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Section III (Peace and Conflict): Conflict in Indochina 1954-1979
Quick questions on Origins of conflict and French defeat 1954: HSC Modern History Indochina
10short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is french colonial rule?Show answer
France conquered Vietnam in stages between 1858 (Da Nang) and 1885 (Treaty of Tien-tsin). The colony of Cochinchina, the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin, and the protectorates of Cambodia (1863) and Laos (1893) were combined as French Indochina in 1887. Colonial rule extracted rice, rubber, coal and tin, taxed the peasantry heavily, and ran a French-educated mandarinate. Land concentration accelerated; by the 1930s around 70 per cent of Tonkin peasants were landless tenants.
What is vietnamese nationalism?Show answer
Early nationalist movements (Phan Boi Chau's Dong Du, the VNQDD founded 1927, the Yen Bay mutiny 1930) were crushed. Ho Chi Minh founded the Indochinese Communist Party in Hong Kong on 3 February 1930. The Nghe-Tinh peasant rising of 1930 to 1931 was repressed with around 1,300 killed.
What is the August Revolution and the war of 1946 to 1954?Show answer
After the Japanese coup of 9 March 1945 dismantled French rule, the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap seized power in the August Revolution. Ho proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi on 2 September 1945, quoting the American Declaration of Independence.
What is dien Bien Phu?Show answer
General Henri Navarre's plan (Navarre Plan, July 1953) sought a decisive battle. The French Expeditionary Corps occupied the valley of Dien Bien Phu in northwestern Tonkin in November 1953 to interdict Viet Minh supply lines to Laos and force Giap to fight. Giap accepted the battle but on his terms.
What is the Geneva Accords?Show answer
The Geneva Conference (26 April to 21 July 1954), chaired by Anthony Eden and Vyacheslav Molotov, addressed Korea then Indochina. The Indochina session opened on 8 May, the day after Dien Bien Phu fell.
What is historiography?Show answer
Bernard Fall (Street Without Joy, 1961; Hell in a Very Small Place, 1966) is the standard military narrative.
What is confusing 1945 with 1954?Show answer
The DRV was proclaimed on 2 September 1945; partition came at Geneva on 21 July 1954.
What is misdating Dien Bien Phu?Show answer
The siege ran 13 March to 7 May 1954.
What is treating Geneva as a US settlement?Show answer
The US did not sign the Final Declaration; the Accords were a Franco-Viet Minh settlement with British, Soviet, Chinese and ICC supervision.
What is missing the China dimension?Show answer
PRC aid from 1949 was decisive in turning the Viet Minh into a regular army.