ABSTRACT

It was just a matter of time before the French ended the situation of there being two forms of government functioning in Vietnam, both based in Hanoi. The first government was the 80-year-old French colonial government, with adequate finances and an army provided by the metropolitan government. The second one was the new Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) influenced by Marxism, with restricted finances and a small guerrilla army limited by its inadequate supply of military weapons. The main strength of the DRV government lay in its wide support from the majority of Vietnamese people mobilized by its deep hatred of the French colonial government. The local French people were at first cheered by the arrival of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps (Corps Expéditionnaire Français en Extrême-Orient, CEFEO) from France, but they soon realized that an armed conflict was imminent. Back in France there was little interest in the happenings in Vietnam, although there was deeper concern among the left than in the right about the growing tensions in Vietnam. President Truman and his Secretary of State, Edward Stettinius Jr., until June 1945, and thereafter James Byrnes, sought to extend a neutralist policy towards the French during its re-establishment of colonial controls in Vietnam. However, the identification of Ho Chi Minh and the DRV with communism shifted the administration’s opinion more against the DRV as the divisions of the Cold War became stronger and neutralist policies faded. The help the US gave to the French for transporting its Expeditionary Corps to Vietnam and the assistance it provided to the French to purchase certain categories of war surplus military equipment from the Philippines strengthened Franco-American relations. That new alliance grew silently, leaving little trace in official files and even less in public debate.