US support to Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh grew. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the CIA, provided considerable intelligence support to them. The Viet Minh bragged to their countrymen that they were the favored Vietnamese political group, which gave them enormous credibility throughout the region. There was truth to the bragging.
The US was at war with the Japanese, it had little use for the French, and the Viet Minh were effective against the Japanese. Furthermore, US policy-makers knew Ho Chi Minh was popular country-wide and that he advocated independence for Vietnam, also advocated by FDR.
By late 1944 it was clear the Japanese would lose their war. Japanese forces were being thrashed on every front. Many of them were redeployed or retreated to Vietnam. The Japanese decided to make a stand there: it held a strategic location, its natural resources, especially rubber, were in great need, the French were no threat, the Chinese had plenty of problems at home, and the US was not sending any major ground forces to the area.
But, when the US took back the Philippines in 1945, the situation changed for the Japanese. While stationed in Vietnam, the Japanese operated with a very long logistics tail, far from the home islands. It had to get supplies through the ports and over roads, rails and trails from China. The USAAF started serious bombing efforts against Japanese targets throughout all Vietnam from the Philippines. The targets, in the main, consisted of Japanese supply lines and ports in Vietnam.
US bombers from the US Third Fleet and from Clark Field in the Philippines pounded Japanese targets, mostly shipping, in Saigon harbor and Danang Harbor. US aircraft were already pounding Hanoi and Haiphong harbor from China. Soon the Japanese were forced to move most supplies by road and rail. US bombers then knocked out strings of railway lines throughout Vietnam, attacking Japan's logistics lines. As a result, the Japanese expected the US to invade Vietnam.
Top: Emperor Bao Dai. Bottom: Ngo Dinh Diem
On March 9, 1945, the Japanese turned against their French "partners" in Vietnam and ended France's colonial rule over Indochina. The Japanese marketed themselves as liberators, and told Emperor Bao Dai he could govern the country as emperor. Bao Dai chose Ngo Dinh Diem as his prime minister, but the Japanese rejected that appointment, seeing Diem as unreliable and lacking in loyalty to Japan. Bao Dai's government was inert. The Japanese effectively ruled the country themselves, though not for long.
It's worth mentioning here that both the French and then the Japanese were ruthless occupiers. The Vietnamese people suffered greatly under their domain, and, as a result, very much wanted to rid themselves of both yokes.
President Ho Chi Minh (noted by red arrow) receives American secret servicemen in a special unit nicknamed "The Deer". Presented by
VietNamNet Bridge.
The US recognized the Viet Minh to be popular with the Vietnamese people, and turned to the Viet Minh for intelligence about the region. The OSS inserted American commando teams to fight the Japanese along with the Viet Minh. American Army and Navy teams cooperated with them to retrieve American Prisoners of War (POWs). One special unit used by the OSS was known as "The Deer." These men parachuted into Tan Trao, the northern-most military base, to establish a Vietnamese-American company to fight the Japanese alongside the Viet Minh.
In April 1945 the Viet Minh military was placed under the command of Vo Nguyen Giap. During this same month, FDR died and Vice President Harry S. Truman became the US president. American policy toward Vietnam would change abruptly and markedly.
In May 1945, President Truman gave France his approval to resume colonial authority in Indochina, which included Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Why the turn-about from FDR?
The growth of anti-communism is the short answer. The evolution of US policy from Truman through Eisenhower and Kennedy was very fluid, almost as though a consensus could not be reached regarding how to proceed. We will try to summarize what happened at a macro level, but urge interested readers to study all this very closely. Many American leaders were very torn about how to handle Vietnam and the decision processes, often conflicting, are tough to follow.
On the one hand, many, many distinguished Americans saw Ho Chi Minh as a patriot and nationalist, one who could easily and effectively lead a united Vietnam. These same Americans wanted Vietnam to be free and independent. The problem was that Ho was also seen as tied tightly to the international communist movement and therefore presented a danger that communism control throughout the world would expand. Indeed Ho himself did not trust the American leadership in Washington.
Truman saw the communists as expansionists and a threat to the US. He wanted to help the French recover from WWII, he wanted to help the British get the rubber plantation and tin businesses going again in the Malay peninsula, and he wanted the French to help in German post-war reconstruction.
Truman signing North Atlantic Treaty proclamation, August 24, 1949. Presented by
Truman Presidential Museum & Library.
Furthermore, the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO was signed in 1949, forming the defensive bulwark against Soviet communism, and France was a founding member.
General Dwight Eisenhower became NATO's first supreme commander in November 1950, eleven months after Ho Chi Minh began his offensive against French troops in Indochina. Ike's headquarters was in Paris.
Both Truman and Eisenhower needed NATO to succeed in war-torn Europe as protection against the Soviet Union. That said, General Eisenhower, like FDR, wanted France to grant Vietnam its independence, very much so, and he worked hard while at NATO trying to make that happen, but could not succeed. The French would not budge, and NATO and Europe had the priority.
Once again, Stanley Kranow said it well:
"I trace the beginning of our involvement back to the Truman administration ... Truman judged that he had to help the French because (Ho Chi Minh's) was a communist-led movement. That’s based on the assumption, which carried through our involvement in Vietnam, that somehow there was a control panel in Moscow, and somebody was pressing buttons, and communists all over the world were part of this international global communist conspiracy."
Despite President Truman's commitment to the French,
the US OSS Deer team parachuted into Ho Chi Minh's camp in August 1945 and marched with Ho into Hanoi where Ho used OSS broadcast facilities to tell his people:
"We beg the United Nations to realize their solemn promise that all nationalities will be given democracy and independence. If the United Nations forget their solemn promise and don't give Indochina full independence, we will keep fighting until we get it."
When WWII ended in September 1945, the Japanese surrendered to the Viet Minh, and not the French. The surrender document of September 2, 1945 stipulated that the Nationalist Chinese forces would disarm the Japanese north of the 16th parallel, the British would do that south of that latitude. Britain, of course, wanted Indochina restored to French rule, not because the Brits admired the French, but instead because they wanted the right to resume colonial rule upheld. Therefore, the British attempted to throw the Viet Minh out of the South, with little result.
The US had always considered the war against Germany to have the priority, and gave post-war Europe a great deal of its attention. Therefore, despite differences between the US and Britain on colonial rule, most senior American officials, Ike included, accepted British primacy when it came to Southeast Asia.
The French returning to Indochina in 1945. Presented by
The peace that wasn't.
With Britain internationally recognized to be in charge in southern Vietnam, the British let French forces return. Ho Chi Minh did not command such international respect. But that did not stop him from launching guerrilla warfare against the French. Understandably, Ho Chi Minh asked for US support. By one well-placed account, he sent Truman three letters, and got no response.
Despite all this international maneuvering, and despite the lack of international respect for Ho's ambitions for a free and united Vietnam, the reality on the ground was that, in Vietnam, Ho held the cards. The Viet Minh's political structure was spread throughout all Vietnam. Japan had surrendered, it had earlier removed the French from governance, China and the US were busy, and the Viet Minh were left as the only organized national entity to run things throughout the land. Furthermore, Ho was popular with the Vietnamese people.
President Ho Chi Minh delivering his address in Hanoi on September 2, 1945. Presented by
The Australian National University.
On September 2, 1945, a band marched through Hanoi playing the Star Spangled Banner. US Colonel Archimedes Patti, an OSS officer, stood side by side with Viet Minh General Vo Nguyen Giap as Ho Chi Minh, using sections from the American Declaration of Independence, declared Vietnam independent of everyone, and declared it united:
"For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government, representing the whole Vietnamese people, declare that from now on we break off all relations of a colonial character with France; we repeal all the international obligation that France has so far subscribed to on behalf of Vietnam and we abolish all the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired in our Fatherland. The whole Vietnamese people, animated by a common purpose, are determined to fight to the bitter end against any attempt by the French colonialists to reconquer their country."
Even prior to the end of WWII, the French announced plans for a federation of Indochina within the French Union, with greater self-government for the various states. The federation was accepted in Cambodia and Laos. In 1945, however, Vietnamese nationalists, demanded the complete independence of Annam, Tonkin, and Cochin China as Vietnam. In April 1946, the Chinese and British occupation of Indochina terminated. The US told France that all of Indochina had reverted to French control.
Group of Viet Minh soldiers, date unknown. Photo credit SHET. Presented by
"The Development of the Viet Minh Military Machine."
There was some intense friction between the OSS and the White House, with many OSS leaders urging Truman to support Ho Chi Minh and build a democracy in Vietnam. At the time, this was referred to as the "colonial issue," the same one raised by FDR, who adamantly opposed a return of French rule and advocated an independent Vietnam. Following WWII, however, that idea would not sell, in part because of Ho's long communist background. Even those Americans who supported him agreed he was an avowed communist, but argued, "So what?", asserting US support to Ho was in the US national interest, putting the US on the right side of the "colonial issue."
