Background to the 1st Indochina War, 1946-1954*
*
        At the end of WWII the French Government began an effort to re-establish
 control in its former colony of French Indochina (modern day Kampuchea, Laos,
 and Vietnam). This effort was begun at the end of 1945 with the arrival of two
 divisions of French troops in Haiphong Harbour. However, the French had to
 contend with a new force in Vietnam, made all the more powerful by the power-
 vacuum left in the wake of the Japanese surrender, and the 6-10 months it took
 the British and Nationalist Chinese forces to occupy French Indochina in
 anticipation of its eventual return to French sovereignty, the Viet Minh. The
 Viet Minh, also known as the Vietnamese Communist Party, led by Ho Chi Minh
 ("Uncle Ho" to the locals), and the brilliant "Vietnamese Napoleon" General
 Vo Nguyen Giap. They and their constituents did not take kindly to efforts by
 the French government to re-establish their newly independent nation as a
 colony. As a result, a slowly escalating guerrilla war was begun, with the Viet
 Minh being equipped by Communist China and the USSR (from 1950-1953, the Chinese
 also began equipping the Vietnamese communists with American equipment
 captured in the Korean War). The French, on the other hand, were equipped with
 American weapons of WWII vintage. The French being unused to guerrilla warfare,
 used tactics that worked quite well in North Africa. The establishment of
 static, isolated, garrisoned forts throughout French Indochina with mobile
 columns of light armour and infantry. They were confined to the cities and the
 roads. Most of these Mobile Columns were constant victims of Viet Minh
 "Zero Distance" ambushes. The French having repeatedly failed to clear brush
 away from the sides of the roads. The Viet Minh also frequently attacked at
 night. During the night, French air power was neutralized, and also this was when
 the isolated French forts were most vulnerable. As the years went on, one-by-one,
 these isolated forts, manned by courageous French Foreign Legionnaires, were
 overwhelmed by superior Viet Minh forces. Eventually, the French were confined
 the Red River Delta Region between Hanoi, and the Port of Haiphong. Most of the
 French troops were exhausted after having been in near constant combat conditions
 since 1940 with the Axis powers in Europe and North Africa, with the Japanese
 for a brief period in 1944-1945 in French Indochina, with Thailand in 1941,
 in Korea 1950-1953, in Algeria with the Islamic guerrillas 1945-1961, and numerous
 other French colonies. In addition, the French forces in Indochina were further
 demoralized by the fact that they could never seem to engage the enemy in significant
 numbers where and when they wanted to. The Viet Minh set the where and whens
 while fighting the French. To top it all off, the Viet Minh just seemed to melt
 away into the vastness of the jungles whenever they wanted. The constant mines,
 booby traps, and sniping at French troop concentrations took its toll on morale.
 It all ended in March 1954 with the stunning French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. The
 war cost a total of around 190,000 French casualties.