ous stability of the French colonial regime" in Indochina. The Japanese surrender produced chaotic conditions throughout Vietnam. In the North in Hanoi, Ho and his communist-led Vietminh took control and on September 2, 1945 proclaimed the independence of the new DRV. In the South, the British military helped French colons reassert their authority over a revolutionary council composed of Vietminh and other nationalists. According to Crozier, General Charles DeGaulle, head of the provisional French government, wanted "to restore France's full authority in . . . the colony." His military commander for Indochina, Free French General Philippe Leclerc and a small French force had, according to Hammer, by early 1946, "held the center of Cochin China [the French name for southern Vietnam], and the rich rubber plantations."
The north was occupied by Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist troops who arrived in Hanoi in September 1945. For about a year, the French and the Vietminh negotiated over the future of Vietnam. On March 6, 1946 Ho and DeGaulle's special envoy Jean Sa
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