THE ESTABLISHMENT OF COLONIAL REGIME
The later Emperors, Thieu Tri and Tu Duc, became more and more entrenched in
their Confucian doctrine and the country experienced an era of stagnancy. The court
mandarins were increasingly blinded to the development of the outside world and
worse still, implemented a policy of isolation that forbade any contact with
foreigners.
Seeing the danger of such a policy, the progressive mandarins in Emperor Tu Duc's
court launched a movement to modernize the country. Among these were: Bui Vien,
the first Vietnamese envoy to Washington D.C. who presented his credentials to
President Ulysses Grant; Nguyen Lo Trach, who wrote a discourse on the changing
world; and Nguyen Truong To, a Catholic and strong advocate of progressive
change. During the persecution under Thieu Tri, Nguyen Truong To had been taken
overseas by French missionaries and educated in France and Malacca. On his return
to Vietnam a sympathetic mandarin secured him a minor position in the Royal Court
where he spent most of his time writing Emperor Tu Duc a proposal on how to
modernize the country. However his proposal was rejected by the dogmatic
mandarins after a very heated and lengthy debate in the court.
The failure to implement Nguyen Truong To's proposals led the Vietnamese
leadership progressively deeper into the dogma of Confucianism. Consequently,
when the French navy opened fire in DaNang the Court of Hue was totally
unequipped to defend the country against the modern and powerful enemy.
In 1861 the French took Saigon. Six years later the entire southern part of the
country, rechristened Cochinchina, was annexed as a French colony. Vietnam lost its
independence in 1883 with the extension of French control to the North. The Center
of Vietnam , renamed Annam, and the North, Tonkin, became French protectorates.
The three regions were each governed somewhat differently. Cochinchina at first
came under a military government, then later a civil governor with a civic council
elected by civil servants and naturalized French. The colony sent a representative to
the French Parliament. Tonkin was governed in a similar way. In Annam, the
Emperor kept his title to power under strong, but more indirect French control.
In 1887, in compliance with the decree of the French King, Indochina, consisting of
Vietnam , Cambodia and Laos, was established. At that time, French social and
economic policies were expedited on a small scale, and a policy on the exploitation
of colonies was imposed on a larger scale at the beginning of the 20th century.
French economic and social activities boosted the country in many ways. The French
concentrated investments in the mining industry, as well as several other industries.
A number of large plantations, apart from rice, appeared and economical crops, such
as tea, coffee, and rubber, were developed. Agricultural products were being
considered as commodities. These changes in the economy resulted in a division
between the Vietnamese bourgeoisie and the working class.
The education system was also modified. Three levels of general education, infant,
primary, and secondary, were established. The old examination system was
abolished in 1915, and schools for training administrative officers in the French style
were officially launched in 1917.
The Vietnamese were no happier living under French domination than they had been
under the Chinese. In 1893, Emperor Ham Nghi and Phan Dinh Phung organized a
royalist movement "Can Vuong" and staged an unsuccessful uprising at Ha Tinh. The
Can Vuong movement survived until one of its leaders was killed by a Vietnamese
traitor. Dogmatic Confucian thought was once again the order of the day.
Vietnam DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR
While seeking to maximize the use of Indochina's
natural resources and manpower to fight the war,
France cracked down on all patriotic mass movements
in Vietnam . Indochina, mainly Vietnam , had to
provide France with 50,000 soldiers and 49,000
workers, who were forcibly drafted from the villages to
serve on the French battlefront. Indochina also
contributed 184 million piasters in the form of loans
and 336,000 tons of food.
These burdens proved all the heavier as agriculture
was hard hit by natural disasters from 1914 to 1917.
Lacking a unified nationwide organization, the
Vietnamese national movement, though still vigorous,
failed to take advantage of the difficulties France was
experiencing as a result of war to stage any significant
uprisings.
The scholars' movement had declined while new social forces were not yet strong
enough to promote large-scale campaigns.
By the beginning of the 20th century, various nationalist resistance movements had
formed. Among this was one composed almost entirely of aristocrats, intellectuals
and young people led by more radical Confucian scholars such as Phan Boi Chau,
Phan Chau Trinh and Prince Cuong De - Prince Canh's great grandson. In an effort to
break away from the traditional royalist thinking they embraced the new idea of
democracy. The new resistance was greatly influenced by the Japanese victory over
Russia in 1904. Convinced that Western power was no longer invincible, Phan Boi
Chau and Cuong De sought help in Japan. They established the Eastward Movement
in 1907 and Vietnamese students were secretly sent to study at institutions in
Japan. When the French authorities discovered this they negotiated with the
Japanese government for the extradition of all Vietnamese students from Japan.
Some Japanese officials, however, helped Vietnamese revolutionaries and students
escape to China.
When the exiled Vietnamese in China witnessed the 1911 Kuomingtang Revolution
led by Sun Yat Sen, some young revolutionaries were convinced that the same
revolution could take place in Vietnam . They formed the Vietnam Quoc Dan Dang
Party, which later became one of the main parties in the struggle against the French.
Meanwhile, a new debate caused a rift between the Westernized reformist Phan Chu
Trinh and the nationalist Phan Boi Chau. Phan Chu Trinh opposed Phan Boi Chau's
appeal for foreign help to resolve the French occupation. He believed Vietnam could
regain independence through the democratic process as purported by the French
constitution. In 1915 Phan Chu Trinh went to Paris to rally Vietnamese exiles and
radical French politicians to support the Vietnamese struggle.
The Quang Phuc movement had planned to seize Hanoi through the combined action
of patriots within the country and a revolutionary army trained abroad. The secret
operation was betrayed, however, and many members of the movement were
arrested. Other members joined different organizations, armed themselves with
rudimentary weapons, and sought to bring soldiers from the local militia over to
their side. On January 6, 1919, 150 armed patriots attacked the garrison at Phu
Tho. Meanwhile, enemy posts in other provinces, such as Nho Quan in Ninh Binh and
Mong Cai near the Chinese border, were besieged. However, the attacks failed. The
Quang Phuc had the intention of launching a series of attacks against many military
and administrative centers in Tonkin, but the plan was not implemented.
Again in Tonkin, on August 31, 1917, soldiers of the Thai Nguyen garrison held a
mutiny under the leadership of Sergeant Trinh Van Can, a former partisan of Hoang
Hoa Tham, and Luong Ngoc Quyen, a member of the Quang Phuc movement. Joined
by many soldiers, the insurgents killed the French commander, seized a large load of
arms and munitions, and liberated many political prisoners who then joined the
ranks of the combatants. The town of Thai Nguyen was liberated. The insurgents,
after a series of discussions, gave up their plans for extending their activities to
other provinces. Instead, they dug in at Thai Nguyen in the hope of consolidating
their strength. On September 4, the French retook the town, forcing the insurgents
to leave. Scattered in the mountainous region around Thai Nguyen, the rebels
continued their struggle against 2,000 French troops for another six months.
In Annam, the most important event was the call for an uprising made by King Duy
Tan, who was enthroned in 1907, at the age of seven, by the instigation of patriotic
mandarins and scholars, particularly Thai Phien and Tran Cao Van. The principal
forces on which King Duy relied were the soldiers who were gathered in the
thousands in Hue and about to leave for France. The signal for the start of the revolt
should have been given on May 3, 1916. Unfortunately, the secret was leaked and
the French disarmed the soldiers before the day of their departure. Duy Tan
attempted to flee the capital but was captured and exiled to the Island of Reunion.
Scattered armed groups were rapidly eliminated by the French, and the patriots Thai
Phien and Tran Cao Van were executed.
In Cochinchina, patriotic activity manifested itself in the early years of the century
by the creation of underground societies. The most important of which was the Thien
Dia Hoi (Heaven and Earth Association) whose branches covered many provinces
around Saigon. These associations often took the form of political-religious
organizations, and one of their main activities was to punish traitors in the pay of
the French.
Connected to these secret societies, a movement led by a former bonze, Phan Xich
Long, was organized in 1913. Its members, wearing white clothes and turbans,
attacked the cities with primitive weapons. Phan Xich Long was eventually captured
and executed by the French. In 1916, underground societies in Cochinchina tried to
attack several administrative centers, including the central prison in Saigon and the
residence of the local French governor. On the night of February14, 1916, thousands
of people armed with knives and wearing amulets infiltrated Saigon and fought
French police and troops who succeeded in defeating them.
The colonial administration, while harshly suppressing the national movement,
sought to appease the elite by introducing a few paltry reforms, with promises of
important postwar reforms from the more generous "liberal" governors. These
promises were never fulfilled. The fact that France succeeded in holding on to
Vietnam during the war years was mainly due to the weakness of the national
movement. There were of' course patriots to carry on the fight for national
independence, but the new and still embryonic social forces failed to give the
movement the necessary vigor and direction. Not until these forces had further
developed over subsequent decades was the national movement able to be
revitalized.
Vietnam IN THE TIME OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Nationalist sentiments
intensified in Vietnam ,
especially after World War
I, but all the uprisings and
tentative efforts failed to
obtain any concessions
from the French
overseers. The Russian
Revolution which occurred
at this time had a
tremendous impact on
shaping 20th century
Vietnamese history.
Nguyen Tat Thanh, alias Nguyen Ai Quoc, better known under his later alias of Ho
Chi Minh, a young Vietnamese revolutionary working with Phan Chu Trinh on an
anti-colonial petition put forward at the Versailles Conference in 1919 by a group of
Vietnamese patriots, was greatly impressed with the Russian Revolution. He became
involved with French intellectuals who formed the French Communist Party in 1921.
In 1922 Nguyen Tat Thanh went to Moscow to be trained as an agent of the
Communist International.
In 1924 Nguyen Ai Quoc was sent to China as a delegate in Borodine's advisory
team to the Communist Party of China. During this time, he contacted many young
Vietnamese revolutionaries, and founded the Association of Vietnamese Youth, which
competed with other radical organizations for the liberation of the country. For
training purposes, some Vietnamese communist recruits were sent to Moscow and
others became affiliated with the Chinese communist party. In the same year, 1924,
Emperor Khai Dinh died and his son Bao Dal, then aged 12, mounted the throne.
Bao Dai was sent to France for his education and returned to Vietnam in 1932. At
this time the Vietnamese were waiting to see the French persuaded to adopt more
liberal politics, but it soon became clear that the French had no intention of making
any real concessions.
In February 1930, Nguyen Ai Quoc successfully rallied several communist groups
and founded the Indochinese Communist Party. For the first time in history, a
revolutionary party was systematically formed.
Also in 1930, under the leadership of Nguyen Thai Hoc, the Viet Nam Quoc Dan
Dang - a replica of the Chinese Kuomintang, launched a military revolt in Yen Bay.
Later, communist groups following the same path of armed revolt, known as the
Nghe Tinh Soviets movement, staged a series of peasant uprisings. The French
retaliated by taking severe measures against every one of these political
movements.
The apparent calm which reigned after the reprisals towards the end of the 1930s
shattered with the first battles of World War II in Europe. In Asia, most of the
coastal cities of China fell under the advancing Japanese forces, and likewise in
Vietnam where the Japanese rapidly occupied the key regions during 1940.
The Sequels to the Second World War: For Vietnam , the explosion of the World War
II in September 1939 was an event as decisive as the French taking of Danang in
1858. When France was invaded the following year, the Vichy Government was
formed to govern the country. Vichy accepted the Japanese occupation of Indochina,
but as compensation, was allowed to continue administering Vietnam . In March
1945, realizing the allied victory was inevitable, Japan overthrew the French
authorities in Indochina, imprisoned their civil servants and rendered Vietnam
"independent" under Japanese "protection", with Bao Dai as Chief of State. The
Japanese surrender some months later was an event Nguyen Ai Quoc had been
waiting for since the French defeat in 1940.
In May 1941, the Central Committee of the Indochinese Communist Party met in
Southern China and announced the formation of the Revolutionary League for the
Independence of Vietnam , which later became known as the Viet Minh. In its
creation he finally achieved "the union of diverse Vietnamese nationalist groups
under communist direction", a goal that he had been working towards since 1924.
At first the Chinese Nationalist authorities supported the new Vietnamese nationalist
Front, but they later disagreed with Nguyen Ai Quoc's political view. They imprisoned
him and created a rival organization. However, they soon realized that Nguyen Ai
Quoc's influence and organization were much needed and released him in 1943.
Nguyen Ai Quoc became the chief of the Viet Minh Front and soon adopted the new
name of Ho Chi Minh.
During this time, Vo Nguyen Giap, one of Ho Chi Minh's principal collaborators, later
became one famous general of Vietnam , set up some guerilla units and created an
intelligence network in several regions of North Vietnam , which was the initial form
of Vietnam People's Army. Communist cells were organized throughout the country
under the supervision of Truong Chinh, the young secretary general of the
Indochinese Communist Party. These later became of inestimable value after Japan's
sudden surrender on August 13, 1945. Ho Chi Minh was waiting for the Thoi Co the opportune moment when all the conditions were met at the end of the war - to
launch the general insurrection. His resolute certainty of victory is reflected in the
"prophetic" conclusion of one of his poems: "In 1945, the work will be
accomplished."
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF Vietnam
By the end of World War II, Vietnam had become a political void. Bao Dai's Japanese
installed Government existed in name only. By the middle of August 1945, chaos
and uncertainty reigned once again in Vietnam .
The August Revolution began on the August 16, 1945, when the Viet Minh
announced the formation of a "National Committee of Liberation for Vietnam ".
Three days later, Viet Minh forces took Hanoi. Hue's turn came four days later on
August 23, when Bao Dai's government was besieged and asked to hand over the
royal seal. Bao Dai abdicated and became citizen Vinh Thuy. Viet Minh controlled
Saigon and practically all the surrounding rural areas. On August 29, a provisional
government was formed in Hanoi. On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh announced
the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to all Vietnamese people, and to the
entire world, with these words:
"We hold truths that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among
these are life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
This immortal statement is extracted from the Declaration of
Independence of the United States of America in 1776. Understood
in the broader sense, this means: All have the right to live to be
happy and free.
These are undeniable truths.
***
We, the members of the Provisional Government representing the entire people of
Vietnam , declare that we shall from now on have no connections with imperialist
France; we consider null and void all the treaties France has signed concerning
Vietnam , and we hereby cancel all the privileges that the French arrogated to
themselves on our territory."
After eighty years of French rule, Vietnam was again independent and again united.
That unity, more than just political, expressed the deepest wishes of the Vietnamese
people for national independence. History of Vietnam from this time turns to a new
page.