Runner of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (arvn). American contributions to the French war effort rose from 33 percent of the total cost in 1953 to 78 percent in 1954, one-third of the global US foreign aid programme.
The Vietnamese communists also sought assistance abroad. But the decisive break came with the conclusion of the Civil War in China in 1949. The occupation of the border area by Chinese communist forces in December that year opened China as a source of arms, training and sanctuary. From then on China annually provided training for 10,000-20,000 PAVN officers and men, and material aid that grew from 10-20 tons per month in 1951 to 1,500 tons per month in early 1954. Over the course of the war, however, the tonnage of foreign military assistance that reached the pavn was just one-tenth of what the US gave to the French. Only by coordinating guerrilla action with conventional offensives, and political struggle with armed struggle in a “people’s war”, were the communists able to offset the French advantage in material resources.
In 1950 the pavn organized its first main force division and overran a string of French strongpoints along the northern border. With control of the mountains and unimpeded access to China, pavn commander Vo Nguyen Giap believed the war was about to enter the stage of “general counteroffensive” and planned main force thrusts into the lowlands. In assaults on fortified French positions from January to June 1951 in the Red River delta, the pavn failed to achieve its objectives and suffered extremely high casualties. After this setback the communists chose targets more carefully, partially dispersed their forces, and placed greater emphasis on political agitation and guerrilla warfare to bring lowland population and territory under their control. Main force units slipped through the De Lattre Line, a chain of defences around the northern delta, to hit more vulnerable positions.
Proof that the communists’ setback was only tactical came in late 1951 at Hoa Binh. The French easily penetrated the area but were unable to halt infiltration of the Red River delta or sustain offensive action. The French held the major roads but were too dependent on them to operate on a large scale for long in remote areas. The largest French operation of the war, a thrust in late 1952 against pavn supply and communications lines up the Red River, placed enormous strain on French resources, without lasting results. Even as that operation was in progress the pavn swept small French outposts out of the northwestern hills and then, in spring 1953, struck into Laos. Vietnamese support of communist movements in Laos and Cambodia also helped to keep French resources dispersed.
By 1953 communist forces operated freely outside the major towns and cities, areas inhabited by anticommunist religious sects such as the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai in the south, and the mountain redoubts of a few pro-French ethnic minorities. Hoping only to restore stalemate, French commander Navarre then made the fateful decision to implant a “hedgehog” strongpoint in the valley of Dien Bien Phu, 190 miles (300km) west of Hanoi. The PAVN lay siege to Dien Bien Phu in March 1954, finally giving the French the big set-piece battle they had so avidly sought. However, the French had limited resources with which to support so remote an outpost, totally dependent on resupply by air. As the siege dragged on, the United States considered intervening but demurred after weighing the impact on its global obligations and the objections of the British. The French government, wracked by dissension at home, agreed to negotiate. Dien Bien Phu fell on May 7, the day before negotiations began at Geneva. The Geneva Agreements, signed on July 20 1954, permitted the French to withdraw and left the communists in indisputable control of the northern half of the country. Separate agreements were also concluded for Laos and Cambodia. WST. See also august revolution; BORDER war; DE LATTRE LINE; DIEN BIEN PHU, BATTLE OF; FONTAINEBLEAU conference; geneva agreements; hoa binh, battle of;
INDOCHINA, FRENCH REOCCUPATION
Of; “lea” operation; “lorraine” operation; na san, battle of.
Indochina, Japanese invasion of.
Japan exploited France’s defeat by Germany in June 1940 to pressure the colonial administration of Indochina into giving Japan access to the peninsula. After Japanese attacks on French border posts in September, the French agreed. Japanese forces gained transit rights and airfields in northern Indochina and stationed troops at Haiphong. In July 1941 they occupied southern Vietnam as well. Leaving the French in charge of administration, the Japanese garrisoned Indochina with about
50,000 men and used it as a staging area for operations in China and Southeast Asia.
Indomitable see illustrious.
World History
