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3. The Rise of Nationalist Feeling and the Suppression of the Nationalists August 30, 1945–December 1946 The August Revolution in Vietnam and Its Repercussions Although the declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam read by Ho Chi Minh on September 2, 1945, with its peculiar opening plagiarisms from Thomas Jefferson’s words of 1776, contained numerous references to “French imperialism,” it did not once mention either Bao Dai or Tran Trong Kim. The substance of the new relationship between Vietnam and France outlined by Ho was merely a repetition of what Bao Dai had declared several weeks earlier, as David Marr has noted.1 In fact, Ho’s text offers a telling example of the ability of the Vietnamese Communists to rewrite history almost as soon as it happens for the advancement of their political purposes, an ability they have not lost today. Ho’s declaration did no more than reflect the popular mood that had been building up since March 9. Contemporary accounts show that all Vietnamese had been genuinely shocked by the action of the Japanese in reducing the French to powerlessness. They had then seen Vietnamese rise to the highest positions in the Tran Trong Kim government. Socially as well as politically, the Vietnamese elite and notables reached the apex of society, where the French had been used to sitting for eight decades. Culturally, the government’s projects stimulated a break from the French-patronized set of values. The outward manifestation of these changes came in the destruction of statues of Frenchmen in the parks; the renaming of regions, cities, and streets; and the ardent anti-French tone in publications and newspapers and on the radio. This seemed to be a true revolution. The reality on August 19 was that there were no French officials or soldiers to contest the entry of armed Viet Minh agents into Hanoi and the takeover of public buildings on that day. They were locked up in the citadel, guarded by Japanese soldiers; or if they were technicians, they were kept on in the service of the Japanese, under equally tight surveillance. Those few still at liberty in the 114 The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans countryside, mainly priests and missionaries, often met with violent ends at the hands of armed gangs in this period.2 Nor were there any French officials or soldiers in a position to oppose the takeovers by the Viet Minh from the nationalists in authority in Hue or Saigon. During the August Revolution the French imperialists were mainly present in the propaganda of the revolutionaries. On the eve of the Viet Minh seizure of power, the French government had sent no instructions to its chief French representative in China, the banker Jean Roger, known by the code name Sainteny. As his government also maintained a complete reticence with respect to Bao Dai and Kim’s government, Sainteny was at a loss as to how to deal with the overtures from the Viet Minh, and made up his own policy as he went along—which was “in short, manage on your own”3 —which consisted of dealing with the people with whom he had been in contact in China and who seemed to him to be the best organized and most effective, the Viet Minh.4 In a message dated August 13, he suggested to his superiors in Calcutta that the French government issue a statement “affirming the desire to emancipate Indochina on the basis of the details we have been discussing in the last few days. This statement should imply that an agreement has been reached with a Vietnamese government having our approval, and this prior to August 9.5 If you agree [with this plan], I think I can get the Vietnamese delegate to accept this subterfuge.”6 On August 13, there was only one Vietnamese government that could claim sovereignty over Vietnam. In the statement he drafted with his colleagues (still without instructions from Paris) to this end, Sainteny took note of the Viet Minh proposals but did not speak of a Vietnamese government and limited himself to general principles of French policy (intention to hold elections for an Assembly, etc.).7 Ho continued to manifest his interest in dealing with Sainteny when the latter finally arrived in Hanoi from Kunming on August 22 in an American plane. By then, of course, the rules of the game had changed. Ho’s actions throughout were those of a man who...

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