ABSTRACT
All his life, Ho Chi Minh's attitude to France can be described as ambivalent. General Gracey's arrival created a new peril: that in the wake of his 20th Indian Division, the French would return to Vietnam. Communists in Indochina were subsumed by the Indochinese Communist Party. So, the struggle extended beyond Vietnam, and by November 1945, there were 2,000 Viet Minh in Laos. It is curious to say the least that while nursing one Vietnamese royal surrogate, and de Gaulle met Van Sinh as early as 15 October, the French had made an earlier attempt to keep on terms with Bao Dai, even when his intention to abdicate had become known. D'Argenlieu continued to regard the use of the term 'Vietnam' in the accords as nothing more than a courtesy. He reacted by complaining that it was wrong for Paris newspapers to conflate the names 'Vietnam' and 'Viet Minh.'.
