In 1940, the French were involved in the second world war. France fell to the Germans and the pro-German Vichy government was established, the Japanese took over Vietnam, Cambodia and laous. They allowed the French government to be in control. They had to control the country. They could use roads, railways and air-fields whenever they wanted. Japan was only interested in Vietnam as a provider of coal, rubber and rice for its efforts in the war. They started to force the Vietnamese to grow other food as well as rice. They created a famine which took away an estimate of two million lives.
The only resistance to this Japanese rule was the Vietminh. The aim of this organisation was to establish an independent and free Vietnam that was not under control of any foreign power. This meant a fight against the French and the Japanese. This rule was formed by Ho Chi Minh in 1941. Throughout the war, they attacked the French. Support grew in 1942 and 1943 but by 1944, they were strong enough to attack the two French out posts.
In 1945, the Japanese finally over threw the French government and started to control the towns, leaving country areas alone. This allowed the communists to build up support in those areas. Quite soon afterwards, they defeated the Japanese and the war was over. After dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the people of Vietnam planned an uprising. In September 1945, the Vietnamese went to Haiphong. Ho Chi Minh declared independence. In October 1946, the French forced the communists out of the south and took over Haiphong in the north. Then the indo-Chinese war began and the French started to control some of the important cities and the countryside in Vietminh. The Vietnamese used Guerrilla tactics because they knew the French would win an all out open war. Some time in to the war, the cost to the French rose from 27 million francs to 435 million francs in 1952. A year later in 1953, 74,000 French troops were killed and 190,000 were still fighting. The French then got a new commander called General Henri Navarre. He tried to get Vietnam to do an open war because he thought because of the French superior fire power, they would win. In 1953, the French Para-troopers took control of Dien Bien Phu and built a fortified Garrison. The leader of Vietnam, General Vo Nguven Giap, took the opportunity to attack the Garrison. He used 50,000 peasants to carry 200 pieces of artillery and 25,000 shells as well as food for the 40,000 soldiers. He made them carry them on bikes with the tyres stuffed with cloth so they didn’t pop. He then surrounded the French base. Giap destroyed the air-field and the French were cut off. Over 3,000 soldiers from France were killed in this battle and then a further 8,000 more died in captivity. For the people of France, it was a devastating defeat. They had lost over 90,000 French soldiers in nine years of fighting. The Vietminh lost a lot more men, an estimate of 200,000, but significantly, this small nation in south east Asia had defeated a major European country.
