1945.09.02 Archimedes Patti Operational Priority communication on the same day Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam's independence.
″Have had long conference with Prime Minister, Ho Chi Min and he impresses me as sensible, well balanced, politically minded individual. His demands are few and simple namely limited independence, liberation from French rule, right to live as free people in family of nations and lastly right to deal directly with outside world.
He stated that for many years missionary work of propaganda within party, training of youth and preparation for this day has made them ready not necessarily for complete independence but at least the privilege of dying for their ideals. From that I have been these people mean business and am afraid that French will have to deal with them. For that matter will all have to deal with them. French and beginning to recognize this fact and are going to be big about it by offering Viet Minh terms for their independence. On other hand Vietnam is smart enough to see through Machiavellian attitude French here especially Sainteny and have absolutely refused to deal with him.
Annamese are in unique advantage our position in as much as Japs have given them independence so they consider themselves free of any sovereign power and this includes French who have been hiding behind Jap skirts, vichy tactics and passing themselves off as friends of Americans. On whole Viet Minh has full control of situation not only in hands (unreadable) whole of 3 provinces. Their organization is well knit, program clear and their demands on outside world few. They ask they be permitted travel particularly to America particularly for education purposes and that America send technical experts to help them establish those few industries Indochina is capable of exploiting. Prime Minister particularly asked me that American exercise some control over Chinese occupation forces and that Chinese purchase materials and food rather than requisitioning it during occupation period. Furthermore he pointed out and this I have confirmed from other sources Jap and French that due to flood this year famine is imminent and should Chinese depended on Indochinese for their subsistence during occupation period they will all starve plus creating situation where Annamese will be forced to wage war upon Chinese to protect his livelihood and family.
Annamese celebrating Annamese independence day tomorrow with high solemn mass by Catholics and special ritual by Buddhists.″
Under US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the US policy was to remove the French colonists from Indochina,[1], p.57 [a] as the French official Jean Sainteny lamented that he was "face to face with a deliberate Allied maneuver to evict the French from Indochina and that at the present time the Allied attitude is more harmful than that of the Viet-Minh."[1], pp.68-69 [a]
General Wedemeyer’s orders not to aid the French came directly from the War Department. Apparently it was American policy then that French Indochina would not be returned to the French. The American government was interested in seeing the French forcibly ejected from Indochina so the problem of postwar separation from their colony would be easier. . . . While American transports in China avoided Indochina, the British flew aerial supply missions for the French all the way from Calcutta, dropping tommy guns, grenades and mortars.
The US was even supplying "considerable amount of equipment" to the Vietminh using unmarked aircraft and seacraft.[1], p.70 [a]
What he [American writer George K. Tanham] refrains from stating explicitly that all this equipment from Thailand, China, and the Philippines was American equipment, brought in on American aircraft, by American pilots. French reconnaissance pilots brought back aerial photographs of those aircraft parked on Communist-held airstrips at Vinh and Thanh-Hoa, in northern Central Viet-Nam, unmarked except for their serial numbers—and some of those pilots, now discharged and flying in Indochina for civilian airlines, maintain that a small number of the American “privately chartered” aircraft flying at present in behalf of the Lao Government bear the same serial numbers as those identified earlier on the Viet-Minh airfields.
American officers humiliated French prisoners held by the Japanese.[1], p.69 [a]
... the visit of an American officer to one of the grimmer prison camps. When a young French officer cried out to the American to liberate them from their imprisonment, he retorted: “Those fellows must have had a reason for putting you in there. So why don’t you just stay where you are?” ... Humiliation was piled upon humiliation: ... when the official surrender of the Japanese forces in Tongking took place, on September 27, no French flag was flown (although Soviet and Viet-Minh flags were prodigally displayed), and gallant [French] General Alessandri, who in the meantime had returned from Yunnan, was offered seat No. 115 at the ceremony, behind the Viet-Minh leaders (then unrecognized) and a bevy of Chinese junior officers. No Frenchman accepted an invitation to attend the ceremony.
In August 1945, Bao Dai wrote to de Gaulle, imploring the latter to renounce re-establishing the old French colonial "grandeur":
Quote Philippe Devillers
— Bernard Fall
Then due to the reality of the cold war, Roosevelt's successor, US President Harry S. Truman reverted to supporting the French, and by 1954 paid 80% of the cost of the First Indochina War.
Refer to Liggio
French napalm bombs in First Indochina War
French plane pulling up after a dive to drop napalm bombs on Vietminh force ambushing a French battalion. The white streak below the plane, clearly visible against the dark background of trees further behind, was the Napalm bomb that was just dropped. 1953 December.
French napalm bomb exploded over Vietminh force. 1953 December. This image during the (French) First Indochina War, conjuring up the destruction of the napalm on the human flesh,[3] portended what was to come more than ten years later during the (American) Second Indochina War.
In 1995 Vietnam released its official estimate of the number of people killed during the Vietnam War: as many as 2,000,000 civilians on both sides and some 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., lists more than 58,300 names of members of the U.S. armed forces who were killed or went missing in action. Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam, South Korea had more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 350, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen.
In 1962, Dr. Bich[6] laid out an argument to avoid North Vietnam solving its famine problem, due to low yields in its agricultural production as a result of using archaic methods and its ineffective agrarian reform, by conquering the rice-rich South Vietnam.
His main points were (1) South Vietnam should establish a liberal democratic government, and (2) commercial relations with the North to help solve the said famine problem; (3) the South should maintain a non-aligned neutrality that would prevent interference from the North; (4) the South would peacefully negotiate with the North toward a progressive reunification.
A detailed summary of Dr. Bich's article, faithful to his own writing, together with the full article translated into French is available in Nguyen Ngoc Bich (1911-1966): A Biography.[2]
In early 1962, Hanoi was pursuing the neutralization of South Vietnam, similar to the neutralization of Laos, once the latter was successful. But "mounting American support for the regime in Saigon, the collapse of the accords on Laos within weeks after their signing, and the outcome of the Cuban crisis convinced many party members that neutralization of the South and any diplomatic solution to the situation there would not work."[7], p.118
Nguyen, Lien-Hang T. (2012), Hanoi’s War, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
Nguyen-Ngoc-Chau; Vu-Quoc-Loc (2023), Nguyen Ngoc Bich (1911-1966): A Biography, retrieved 21 Mar 2023, Internet Archive, CC-BY-SA 4.0. (Backup copy.) Much of the information in the present article came from this biography, which also contains many relevant and informative photos not displayed here. The version on the Internet Archive will be frequently updated. The older version on Commons remains fixed.
French plane pulling up after a dive to drop napalm bombs on Vietminh force ambushing a French battalion. The white streak below the plane, clearly visible against the dark background of trees further behind, was the Napalm bomb that was just dropped. 1953 December.![French napalm bomb exploded over Vietminh force. 1953 December. This image during the (French) First Indochina War, conjuring up the destruction of the napalm on the human flesh,[3] portended what was to come more than ten years later during the (American) Second Indochina War.](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/French_indochina_napalm_1953-12_1.png/563px-French_indochina_napalm_1953-12_1.png)
French napalm bomb exploded over Vietminh force. 1953 December. This image during the (French) First Indochina War, conjuring up the destruction of the napalm on the human flesh,[3] portended what was to come more than ten years later during the (American) Second Indochina War.
![French napalm bomb exploded over Vietminh force. 1953 December. This image during the (French) First Indochina War, conjuring up the destruction of the napalm on the human flesh,[3] portended what was to come more than ten years later during the (American) Second Indochina War.](https://www.search.com.vn/wiki/en/File:French_indochina_napalm_1953-12_1.png)
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Nguyen Ngoc Bich Street
Signature 1949
Nguyen Ngoc Bich 1931 Ecole polytechnique
Nguyen Ngoc Bich, circa 1933, Ecole polytechnique
Publisher Minh-Tan logo
Nguyen Ngoc Nhut (1918-1952)
Le Temps des Ancêtres: Une famille vietnamienne dans sa traversée du XXe siècle, book cover
Dr. Henriette Bui_signature_1949.png){kind=small}
1945 Aug 16 Deer Team train Vietminh
OSS Deer team training the Viet Minh to use a grenade launcher.
1945 Aug OSS Maj. Allison Thomas and Viet-Minh fighters marching to Hanoi, Aug 1945.
OSS Maj. Archimedes Patti and Vo Nguyen Giap saluted American flag, with a Viet Minh band playing the Star Spangled Banner, 1945 Aug 26, Sunday.
Vo Nguyen Giap gave a welcoming parade to US Maj. Archimedes Patti, head of the US Army intelligence team (OSS), 1945 Aug 26, Sunday.
Vietnam Independence or Death demonstration, August 1945.
Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independence, 1945 Sep 2.
Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap giving a farewell party to the US Army intelligence team (OSS), 1945.
French plane pulling up after a dive to drop napalm bombs on Vietminh force ambushing a French battalion.
French napalm bomb exploded over Vietminh force. 1953 December.
French Marines wading ashore off the coast of Annam (Central Vietnam) in July 1950.
A Viet-Minh suspect captured by a French-Foreign-Legion patrol in 1954.
Vietnamese refugees boarding the US Navy ship LST 516 during Operation Passage to Freedom, October 1954.
The great Vietnamese famine 1944–1945.
1945.09.02 Archimedes Patti Operational Priority communication
de Gaulle visited Truman, 1946 Aug 12
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US Marines wading ashore in Da Nang, Central Vietnam, on 1965 Apr 30
