"Vietnam 1950" Topic

"By 1949, French intelligence in Paris was increasingly concerned about how the war against communism in China was going. Despite being equipped with millions of dollars of American weapons, Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists were rapidly losing. The city of Hsuchow (Xuzhou) on the North China Plain was in the news bulletins for all the wrong reasons. Chiang was defeated in Manchuria in 1948, with the loss of 30,000 soldiers and all of their equipment. By the end of the year, his remaining armies were completely cut off at Hsuchow.

Chiang was betrayed by General Liu Fei, his military assistant, who revealed the nationalists' strategy to the enemy. On 10 January 1949, some 320,000 nationalist troops were forced to surrender south of Hsuchow. This meant that the communists could march down the Yangtze River, which runs through the very heart of southern China. Ten days later, with his government in chaos, Chiang resigned as president of the Chinese Republic. In April and May, the communists entered Nanking on the Yangtze, and then Shanghai. Once the nationalists were looking to flee to the island of Formosa (Taiwan), it was only a matter of time before Mao's four-million-strong People's Liberation Army reached the border with Indochina.

The French military were now taking the situation in Indochina very seriously. France's most senior soldier, General Georges Revers, Chief of the General Staff, flew to Indochina in May 1949 to assess the situation in person. He and his fellow generals knew that Mao's imminent victory would drastically transform the status quo in the region. During his briefings in Saigon and Hanoi, it soon became apparent that once Mao was up against the border backing the Viet Minh, the French military would be unable to hold the frontier…"

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Armand

Yes, the loss of China to Mao's Chi-Coms then their support of the Ho's Viet Minh as early as '50. While the French have been fighting the Viet Minh since about '46 on. Just pretty much sealed the deal with France losing Indo-China in '54.

And let's not forget the UK/Indian forces there from '45-'46. Where the IJFs that had surrendered at the of WWII to the Brits. Were rearmed and fought along side the UK Forces, etc. against Ho's Viet Minh … Yes, at one point the Brits, Indians, IJFs and the French were on the same side … fighting and killing large numbers of the Viet Minh. The Brits, Indians, Japanese and some of the French were combat veterans, many in that region. They were well trained & experienced. The Viet Minh at this time were still "learning & gaining combat experience".

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Then setting the board for the US/SEATO/ROK, etc. involvement. In the near future with the "2d" Vietnam War/the American Vietnam War.

As we know … the rest is history …

Thanks…

Armand

Mao and the Communists billed themselves as the liberators of China. They really sat out the war up North and left the Kuomintang to exhaust itself fighting the Japanese. Mao actually had intelligence dealings with the Japanese commend, selling information on the Kuomintang in exchange for for money, supplies and "favors".

A major historical work on Mao's WW2 period (by a pair of Chinese scholars) was due to come out last year. I have been unable to locate any information whatsoever about it.

B

Sounds interesting …

Blutarski + 1

Armand