Why the Viet Minh Won

Why the Viet Minh Won

The Vietminh won, not only because of Mao Zedong’s victory in China, but also because the French military believed that there would be no way the Vietminh could defeat them at the valley of Dien Bien Phu.   The fact of the matter is that the Valley of Dien Bien Phu may have been a great location if the French were not fighting the Vietnamese in their own country.  

For over eighty years, the French ruled Vietnam as three separate districts:   Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin China.   For the entire period, the Vietnamese have struggled against French rule in sporadic uprisings.   In 1940 when France surrendered to Germany, Japan seized control of Vietnam’s economic resources leaving daily administration in the hands of the French.   In their five year tenure in Vietnam, Japanese policies devastated the economy, creating a famine in the North that killed between 1.5 and 2 million people (Young, 2)

Early in 1941, Ho Chi Minh, sensing change disguised himself as a Chinese journalist, went by foot and sampan into southern China, there he met confederates like Pham Van Dong and Vo Nguyen Giap.   He told them to form a broad front of "patriots of all ages and all types, peasants, workers, merchants and soldiers," to fight both the Japanese and the French then collaborating with Japan (Karnow,126).   This new organization, was called the Viet Nam Dong Minh, or the Vietminh.

On August 15, 1945, news of the Japanese surrender reached Vietnam, a few days later, the Viet Minh called for mass rallies in Hanoi and later in Hue and Saigon.   Thousands of peasants poured into the cities from the countryside, demonstrating

their support for the Viet Minh in huge rallies   On the evening of March 9, 1945, they instructed the French governor to place his army under their command.   When he failed to respond, they struck at French garrisons.   On September 2, 1945, Ho faced a crowd of half a million people and proclaimed Vietnam’s independence in the words of the American declaration...