From occupation to war: a chronology of events1887 France has conquered Indochina and rules it as a colony
1940 Japan occupies Indochina
1941 After 30 years in exile Ho Chi Minh returns to Vietnam, where he forms the Viet Minh, the Vietnamese League for National Independence
1950 The USA begin providing military and economic aid to the French in Indochina.
1955 South Vietnam refuses to participate in nationwide elections.
1956 A US military advisory group replaces French training of the South Vietnamese Army.
1959 Two US military advisors are killed during a communist attack at Bien Hoa in South Vietnam.
1961 The (Communist) National Liberation Front (NLF) is formed in South Vietnam. US president John F. Kennedy sends special forces and military advisors to South Vietnam. by the end of the year, Us forces in Vietnam total 3,2000.
Ho Chi Minh, 2 September 1945
“We hold truths that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This immortal statement is extracted from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776.
The Declaration of Human and Civic Rights proclaimed by the French Revolution in 1791 likewise propounds: “Every man is born equal and enjoys free and equal rights.”
Yet, during and throughout the last
eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the principles of “freedom, equality and fraternity”, have […] oppressed our countrymen. Their deeds run counter to the ideals of humanity and justice.
In the political field, they have denied us every freedom. […]
In the economic field, they have shamelessly exploited our people, […] and mercilessly plundered our country. In the autumn of 1940, when the Japanese Fascists, in order to fight the Allies, invaded Indochina and set up new bases of war, the French imperialists surrendered on bended knees and handed over our country to the invaders. […]
The truth is that we have wrung back our independence from Japanese hands and not from the French. […]
Emperor Bao Dai (→) abdicated, our people smashed the yoke which pressed hard upon us for nearly one hundred years, and finally made our Vietnam an independent country.
We, the members of the Provisional Government representing the entire people of Vietnam, declare that we shall from now on have no more connections with imperialist France.
We are convinced that the Allies who have recognised the principles of equality of peoples at the Conferences of Tehran (→) and San Francisco (→) cannot but recognise the independence of Vietnam.