ABSTRACT
Stalin made no commitment to the Viet Minh struggle against the French in terms of official endorsement or political or diplomatic support. This led some observers to conclude that the USSR was indifferent to the outcome of the war and provided no significant support for Ho Chi Minh and his followers. Others concluded that Moscow did little because the war was being funded adequately by China. Viet Minh forces from the start of the war received important military assistance from the outside. Soviet aid over the past three decades has represented the bulk of all outside assistance to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, ranging from about 55 percent to 90 percent of the total in any one year. An additional capital investment agreement was signed in 1957 under which the USSR loaned the Democratic Republic of Vietnam the equivalent of $100 million to modernize several Democratic Republic of Vietnam coal mines, build fish refrigeration plant, and enlarge electric power plants.
