History
1. History of Vietnam from the French War ( 1858 - 1945, & 1945 - 1954 )
|
French domination period (1857-1945) | |
On
August 31, 1858, a French naval squadron attacked Danang, launching several episodes of a war of colonial conquest waged by French imperialism between 1858 and 1884 and resulting in the total annexation of the country.
| |
Independent Vietnam (since 1945) | |
In the summer of 1945, popular discontent reached a climax and revolutionary action involving both political and armed struggle proliferated throughout the country, from north to south, in villages and cities, and among the ethnic minorities in the mountainous regions.
|
When World War II ended and Japan surrendered, the Vietnamese were successful in gaining independence in the August 1945 Revolution. President Ho Chi Minh read the Independence Manifesto to declare the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam at
Ba Dinh Square on September 2, 1945
. In the summer of 1945, the French government took a series of urgent measures aimed at re-establishing French sovereignty in
Indochina following Japan
's defeat. On August 16, France dispatched the Mass Unit and the 9th Colonial Infantry Division with General Leelere as commander-in-chief of the Expeditionary Corps and Admiral Thierry d'Argenlieu, a Catholic, as High Commissioner for
France in
Indochina.
On August 23, French troops, among them Cedile, a delegate from the High Commissioner, were parachuted into Nam Bo (southern Vietnam
). On August 29, Cedile made contact with members of the Nam Bo Revolutionary Committee and told them
France recognized neither Vietnam
's Independence nor its unity. The committee told him that independence and unity had already been achieved, and that the
Vietnamese people would not recognize any form of colonial administration. On September 2, during a huge demonstration in favour of independence, French colonialists and their agents, hiding in church, opened fire on the crowd, killing and injuring 47 people.
On the night of September 22, French troops attacked Saigon
. The war for reconquest had begun. The Nam Bo committee immediately called on the people to fight back. The slogan "independence or death" appeared every where. On September 26, president Ho Chi Minh made the following
proclamation. "Let the Government and our people throughout the country do all they can for the combatants and people of the south who are valiantly fighting their lives to safeguard the independence of the homeland."
Units of the People's Army immediately began the march towards the south.
At the end of January 1946, deploying their armored vehicles and navy, the French occupied Nam Bo's main cities and communication routes and those of the southern part of Trung Bo and the
Central Highlands
. After an unequal fight, the Vietnamese force pulled out of the cities to begin organizing the resistance in rural areas. The main resistance bases were situated in the Plain of Reeds, the Thanh Phu region,
Ben Tre
Province, the swampy region of U Minh and the western provinces of Nam Bo,
Vietnam's central government considered that the main task at that time was to strengthen the resistance in the south as much as possible.
This task provoked incidents in Vietnam's capital city. On December17, an attack by French troops on
Hang Bun Street killed a hundred people. On December 18, the French Troops occupied the Ministries of Finance and Communications, and increased their provocation in the streets. On December 19, the French command sent an ultimatum to the Vietnamese government demanding the demolition of barricades, the disarming of self-defense forces, and handing over to French troops of the right to keep order in the Vietnamese capital.
On the evening of December 19
1946, President Ho Chi Minh made an appeal to the nation:
" Compatriots' We want peace, and we have made concessions. But the more concessions we make, the more the French colonialists use them to encroach upon our rights. They are determined to reconquer our country.
No. We would rather sacrifice all than lose our independence and be enslaved. All of you, men and women, young and old, what ever your region, ethnic origin, or political opinion, arise to struggle against French colonialism and save the homeland. Let those who have guns use their guns, those who have swords use their swords, those have neither guns nor swords use hoes, pick-axes, and sticks. Let all arise to oppose colonialism and defend our homeland.... Our people will win".
The war of resistance, until then limited to the south, spread across the country. The newly born Democratic Republic of Vietnam was confronted with a decisive
challenge, a war against a heavily armed imperialist power far superior in strength in the technical and economic fields.
The First War of Resistance (1945-1954)
The war of resistance against French colonialist
aggression which broke out on September 25 1945 in Nam Bo, and spread throughout the country after December 19 1946, marked a decisive stage in an almost century-long struggle to regain the nation's independence and democratize the country. While armed struggle came ahead of all other concerns, economic reconstruction, educational advancement, and the establishing of new administrative structures remained as the major tasks. While national liberation was the prime objective, the democratic objectives were no less important, all the more so since the struggle was led by a party of the working class and the fact that the worker-peasant alliance constituted the very foundations of the united national front.
Under the leadership of the Indochina Communist Party and President Ho, the Vietnamese carried out a resistance struggle to
protect their independence. The victory of Dien Bien Phu ended the Vietnamese resistance war, liberating half of the country.
It was in this revolutionary atmosphere that the Vietnamese command decided its plans for the winter-spring campaign of 1953-1954. As had been foreseen, the fierce assaults launched by the enemy into the liberated areas at Lang Son and Ninh Binh brought poor results, and the French forces soon
withdrew after sustaining heavy losses. Throughout the 1953-1954 winter-spring campaign, fighting had been fierce on all fronts.
The defeats at Dien Bien Phu and in the winter-spring campaign completed the French government to sue for peace.
The Geneva Conference on
Korea and Indochina opened on April 26. Eight states participated in the conference: The Democratic Republic of Vietnam,
France, the Soviet Union
, Britain, the People's Republic of China
, the United States, Cambodia
and Laos, plus the Bao Dai government.
The principal negotiators were France, Vietnam
and China. The US
was there primarily to try to sabotage the conference. The signed agreements included military and political provisions. Militarily, it was decided that the forces from each side would be regrouped into two different zones, north and south of the 17th parallel, so as to separate the armies which, given the special nature of the war, had been interlocked like "two combs". A 300 days deadline was agreed on for achieving this re-groupment.
Politically, the agreements recognized the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the three countries of
Indochina. In no way was the demarcation line along the 17th parallel to be considered as a political frontier. In July 1956, at the latest, free general elections with secret ballots would give
Vietnam a unified government.
Pending reunification, Vietnam's two zones would refrain from joining any military alliance. No foreign military bases could be set up and no new foreign military equipment or personnel could be brought in either.
Building the initial foundations of socialism and the struggle against U.S.
Neo-Colonialism (1954-1973)
The agreement stipulated that the southern half of Vietnam would be handed over to a provisional administration after two years at the most, and that general elections in 1956 at the latest, would give a united
Vietnam a single government.
However, soon after the agreement were signed, Washington, with French government consent, set up a neo-colonialist regime in southern Vietnam with specific counter-revolutionary aims: liquidate the national revolutionary movement in southern Vietnam, turn the latter into a military base and colony of the US and set up a military and police apparatus to serve as an instrument for the enslavement of the south and reconquest of the north.
The North was led by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam where the reconstruction of the nation would start. In the South, the war for national liberation was still going on, which lasted for 20
years. There were three definable stages during the period 1954-1975
- 1954-1965: the establishment of the initial foundations of socialism in the north, and the southern Vietnamese people's struggle against repression and the neo-colonialist war;
- 1965-1973: the
all-out struggle by north and south against direct US aggression, which ended with the signing of the Paris Agreements of January 1973;
- 1973-1975: the collapse of the neo-colonialist regime in the south.
The Great Spring 1975 Victory
The General Assault of Ho Chi Minh's Campaign overthrew the Saigon Government on the evening of April 30, 1975.
On May 1, 1975
, the workers and citizens of Vietnam, from North to South, were able to celebrate May Day in a completely liberated country for the first time ever.
Vietnam has been unified since that time. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, with
Hanoi as the capital, was born.
Since Reunification The entire nation overcame the grave consequences of 30 years of war and started rebuilding the country. Now,
Vietnam is entering a new stage of economical development and is striving to raise the annual income per capita, solidify the economy.
Wikipedia Version of the Vietnam War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#column-one
|