Viet Minh
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Lien Viet at end of World War II, which was itself absorbed into the Lao Dong in 1951.) | |
Location | |
---|---|
Chairman | Ho Chi Minh |
Military leader | Võ Nguyên Giáp |
Publication | Cứu Quốc (National Salvation) |
The Việt Minh (Vietnamese:
The Việt Nam Độc lập Vận động Đồng minh Hội was previously formed by Hồ Học Lãm in
The political leader of Việt Minh was Hồ Chí Minh. The military leadership was under the command of Võ Nguyên Giáp. Other founders were Lê Duẩn and Phạm Văn Đồng.
The Việt Nam Độc lập Đồng minh is not to be confused with the Việt Nam Cách mệnh Đồng minh Hội (League for the Vietnamese Revolution, abbreviated as Việt Cách) which was founded by Nguyễn Hải Thần. Việt Cách later joined the Vietnamese National Coalition in 1946.
World War II
During World War II, Japan occupied French Indochina. As well as fighting the French in the battles of Khai Phat and Na Ngan, the Việt Minh started a campaign against the Japanese. For instance, a raid at Tam Dao internment camp in Tonkin on July 19, 1945 saw 500 Viet Minh kill fifty Japanese soldiers and officials, freeing French civilian captives and escorting them to the Chinese border. The Viet Minh also fought the Japanese 21st Division in Thai Nguyen, and regularly raided rice storehouses to alleviate the ongoing famine. [7]
As of the end of 1944, the Việt Minh claimed a membership of 500,000, of which 200,000 were in Tonkin, 150,000 in Annam, and 150,000 in Cochinchina.[8][9] After the Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina, the Viet Minh and ICP prolifically expanded their activities. They formed national salvation associations (cuu quoc hoi) that, in Quang Ngai province alone, enlisted 100,000 peasants by mid-1945. This was backed by the Vanguard Youth (Thanh Nien Tien Phong) in Cochinchina, which expanded to 200,000 by early summer. In the northern provinces of Việt Bắc, their armed forces seized control, after which they distributed lands to the poor, abolished the corvee, established quoc ngu classes, local village militias, and declared universal suffrage and democratic freedoms. [10]
Due to their opposition to the Japanese, the Việt Minh received funding from the
First Indochina War
Within days, the Chinese Kuomintang (Nationalist) Army arrived in Vietnam to supervise the repatriation of the Imperial Japanese Army. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam therefore existed only in theory and effectively controlled no territory. A few months later, the Chinese, Vietnamese and French came to a three-way understanding. The French gave up certain rights in China, the Việt Minh agreed to the return of the French in exchange for promises of independence within the French Union, and the Chinese agreed to leave. Negotiations between the French and Việt Minh broke down quickly. What followed was nearly ten years of war against France. This was known as the First Indochina War or, to the Vietnamese; "the French War".
The Việt Minh, who were short on modern military knowledge, created a military school in
The Việt Minh continued fighting against the French until 1949, when the border of China and Vietnam was linked together as a result of the campaign called Chiến dịch Biên giới ("Borderland Campaign"). The newly communist
North Vietnam and the end of the Viet Minh
Following their defeat at the
The Geneva Accords promised elections in 1956 to determine a national government for a united Vietnam. Neither the United States government nor Ngô Đình Diệm's State of Vietnam signed anything at the 1954 Geneva Conference. With respect to the question of reunification, the non-communist Vietnamese delegation objected strenuously to any division of Vietnam, but lost out when the French accepted the proposal of Việt Minh delegate
The United States believed Ho Chi Minh would win the nationwide election proposed at the Geneva Accords. In a secret memorandum, Director of CIA Allen Dulles acknowledged that "The evidence [shows] that a majority of the people of Vietnam supported the Viet Minh rebels."[17] Diem refused to hold the elections by citing that the South had not signed and were not bound to the Geneva Accords and that it was impossible to hold free elections in the communist North.[18] Vietnam wide elections never happened and Việt Minh cadres in South Vietnam launched an insurgency against the government. North Vietnam also occupied portions of Laos to assist in supplying the insurgents known as the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) in South Vietnam. The war gradually escalated into the Second Indochina War, more commonly known as the "Vietnam War" in the West and the "American War" in Vietnam.[19]
Khmer Việt Minh
The Khmer Việt Minh were the 3,000 to 5,000
The Khmer Issarak and United Issarak Front were instrumental in the foundation of the Cambodian Salvation Front (FUNSK) in 1978. The FUNSK invaded Cambodia along with the Vietnamese Army and overthrew the Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot state. Many of the Khmer Việt Minh had married Vietnamese women during their long exile in Vietnam.[22]
Laotian Việt Minh
However Laotian communists rejected the French offer and fought side by side with Vietnamese communists during the First Indochina War. In 1950 Lao Issara was renamed to Pathet Lao (Laos Nation) under leadership of Souphanouvong, Kaysone Phomvihane, Phoumi Vongvichit, etc.
See also
- Viet Cong
- Pathet Lao
- Khmer Issarak
- History of Vietnam
- August Revolution
- Communist Party of Vietnam
- History of the Communist Party of Vietnam
Notes
- A.^ While the Viet Minh was absorbed into "Democratic Republic of Vietnamafter the defeat of the French.
References
- ^ Phạm Hồng Tung: Tìm hiểu thêm về Mặt trận Việt Minh. Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Lịch sử, số 2 năm 2000.
- ^ PV (17 November 2011). "Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam: Chặng đường 80 năm vẻ vang". Dân trí.
- ^ Thương Huyền (19 May 2021). "Mặt trận Việt Minh – biểu tượng của khối đại đoàn kết toàn dân tộc". Báo Điện tử Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam.
- ^ Nguyen, Sai D. "The National Flag of Viet Nam" (PDF). Vpac-usa.org. pp. 212–213. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 May 2005. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
- ^ "The Viet Minh". Alpha History. 2019.
- OCLC 907585907.
- ^ Hanyok, Robert (1995). "Guerillas in the Mist: COMINT and the Formation and Evolution of the Viet Minh 1941–45". (p. 107)
- ^ The Pentagon Papers (1971), Beacon Press, vol. 1, p. 45.
- ^ United States. Department of Defense (1971). United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: Study. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. B4. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
- ^ Cima, R.J (1987). Vietnam: A Country Study. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. p. 49.
- ISBN 978-1-5026-2666-0. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-19-971812-2. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
- ^ The Pentagon Papers (1971), Beacon Press, vol. 3, p. 134.
- ^ The Pentagon Papers (1971), Beacon Press, vol. 3, p. 119.
- ^ a b The Pentagon Papers (1971), Beacon Press, vol. 3, p. 140.
- ^ Annie Jacobsen, "Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins," (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2019), p. 110
- ^ Annie Jacobsen, "Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins," (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2019), p. 109
- ^ Keylor, William. "The 20th Century World and Beyond: An International History Since 1900," p. 371, Oxford University Press: 2011.
- ^ "BBC News". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
- ^ "Library of Congress / Federal Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbook Series / Cambodia / Appendix B". Lcweb2.loc.gov. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
- ^ Ben Kiernan. How Pol Pot came to power, Yale University Press, 2004, p. 227
- ISBN 978-974-9575-34-5
- ^ "Viet Min". Encyclopedia Britannica. 11 February 2022. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
Further reading
- Tran Ngoc Hung (1954). "The Role of the Indo-Chinese Communist Party in the Evolution of the Viet-Minh: 1945 to 1951". The Australian Quarterly. 26 (3): 87–98. JSTOR 20633465.