Why did Britain help the French to return to Vietnam, why did Ho Chi Minh use sentences from the US declaration of independence, why did Ho Chi Minh have so many different surnames, etc. that young people in the country are trying to answer to find out the truth. These questions have been addressed in many previous articles; however, we sometimes have to repeat them over and over again because the details of the recent history are quite complicated, especially the rapid changes in the French leadership after the German occupation.

Why did Britain help France return to Vietnam?

Josef Stalin, Harry Truman, and Winston Churchill were seen at Potsdam in 1945. When World War II was nearing its end, a Potsdam conference had been held in Berlin, Germany, to discuss post-war work in Europe, and the second issue to discuss is Indochina. This conference took place from July 17, 1945, to August 2, 1945, bringing together the United States (President Harry Truman), Great Britain (Prime Minister Winston Churchill), and the Soviet Union (Leader Josept Stalin).
During this time, the French leadership in the provisional government urged the United States to help France reconquer. The reason was that Ho Chi Minh (HCM) was expanding communism in Indochina under the leadership of the third communist bloc.

Potsdam followed the unusual pattern of Anglo-American wrangling in the weeks earlier, combined with some obvious blackmail by General de Gaulle. The French leader told the Americans ‘if you are against us in Indochina’, this would cause great disappointment in France and might drive France into communist hands. ‘We do not want to become communist,’ de Gaulle warned, ‘but I hope you do not put us into it.’

(Britain in Vietnam, 2007, Peter Neville, page 55.)

At Potsdam, the Combined Chiefs of Staff also accepted the principle that a French force of 62,000 men, commanded by General Jacques Leclerc, who had helped to free Paris in August 1944, would be allowed into Indochina on the understanding that initially this force would come under American or British command….It was an open secret that the Combined Chiefs’ decision left open the way for the French re-conquest of Indochina. (Britain in Vietnam, 2007, Peter Neville, page 57)

Discreet because the Americans and British do not want the world to misunderstand that for the French army to retake with the intention of “colonization” even though at this time the US policy of forcing countries to return the colonies had been progressing. The US’s support for the French to retake Indochina was also part of the policy to suppress the red wave, otherwise, it would be like a domino game that spreads throughout the region.

When British General Douglas Gracey arrived in Saigon and immediately opened the prison door to release the French soldiers imprisoned by the Japanese, the French immediately fought with the Viet Cong in Saigon. Some groups of Southern intellectuals also formed an organization to “anti-French” when they saw this scene, they were very surprised! They were not communists. They also supported Ho Chi Minh against the French. There were times when they wanted to meet General Gracey to find out why, but they did not get a satisfactory answer. The great battle occurred on September 23, 1945, in Saigon.

It should be noted, the conference ended on August 2, 1945, before the two atomic bombs dropped by the US in Japan. At this time, Ho Chi Minh had grasped the ideas of the British and American sides, so he was very worried. When talking back and forth with the US intelligence chief, Archimedes Patti, Ho expressed his determination to wage war with France, even if he killed all Vietnamese men, women, and children, he was still determined to the end to win. Stalin was a member of the conference, so he knew well the intentions of Britain and the United States, so Ho Chi Minh’s decision to wage a war as above must certainly had been coordinated with Stalin. Then, after the two atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Japan, Ho took the opportunity to rob the government.

September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh’s government was not recognized by the United States, although the communists made “support for the great American man” even taking the text of the US Declaration of Independence to read in front of the crowd. . According to author Neville, there was already a cold war at this stage – the US, UK, and French allies were directly confronting communism.

The Detonator of the Vietnam War

At the beginning of 1946, the National Assembly of the provisional French government fell into the hands of the Socialist and Communist parties, leading to the signing of the Preliminary Accord on March 6, 1946, between Sainteny (representative of France) and Ho Chi Minh. The content of the Accord was that Ho Chi Minh accepted complete dependence on France, even militarily. The most dangerous thing was that in that treaty there is a clause “reunification in three periods” which means dyeing the whole country of Vietnam red. But unfortunately for Ho, that Accord was not formalized because Georges Bidault’s Popular Republic Movement faction seized the French parliament after the election of June 2, 1946. This result was also predicted by the Ho faction in April 1946 when the two sides had a meeting in Da Lat. In the middle of September 1946, France declared war on Ho Chi Minh after deliberating and advising him to leave the international ranks of the communist party.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/VKKx_7m69F8?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparentFrench General Jean-Julian Fonde

French General Jean-Julian Fonde tried to convince him that war was terrible when he talked to communist general Vo Nguyen Giap, but Giap adamantly replied that it didn’t matter if he killed millions of Vietnamese, because it all served him well service for political purposes.

General Jean-Julian Fonte of France. Courtesy of CSPAN

In December 1946, France officially re-occupied and waged an ideological war with Ho Chi Minh in the North with the support of weapons from the United States. The Ho faction had 2 serious supporters: China and the Soviet Union.

Former communist colonel Bui Tin in San Jose 6/2013. He said If Ho Chi Minh had not been an important member of the Third International Communist Party, the French would not return to Vietnam to wipe out the red wave for the necessity of the free block countries.

Historical Pen
September 2017

Sources: Britain in Vietnam, Peter Neville, 2007; Youtube Videos