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First Indochina War Begins

November 1, 1946 - December 31, 1946

First Indochina War Begins
First Indochina War Begins
First Indochina War Begins

France is determined to maintain control of its colony. The Viet Minh and the French attempt to negotiate an agreement for more than a year after Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnamese Independence. But with no agreement in sight, increased violence breaks out in the port city of Haiphong in November 1946. A French warship shells the city, killing thousands of Vietnamese civilians. In December, the fighting spreads to Hanoi. By the start of 1947 it sweeps throughout Vietnam and the First Indochina War is underway.1

1George C. Herring, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975, (4th edition; New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002), 7–8; Fredrik Logevall, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam (New York: Random House, 2012), 152–163; Mike Gravel, The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam, vol. 1 (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1971), 26–27.