Why were the vietnamese able to defeat the french by 1954?
“Anti-Communism will remain a useless tool in our hands as long as the problem of nationalism [in Indochina] remains unsolved.” Marshall Philippe de Hautcloque “Leclerc,” Commander-in-Chief in Indochina, 1945-1947 1. The Vietnamese had superior leadership – Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap. There was no one in the French government or the French military who had the same experience and ability as the leaders of the Viet Minh. 2. The Vietnamese fought a people’s war, with Vietnamese who fought for independence and/or a socialist republic. The French fought the war with foreign mercenaries (Algerians and Morrocans) who themselves were victims of French colonialism in their own countries, and who had little to no stake in the country of Vietnam. 3. The French, like the Chinese Nationalists, and like the Vietnamese of the “Republic of China” could never “pacify” the countryside. The Viet Minh controlled all six of the northern provinces of Vietnam and most of the countryside where armour cou