonial force are led by French officers only, for fear that Vietnamese officers will lead Vietnamese troops to revolt against the French. After Élysée Accords 1949, France granted independence to State of Vietnam (and the US also supported this) and agreed to allow Vietnam nationalist-led government to have their own army with Vietnamese officers. Meanwhile, Communist China recognized Viet Minh on 18/01/1950 and started to support them with heavy weapons which led to the forever escalation of war in Indochina.
Small correction - The Chinese consul's name should be spelled Yuan Zijian, not Yuan Zi Jian.
Team Vietnam where yall at
it's interesting to see foreigners more into our history than ourselves
More videos on the colonial war between the french and Vietnamese please And the Suez Crisis
It’s a shame that America decided to back the weak french government* instead of the DRV which clearly had the popular support of the Vietnamese and even followed American principles. The Free world could had an reliable and free partner in the Indochina region, but instead they got a three decade long war and an marxist communist party that still rules today. *France was rebuilding at home at this time and would had been in little position to negatively react if the then all powerful America supported the DRV.
America didn't back the French, they just weren't willing to declare war on France over Indochina.
I just wrote that perfect world scenario above. De Gaulle was a serious megalomaniac. He would have caused trouble. Remember, he pulled France out of NATO at one stage.
Best part is: The french, after their withdrawal, offered the Americans their operational reports, to help them out with their war. They decided to promptly ignore them.
Credit to you this level of research, however, I would have started the history and background of the colonisation of Vietnam by the French, and calls of nationalism as early as 1911, when 100,000 Indo China natives were conscripted into the French Army and forced to fight in WW1 on the frontlines of France and Germany. Also pre WW2 attempts by Ho Chi Minh for international recognition for independance, including the U.S (who ignored him) and in turn, only strengthened his resolve leading him to found the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930. This then led to him tacking action after the collapse of the Japanese occupation and before the French, with U.S and U.K support, re-occupation of Indo-China.
Amazing how the French screwed up and then we got dragged into it too and screwed up. I'm glad today Vietnam is being more friendly towards the USA.
Now I kinda wanna know what aircraft the French used so soon after the war since Vietnam was probably further down the list with occupation forces and reconstruction of France. Hell not just the planes but weapons
The French blackmailed the US to supply them with material to fight the Viet Minh. France said without their colonies, France may fall into the Soviet sphere, which would have damaged NATO. Imo.
France: Liberation for me, but not for thee
Interesting how ex french resistance fighters later done to Vietnam the same things Germany done to France
They would have seen themselves fighting for France in each case.
Malaysi🇲🇾laughing seeing this video...
10:25 that not old chinese quater lol it hanoi old quater
Didn't know that the Allies used Japanese soldiers to fight the Vietnamese, very interesting!
vietnam also used japanese soldiers and training. many joined
In Vietnamese history, there was no such thing as the Vietnam War. If you want to work on Vietnamese history, make the right call. It was the War against French/American invasion of Vietnam.
10:17 "Old Chinese Quarters"? It is Old Quarters. There is only a few streets that has Chinese immigrants there. And they have moved to Vietnam for generations prior, technically Vietnamese at this point.
Long live Vietnam
non.
This is always fascinating to me. That, just as with Afghanistan, western power supports to win and then takes what they think is theirs. France, and in extension, America, should NEVER have interfered in what was not theirs. End of story. I bet you can imagine the conversations with my father in law, a reserve tank gunner who never saw combat but LOVVVVVEEESSSS to brag about his combat exploits all the time
I used to say bs about french soldiers courage. Then my friend told me about Dien Bien Phu. Never spoke bad about them again.
History repeats itself over and over again. One of the main reasons that Japan started invading his neighbors is because they were getting sanctioned from embargo, and had to do something to not end up in economic ruins. Here France, inciting conflict by embargo
Now I know why Cambodia lost The KhmerKrom land
What happened to the Japanese who defected? Did they stay in Vietnam?
some reach "Colonel" rank in People army of Vietnam, but all of them return back to Japan from 1954 to 1960 about 200 Japanese join Viet Minh, only 128 people alive
@dangminh5330 thank you for the reply 🙏
The US sent France more money to keep their Indochina colony than they gave in the Marshall Plan to rebuild France after WW2.
It only came about because the British allowed the French to return after the surrender of the Japanese WW2..The British have a lot to answer for...
The British were there as part of the clean up from WWII as per their duties to the Allies as part of the Potsdam Declaration. Both Britain and China did as expected of them then buggered off within months as it wasn't their problem. Whilst they were there, despite the various deals and truces the British made, neither the Viet Minh or the French would stick to them. Ironic really that the Japanese turned out to be the easiest party to work with. All the while the British were there, the French bitterly moaned and complained about them adding even more pressure for them to be gone from the region. So I don't see what you can blame them for? They aren't responsible for the basket case situation that existed when they arrived and they weren't responsible for the basket case situation that arose after their departure.
I've said it before, & ill say it again: The French are chodes. De Gualle in particular.
What the hell was france doing in Vietnam anyway?
when you're done with the series, you could do a couple of prequels. starting in august 31. 1858, 1771, 1427, 1225, 1010 and 907. a recurring history of conquest and resistance to explain why colonisation by the french and their support by the u.s. had to fail.
It's more like the same war that the French handed off to the U.S than individual conflicts.
Indochina war.
so the french regular army lost a thousand troops against militia and children? yep this is going to add to france's stereo type.
People always forget that Vietnam was already at war long before America intervened
What people forget? Not the Vietnamese. American history seldom covers all the important happenings outside its own borders. Corporate memory is poor. Americans easily forget what they don't know. The French problem reinstalling control in Indochina wasn't a USA problem until it was defined (erroneous) as a worldwide communist power grab after the French were defeated there. Ho was a Nationalist first and communist second. The American goverment didn't understand that and neither did their people. Still don't.
It was not VN France war. That was a war of VN to fight against France invasions, and VN has won the first war to collapsed colony system on the world
Arguably the Irish in 1921 were the first to reverse the colonial system.
@@CountScarlionithe affection of that war could cover to the world?
@@Hu9n1689It certainly had an effect, especially within the British empire. But then the reason I say "arguably" is there are various reasons that made Ireland's fight for independence atypical of later colonial conflicts. So, its effect on the wider world? Other than it being immensely humiliating for Britain at the time, I'm not sure. With regards to this topic, Hồ Chí Minh was very much inspired from following events in Ireland at the time and apparently burst into tears over hearing of the tenacity of Irish freedom fighters in 1920. So he and other nationalists like him were evidently paying attention. Personally I'd have said India's independence in '47 was the big shockwave that made it clear European dominance in global affairs was over. However for the French don't seem to have been paying attention. The British figured out they were on a losing streak and made plans on decolonisation across their empire in the years following WWII but the French... they just didn't seem to learn. They just kept on fighting stupid pointless wars for years, especially in Indochina and Algeria. I never understood why they did that.
The Vietnamese consider it all part of the same war.
Proof, positive, that there is no problem with French troops....only French leaders.
It was the start of a war, the Viet Minh didn't know much about warfare and battles so they were learning on the job. They were also very poorly equipped, only a percentage of the troops had guns, they had only 1 M1 Bazooka in total and had to rely on Japanese lunge mines for combating armored vehicles.
Awmen videos like these will never reach those ignorant American. They are still being taught about The Vietnam "civil war" lol
Oh the foolish french. T
The french have lost every conflict they've ever been involved in. The white surrender flag is their national flag.
Well that's daft. You don't build the martial reputation France has, and the 6th largest empire in history by losing every conflict. Sure they've had their losses, but only a fool wouldn't realise the French know a thing or two about the art of war.
Conveniently forgetting the first world war, the Napoleonic wars, and the entirety of the 17th century?
@@obesespringroll3997 France did nothing in WW1 that could be called a victory, and Napoleon ultimately lost, twice.
@@GermanShepherd1983 Verdun would be remembered as their greatest moment but they quite literally won WW1? And Napoleon fought against coalitions of much of Europe multiple times and won, often with inferior numbers. He wasn't called the god of war by Clausewitz for nothing
@@obesespringroll3997 France needed the US and Britain to drive the Germans from their country. No way do they win without the rest of the Allies. And I hardly call Waterloo a victory for the Napoleon and the French.
Only disappointment so far is your referring to The Vietnam War as an American Vietnam War. So many different countries were involved. Not just americans.
This video is literally about france
Agreed with Geo, but also the US was far and a way the biggest fighting force in Vietnam.
@@randomotter6346 He’s not saying the US were the only force in Vietnam, he is talking about the US Involvement (1964-1973) which is not the same as the Vietnam war (1955-1975)
NOTE: most french soldiers where North Africans forced to fight for france
France was particularly incapable of grasping that the age of European Empires was over. They wanted everything back as it had been before, and that just wasn't going to happen. They still exert a uniquely malign influence in Africa.