Still a quagmire after all these years .... i think you're right, Mike, there's too much 40-years-ago Indochina being thrown around in this election in place of the more important 18-months-ago-to-now Iraq .... it's a proxy war, of course Viet Nam always was a proxy war, in that sense nothing fundamental has changed .... as for your former/latter choice, watch out, because if Iraq2003 is WWII then the one who rolled tanks across borders not his own is not the one you'd like him to be .... never mind the superficial, Saddam being the one with facial hair, we're looking for who was Mr Unilateral Tank-Roller of the day
Anyway, the campaign has spoken, Iraq is Viet Nam, that's just the way it is ..... and not illogically, as the same core question applies - Did there really need to be a Viet Nam War? ..... i don't think there was such a need, post-1945, neither did the viet minh, who had helped to beat off the japanese and vichy french, and begged Truman for at least moral support in their drive to independence ...... here's a timeline that provides some google terms, for those not aware of how indochinese events developed as they did -
' 1940
Franco-Japanese treaty. In a pact with the Japanese, the Vichy French appoint the Indochinese Government of Admiral Jean Decoux. Japanese occupy Vietnam.
1941
Ho Chi Minh returns to Vietnam and forms the League for the Independence of Vietnam which becomes known as the Viet Minh. Japan occupies Vietnam. The Viet Minh resist Japanese occupation with the help of the United States and China.
1942
The Chinese Nationalists set up the Vietnam Revolutionary League(Dong Minh Hoi) as an anti-communist movement. Ho Chi Minh imprisoned in China by the Nationalists. Ho convinces the Nationalists that he is a Nationalist first and a communist second, his efforts aimed at China's enemies, the Japanese. Ho is set free and given command of the Dong Minh Hoi. Ho returns to Vietnam and rejoins the Viet Minh under Vo Nguyen Giap. French repression continues.
1944
The Viet Minh is supported by the United States Office of Strategic Services(OSS and forerunner to the CIA) with arms and funds.
1945
March 9 - Japanese overthrow the Vichy French Decoux Government. An "independent" Vietnam, with Emperor Bao Dai as nominal ruler, is proclaimed by Japanese occupation authorities.
April - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies.
April 30 - Major Archimedes Patti US Office of Strategic Services(OSS) . meets with Ho Chi Minh. Ho who shows his support for America and later asks Patti to take this message back to the American people., ".. . that the Vietnamese loved the Americans; ... tell the Americans that the Vietnamese would never fight the Americans". American arms and instructors support is increased to Ho and Giap.
August13 - Japan Surrenders.
September 2 - The Communist dominated Viet Minh Independence League with the support of United States officials seizes power: Ho Chi Minh establishes the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (GRDV) in Hanoi. General Vo Nguyen Giap . recalls. " Red flags grew in numbers and splendor, fluttering in the wind and splashing the houses and streets like a festival for the oppressed". Ho Chi Minh writes several letters to US President Harry Truman requesting recognition, citing the Atlantic Charter and then the United Nations Charter on self-determination. He received no response. Emperor Bao Dai abdicates.
Potsdam Conference - Chinese Nationalists accept surrender of Japanese Occupation Forces north of the 16th parallel. The British are to accept surrender south of the line under British Major General Douglas Gracey's 20th Indian Division, some 26,000 men in all. British General Gracey arrives in Siagon(South Vietnam) which is in turmoil and releases 1400 French paratroopers who go on a rampage of looting and bashings.The defeated Japanese forces are re-armed to assist and restore order.The Viet Minh respond by calling a national strike and organize a guerrilla campaign against the French.
September 23 - French troops return to Vietnam and clash with Communist and Nationalist forces and seize power in the south, with British help.
September 24. General Jacque Philippe Leclerc arrives in Siagon and Declares, " We have come to claim our inheritance". The first Indo-China War of 1946 - 1954, had begun.
October. A purely bilateral British/French agreement recognizes French administration of the southern zone.
In the North 180,000 Chinese troops go on a "rampage". Ho's Viet Minh are hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with it. Ho Chi Minh accepts an Allied compromise for temporary return of 15,000 French troops to rid the North of anti-Communists. The Chinese troops of Chiang flee to Taiwan, looting as they depart.
Ho Chi Minh - "We want America's moral support. We ask for nothing else" "Why doesn't the United States gives us moral support". An OSS reports an extraordinary statement attributed to Ho Chi Minh. The OSS quoted Ho as saying,"although he formerly favored Communist ideals, he now realized that such ideals were impracticable for his country, and that his policy now was one of republican nationalism". It would be some 10,000 days later before the American public would learn of this.
November - Ho attempts a compromise with the French by dissolving the Indochinese Communist Party.
December - France provoke war with the DRV and re-install Bao Dai over a central government
1946
March 6 - France recognizes the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a free state within the Indochinese Federation and French Union. French - Vietnam Agreement signed.
June 1 - French High Commissioner for Indochina, Admiral d'Argenlieu, proclaims Cochinchina China an autonomous republic, in fact, a French puppet state.
July 6. Viet Minh and French meet in Paris for negotiations. Talks break down.
August 27. French President De Gaulle declares, " France is a great power. Without the overseas territories which she would be in danger of no longer being one". French policy was now clear.
October 15 - French forces attempt to reassert their authority in Haiphong and to prevent military supplies from reaching the Viet Minh.
November 20. Fighting breaks out between French and Viet Minh at Haiphong.
November 23. French bombard Hiaphong and occupy it, killing 6,000 Vietnamese civilians. Ho appeals to the US for the last time .."to support independence".
December 19 -The Viet Minh under Giap initiate the eight-year Indochina War with an attack on French troops at Haiphong. '
hotkey.net.au |
