Decolonialization in Vietnam After 1945
Beginning with the reestablishment of French colonial rule after World War II, Vietnam's history after 1945 is the story of how the traditionally colonial power structure was subsumed by the worldwide ideological conflict created by the Cold War. Vietnam transitioned from French colonial control through a series of violent conflicts which began as an internal conflict between colonizers and colonized but ultimately transformed into one of the more important proxy wars fought between the United States and Soviet Union. The years between 1945 and the country's eventual unification as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976 saw the brutal clash of two global historical orders and the succession of Cold War superpowers over the fading colonial characters of France and Britain.
The groundwork for the transition from colonial rule to Cold War battleground was laid by the British capture of Vietnam following the World War...
According to John Springhall in his essay "Kicking out the Vietminh': How Britain Allowed France to Reoccupy South Indochina, 1945-46," "British-Indian troops and foreign legionnaires were indeed responsible, on 23 September 1945, for removing control of Saigon's main buildings, however insecure, from the communist-led Vietminh; actions that helped to facilitate the eventual French reoccupation of all of southern Indochina" (Springhall 2005, 116). Springhall argues that in addition to the eventual aid provided by United States in light of the Cold War, British military aid was integral for the reestablishment of French rule and the resultant conflicts.
In July, 1945, the Allied Joints Chiefs of Staff decided to divide Vietnam along the sixteenth parallel, giving control of the northern portion over to China while delegating control over the southern half to "Britain's over-stretch South East Asian Command" (Springhall 2005, 116-117). Roughly two months…
