By September 1946, tensions had risen between French and Viet Minh forces, which led to armed threats and provocations. The Viet Minh (“League for the Independence of Vietnam”; Vietnamese: Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội) was a merger of Vietnamese nationalist/independene movements led by the Indochinese Communist Party which sought the end of French colonial rule. In November 1946, fighting broke out in Haiphong when French port authorities seized a Chinese junk, but were in turn fired upon by the Viet Minh. The French first demanded that the Viet Minh yield control of Haiphong, and then bombarded the city using naval and ground artillery, and air strikes. The French gained control of Haiphong, expelling the Viet Minh, with 6,000 civilians killed in the fighting.
(Taken from First Indochina War – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia)
Background On August 14, 1945, Japan announced its acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, marking the end of the Asia-Pacific theatre of World War II (the European theater of World War II had ended earlier, on May 8, 1945). The sudden Japanese capitulation left a power vacuum that was quickly filled by the Viet Minh, which in the preceding months, had secretly organized so-called “People’s Revolutionary Committees” throughout much of the colony. These “People’s Revolutionary Committees” now seized power and organized local administrations in many towns and cities, more particularly in the northern and central regions, including the capital Hanoi. This seizure of power, historically called the August Revolution, led to the abdication of ex-emperor Bao Dao and the collapse of his Japanese-sponsored government.
The August Revolution succeeded largely because the Viet Minh had gained much popular support following a severe famine that hit northern Vietnam in the summer of 1944 to 1945 (which caused some 400,000 to 2 million deaths). During the famine, the Viet Minh raided several Japanese and private grain warehouses. On September 2, 1945 (the same day Japan surrendered to the Allies), Ho proclaimed the country’s independence as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), taking the position of President of a provisional government.
At this point, Ho sought U.S. diplomatic support for Vietnam’s independence, and incorporated part of the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence in his own proclamation of Vietnamese independence. Ho also wrote several letters to U.S. President Harry Truman (which were unanswered), and met with U.S. State Department and OSS officials in Hanoi. However, during the war-time Potsdam Conference (July 17 – August 2, 1945), the Allied Powers (including the Soviet Union) decided to allow France to restore colonial rule in Indochina, but that in the meantime that France was yet preparing to return, Vietnam was to be partitioned into two zones north and south of the 16th parallel, with Chinese Nationalist forces tasked to occupy the northern zone, and British forces (with some French units) tasked to enter the southern zone.
By mid-September 1945, Chinese and British forces had occupied their respective zones. They then completed their assigned tasks of accepting the surrender of, as well as disarming and repatriating the Japanese forces within their zones. In Saigon, British forces disbanded the Vietnamese revolutionary government that had taken over the administration of the city. This Vietnamese government in Saigon, called the “Provisional Executive Committee”, was a coalition of many organizations, including the religious groups Cao Dai and Hoa Hao, the organized crime syndicate Binh Xuyen, the communists, and nationalist organizations. In Cochinchina and parts of Annam, unlike in Tonkin, the Viet Minh had only established partial authority because of the presence of these many rival ideological movements. But believing that nationalism was more important than ideology to achieve Vietnam’s independence, the Viet Minh was willing to work with other groups to form a united front to oppose the return of French rule.
As a result of the British military actions in the southern zone, on September 17, 1945, the DRV in Hanoi launched a general strike in Saigon. British authorities responded to the strikes by declaring martial law. The British also released and armed some 1,400 French former prisoners of war; the latter then launched attacks on the Viet Minh, and seized key government infrastructures in the south. On September 24, 1945, elements of the Binh Xuyen crime syndicate attacked and killed some 150 French nationals, which provoked retaliatory actions by the French that led to increased fighting. British and French forces soon dispersed the Viet Minh from Saigon. The latter responded by sabotaging ports, power plants, communication systems, and other government facilities.
By the third week of September 1945, much of southern Vietnam was controlled by the French, and the British ceded administration of the region to them. In late October 1945, another British-led operation broke the remaining Viet Minh resistance in the south, and the Vietnamese revolutionaries retreated to the countryside where they engaged in guerilla warfare. Also in October, some 35,000 French troops arrived in Saigon. In March 1946, British forces departed from Indochina, ending their involvement in the region.
Meanwhile in the northern zone, some 200,000 Chinese occupation forces, led by the warlord General Lu Han, allowed Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh to continue exercising power in the north, on the condition that Ho include non-communists in the Viet Minh government. To downplay his communist ties, in November 1945, Ho dissolved the ICP and called for Vietnamese nationalist unity. In late 1945, a provisional coalition government was formed in the northern zone, comprising the Viet Minh and other nationalist organizations. In January 1946, elections to the National Assembly were held in northern and central Vietnam, where the coalition parties agreed to a pre-set division of electoral seats.
The Chinese occupation forces were disinclined to relinquish control of northern Vietnam to the French. Chinese officers also enriched themselves by looting properties, engaging in the opium trade in Vietnam and Laos, and running black market operations in Hanoi and Haiphong. However, the Chinese commander also was aware of the explosive nature of the hostile French and Vietnamese relations, while the French and Vietnamese suspected the Chinese of harboring territorial ambitions in northern Vietnam.
But the Chinese Army, which held the real power, also opened negotiations with the French government, which in February 1946, led to an agreement where the Chinese would withdraw from Vietnam in exchange for France renouncing its extraterritorial privileges in China and granting economic concessions to the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam.
In March 1946, Major Jean Sainteny, a French government representative, signed an agreement with Ho, where France would recognize Vietnam as a “free state having its own government, its own parliament, its own army, and its own finances, forming a part of the Indo-china Federation and the French Union”. In exchange, the Viet Minh would allow some 15,000 French troops to occupy northern Vietnam for a period of five years. The agreement also stipulated that the political future of Vietnam, including whether Cochinchina would form part of Vietnam or remain as a French possession, was to be determined through a plebiscite. Soon thereafter, French forces arrived in Hanoi and northern Vietnam. In June 1946, Chinese forces withdrew from Vietnam.
Throughout the summer of 1946 in Dalat (in Vietnam) and Fontainebleau (in France), Ho Chi Minh held talks with French government officials regarding Vietnam’s future. The two sides were so far apart that essentially nothing was accomplished, save for a temporary agreement (a modus vivendi), signed in September 1946, which called for further negotiations. Meanwhile in Saigon, Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu, the French High Commissioner for Indochina, refused to acknowledge that the Ho-Sainteny agreement included Cochinchina. In June 1946, without consulting the French national government, he established the “Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina”, which seriously undermined the ongoing talks in France.
In the summer of 1946, the Viet Minh purged non-communists from its party ranks, effectively restoring the DRV into a fully communist entity. By September 1946, tensions had risen between French and Viet Minh forces, which led to armed threats and provocations. In November 1946, fighting broke out in Haiphong when French port authorities seized a Chinese junk, but were in turn fired upon by the Viet Minh. The French first demanded that the Viet Minh yield control of Haiphong, and then bombarded the city using naval and ground artillery, and air strikes. The French gained control of Haiphong, expelling the Viet Minh, with 6,000 civilians killed in the fighting.