-
1945- Ho Chi Minh Declares Vietnamese Independence
Throughout the 1940s Ho Chi Minh and other Vietnamese leaders made repeated appeals to Truman and other American officials to help them gain independence from French colonial rule. These appeals were generally ignored. in 1945 Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnamese Independence, and conflict between the French and the Vietnamese people began. The French, however, did not relinquish their former colony without a fight. In 1954, after many negotiations and battles, the French were defeated -
1946 French/Indochina War
The Vietnamese people strongly resented the tyrannical rule and political and social implementations of the French. Thus, a guerrilla-type revolutionary organization, the Viet Minh, formed to drive out the French. They were led by Ho Chi Minh, the recently elected leader of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (currently known as North Vietnam). The First Indochina War was virtually a stalemate between the French and the Viet Minh from 1946 – 1950; then towards the end in 1954, the Viet Minh gaine
