I generally have a very hard time understanding war motives, and I’m always afraid answers might be biased.
In: 2
Vietnam was a French colony. But after WWII France did not have enough resources to commit in Vietnam to keep their power. Even if just a few people started to riot there would not be enough French forces in place to defend the governor. So instead the French started working with locals to start forming a friendly democratic government. This would allow them to keep some of their relationship with Vietnam and allow French companies to continue operating in Vietnam while avoiding the Vietnamese people revolting as they would be revolting against their own democratically elected government.
But this did not sit well with the Vietnamese labor movement. They would prefer that ownership of the plantations and factories would be transferred to the Vietnamese laborers as repayment for the suffering caused under colonialism. There were attempts to do this through the democratic systems left in place by the French but they were unable to do this. So helped by some Japanese soldiers and equipment still in the country after WWII they formed an armed militia to take up the fight against France. They eventually got help from the USSR and the French got help from the USA. Things escalated from there.
Latest Answers