The Bridges of Vietnam: From the Journals of a U.S. Marine Intelligence Officer

Appendix A. Selected Vietnam War Chronology

Appendix A Selected Vietnam War Chronology (Books cited are listed in the bibliography. For periodicals, refer to respective archives.) September 1940 February 1941 Mter years of working to consolidate religious and colonial control over that portion ofSoutheastAsia that includes present-day Vietnam, in 1883 France established a "protectorate" over Annam and Tonkin , and was ruling Cochinchina as a colony (Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, 47-85). Thus was created the foundation for the conflict that has been variously described as "the Vietnam War," "the two Vietnam Wars," and "the war for independence." The chronology that follows summarizes milestones that led to the end of that conflict. Japan occupies Indochina, but leaves the French colonial administration intact as part ofthe Vichy government (Karnow, 672-73). Mter a thirty-year absence from Vietnam as a revolutionary and a Communist in the USSR, China, and elsewhere, Nguyen Ai Quoc (Nguyen the Patriot), born Nguyen Tat Thanh in 1890, infiltrates from China back into Vietnam and takes the alias Ho Chi Minh (He Who Enlightens). Operating from a cave, he meets with Vo Nguyen Giap, twenty-two years his junior, who addresses him respectfully as "Uncle." With Giap as his military chief, Ho will fight theJapanese and the French for independence, and will then fight the United States (Karnow, 118-26, 688, 221 222 • The Bridges ofVietnam May 1941 July 1945 692. Also see Cooper, Sheehan, and other documented histories ofVietnam.). Ho convenes the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party and creates the Vietnamese Independence B~otherhood League (Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi, or Viet Minh) to wage a war "of national salvation" and to "overthrow the Japanese and French and their [Vietnamese] jackals ." Communists and non-Communists will be accepted as members (Sheehan, 159). As WorldWar II nears its end, the Allied leaders meet in Potsdam and plan for disarmament of the Japanese in Vietnam. They will use Nationalist Chinese in the north and British in the south (Karnow, 147). 16 August 1945 The day afterJapan surrenders, Ho forms a National Liberation Committee, naming himselfas president, and leads Vietminh detachments into Hanoi unopposed . The Communists will cite this as "The August Revolution" (Karnow, 146-47,688). 25 August 1945 Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai hands over "sovereign power" to the Vietminh force, which proclaims itselfthe Democratic Republic ofVietnam (DRV). Ho will remain President of the DRV until his death in September 1969 (Karnow, 146-47,688). September 1945 In accordance with the Potsdam agreement, British Major General Douglas Gracey lands in Saigon to disarm Japanese forces. He finds chaos, and on 21 September proclaims martial law. With only 1,800 British troops, he releases and arms 1,400 French Foreign Legionnaires who had been interned by the Japanese. They run amuck (Karnow, 148-49). 24 September 1945 The Vietminh in Saigon counter with a general strike accompanied byviolence. The British pull out, to be replaced by French forces from Europe (Karnow, 147-50). Appendix A: Selected Vietnam War Chronology • 223 September 1945 As part of the Potsdam agreement, Chinese General Lu Han arrives in Hanoi, and his troops begin to pillage. Mter intricate political maneuvers, Ho trades a pullout of the Chinese for the return of French forces (Karnow, 151-55). 20 November 1946 Mter a dispute over customs duties in Haiphong escalates, French aircraft bomb and strafe Haiphong . On 23 November, a French cruiser shells the city. The conflict spills over into Hanoi, and on 19 December Giap issues a virtual declaration ofwar, accompanied by an assault on the central power station in Hanoi. The warwill continue until Dien Bien Phu falls, seven-and-a-halfyears later (Karnow, 15557 ). Mid-1949 Bao Dai returns from exile, and, under French and American sponsorship, reassumes his status as emperor (Sheehan, 170). 1949 1950 25June 1950 Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist forces conquer mainland China and reach the borders ofVietnam. This intensifies the "domino theory," that ifanother country in Asia should fall to Communism, other countries would follow. President Truman adds to American foreign policy the "containment" ofCommunism in Asia, and earmarks $15 million in aid to French forces in Indochina. Over the next four years, American assistance to the French will build to nearly $2 billion (Karnow, 162, 164, 169). Moscow and Beijing recognize the DRV, leading the West to view Ho's government as a satellite in a monolithic Soviet empire (Karnow, 175). The domino theory gains credence as...