The broader historic events of World War II and the First Indochina War---specifically, the short interwar period between end of the former and the beginning of the later—led to the context in which Nguyen Ngoc Bich fought the French colonists until he was captured. The activities directly or indirectly affected Bich 's life by four historic individuals are summarized. French General
de Gaulle, by his desire to reconquer Indochina as a French colony, was a main force that led to the First Indochina War, in which Bich fought.
Ho Chi Minh (Ho), founder and leader of the Viet Minh, called for the general uprising---against the French colonists and the Japanese occupiers---to which Bich responded. US President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt ardent anticolonialism could have prevented the two
Indochina wars, and changed the course of history. US President
Harry Truman was a reason that the First Indochina War is now called the "French-American" War in Vietnamese literature, and through his support for the French war effort supplied napalm bombs, which Bich mentioned in his 1962 paper. The US funded more than 30% of the war cost in 1952 under US President
Eisenhower, and "nearly 80%" in 1954 under Truman.
Note-->
N.fwc Ho Chi Minh giving a farewell party to the US Army intelligence Deer Team (
OSS),
N.hos 1945. For thirty years, from 1912 when Ho Chi Minh first visited Boston and
New York City until about 1948–1949, Ho held out his hope that the US would provide military support for his anticolonialist resistance against the French.:xxii Since that visit to the US in his early twenties, Ho---like Bich, a Francophile anticolonialist,
N.fa2 N.psq3 who was both a communist and a nationalist
N.hcn ---developed a "lifelong admiration for Americans".:55
N.haa Seizing on the opportunity of the Japanese entering Tonkin in 1940 September:452 to begin occupy Indochina (with French agreement):452 to rid Vietnam of French colonial yoke,
N.hir Ho (who was in
Liuzhou, China) returned to the China-Vietnam border and began a "training program for cadres".:452 Then on 1941 February 8,:524 Ho crossed the border to enter Vietnam for the first time after 30 years away (from 1911 to 1941), and sheltered in cave Cốc Bó:73 near the
Pác Bó hamlet, in the
Cao Bằng province, less than a mile from the Chinese border.:34
N.dii There Ho convened a plenum in 1941 May, and founded the Viet Minh, an anticolonialist organization that Bich joined in 1945.
N.bvm On 1941 September 8, two months after the total integration of Indochina into the Japanese military system, Ho (still known as Nguyen Ai Quoc at that time) in his call to arm to the people of Tonkin, announced the formation of the Viet Minh to "fight the French and Japanese fascism until the total liberation of Vietnam.":97 On 1941 October 25, the Viet Minh published its first manifesto:
N.vmm--> "Unification of all social strata, of all revolutionary organizations, of all ethnic minorities. Alliance with all other oppressed peoples of Indochina. Collaboration with all French anti-fascist groups. One goal: the destruction of colonialism and imperialist fascism".
N.vmm (2nd from right), US Kwangsi Command Headquarters, 1945 June 7 In 1942 August, Ho (named "Nguyen Ai Quoc" at that time) crossed the border into China with the intention of attracting the interest of the Allies in Chungking:7 (now
Chongqing) for the Vietnamese resistance movement, arrested by the Chinese on 1942 August 28 for being "French spy",:525 but the real reason was Ho's political activities, viewed as "Communistic", instead of "nationalistic", by the Chinese (
Chiang Kai-shek) and the Allies at Chungking (now
Chongqing).:103
N.vnh Ho was detained for thirteen months, starting at the Tienpao prison,:51
N.htp moving through eighteen different prisons,:77
N.vnh2 and ending up at Liuchow:46 (now
Liuzhou), from where he was released on 1943 September 10, after changing his name from Nguyen Ai Quoc to Ho Chi Minh.:453 At that time, the name "Nguyen Ai Quoc" was very popular, while hardly any one heard of the new name "Ho Chi Minh".
N.naq Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam in 1944 September, after obtaining the authorization from the Chinese authority,
Zhang Fakui, who was under "severe pressure from the Japanese
Ichigo offensive" to obtain intelligence in Indochina---and after submitting the "Outline of the Plan for the Activities of Entering Vietnam".:134
N.hvn All three protagonists---the French
Vichy colonialists, the Japanese occupiers, and the Viet Minh---were deceived by US war plan,
N.uwp and expected a US invasion of Indochina.
N.uii Such expectation was the main reason:209 that, in 1945 February–March, during an "unusually cold month of February",:56
N.cf45 Ho once again crossed back into China, and walked from the
Pác Bó hamlet to
Kunming to meet
N.wtk(and to "make friends with":210) American
OSS and
OWI (Office of War Information) officers to exchange intelligence.
N.hmo:238 Ho's report to the
OSS mentioned the Japanese
coup de force on the evening of 1945 March 9.:238 on 1945 July 23, four months after he met Ho Chi Minh on 1945 March 29. In
Kunming, Ho requested
OSS Lt. Charles Fenn
N.fhh to arrange for a meeting with Gen.
Claire Chennault, commander of the Flying Tigers.:58 In the meeting that occurred on 1945 March 29, Ho requested a portrait of
Chennault, who signed across the bottom "Yours sincerely, Claire L. Chennault".:58 Ho displayed the portrait of
Chennault, along with those of
Lenin and
Mao, in his lodging at
Tân Trào as "tangible evidence to convince skeptical Vietnamese nationalists that he had American support".:58 As additional evidence, Ho also possessed six brand-new US Colt.45 pistols in original wrappings that he requested and got from Charles Fenn.:79 :158 This "seemingly insignificant quantity" of arms,
N.hgptogether with "Chennault's autographed photograph" as evidence, convinced other factions of the primacy of the Viet Minh. Ho's American-backing ruse worked.:58 In
Cochin China (the south),
N.tcc where Bich lived and worked, (
Trần Văn Giàu in Vietnamese), a Viet Minh leader and "Ho Chi Minh's trusted friend",:186 on 1945 August 22 used Ho's ruse of "American backing for the Viet Minh", to convince other pro-Japanese nationalist groups (Phuc Quoc, Đại Việt, United National Front:524) and religious sects (
Cao Đài,
Hòa Hảo) that they would be outlawed by the invading Allies, and thus should accept the leadership of the Viet Minh, which had strong support of "the Allies with arms, equipment and training".:186 , Ho Chi Minh, Bảo Đại, 1945 September 4 Fearing a US invasion with the French colonialists helping, the Japanese initiated operation Bright Moon (
Meigo sakusen), leading to a
coup de force on 1945 March 9 to neutralize the French forces and to remove the French colonial administration in Indochina:65 (and thus the status of Bich 's job in the French colonial government). The resulting
power vacuum:64 following this
coup de force changed the political situation, and provided a favorable setting for the Viet Minh takeover of the government.:73 In 1945 April, Ho walked a perilous journey from
Pác Bó to
Tân Trào, the Viet Minh headquarters in the Liberated Area. There, on 1945 August 16, Ho called for a general uprising to throw out the Japanese occupiers that ultimately led to the
August Revolution.
N.pvar Even though being a son of a
Cao Đài pope,
N.cd Bich joined the Viet Minh in 1945,
N.bjvm instead of the
Cao Đài force. 24.5.27, TO BE WRITTEN, March 6 Accords, Ellen Hammer. --> After the August Revolution in 1945, the French began to negotiate their return to Tonkin with both the Viet Minh and the Chinese army coming to disarm the defeated Japanese north of the 16th parallel. Ho Chi Minh was weary of the Chinese, who might stay in Vietnam permanently, signed the March 6 [1946] Accords
N.m6a1 N.m6a3 with
Jean Sainteny to agree to let the French army under General Leclerc to enter Tonkin. "With French troops arriving in Hanoi on March 18 [1946], Leclerc quickly established cordial relations with Ho Chi Minh." CBS reporter
David Schoenbrun interviewed Ho Chi Minh on 1946 September 11, the same day that a telegram was dispatched from the High Commissioner d'Argenlieu to the French Indochina Committee on the arrest of Bich on 1946 August 25.
N.bb Resistance After graduating in 1935 from the École nationale des ponts et chaussées, a civil engineering school, Nguyen Ngoc Bich returned home to work as a civil engineer for the colonial government at the
Sóc Trăng Irrigation Department until the Japanese coup d'état in Viet Nam (1945 September 3). Bich then joined the Resistance in the Soc-Trang base area and was appointed Deputy Commander of the
Military Zone 9 (
vi), established on 1945 December 10, and included the provinces of Cần Thơ, Sóc Trăng,
Rạch Giá, together with six other provinces. Bich sabotaged many bridges that were notoriously difficult to destroy such as Cai-Rang Bridge in
Cần Thơ—where a street was named to honor his feats
N.nnbs —Nhu-Gia Bridge in
Sóc Trăng, etc., blocking the advance of French forces directed by General Valluy and General Nyo, who were under the general command of General
Philippe Leclerc, commander of the
French Far East Expeditionary Corps (
Corps expéditionnaire français en Extrême-Orient, CEFEO).
Joseph A. Buttinger was an ardent advocate for refugees of persecution, and a "renowned authority on Vietnam and the American war" in that country. In 1940, he helped founded the
International Rescue Committee, "a
nonprofit organization aiding refugees of political, religious and racial persecution", and while "working with refugees in Vietnam in the 1950s, he became immersed in the history, culture, and politics of that nation". His scholarship was in high demand during the Vietnam War. The New York Times described his his two-volume Vietnam-history book,
Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled,
N.jbr1 as "a monumental work" that "marks a strategic breakthrough in the serious study of Vietnamese politics in America" and as "the most thorough, informative and, over all, the most impressive book on Vietnam yet published in America".
Joseph Buttinger wrote in [
Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, Vol. 2] That Nguyen Ngoc Bich was being hunted by the French colonists was described in
Joseph Buttinger's book::641 Miss Hammer cites the case of an emissary sent by Nguyen Ngoc Bich. The French took down his name when he came to their headquarters to negotiate a cease-fire, and "it was soon public knowledge that the French had put a price on his head as well as on that of his commander, Nguyen Ngoc Bich " (ibid., p. 158). ---
Joseph Buttinger (1967),
Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, Vol.1, p. 641.
N.pbh == Publications ==