Vietnam 1945-1991: The Involvement of the French, Americans, and Chinese

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Abstract

The main purpose of this research paper is to discuss the involvement of the French, Americans, and Chinese in Vietnam during the period of 1945-1991. In order to do so, this paper will consider the role of these three countries against the independence and development of Vietnam, importance of Geneva Peace Accords, and political, social, and financial impact.

Introduction

Within the period 1945-1991, most Vietnamese were poor peasants and majority of the agricultural lands were centralised to the big property owners consequently they took lion parts of crop for rent from the peasants. The opportunist class, property owners, and big businesspersons joined with imperialist France as collaborator but the mass people had suppressed from colonial rule. Economic exploitation by the French capitalists was devastating the everyday life of Vietnamese as they forced them for rubber plantations rater than food. They recruited colonial civil servants from the collaborators and these bureaucrats expanded the way of exploitation in Vietnam for long term. Due to French exploitation, about two million people died from hunger during World War-II in Vietnam.

The Communist Party of Vietnam had organised the suppressed people of Vietnam, occurred proletarian’s revaluation, and proclaimed Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 2^nd September 1945 with the full cooperation and support of China when the role of USA was in favour of French rather than Vietnam (Viroux, 1). Thus, the roles of France, China, and America for developing and gaining independence have cleared with this historical background. Both France and America were against the independence of Vietnam, combat war, continued genocide all over Vietnam, and tried to uphold colonial rule when China has extended full cooperation for independence. After independence, USA has shifted its policy of colonial aggression with friendly entrance of Capital. Vietnam was in scarcity of capital for development and at the end of nineties Vietnam welcomed US capital and gained huge internal development, which were insignificant from Chinese cooperation.

Role of France against Independence & Development of Vietnam

Allen pointed out that colonial rule of French had seriously impacted on the agriculture of Vietnam as well as on rice farming which is the Vietnamese staple food. The exploitation of French derived the country in long-term poverty. The investments of France were involved in rubber plantations those kept an enormous impact on Vietnam by forcing 100,000 to 200,000 Vietnamese to rubber plantation. The slavish situation has also found in the mines of Vietnam that the French businesspeople were looting the natural resources of the country that addressed as death valleys by the historians (5).

Allen also added that the French had not only introduced just economic mistreatment in Vietnam but also lead civilizing mission with combination of paternalism and racism that ultimately designed to remolding the nation with the French outlook and creating collaborators those who would be enthusiastic devotee of French imperialism and help them to explicate more efficiently (7).

Before the intervention of French in Vietnam 80% of the people were functionally literate with the Chinese ideographs and the French has banned the Chinese characters either into French or the Latin alphabet for the Vietnamese language that demonstrated as a disaster of cultural aggression. Some one of the French nominated governor told that they have doe so to creating illiterates. The rich Vietnamese who sent their children to the school of France had faced very terrific experience to have an offensive arousing upon their return to home and stands against the freedom of the country. Due to cultural oppression, language, and political despotism, Vietnamese were aggrieved to get independence from their aggressions.

After a century of colonial rule, France had faced two remarkable wars in Vietnam those experienced backward linkage for the freedom and reconstruction of the Vietnamese and these are First Indochina war and Second Indochina war. The First Indochina war commenced from 1945 to 1954 when Vietnam proclaimed freedom and France lost this territory to the Japanese. However, Vietnam itself rescued from Japan but Vietnam faced another dangerous attack from the joint force of France and USA. Vietnamese struggled for eight years and come out from the First Indochina through Geneva Accord and direct interference of China and Russia. The Second Indochina 1954 to 1975 carried out due to the violation of Geneva Accord by France and USA

Within the period Viet Minh supported group was the strongest political forces of Vietnam that struggled long term for freedom. In 1945, Japanese surrendered and Vietnam has announced as Democratic Republic of Vietnam, with the ideology of communism. Ho was dealing with France for assenting them to return with the abilities and to free country.

However, Vietnamese struggled for long term against France with huge sacrifice of life and resources in two ways such as-

Guerrilla War: USA directly involved in this war to help French and to prevent Vietnamese freedom fighters takeover of South Vietnam as a wider strategy of anti-communist propaganda of westerns and the US military arrived there at the beginning in 1950 and their involvement escalated up to the operations of 1960 and 1963. The US continued fighting breaking Paris Peace and ultimate defeat of January 1973. Ho was organising anti- French forces with great support from public in villages to improve village conditions with the help of army.
Classic War: With the time of 1952, Giap was creating confident and well-trained troops of army to commit with war and France had drawn a trap to destroy by artillery dragged up by mountaintops and Viet Minh army troops (Cantu & Cantu 12).
- The victory of Viet Minh had come because of the brilliant generals created by Giap against inept and less encouraged French generals when Viet Minh had advantages of less costs to fight in jungle routes than French did. In addition, French had less support from US with CIA error as well as anti colonial strengths globally. Therefore, these situations were mainly cause of defeat of France, and Geneva Peace Accords, which was out posting Vietnam in Northwest after eight years of War (Cantu & Cantu 13).
- France was under pressure from 1950 as Russia and China supported Ho Chi Minh’s government and more than 90,000 French people had died and wounded, or captured but 1994, the bloody war had stopped for The Geneva Conference and Accords;
- However, France had defeated in 1954, but it was the beginning of the US aggression as France influenced the American to take their position though they were unwilling to take risks of war but their action were main cause of late victories of Vietnam from French rule.

Social impact of French in Vietnam

Manhattan argued that French occupied Vietnam in two stages and for a long time they influenced the cultural aspects of Vietnam. They added new ingredients in the culture of Vietnam and introduced the Catholicism as not only religious values but also as a social structure building principles. The use of Latin letters and words and language in Vietnam was another kind of cultural aggression also (Manhattan 5).

Economic Impact of French in Vietnam

France was aggressive in introducing its sole currency Franc in its colonies where Vietnam was an exception. The Piaster was the currency for the French Indochina that was the imitative of French to influence the Vietnamese economy in different notions. In case of the exchange rates, the influence of the French was to prevent the Vietnam from getting economic stability, which forced the Vietnamese to fight against the French.

US role against Vietnam

United States of America has a very slump and unhealthy involvement in Vietnam, which is totally against humanity, independence, and development during 1945-1991. US governments lost their people’s faith for their brutal role and genocides in Vietnam that proved USA as an imperialist force eager for colonial aggression. After declaration of independence of Vietnam, it was dividend south and north when the north was under control of French. When the government of Vietnam struggled for reunification of the two parts of the country and to completely defeating the French colonialists from this region, USA extended its cooperation to French and inspired them to recover their colony and turn Vietnam again as a colony of French that has demonstrated a shameful chapter of foreign intervention.

Within the period 1945-1991, USA has brutally supported the rule of French and its exploiting wealth, resources, and labor of Vietnam and tried to get the control of Vietnam by helping French. It is mentionable that during the world war-II when French itself gone under German, Vietnam was took over by Japan but later on though Vietnam was capable to throw out the Japanese and then USA involved with French to make intervention in Vietnam (Lewis 1). This paper has pointed out the role of America to prevent Vietnam from developing and gaining independence in the period of 1945-1991 such as-

In 1954, USA had supported France by providing economic and military support but the French were on the edge of defeat in Vietnam and it is notable that USA carried the 80% of the war cost. However, due to The Geneva Accords, which argued that the one-elected government would control this two parts but between 1954 and 1956, US would not permit an all-Vietnam election by violating the Geneva Accords.
After the abandoned election, Ho Chi Minh had elected but due to violation of Geneva Accords, he started guerrilla war movement against the French and USA. The Americans started to increase their troop in south and thus their involvement has started to amplify. In that time UN can played a role but as because USA was involved in Cold War with Russia, American’s realized that if they asked for UN intervention Russia would gave veto against that. For that, they increased their monetary, military, and advising resources solely to that region to aid the government of the south. The enormous guerrilla attacks made the southern government almost to collapse. The reason behind sending of troops was the realisation that the victory of the Ho Chi Minh’s communist block will spread the communism all over the Indochina and the Southeast Asia. After the assassination of John F Kennedy, Johnson became the President who accepted the “Domino Theory” to response of this situation.
Lewis argued that the Involvement of USA had increased because of many reasons such as USA had a tendency to control the South East Asia where they faced massive opposition from different groups. USA termed the Vietcong, who also named as National Liberation Front, as a terrorist group and marked them as a reason for increased involvement. Another reason of increased involvement was to diminish the colonial effect of French where they aimed to achieve success and compel French controlled part of Vietnam.
The goal of the massive involvement of USA did not gain its ultimate purpose but they were adamant about their successful initially. They tagged with French with attempt to neutralise the communist movement. However, in that case, the involvement was not successful. The USA policy had failed here and USA stopped supporting Diem. In November 1963, Diem has assassinated by the plan of John F Kennedy and CIA. After the assassination of Kennedy, The Johnson government started heavy war, which was also a result of the increased involvement of the USA. USA destroyers attacked the Northern Coast of Vietnam though this measure has also failed to get planned outcome. As a result, USA did not declare official war against the Vietnamese. However, their massive armed resource has increased time to time and in almost every part of the Vietnam, the US troops stared to war against the Vietcong and Northern forces.
Due to US movement, the economic and social development has seriously hampered and the Socialists needed huge resources, which diminished the national economic strength of Vietnam, for example, some 23 million bomb craters were gouged into the landscape, ca. 19 million gallons of toxic chemicals were sprayed from the air to destroy 40% of the south’s forests.

Reasons behind Defeat of USA:

The US forces were defeated against the guerrilla warfare of the Vietcong and alliances. There were some reasons for which they experienced defeat (Davies 9-14). These are

The Vietcong got the help of the dwellers of the territory and they can move freely. The USA did not get the support from the local people.
USA underestimated the patriotism of the Vietnamese people where almost all Vietnamese were ready to sacrifice their life for a United and free Vietnam.
The recruits of the USA force had inexperienced where most of them were just come out from the school or college. Besides, many of the soldiers were not motivated enough to fight.
The bombing and use of chemicals had forced the Vietcong to replace their industries to remote places where they effectively hide their establishment and the US force failed to find them.

Because of these inconveniences, the government of South Vietnam denied accepting the ceasefire and they continued their assault against Vietcong (Davies 9-14). However, Library of Congress argued that the government, which ruled by the US government had fallen in April 1975 but started the Communist Era in Vietnam.

Role of China for & Against Independence & Development of Vietnam

Before the percolation of independence of Vietnam in 1945, China had been a strapping political affiliation and military support to helping Vietnam in its groundbreaking struggle against the French colonist as well as to defeat of the American intervention and to getting independence. Infect the independence of Vietnam was a product Vietnamese struggle, leadership of Communist Party, Chinese cooperation and Russian support. China has long historical and cultural affiliation with Vietnam. History demonstrates that the Vietnamese were affectionate to have access to and adapting Chinese civilization as well as institutions while they were outstanding adamant for preserving their own sovereignty and cultural heritage and asked for Chinese help when they any internal crisis external or external aggression.

Zhang (7) argued that for several decades, China has extended its highest cooperation for Vietnam and for last decay; China has provided Vietnam with US $ 20 billion assistance, which is above than any other country during that period. On the other hand, it was Vietnam that began to force the Chinese ethnic groups in North Vietnam as well as violated the on the border of Chinese territory as a consequence of better relation with Soviet Union that demonstrates ungratefulness of Hanoi. Chinese people were outpouring of anger against Vietnam and this was why China decides to go to war (Zhang 7).

After the communist Vietcong came to the power of joint Vietnam, the Communist Red China was appreciated their establishment. As both the Chinese and Russian government helped the Vietcong and its alliances in the war against the Americans with weapons, training and monetary resources, China became a friend of Vietnam. It started to influence the policies made by the communist government along with financial, technical, and legal support. It termed Vietnam as the ever friend of China and appreciated the development of communist social system countrywide. However, the economic development of Vietnam were not enough for the Vietnamese and China’s economic contribution also resulted of little use which was forced Vietnam to go for economic integration with other neighbouring countries like Soviet Union (Globalsecurity.org 1).

Deteriorating Relationship

In the middle of the 1970s, the relationship of China with Vietnam has started to deteriorate. The reason behind the diminishing relationship was the joining of Vietnam in the Soviet led economic integration termed as Comecon. Under this, Vietnam was signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation with Soviet Union in 1978. China treated this treaty as a military alliance and termed Vietnam as “The Cuba of the East”. As China has a long border with Vietnam, it started military movement against Vietnam due to China disliked the Soviet interventions in Vietnam. Different incidents occurred in the Sino-Vietnamese border where there was massive violence and bloody warfare, which were massive in frequency. In December 1978, Vietnam attacked Cambodia to throw out Chinese power from the country and overran the country. Thus, Beijing started war against Vietnam unofficially, which leads another conflict with the Vietnamese.

Chinese Involvement in Border War

Hanoi has demonstrated strong military setback in the border war against Beijing to defeating the Chinese. Most of the people of Vietnam were against to committing War with China in near future and the strengths of Soviet power has failed to draw image of China. The main diplomatic goals behind the attack of China were to expose military support from Soviet Union to Vietnam, which was just diplomacy when Beijing’s policy has also influenced Soviet- Vietnamese militaries, with the success of China. The victories of China has minimised future possibilities against USSR and Vietnam.

Border Clashes

After war between China and Vietnam, they had recognised their border guard regiments within 1986, China had divided 25-28 divisions and Vietnam had divided 32 divisions within a single and common border.

Vietnam Defences against Chinese Attack

In 1979, the perception of Hanoi has proven after attack by China though the assumptions of PAVN were highly commanded for planning purposes, which stands against Chinese. The border war was strengthening due to Soviet- Vietnam relationship, where Soviet military had provided arms and aircrafts to Vietnam. Overall, 600,000 troops of Soviet army were assigned to commit war against Chinese attack. However, in terms of monetary costs, it was considerably lower than China. In 1987, China was stationing nine armed division with 400,000 troops in Vietnam border region along with coast. The landing craft fleets have increased in the landing exercise off Hainan Island in Vietnam for possible future attack by sea.

Afterwards

The conflict of China and Vietnam had lowered along Sino- Vietnamese border problem with artillery shelling in each border terrain, which had greater opportunities of conducting war and recognised as high spots in mountainous border. Border conflicts had remained in rainy season, with extra pressure from Cambodian fighters of Beijing. In 1980, China has pursued some observers in semi secret campaign against Vietnam for border incidents and small-scale war. Therefore, the economic warfare was encouraged Vietnamese to engage in smuggling, currency speculation, and short supply hoarding of goods.

Social and economic impact of China in Vietnam

Chinese impact on Vietnam was mainly in social aspects. They Introduced the Mandarin Language for the Vietnamese. The introduction of Buddhism in Vietnam was also a social contribution of Chinese.

Combined Impact

From 1945 to 1991, the economy of Vietnam had experienced some upward and downward flow. When the Vietnam divided, the south part had more enlightened economy than the north as the practice of Socialist economic structures slowed the economic prosperity. Nevertheless, the Guerrilla war between the North and the USA forces, the social security and the industrial development were in question mark. The prosperity of the Vietnam did not come with peace. In the mid 1980’s the economy of Vietnam was devastated as the rice, growing was not sufficient. These were a result of introducing collectivism and sharing of produced rice countrywide. Vietnam failed to produce rice necessary for its own. It compelled to import 1.5 million tons of rice in 1986 that gave prevalent in starvation conditions but made the economy more instable. Thus, to be prevented from this, Vietnam introduced a new system named “Market socialism” and withdrew the Stalinist socialism of collective agriculture. The system has named as Doi Moi and after the taking of this system Vietnam became the third largest exporter of rice.

In 1988, The Vietnam adopted some major policies to ensure the market socialism “Doi Moi” which includes:

Straight cash based payment of wage and salaries
Cost based pricing of inputs to government owned firm
Permission for private employers to employ up to ten workers
Elimination of domestic customs check points
An amended Foreign Investment Law
Practical de-collectivisation of agriculture
To remove of practical direct subsidies and price rules.
Augmented autonomy for enterprise managers
Deflation of the currency (dong) to market rates
Abolition of the Government’s monopoly in foreign trade
Prerequisite for overseas participation in banking
Condensed boundaries on private enterprise
Creation of export processing zones for 100% foreign-owned enterprises
Legislation on shareholding corporations
Take apart of major fundamentals of central scheduling and bureaucracy
15% reduction in the government workforce
Return to former owners or their heirs of businesses in the South that were nationalised in 1975.

Conclusion

The US has experienced irritation, division, and bitter suspicion in the Vietnam War to divide the nation and to abolish communism and vast of the Americans can understand that their government had lied to them about the Vietnam war and President Nixon faced increasing anger and bitterness of the people and looked for honorable rescue path. Nixon’s strategy on Vietnam evidenced destructive initiatives to conduct genocides, influenced to generate dangerous threat to the democratic institutions of America, and identified Nixon as a dictator

After the unofficial defence of China in Vietnam, other powerful nations abandoned to become concern about Vietnam. On the other hand, the fall of Soviet Union made the country capable to identify the real friends in the international arena and to evaluate the real test of independent as well as Vietnam started to decide all of its own matters without interventions of other dominating nations. Now, Vietnam is one of the peaceful country of the world while many other countries of the world are facing different terrorist movements and recessionary impacts, Vietnam is going through the way of stable economic growth.

Works Cited

Allen, Joe.Vietnam: The war that the U.S. lost, International Socialist Review Issue. 2003. Web.

Cantu, Antonio. & Cantu Sandy. The Vietnam War: A National Dilemma. N. d. Web.

Davies. American involvement in Vietnam. N. d.

Globalsecurity.org. Chinese Invasion of Vietnam February 1979. 2009.

Lewis, Chris H. History of American Involvement in Vietnam: 1945-1975. 2002. Web.

Manhattan, Avro. The Religious Beginnings of an Unholy War. 1991. Web.

Viroux, Johan. French Imperialism in Vietnam. 2006. Web.

Zhang, Xiaoming. China’s 1979 War with Vietnam: A Reassessment. 2005. Web.

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