War in Vietnam (1945–1946)
War in Vietnam | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War | ||||||||
A Japanese naval officer surrendering his sword to a British naval lieutenant in Saigon on 13 September 1945 | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Belligerents | ||||||||
Japan | Việt Minh |
Cao Đài
Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
Douglas Gracey Philippe Leclerc |
Hồ Chí Minh Võ Nguyên Giáp Trường Chinh |
Huỳnh Phú Sổ Phạm Công Tắc Lê Văn Viễn Nhất Linh | ||||||
Strength | ||||||||
Unknown number of soldiers | Unknown number of soldiers |
At least 15,000 Hòa Hảo militants[1] Unknown number of Cao Đài and VNQDD forces Some 2,500 Bình Xuyên forces[2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | ||||||||
40 dead "Slightly higher than British casualties" |
British estimation: 2,700 dead (600 by British forces, the rest by French and Japanese) | Unknown |
The 1945–46 War in Vietnam, codenamed Operation Masterdom
Western countries recognise three
The Viet Minh were defeated by the combined British/French/Japanese force, and southern control of Vietnam was reasserted by the French colonial empire, leading to the First Indochina War.
Background
In July 1945 at
After Japan surrendered when Emperor
The concern of the Allies'
In late August 1945, British occupying forces were ready to depart for various Southeast Asian destinations, and some were already on their way, when General Douglas MacArthur caused an uproar at the Southeast Asia Command by forbidding reoccupation until he had personally received the Japanese surrender in Tokyo, which was actually set for 28 August, but a typhoon caused the ceremony to be postponed until 2 September.
There was also chaos in Indochina—the Japanese had conducted a
MacArthur's order had enormous consequences because the delay in the arrival of Allied troops enabled revolutionary groups to fill the power vacuums that had existed in Southeast Asia since the announcement of the Japanese capitulation on 15 August. In Indochina Japanese garrisons officially handed control to Bảo Đại in the North and the United Party in the South. This, however, allowed nationalist groups to take over public buildings in most of the major cities. The
The Allies, including the United States, stated that the French had sovereignty over Indochina, with America in favor of the return of Indochina to the French;[10] but there was no official American animosity towards the Communist-led Viet Minh.[11][12]
MacArthur finally had his ceremony on board the battleship
Chinese forces in northern Vietnam
General Lu Han's 200,000 Chinese soldiers occupied north Vietnam starting August 1945. 90,000 arrived by October, the 62nd army came on 26 September to Nam Định and Haiphong. Lạng Sơn and Cao Bằng were occupied by the Guangxi 62nd army corps and the Red River Delta region and Lai Cai were occupied by a column from Yunnan. Vietnamese VNQDD fighters accompanied the Chinese soldiers. Ho Chi Minh ordered his DRV administration to set quotas for rice to give to the Chinese soldiers and rice was sold in Chinese currency in the Red River delta. Lu Han occupied the French governor general's palace after ejecting the French staff under Jean Sainteny.[13] Chinese soldiers occupied northern Indochina north of the 16th parallel while the British under the South-East Asia Command of Mountbatten occupied the south.[14][15] Chiang Kai-shek deliberately withheld his crack and well trained soldiers from occupying Vietnam since he was going to use them to fight the Communists inside China and instead sent undisciplined warlord troops from Yunnan under Lu Han to occupy Vietnam north of the 16th parallel to disarm and get Japanese troops to surrender.[16][17] On many occasions, Ho Chi Minh gave in to the demands. During "Gold Week" in September 1945, a large part of gold taels, jewelry and coins were used pay the Chinese forces occupying northern Vietnam. Rice to Cochinchina by the French in October 1945 were divided by Ho Chi Minh, and the northern Vietnamese only received one third while the Chinese soldiers were given two thirds by Ho Chi Minh. For 15 days elections were postponed by Ho Chi Minh in response to a demand by Chinese general Chen Xiuhe on 18 December 1945 so that the Chinese could get the Dong Minh Hoi and VNQDD to prepare. The Chinese left only in April–June 1946.[18] Ho Chi Minh gave golden smoking paraphernalia and a golden opium pipe to Lu Han after gold week and purchased weapons with what was left of the proceeds. Starving Vietnamese were dying throughout northern Vietnam in 1945 due to the Japanese seizure of their crops by the time the Chinese came to disarm the Japanese and Vietnamese corpses were all throughout the streets of Hanoi and had to be cleaned up by students.[19] While Chiang Kai-shek, Xiao Wen (Hsiao Wen) and the Kuomintang central government of China was disinterested in occupying Vietnam beyond the allotted time period and involving itself in the war between the Viet Minh and the French, Lu Han held the opposite view and wanted to occupy Vietnam to prevent the French returning and establish a Chinese trusteeship of Vietnam under the principles of the Atlantic Charter with the aim of eventually preparing Vietnam for independence and blocking the French from returning.[20] Ho sent a cable on 17 October 1945 to American President Harry S. Truman calling on him, Chiang Kai-shek, Premier Stalin and Premier Attlee to go to the United Nations against France and demand France not be allowed to return to occupy Vietnam, accusing France of having sold out and cheated the Allies by surrendering Indochina to Japan and that France had no right to return.[21] Ho Chi Minh dumped the blame on Dong Minh Hoi and VNQDD for signing the agreement with France for returning its soldiers to Vietnam after he had to do it himself.[22][23] Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh tried to organize welcome parades for Chinese soldiers in northern Vietnam and covered for instances of bad behavior by warlord soldiers, trying to reassure Vietnamese that the warlord troops of Lu Han were only there temporarily and that China supported Vietnam's independence. Viet Minh newspapers said that the same ancestors (huyết thống) and culture were shared by Vietnamese and Chinese and that the Chinese heroically fought Japan and changed in the 1911 revolution and was attacked by western imperialists so it was "not the same as feudal China". Ho forbade his soldiers like Trần Huy Liệu in Phú Thọ from attacking Chinese soldiers and Ho even surrendered Vietnamese who attacked Chinese soldiers to be executed as punishment in the Ro-Nha incident in Kiến An district on 6 March 1946 after Hồ Đức Thành and Đào Văn Biểu, special commissioners sent from Hanoi by Ho's DRV examined the case.[24] Ho appeased and granted numerous concessions to the Chinese soldiers to avoid the possibility of them clashing with the Viet Minh, with him ordering Vietnamese not to carry out anything against Chinese soldiers and pledging his life on his promise, hoping the Chinese would disarm the Japanese soldiers and finish their mission as fast as possible.[25]
Chinese communist guerilla leader Chu Chia-pi came into northern Vietnam multiple times in 1945 and 1948 and helped the Viet Minh fight against the French from Yunnan. Other Chinese Communists also did the same.[26]
British involvement
Upon Gracey's arrival on 13 September to receive the surrender of Japanese forces, he immediately realized the seriousness of the situation in the country. Saigon's administrative services had collapsed, and a loosely controlled Viet Minh-led group had seized power. In addition, since the Japanese were still fully armed, the Allies feared that they would be capable of undermining the Allied position. Furthermore, Gracey had poor communications with his higher headquarters in Burma because his American signal detachment was abruptly withdrawn by the U.S. government for political reasons; it was a loss that could not be rectified for several weeks.
Gracey wrote that unless something were done quickly, the state of anarchy would worsen. This situation was worsened by the Viet Minh's lack of strong control over some of their allied groups.[27] Because of this, the French were able to persuade Gracey (in a move which exceeded the authority of his orders from Mountbatten) to rearm local colonial infantry regiments who were being held as prisoners of war.
Gracey allowed about 1,000 former French prisoners of war to be rearmed. They, with the arrival of the newly formed 5th Colonial Infantry Regiment (RIC) commandos, would then be capable of evicting the Viet Minh from what hold they had on the Saigon administration. Gracey saw this as the quickest way to allow the French to reassert their authority in Indochina while allowing him to proceed in disarming and repatriating the Japanese.
Gracey faced another problem in his relations with Mountbatten. One example of this occurred on Gracey's arrival in September. He drew up a proclamation that declared martial law and stated that he was responsible for law and order throughout Indochina south of the 16th parallel. Mountbatten, in turn, made an issue of this, claiming that Gracey was responsible for public security in key areas only. The proclamation was published on 21 September and, although Mountbatten disagreed with its wording, the
During the following days, Gracey gradually eased the Viet Minh grip on Saigon, replacing their guards in vital points with his own troops which were then turned over to French troops.[28] This procedure was adopted because the Viet Minh would not have relinquished their positions directly to the French.[29]
Allies reassert control in Saigon
By 23 September, most of Saigon was back in French hands, with less than half a dozen vital positions in Viet Minh control. The French subsequently regained total control of Saigon. On that day, former French prisoners of war who had been reinstated into the army together with troops from the 5th RIC ejected the Viet Minh in a coup in which two French soldiers were killed.[29]
That same day, the local French population, jubilant at the restoration of the city, lost restraint, descending into rioting against the native population. This led to the events of 24-25 September, when a Vietnamese mob (alleged to be the Bình Xuyên, but later found to be Trotskyites), entered the Cité Hérault district of Saigon, lynching 150 French civilians while abducting a similar number - who later also perished. At the same time, the Viet Minh set up road blocks around Saigon, shooting Frenchmen who attempted to leave and accidentally killing OSS agent Dewey, the first American to die in Vietnam.[30] Elsewhere on the 25th, the Viet Minh attacked and set fire to the city's central market area, while another group attacked Tan Son Nhut Airfield. The airfield attack was repelled by the Gurkhas, where one British soldier was killed along with half a dozen Viet Minh. The British now had a war on their hands, something which Mountbatten had sought to avoid.
For the next few days, parties of armed Viet Minh clashed with British patrols, the Viet Minh suffering mounting losses with each encounter.
In early October, Gracey held talks with the Viet Minh and a truce was agreed upon. On the 5th, General
Aerial reconnaissance by Spitfires revealed that the roads approaching Saigon were blocked: the Viet Minh were attempting to strangle the city. On 13 October, Tan Son Nhut Airfield came under attack again by the Viet Minh; their commandos and sappers were able this time to come within 275m of the control tower. They were also at the doors of the radio station before the attack was blunted by Indian and Japanese soldiers. As the Viet Minh fell back from the airfield, the Japanese were ordered to pursue them until nightfall, when contact was broken.[32]: 284
By mid-October, 307 Viet Minh had been killed by British/Indian troops and 225 were killed by Japanese troops, including the new body count of 80 more Viet Minh at Da Lat. On one occasion, the Japanese repulsed an attack on their headquarters at Phú Lâm, killing 100 Viet Minh. British, French, and Japanese casualties were small by comparison. On the 17th, the third brigade, the 100th, commanded by Brigadier C.H.B. Rodham, arrived in Indochina.
Viet Minh attacks
The Viet Minh next assaulted Saigon's vital points, the power plant, docks, airfield, and for the third time, even the city's artesian wells. Periodically, Saigon was blacked out at night and the sound of small arms, grenades, mines, mortars, and artillery became familiar throughout the city. Unable to overwhelm Saigon's defenses, the Viet Minh intensified their siege tactics. During this time, newly arrived French troops were given the task of helping to break the siege while aggressive British patrolling kept the Viet Minh off-balance.[31]: 75
On 25 October, the only known evidence of direct
On 29 October, the British formed a strong task force with the objective of pushing the Viet Minh further away from Saigon. This force was called '
On 18 November, a Gurkha unit set out for Long Kiến, south of Saigon, to rescue French hostages held there. While en route, the force was forced to turn back as it was not strong enough to overcome the Viet Minh they encountered. A few days later a stronger force was dispatched. According to the Gurkhas, they had seen Japanese deserters leading some Viet Minh war parties. During this operation the only kukri (Nepalese knife) charge of the campaign occurred. According to a Gurkha platoon leader, they were held up by determined Viet Minh defenders occupying an old French fort. The Gurkhas blew in the doors with a bazooka, then drew their kukris and charged into the fort, putting the defenders to the knife. Long Kien was reached the same day. No hostages were recovered, but about 80 Viet Minh were killed during the operation.[33]
By early December, Gracey was able to turn over Saigon's northern suburbs to the French, when 32 Brigade relinquished responsibility to General Valluy's
During the battles of the South Central Highlands, the Viet Minh forced French troops to leave many villages and newly captured positions in the Central Highlands. The Vietnamese recaptured the town of Buôn Ma Thuột in mid-December. Spitfires of No. 273 Squadron RAF attacked the Viet Minh on 11 December.
On 3 January 1946 the last big battle occurred between the British and the Viet Minh. About 900 Viet Minh attacked the 14/13 Frontier Force Rifles camp at Biên Hòa. The fighting lasted throughout the night, and when it was over about 100 attackers had been killed without the loss of a single British or Indian soldier. Most Viet Minh casualties were caused by British machine-gun crossfire.[34][page needed]
End of the campaign
In mid-January, the Viet Minh began to avoid large-scale attacks on the British/Indian, French, and Japanese forces. They began to take on fighting characteristics which later became common: ambushes, hit-and-run raids, and assassinations, while the British, French, and Japanese constantly patrolled and conducted security sweeps. This was the first modern unconventional war, and although the Viet Minh had sufficient manpower to sustain a long campaign, they were beaten back by well-led professional troops who were familiar with an Asian jungle and countryside.[35]
By the end of the month, 80 Brigade handed over its theater of operations to the French, and the 100 Brigade was withdrawn into Saigon. Gracey flew out on the 28th. Before his departure, he signed control over French forces to Leclerc. The last British forces left on 26 March, so ending the seven-month intervention in Vietnam; and on 30 March, the SS Islami took aboard the last two British/Indian battalions in Vietnam. Only a single company of the 2/8 Punjab remained to guard the Allied Control Mission in Saigon, and on 15 May it left, the mission having been disbanded a day earlier as the French became responsible for getting the remaining Japanese home. The last British troops to die in Vietnam were six soldiers killed in an ambush in June 1946.[36]
Aftermath
Casualties
For Britain's involvement in the First Vietnam War, the officially stated casualty list was 40 British and Indian soldiers killed and French and Japanese casualties a little higher. An estimated 2,700 Viet Minh were killed. The unofficial total may be higher, but given the methods with which the Viet Minh recovered their dead and wounded, the exact number may never be known. About 600 of the dead Viet Minh were killed in action while fighting against British forces, the rest by the French and Japanese.
Vietnamese civilians were robbed, raped and killed by French soldiers in Saigon when they came back in September 1945.
Significance
Three more bloody decades of fighting lay ahead which would end in defeat for a world superpower and an ailing colonial, discredited[39] power. Therefore, some historians have observed that if the British had not withdrawn from Vietnam, the Viet Minh would have been defeated, and communism would have not gain support in Vietnam.[40] From March to July 1946, the Viet Minh systematically set about, as Ho's lieutenant Lê Duẩn said, "(to) wipe out the reactionaries." Known as the "Great Purge", the goal was to eliminate everyone thought dangerous to the Communist Party of Vietnam and tens of thousands of nationalists, Catholics and others were massacred from 1946 to 1948.[41]
Between May and December, Ho Chi Minh spent four months in France attempting to negotiate full independence and unity for Vietnam, but failed to obtain any guarantee from the French. After a series of violent clashes with Viet Minh, French forces bombarded Haiphong harbor, captured Haiphong and attempted to expel the Viet Minh from Hanoi, a task that took two months.
19 December 1946 is often cited as the date for the beginning of the First Indochina War, as on that day 30,000 Viet Minh under Giap initiated their first large-scale attack on the French in the
See also
Notes
- JSTOR 3035404.
- ^ Ho Son Dai (2008). Bo Doi Binh Xuyen [Binh Xuyen Force] (in Vietnamese). HCM City.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ George Rosie and Bradley Borum, Operation Masterdom: Britain's Secret War in Vietnam
- ^ Activities mark 75th anniversary of Southern Resistance War
- ^ Vietnamese Struggle With Their Past: History of the Southern Resistance
- ^ ISBN 978-9999238014), p. 244.
- ^ ISBN 9780786737499.
- ^ Marvin E. Gettleman, ed., Vietnam and America: A Documented History (Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett, 1985), pp. 65–66.
- ^ Cecil B. Currey, Vo Nguyên Giap – Viêt-nam, 1940–1975 : La Victoire à tout prix, Phébus, 2003, pp. 160–161
- ^ Note: under the terms of the 1941 Atlantic Charter signed by both Churchill and Roosevelt, the successful ending of the war with the Allies victorious required the previous legitimate pre-war governments of occupied territories to be re-instated, thus restoring the pre-war status quo, the principle being that no-one should benefit from the acts of aggression by the Axis powers.
- ^ Lloyd Gardner, Approaching Vietnam (New York. Korton, 1988), p. 25.
- ^ The first Vietnam War, by Mark Atwood Lawrence, Fredrik Logevall
- ISBN 978-1442223035.
- ISBN 978-1317231936.
- ISBN 978-1405196789.
- ISBN 978-1134244768.
- ISBN 978-1401305611.
- ISBN 978-0521850629.
- ISBN 0253335396.
- ISBN 0520041569.
- ISBN 0802133622.
- ISBN 978-0429975196.
- ISBN 978-1315510842.
- ISSN 2691-0403.
- ISBN 978-0429972546.
- ISBN 978-1134078479.
- ISBN 9780786499243. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- .
- ^ a b Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten (New York: Knopf, 1985), p. 331.
- ^ Wise, Edward Taylor (1991). Vietnam in turmoil : the Japanese coup, the OSS, and the August revolution in 1945 (MA thesis). University of Richmond. Archived from the original on 19 January 2023.
- ^ a b George Rosie, The British in Vietnam (London: Panther Books, 1970).
- ^ a b Dunn, First Vietnam War, p. 206.
- ^ G. R. Stevens, History of the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles 1921–1948. (Aldershot, 1952), pp. 278–279.
- ^ a b Dunn, Peter Martyn (1973). Operation Masterdom: The British in Vietnam, 1945-1946. University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
- ^ Rajendra Singh, Official History of the Indian armed Forces in the Second World War: Post-War occupation Forces (1958), p. 199.
- ^ Peter Dennis, Troubled Days of Peace (New York: St. Martin's, 1987), p. 173.
- ISBN 0275956601.
- ISBN 978-1400874903.
- S2CID 154690278.
- S2CID 154690278.
- ^ ISBN 9780429975196p.59