Vietnam has an abundance of Coal, Zinc, Tin, Rubber and Rice, a lot of this was sent to France. Vietnam proved profitable to France, as they earned a lot of money from imports/exports. The Vietnamese had no choice but to take to their new way of life, some adapted to join the new governments, and also to keep the citizens in line. When the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was attacked by the U.S.A.’s ‘test’ weapons, the atom bombs also known as ‘A-bombs’, Japan surrendered to the Allies, which left Vietnam in position to be taken over by the Vietminh. Ho Chi Minh was given the name ‘Nguyễn Tất Thành’ at the young age of 10. Ho Chi Minh embraced the was of communism whilst he lived in England (he trained as a pastry chef there), he also lived in France for 8 years before moving to Hong Kong, and in Hong Kong he funded the Vietnamese communist party. In September 1940, the Japanese invaded Indochina (which was occupied by the French), Ho Chi Minh saw this as an opportunity to take back Vietnam, so Ho Chi Minh, formed a group called Vietminh, Ho Chi Minh left Vo Nguyen Giap in control of this group, soon after, the Vietminh began their Gorilla campaign against the Japanese. Ho Chi Minh’s group, the Vietminh, received ammunition and weapons from the Soviet Union, and soon after Pearl Harbour was bombed, they also received supplies from the United States of America. Ho Chi Minh went to Hanoi and announced the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, France chose not to recognise the Democratic Republic of Vietnam that had been started by Ho Chi Minh, and then soon after, fights between the French and the Vietminh erupted, this fighting led to war between the French and Vietminh.
The Cold war was a was against two Ideologies, Capitalism and Communism, the are many reasons to the cause of this war, Truman’s dislike of Stalin, Americas fear of communist attack (this was shown later on, the Cuban missile crisis), Russia’s dislike of Capitalism, America’s negation to share nuclear secrets, and also for Russia spreading communism through the world, this was a big one, because America trading with other countries, and Communist countries never traded, they where self sufficient, America got a lot of their income through trading with other countries. Two months after World War 2 the ‘Big Three’ (These were the three main leaders, Winston Churchill of Britain, Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union and Harry Truman of the USA) went to Potsdam for a meeting on the outcome of Germany, at this meeting they also discussed who would take control of Vietnam. There was also other reasons for these leaders to meet, Stalin wanted economic help because of the 31,000 factories destroyed and also that nearly a quarter of the soviets property was destroyed, so Stalin wasn’t very interested in the argument over Vietnam, this was between France and Britain.
