1 Nations Fight for Control of Indochina Colonies World War II 1939 1945 left countries everywhere in tatters The war's destruction was vast France Though weakened by World War II France had the aid of troops from southern Vietnam In 1950 the scraped through on the side of the United States threw its support Allies But it had lost control of its behind France as well US President Harry S Truman wanted to help colonies in Asia during the war Known as French Indochina these prevent the spread of communism colonies included Vietnam Laos China had become a communist and Cambodia After the war ended country in 1949 Truman did not France wasted no time trying to want to see the same thing reclaim the colonies happen in Vietnam He feared that if the Many Vietnamese did not want to return to French French soldier colonial rule Instead in Saigon on September 2 1945 Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam s independence Ho was a communist He wanted to see a revolution in Vietnam He promised freedom human rights and democracy His army the Viet Minh prepared for war They wanted to remove the French from Vietnam In 1946 this sparked the First Indochina War 4
17th A LEADER FOR VIETNAM Parallel line north of the equator at which Vietnam was divided in the Geneva Accords Ho Chi Minh was born with the name Nguyen Tat Thanh on May 19 1890 He left Vietnam in 1911 to seek work in France He helped found the French Communist France wanted to reclaim the colonies it lost during World War II Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam's independence and prepared for war The First Indochina War lasted seven and a half years Peace agreements were signed on July 20 and 21 1954 Party in 1920 Then he traveled to Moscow to study communism When the Japanese took Vietnam in World War II Ho returned home He founded the Viet Minh to fight for independence He also adopted a new name Ho Chi Minh It means Bringer of Light Peace agreements were signed Viet Minh won the war it would pave on July 20 and 21 1954 These the way for communism to spread international agreements were throughout Asia known as the Geneva Accords With US guns and supplies the French held control of the One of them gave Vietnam two temporary governments The Communist Democratic Republic of Vietnamese city of Saigon But the Viet Minh were unwilling to accept Vietnam controlled the North The noncommunist Associated State of Vietnam controlled the South The defeat Aided by Communist China they assaulted the French troops The war raged for years In the spring of 1954 the Viet Minh held a siege on the French base at Dien Bien Phu After 55 days the French agreement also promised elections would be held in 1956 Government officials hoped these elections would once again unite surrendered Vietnam 5
2 Ho Chi Minh Establishes a Communist Vietnam Ho Chi Minh governed the northern meant to create equality Instead part of Vietnam It became a they were used to treat people communist country As president Ho harshly banned all noncommunist political The most notable was the land parties He also put in place many communist reforms These were reform program It started in 1953 The government took privately owned land Then it gave the land to peasants Landlords were publicly shamed They had their possessions taken from them They were often forced to do menial jobs in labor camps Many landlords were beaten and abused Many of them were executed Approximately 15 000 landowners were killed during the land reforms A further 50 000 to 100 000 were deported or imprisoned Still Ho hoped to unite Vietnam under his control But the 1956 In 1930 Ho Chi Minh helped found the Indochinese Communist Party 6
elections promised Ngo Dinh Diem declared himself president of South Vietnam in the Geneva Accords never took place Ngo Dinh Diem was the president of South Vietnam He strongly opposed communism He argued the Communists would never hold a fair election Diem asked for the United Nations to supervise the elections to ensure they would be fair But the Communists objected With US support Diem refused to take part in an unsupervised election That same year Diem ended local elections in his own country He suppressed his political rivals And he became more and more 10 000 unpopular It did not take long for many South Vietnamese to start rebelling They rose up against the government Diem called them the Viet Cong The name was short for Viet Nam Cong San In English this means Vietnamese Number of Viet Cong troops by 1960 Communists But few rebels were part of the Communist Party By the early 1960s discontent was widespread The Viet Cong threatened to topple Diem's government Ho Chi Minh established a communist North Vietnam Ho wanted to unite Vietnam under his control with the 1956 elections South Vietnam's Ngo Dinh Diem refused to take part in elections The Viet Cong wanted to overthrow Diem 7
