<p>Two days later, the Japanese officially surrendered in a ceremony at which the French were conspicuous by their absence. A single French general had been offered a seat somewhere in the rear rows, behind junior Viet Minh officers. No French flag was flown at the ceremony. The French, very obviously hurt and humiliated, did not attend.
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<p>In March 1946, France recognized the Republic of Vietnam as a free state, part of the French Union and the Indochina Federation. It was a positive move, and went far toward cementing good relations between France and Ho Chi Minh and the revolutionary council. It was completely undone by a unilateral decision made on 30 May 1946 by the French High Commissioner Admiral Thierry d'Argenlieu. Urged on and backed by French conservatives who wanted to maintain the status quo, he recognized a southern enclave, the Republic of Cochinchina, as a free state, with the same rights and privileges that had been granted to the Republic under Ho. Cochinchina was clearly a French-sponsored client state, and that single act, unauthorised and unknown, surely triggered a new outburst of war.
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<p>Not that the fighting had ever stopped; French occupation troops were still engaged in mopping-up operations, and the Viet Minh were tired of being mistaken for Japanese. Tensions increased and came to a head on 20 November 1946, at Haiphong. Viet Minh militia opened fire on a French ship in the harbour, and the sound of gunfire alarmed another band of Viet Minh. They killed a few unarmed French soldiers in the market. The reprisal came two days later, when the French moved troops into the Chinese quarter to rout out the Viet Minh. The action stampeded a mob out of the city toward the French air base at Cat Bi. A French heavy cruiser lying offshore saw the running mob, assumed that the base was under attack, and opened fire. In the panic that followed, about 6,000 Vietnamese were either killed outright by gunfire or were trampled to death.
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<p>The time for any peaceful solution had passed, and on both sides the military pressures for further action increased. On the night of 19 December, the Communists blew up the Hanoi powerplant, blacking out the city. Armed bands of Viet Minh moved against French civilians in Hanoi and against all French garrisons in the country in a well-planned and well-executed attack.
