Page 81 - History of War - Issue 10-14
P. 81
VIETNAM: THE UNTOLD STORY
1945 1946 1946
THE AUGUST REVOLUTION BATTLE OF DIEN BIEN PHUT RISEOFTHEVIETCONG
The August Revolution was a mass On March 13, Viet Minh worked to build ManyofthesouthernVietMinhwho
uprising organised by the Viet Minh up its numbers and supplies before were forced to relocate to the north
to claim Vietnamese independence. a full-scale war broke out. The Battle after the Indochinese war came together
While the French and Japanese forces of Dien Bien Phu began as a French toformtheNationalLiberationfront.
were distracted, the Viet Minh followers ploy to draw the Viet Minh forces out These insurgents were given training
fi nally emerged from their secret bases and then destroy them with advanced andreturnedtothesouthtoencourage
and led revolts in the major towns weaponry. But French blunders led to insurgency and unite the two sides. They
and cities of Hanoi, Saigon and Hue. their ultimate defeat and withdrawal eventually were crucial to the Tet Offensive
The Japanese emperor was forced from the region. The north was formally in the Vietnam War, which although
to abdicate and on 2 September given to Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh cripplingtoVietCongnumbersservedto
400,000 Vietnamese people gathered and for the fi rst time a non-European cause disillusionment and the eventual
in the capital to hear the proclamation colonial movement defeated a modern withdrawalofAmericantroops.TheViet
of the Vietnamese declaration of Western power, with the communists Cong was dissolved in 1976 when the
independence. fi nally in control of the north. country was finally united.
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