Indochina War (Socialist Indochina)

War of Resistance (Indochina)
Date 19 December 1946 - 7 May 1956 Location Throughout the former French Indochina Result Indochina victory The restoration and completion of French-Indochinese Treaty of 1946
Belligerents
- Indochina - National Militia	- France French Indochina
Supported by: - Soviet Union	Supported by: - United States
Commanders and leaders
Ho Chi Minh Souphanouvong Son Ngoc Minh Vo Nguyen Giap Duong Van Duong Nguyen Binh Vuong Thua Vu	Phillippe Leclerc Raoul Salan Henri Navarre Jean Tassigny Nguyen Van Hinh Christian de Casteries Roger Blaizot

The Indochinese War began in the French Indochina from 19 December 1946 and ended in 7 May 1956. Fighting between French forces and the Indochinese forces can be dated from July 1946. The conflict pitted a range of forces, including the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps, led by the government of France and supported by Nguyen Van Hinh's Vietnamese National Army against Vo Nguyen Giap's National Guard and Duong Van Duong's National Militia. Most of the fighting took place in the Northern Indochina (Laos and Northern Vietnam) at the first phase the Southern Indochina (meaning Cambodia and Southern Vietnam) at the second phase.

The first few years of war involved a low-level insurgency in the North and an mechanical warfare in the South at the second half of the war. By 1949, both sides were equipped weapons from the Soviet Union, China (both the People's Republic and Republic) and the United States, made it into a conventional war. The French Union forces composed of soldiers from the whole empire, including Vietnamese at the Nguyen Van Hinh's Vietnamese National Army and volunteers from the professional French Foreign Legion brigade. The prevention of recruiting metropolitan teenagers was to prevent the increasing unpopularity of the war at home. It was called the "dirty war" by the French leftists.

The war ended by the second phases when the Battle of Ca Mau on the 3rd May occurred between an improved Indochinese Army and the remnants of the Expeditionary Corps. At this point, there was no hope although the French fought with efficiency and bravery. And four days later, on the 7th of May, 1956, the French surrendered.

Background

By September 1945, the former colony of French Indochina proclaimed independence with the government and the opposition were increasingly anti-French. The Government of Indochina had introduced a 5-year plan to prepare for a war economy, making military exercises and developing a war cabinet in progress. The unification of two Largest left-wing parties, the reformed Communist Party of Indochina and the democratic socialist Socialist Party of Vietnam to make the Socialist Party of Indochina made the French anti-communists felt uncomfortable with what would happened to their colonies.

At the same time, the French and the Chinese troops began to march throughout Indochina to de-armed the remnants of the Japanese 38th Army. However, suspicions raised when the French began to invite pro-French Indochinese to their armed forces, which formed the so-called "National Army" in the South, which made the Free Indochina leadership in the South began to formed a branches of National Guard in the South, led by former Binh Xuyen gang leader Duong Van Duong. The Viet Minh mayor of Saigon, Tran Van Giau, was not recognized by the French, and recognized Colonel Jean Cedile, the governor of Cochinchina instead. In the French Armed Forces, there are divisions within the top brass. While men like Army General Phillippe Leclerc is ready for negotiations with an independent Indochina, others like Raoul Salan were prepared for the war against the Communists.

On June 2nd, 1946, the National Army of Indochina was formed, led by the Minister of the Interior Vo Nguyen Giap as Commander-in-Chief, Nguyen Chi Thanh as Chief of the Political Department and Duong Van Duong as Chief of the General Staff. The country of Indochina was divided into 3 theatres with 6 smaller military districts (Laos, Tonkin/Northern Region, Cochinchina, Angkor, Central Region/Annam, and Elephant Mountain) with 6 generals in command. The National Army also composed of former armed wing of the Nationalists, militias of Binh Xuyen, Cao Dai and Hoa Hao (the National Militia). The National Army was mostly comprised of infantry troops with weapons captured from the defeating troops of the Japanese.

At July, Ho Chi Minh flew to Fontainebleau to negotiate with Jean Sainteny, the French Envoy (after 1956, Ambassador) to Indochina. At the same time, another Indochinese envoy led by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Hong Khanh was also at France to negotiate withdrawal of French troops in Eastern part of Indochina (that is, the Vietnamese Republic, a federal state within Indochina). The Ho Chi Minh envoy wanted the French troops to replace the Chinese on de-armed the Japanese while the Vu Hong Khanh envoy wanted the French withdraw immediately. Two envoys made conflict demands which only solved by pressure by the Socialist Party coalition. After that, an agreement between France and Indochina was approved of which allowing 15,000 French troops to replace the Chinese and withdraw after 5 years, with each year withdraw 3,000 troops.

However, both sides had no intentions to give up with the agreement, which was temporary, not permanent. As such, the National Army began to increase its' military activities, raising combat alertness and to modernize the infantry forces. However, that was not enough, as the French army had superior naval and artillery forces, which the Indochinese Army barely had (artillery) or not even had (Navy). This was imminent when the French made the Hai Phong Incident, which led to 3,000 of its' citizens died, which afraid Viet Minh and led the latter to compromise. The tensions between them was even worse when clashes between Duong's National Militia (a subbranches of the National Guard) and the French forces was even more common.

Course and phases of the war

The war was divided into two phases: the first one was from 1946 to 1952, with most of the fighting occurred in the Northern Areas and the second phase, which was from 1952 to 1956, with the Southern Areas as the main fighting areas. The first phase was composed of guerilla tactics that was used by the National Army of Indochina, only changed to semi-conventional at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The second phase was widely ranged from conventional to guerilla, with the former used more after the Indochinese Army got military aid from the Soviet Union and the PRC (China), with mostly artilleries and military vehicles (trucks).

First phase (1946-53)

The first years of the war (1946-48) was covered by the massive retreat of the Free Indochina and the National Militia at the North, only to stop at Cao Bang. Massive attacks were occurred in Hanoi, Hai Phong, Thai Nguyen and other strategic locations. The French also had superiority over weaponry and naval support made the National Army's counterattack unsuccessful. At Hanoi, the National Guard decided to set off explosives on infrastructures and especially, power stations. This made Hanoi plunged into darkness and the Viet Minh began to re-attack the French forces. However, the French, with support of friendly spies, gradually gained a numerical and technical superiority. The city was covered by artillery and houses to houses were searched by the French forces to find the FI leadership.

In Haiphong, there was also massive attack from the National Army with support from separate militias. The North-Eastern Command of the Eastern Military Regions, led by General Vuong Thua Vu, attacked the port city and strategic locations. However, naval superiority of the French Navy waste no time for the counter-attack against the Indochinese forces. After that, the French reinforcement became bigger and bigger and finally the National Army had to retreat almost immediately. Some smaller units were encircled by the M24 Chaffee tanks and later became prisoners of war. Luckily, the military leadership had escaped before the French could do anything.

In Tourane (Da Nang), 6,000 French troops began to land on the port. Unlike the 1858 attack on Da Nang, they had prepared for a guerilla war and forming a clear strategy to counter potential attack from the Indochinese Army. The counter-attack of the Free Indochina, however, was supported by civilians who cut supply lines to the French, making the French forces to change some of the tactics. The Free Indochina attack included sabotage, which was common in other strategic places.