See these casahistoria sites for further background:
 |
 Imperialism:
Go to this casahistoria site for the European Empire
building context context
of the French in indo china. |
|
|
 Vietnam
War: Go to this casahistoria site for the later US
Involvement and campaigns |
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Before the French;
Lead-up to French Colonization; &
Colonization Get the background structure organised with
help from the excellent set of detailed chronologies of the
Vietnam War Timetable compiled by Ray Sarlin
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1861 French Conquest of Saigon: Battle of the Ky Hoa Forts
This article was written by James M. Haley and originally
published in the June 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine.
-
 Indochina War 1882-1883
From OnWar.com. Brief, simple: but this is how it all
started... and click here for the first flags and a bit of
colour!
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The Catholic Encyclopaedia (1910):
Indo-China This is a
real gem. This is a translation from the entry in this French
encyclopaedia for Indochina printed in 1910.
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Postcards from Vietnam - Indochina
"Paysage Cochinchinoise", This site (set up to sell original
postcards) has good (postcard) images of Indochina from before
1914. Click on the image star. You don't have to buy a card, but
they are the real thing...
-
Internet East Asian History Sourcebook
Major compilation of textual and visual original sources from
the history of East Asia. The clearly organized outline gathers
material dating from prehistoric times through post-WWII
society, focusing on China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, treating
general culture, religion (with Buddhism especially well
covered), political and dynastic history, technology,
literature, education, imperialism, communism, and gender.
Includes secondary sources, links to other topical sites and
major indexes, and numerous texts, images, and maps.
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About The War Vietnam Veterans of America's Electronic
Library: A very extensive set of links and resources to the
Vietnam War and Vietnam Era Resources. The French period
is included as background to the US conflict. Not all links are
live and there are no descriptors, but the scope of coverage is
monumental! §
French involvement with
China
- Sino-French War 1884-1885: Outline descriptions, maps and
ship silhouettes from ironcladpirate:
2. Biographies
Ho Chi Minh
-
Time Asia 100: The Most Influential Asians of the Century - Ho
Chi Minh Vietnam's independence leader was a hero to his
countrymen, a wise uncle to friends and a monster to enemies
.... By Bui Tin
-
Ho Chi Minh.
A brief bio and timeline from Moreheroes site. Reasonable
balanced conclusion.
-
 Ho Chi Minh, an
Appreciation By Wilfred Burchett, whose exclusive dispatches
from Korea, Indochina, Japan; People's China and the Paris peace
talks have been appearing in the pages of the Guardian for 20
years. It was in the pages of the Guardian that Ho Chi Minh
first learned the details of the antiwar and resistance movement
in the U.S. After the middle of the month the site exceeds its
limit and is usually closed.....
-
Ho Chi Minh A four-page biography from Time Magazine . By
Stanley Karnow. §
-
Ho Chi Minh
CNN Review: 'Ho Chi Minh' a biography By William J.
Duiker
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Ho Chi Minh Bio from Spartacus site
-
Ho Chi Minh's rhetoric for revolution Difficult. A scholarly
article on the themes of character, collectivity and cultural
heritage in Ho Chi Minh's speeches. By Peter A. DeCaro of Buena
Vista University.
- Vietnam's
independence and Ho Chi Minh This article questions the
importance of Ho Chi Minh's role in gaining Vietnamese
independence from France. From VietNam Quoc Dan Dang, the
Vietnamese National Party
Ideas
Vo Nguyen
Giap
Bao
Dai, Last Emperor of Vietnam
General
-
Who's Who Brief biographies of the key players in the war;
includes Americans, Cambodians, and Vietnamese. Produced by
Vietnam Online, developed to accompany Vietnam: A Television
History, an award-winning television series produced by WGBH
Boston. §
3. The
French conflict before 1945
Background
-
World War II
This is perhaps the most complex period to get your head around
but this chronology from Ray Sarlin's
excellent set set of detailed
chronologies of the
Vietnam War Timetable will help
you a great deal! use it together with these two pdf's....
-
 
Indochina and Vietnam:
Causes of French & US involvement, events of each conflict,
outcomes. A casahistoria netguide in lecture note format.
PDF file and requires adobe reader. For more casahistoria
netguide revision go to IB/Alevel/K12
revision in the young casahistoria section.
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World War 2 in
Indochina - a casahistoria netguide diagram. PDF file
and requires adobe reader. For more casahistoria netguide
revision go to IB/Alevel/K12 revision
in the young casahistoria section.
-
The anti-colonial struggle
A comprehensive article on the struggle against French influence
in Indochina from Veterans with a Mission. Well written and
detailed.
-
Background to the Vietnam wars
Covers the conquest of Vietnam by France, the emergence of the
Viet Minh, the first Indochina war, the Geneva Accords and their
aftermath and the Vietnam War. By Edwin E. Moise, History
Department, Clemson University, South Carolina. §
-
The Origins
of the Indochina War &
Words from "Uncle Ho"
Two articles from the
Indochine
site
The End of World War 2
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Abdication of Bao Dai Abdication speech
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Franklin Roosevelt on French Rule in Indochina Franklin
Roosevelt on French Rule in Indochina, Press Conference,
February 23, 1945, from Major Problems in American Foreign
Policy, Volume II
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The Other War: FDR's Battle Against Churchill and the British
Empire The Other War: FDR's Battle Against Churchill and the
British Empire by L. Wolfe. Printed in The American Almanac,
August 28, 1995.
- Declaration of
Independence of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam Ho Chi
Minh's Speech, Ba Dinh Square, September 2, 1945
-
Agreement on the Independence of Vietnam
(1946) Document .
4. The
French War, 1945-54 - I: the Armies
|
|
 Decolonisation:
Go to this casahistoria site for the end of Empires context
of the French conflict in indo china. |
|
|
 The
Cold War This casahistoria site will provide links on
the Cold War background
|
|
|
 The
Korean War Go to the casahistoria site on the other far
eastern Cold War conflict taking place during the time of
the French wars in indo china. |
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Indochine 1945-54
This site was set up by two French war-gamers
and amateur military historians, with the intention is to include
some overviews of the two military systems (French and Vietnamese)
in action, with pieces on particular unit types, operations/battles,
important factors controlling the actions of either side, specialist
equipment/tactics developed during the war, and scenarios/ideas for
war-gaming the various aspects of the Indochina War. The authors
both have long-standing interests in the Indochina War, and have
produced a useful site which has provided many of the links in this
section. Also includes a
Glossary to
hopefully help you make sense out of all the abbreviations and
strange words.
-
The First Indochina War from the excellent set of detailed
chronologies of the
Vietnam War Timetable compiled by Ray Sarlin. Use this to put
the campaigns in chronological sequence!
-
Cold War in the Far East
Lecture which gives a brief, but
valuable overview of the impact and influence of the Cold war in the
Far east and its contribution to conflicts there, of which Vietnam
is the last. By Professor Gerhard Rempel, Western New England
College.
French Forces
Viet Minh
5. The French War,
1945-54 - II: Campaigns & Ðiên Biên Phú
-
Hoa Binh Campaign
At Hoa Binh, the watershed of the First Indochina War, the Viet Minh
succeeded in bottling up the French in the Red River Delta. By Shaun
M. Darragh
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Battle for Colonial Road 4
October, 1950. Interesting personal
recollection by George Moore. Written Phnom Penh, March, 1997
§
-
Setting the Stage David T. Zabecki writes that beaten in the Red
River delta, in the 1950-51 campaign the Viet Minh proved at Hoa
Binh they had learned their lesson, a lesson that would win them the
war. (§ currently put offline by
history.net but the article is linked here from the Wayback Archive,
but be patient - slow to load!)
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Showdown at Nghia Lo - Northern Indochina,
October 1-15, 1951 by Wild Bill
Wilder
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Operation Lorraine
(29th Oct - 8th Nov 1952) : Salan Strikes At Giap's Supply Lines
Miscellaneous
-
Indochina War Films
- Film reviews from
Indochine. Good
reviews of Hollywood and French films on the French & US wars.
Select your Blockbuster movie from their list!
-
Indochina 1951-1954 a site of a large number of photos taken by
Italian Foreign legionnaire Michele Vacca Ovodda (1923-1954). In
Italian.
-
Links The
excellent
Indochine
link site to web sites on most aspects of the war and Dien
Bien Phu
Ðiên Biên Phú
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CNN Cold War - Spotlight: Dien Bien Phu
Good, clear CNN page from the Cold War series. §
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Dien Bien Phu.
Straightforward and basic account with diagrams by Stephen
Kirchhoff. Published in American Military Experience, November 2003
-
 Dien Bien Phu – A Fatal Gamble
by Wild Bill Wilder. Well written, clear account.
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Dien
Bien Phu: A Battle to Remember by Bernard B. Fall. He wrote this
article in 1964, prior to the publication of Hell in a Very Small
Place. Fall was born in 1926 and grew up in France. Both his parents
were killed by the Nazis in World War II. He gained firsthand
guerrilla warfare experience while fighting in the French
Underground from 1942 to 1944. With the Allied invasion of Europe,
Fall joined the French army, serving in the infantry and pack
artillery of the 4th Moroccan Mountain Division.
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Battle of
Dien Bien Phu Shaped Southeast Asia Vietnam: Account of the
battle. By George Esper, Associated Press. Published on the
Australian Involvement
in Vietnam Site
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An Analysis Of The French Defeat At Dien Bien Phu by Major Harry
D. Bloomer, USA, who argues that at Dien Bien Phu the French
violated nearly all of the principles of war at every level of
war--strategic, operational, and tactical. These violations
contributed significantly to the French defeat. Page layout is
frustrating, but is well detailed.
-
Dien Bien Phu Infos
In French but most useful for its maps of the Dien Bien Phu
strongpoints.
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New Perspectives on Dien Bien Phu
New Perspectives on Dien Bien Phu. Pierre Asselin. From
"Contributions to the History of Dien Bien Phu," Vietnamese Studies
3 (1965): 51.
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Ðiên Biên Phú
Complete with suitably grave music(!) and calling itself the
official site of the battle. This is a multimedia site first and
foremost but has interesting miscellany on the battle....
-
Dien Bien Phu: A Vietnamese Perspective
Review of a recently released a revised and supplemented edition of
Dien Bien Phu, an account of the battle penned by General Giap
6. Laos, Cambodia & the French
-
French
domination of Laos From "Refugees from Laos: historical
background and causes" by Gary Yia Lee. Article focuses on the
historical background and causes of population displacement from
Laos, within context of the Indochina War.
-
 The War in
Laos - Red Princes, Opium Farmers and Elephants From
the Indochine
site. Very details article by
Danny O'Hara with campaign maps and clear layout
-
Khmer
Issarak - The War in Cambodia 1945-53 From
the Indochine
site. "Of all the Indochinese
regions, Cambodia probably saw the least fighting during the
French Indochina War. That is not to say that nothing happened
in the country during this period - in fact, many seeds of the
later struggles were sown during this time. Political activity
was more important than - but did not entirely replace -
military guerrilla action in Cambodia." A detailed chronology
- Useful outline histories from ASEAN Focus where the
emphasis is on the colonial and immediate post colonial period:
7. Geneva Accords & background to US
intervention
General outlines
linking the French wars with the US war
Kennedy
and Vietnam
-
Senator John F. Kennedy, Speaking about Indochina, April
6, 1954 §
-
America Engages 1960-64
use this to see the stages by which
JFK draws the US into the conflict. From the excellent set of
detailed chronologies of the
Vietnam War Timetable compiled by Ray Sarlin
-
General Maxwell Taylor's Mission to Vietnam: JFK's Early
Indecision Article on the background to the 1961 Taylor
report, which called for a significant increase in American
participation in the war.
Peter Kross argues that JFK's tentative response to the report
had unintended consequences for the course of the war. Click
for the complete
"Report of McNamara-Taylor Mission to South Vietnam". It was
fundamental to National Security Action Memorandum, approved by
JFK on October 5, 1963
-
The Vietnam War: Why It Was Impossible for the U.S. to Stay
Uninvolved Looks at US position in 1962-3. HistoryNet item
by Colonel William Wilson, U.S. Army and originally published in
Vietnam Magazine
-
North Vietnam's Master Plan Article by Merle L. Pribbenow of
Vietnam Magazine describing a number of crucial secret actions
taken by the North Vietnamese leadership before President John
F. Kennedy's November 1961 decision to increase American
involvement in South Vietnam. This was to substantially escalate
North Vietnam's direct participation in the conflict in South
Vietnam. Unknown to U.S. policy-makers at the time, these
decisions provided the Vietnamese Communists with the means they
needed to counter the effects of Kennedy's decision and thereby
maintain their strategic initiative in South Vietnam.
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Idealism and pragmatism in American
foreign policy rhetoric: The case of John F. Kennedy and Vietnam
From Presidential
Studies Quarterly (1994) Denise Bostdorff (Purdue University),
Steven Goldzwig (Marquette University)
-
Was John Kennedy Going to Pull Out of
Vietnam? interview
done with Robert Kennedy in April, 1964 by the John F. Kennedy
Library.
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Early Covert Action on the Ho Chi Minh Trail Article about
the 1961 and 1962 CIA- trained and -sponsored 1st Observation
Group formed to counter Communist operations along the trail. By
Ken Conboy and James Morrison. Article from HistoryNet
v10.11
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