ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the resistance that the Viet Minh improvised a military response to the French invasion of the Mekong Delta. The reasons for their success lay as much in the inherent political weakness of the French position as it did in the military prowess of the Viet Minh. The idealism, universalism, and appeal to personal and class interest brought an enthusiastic response from many people like this poor peasant. The dominant security issue in My Tho was the continuing French military effort to rcim-posc colonial rule. One of the rationales for land reform had been that it would help expand the base of support for the Resistance. My Thos rural society was in fact transformed by revolutionary policies. In addition to driving the big landlords out of the countryside, the land distribution set in motion a pattern of upward mobility that moved poor and landless peasants into the ranks of middle peasants as independent cultiva.
