VIETNAM : TEN YEARS AFTER VICTORY 59
despite its explicitly racialist appeal, was rejected by the Axis.3 While the war was in progress the French and the Japanese actively collaborated to rule Indochina and suppress the nationalist movement. On 2 September 1945 Ho Chi Minh issued a declaration of independence based, ironically enough, on the American declaration of 4 July 1776. This bold action of Vietnam forced the United States to come to a decision on the Indochina question. On 23 September 1945, the French staged a comeback supported by the British to rule Indochina again. The French and the British troops attacked Viet Minh (guerrilla wing of the Communist Party of Vietnam) strongholds on the pretence that they were Japanese agents On many occasions the French and the British employed Japanese troops who had surrendered in mopping-up operations against the Viet Minh.4 But the nationalists were not to be subdued so easily.
With the division of the country, like many other colonies, Ho Chi Minh signed an agreement with the French in March 1946 which declared North Vietnam, Republic of Vietnam, "a free state". But the French ignored the promises made to the Viet Minh, brought in thousands of troops arid started the bombardment actively supported by the United States under Marshall Plan which gave the call for defeating communism. The US contention was that the nationalist movement was not genuine.
The Americans and the French chose Bao Dai as the true nationalists a person who was distinguished earlier for his collaboration with the Japanese, but who, after the war, had formally abdicated in favour of the Viet Minh and received an honorary post as political counsellor to Ho Chi Minh When the fighting was in progress between the Viet Minh and the French, Bao Dai ran away to Hong Kong. He again renounced the Viet Minh and accepted the offer of the Americans, after two years of persuation to play the role of a "true nationalist". It was not until the summer 1949 that the French colonial war was officially labelled as a defence of the "legitimate" government of Bao Dai. Soon the Vietnamese nationalist movement had international repercussions. The Black troops from Africa and West Indies quickly realized that they were being used as cannon fodder to suppress the nationalist movement in another colony. TBie shifting of troops from other colonies weakened the French garrisons in North Africa and the direct inspiration of the Viet Minh's struggle was reflected in the growth of militant resistance movements in Tunisia (1952), Morocco (1953) and Algeria (1954). By mid-1954 the French lost nearly 100,000 troops; another 114,000 were wounded. The cost of the war for the French was over $ 7 billion and the US was paying 78 per cent of the French cost in the Indochina war. The siege of Dien Bien Phu resulted in the complete defeat of the French on 13 March 1954 and the stage was set for US intervention. John Foster Dullcs offered Bidault the use of nuclear weapons at Dien Bien Phu; the French did not accept because the West would have completely lost its credibility and long-term interests.
In April 1954, US Vice-President Richard Nixon proposed to send