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French Involvement in Vietnam from 1885-1954

This research paper outlines and critically examines the French involvement in Vietnam from colonization through the July 1954 Geneva Accords.

The French colonization of Vietnam, which did little for the Vietnamese, most of whom resented it, was ended in March 1945 by the Japanese. In 1945-1946, the French attempted to reimpose their rule on Vietnam amidst the chaos and confusion following the end of World War II, but they made a fundamental miscalculation concerning the nature and intensity of Vietnamese nationalism. After negotiations between the French and the communist-dominated Vietminh broke down, the French Indochina war erupted in late 1946 which lasted until 1954 and ended with the defeat of the French by the Vietminh at Dienbienphu and a de facto partition of the country under the Geneva accords between a communist North and a non-communist South. The French military and political effort in Indochina during this period was fundamentally flawed and ultimately failed. After 1949 the French Indochina war became a cockpit of Cold War tension and conflict, which drew the United States into supporting the French war effort, but failed to enable the French to avoid suffering a tragic debacle in Vietnam.

Until the French arrived in force in the mid-19th century, the Vietnamese had a long history of resistance to foreign invaders, the Chinese, who ruled them, except for short intervals, between 111 B.C. and 939 A.D. Under the Nguyen emperors, the Vietnamese expanded thereafter to control almost all of present day Vietnam. By a series of steps between 1859 and 1884, the French seized control of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, which together became the colony of French Indochina. According to Hammer, Vietnamese nationalists "fought for independence from France as their ancestors had fought to oust the Chinese from Vietnam (55). French colonialism helped modernize Vietnam's economy, but Edmonds said "the French version of the 'white ...

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French Involvement in Vietnam from 1885-1954. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:08, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1691610.html