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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
The main outlines of the Vietnamese Revolution of 1945–46 are by now well enough known to Western scholars, through the writings of Philippe Devillers, B. B. Fall, K. C. Chen and J. T. McAlister. But the detailed history of Vietnam during that period remains to be written; in particular only very scant treatment has so far been accorded to the actual political record of the Viet-Minh Provisional Government, which was established in Hanoi by Ho Chi Minh on 28 August 1945 and which lasted until the formation of the Coalition Government (or Government of Union and Resistance) in February 1946.
1 Ph. Devillers, , Histoire du Viêt-Nam de 1940 à 1952 (3rd edn, Paris, 1952);Google ScholarFall, B. B., The Viet-Minh Regime (Revised edn, Institute of Pacific Relations: New York, mimeo, 1956),Google Scholar and Le Viet-Minh (Paris, 1960);Google ScholarMcAlister, J. T. Jr, Vietnam: the Origins of Revolution (Princeton, 1969);Google ScholarChen, King C., Vietnam and China, 1938–1954 (Princeton, 1969).Google Scholar
2 A copy was consulted by the author in the ‘National Library’ in Saigon in 1972. It is possible that (uncatalogued) copies exist in one or another of the national collections in Paris. The only writer to use the Cong-Bao for published work thus far has been B. B. Fall, and that only to a very limited extent.Google Scholar
3 Trang Su Moi (‘Pages of Recent History’), published by the National Salvation Cultural Association, Hanoi, n.d. The copy in the US National Archives, Washington, was sent home by the US Consul at Kunming on 25 October 1945, and therefore must have appeared before that date.Google Scholar
4 Consulted at the Archives Nationales, Section d'Outre-Mer, Paris.
5 Consulted at the ‘National Library’, Saigon, 1972. Other Vietnamese-language newspapers and periodicals from the period are available there and also some at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Newspaper section, Versailles.
6 The fullest coverage in the foreign press is probably that of the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong. Consulted at the Public Record Office, Hong Kong.Google Scholar
7 Cf. Smith, R. B., ‘The Japanese Period in Indochina and the Coup of 9 March 1945’: to appear in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8 Documentation on the conflicting views of the British and Americans on this issue is now available in the Public Record Office, London: e.g. FO 371/46304, 46307. It is possible that Ho Chi Minh, who visited Kunming in March–April 1945, was well aware of this difference; but he may have expected the whole of Indochina to fall within the American and Chinese sphere, since at that stage the compromise had not been reached.Google Scholar
9 On Ho Chi Minh's activities in this period, the fullest account is now that by Chen, , Vietnam and China, passim.Google Scholar
10 See Devillers, , Histoire du Viêt-Nam;Google Scholar and Rosie, G., The British in Vietnam (London, 1970).Google Scholar
11 On the economic development of Vietnam in the Japanese period, see the appendix of Robequain, C., The Economic Development of French Indochina (English trans.,Inst. of Pacific Relations; New York, 1944);Google Scholar and Decoux, J., A la Barre de l'Indochine (Paris, 1949).Google Scholar
12 For a vivid account of the famine by a Vietnamese eyewitness, see Long, Ngo Vinh, Before the Revolution (Cambridge, Mass., 1973), pp. 220–76.Google Scholar
13 Cong-Bao, No. 1, 29 September 1945, p. 7.Google Scholar
14 Ibid., p. 12. For Vu Trong Khanh's earlier appointment, see Opinion-Impartial, 18 July 1945; he should be carefully distinguished from Vu Hong Khanh, the leader of one section of the VNQDD at this time. For the text of the Constitution itself, as finally approved on 8 November 1945, cf. Fall, The Viet-Minh Regime, Appendix I.Google Scholar
15 Cong-Bao, 13 October 1945.Google Scholar
16 The postponement was authorized by a Decree of 18 December, Cong-Bao, No. 16, 29 December 1945, p. 196–7. The postponement was due to the objections of the opposition parties which at that time had Chinese support, and with whom the Viet-Minh had to make a political compromise agreement on 23 December 1945.Google Scholar See Viet-Nam (Hanoi), 25 December 1945. For the text of the Election Decree of 17 October,Google Scholar see Cong-Bao, No. 5, 26 October 1945.Google Scholar
17 Viet-Nam, 25 December 1945; cf. Devillers, Histoire du Viêt-Nam, p. 200, where the seventy reserved seats are said to be out of a total of 350.Google Scholar
18 Translation of text in Breaking our Chains, Documents on the Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945 (Hanoi, 1960), pp. 7–17.Google Scholar
19 Ibid., pp. 45–51.
20 Ibid., pp. 52–7.
21 Histoire de la Révolution d'Août (Hanoi, 1972), pp. 86–7.Google Scholar
22 Ibid., pp. 124ff.
23 Ibid., p. 135. For the background to these rival parties, see Chen, , Vietnam and China, pp. 122–4.Google Scholar
24 Cong-Bao, No. 11: Special number consisting of only this decree, 30 November 1945. A supplement to this decree was issued on 21 December 1945 (Decree No. 77), relating to the administrative committees of the municipalities of Hanoi, Haiphong, Nam-Dinh, Vinh-Ben-Thuy, Hue, Danang, Dalat and Saigon;Google ScholarCong-Bao, 29 December 1945, pp. 197ff.Google Scholar
25 He is referred to in this capacity at several points in the Cong-Bao, e.g. as signatory of a decision of 10 November 1945 relating to the passage of boats on the Dao river, and of a proclamation dated 13 November 1945 relating to reduction of landrent which had been decided at a meeting of the Committee of Bac-Bo and provincial committee chairmen of the area early in October. Cong-Bao, 24 November 1945, pp. 128–9. He later became a leader of the Vietnam Socialist Party, founded in 1946, but may in fact have been a member of the Communist Party as well.Google Scholar
26 Cong-Bao, 29 September 1945, pp. 11–12.Google Scholar
27 Ibid., p. 8.
28 Ibid., p. 10.
29 Devillers, , Histoire du Viêt–Nam, p. 142.Google Scholar He was later a delegate to the conference at Dalat of April 1946 and to the Fontainebleau Conference of July 1946. Ibid., pp. 256, 291. Later he became Deputy Minister of Finance. He may have been secretly a member of the Communist Party, but in any case the Provisional Government depended for its success on the participation of people with his type of expertise.
30 Cong-Bao, No. 16, 29 December 1945, p. 196.Google Scholar
31 Cong-Bao, No. 4, 20 October 1945, p. 43.Google Scholar
32 Cong-Bao, No. 1, 29 September 1945. p. 11 and No. 2, 6 October 1945.Google Scholar
33 Cf. Fall, The Viet-Minh Regime, pp. 30ff. Fall is the one Western scholar to have made significant use of the Cong-Bao for this period; presumably, therefore, he had access to it.Google Scholar
34 Viet-Nam (newspaper of the VNQDD, Hanoi), 7 and 10 March 1946.Google Scholar
35 Cong-Bao, No. 12, 1 December 1945, pp. 140–1.Google Scholar
36 Contribution à l'Histoire des Mouvements Politiques de l'Indochine Française (Hanoi, 1934), Vol. IV, pp. 73–6;Google ScholarPresident Ho Chi Minh (in English, published in China, n.d), pp. 63–5;Google ScholarBreaking Our Chains, pp. 64–5.Google Scholar
37 Contributors to Thanh-Nghi during the early part of 1945 included: Vu Van Hien (Minister of Finance at Hue, April 1945), Hoang Xuan Han (Minister of Education in that government) and Phan Anh (Minister of Youth at Hue in April 1945, and later Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Viet Minh government of the 1950s); Nghiem Xuan Yem and Dang Thai Mai (of the Socialist Party); and the historian Dao Duy Anh, who had been a member of the Tan-Viet Party in 1929.Google Scholar
38 Devillers, , Histoire du Viêt–Nam, p. 178.Google ScholarGiam, Hoang Minh was a key official in the Ministry of the Interior, under Giap, in September 1945; cf, Cong-Bao, No. 1, 29 September 1945, p. 4.Google Scholar He later became Foreign Minister (1946–54) and Minister of Culture (1954–75).
39 Cong-Bao, No. 1, 29 September 1945, p. 8;Google Scholaribid., p. 12.
40 For his appointment, see ibid., p. 8.
41 Souverains et Notabilités de l'Indochine (Hanoi, 1943), p. 92.Google Scholar
42 Trang Su Moi, pp. 26–7.Google Scholar
43 Cong-Bao, No. 1, 29 September 1945, pp. 14–16.Google Scholar Other decisions recorded there include appointments and transfers of individual teachers, and the holding of examinations; the impression one gains is that the existing educational life of Hanoi at least was not seriously interrupted by the revolution; but certain examinations were postponed to allow for the appointment of new examiners.
44 Ibid., p. 7.
45 Le Peuple, 16 June 1946.Google Scholar
46 Cong-Bao, No. 6, 27 October 1945, pp. 59–65;Google ScholarNo. 7, 3 November 1945, pp. 80ff;Google ScholarNo. 9, 17 November 1945, pp. 108–9.Google Scholar
47 For press accounts of his career at different stages see La Tribune Indochinoise (Saigon), 16 and 18 July 1930;Google ScholarDan Quyen (Hanoi—probably his own paper), first issue, 7 October 1945.Google Scholar
48 Devillers, , Histoire du Viêt-Nam, 139.Google Scholar
49 Cong-Bao, 13 October 1945.Google Scholar
50 Consulted at ‘National Library’, Saigon. The editorial board included such figures as Dang Thai Mai, Nguyen Huu Dang and Nguyen Cong My; there was thus a measure of overlap with the educational world. Tran Huy Lieu was not himself a member, but the Party was represented by Bui Cong Trung, who is known to have studied in Moscow in the early 1930s (cf. Archives Nationales, Section d'Outre-Mer, Paris: SLOTFOM III/Carton 131).
51 Le Peuple, 17 October 1946;Google ScholarTien-Phong, 1 November 1946.Google Scholar
52 Trang Su Moi, p. 25.Google Scholar
53 Cong-Bao, No. 1, 29 September 1945, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar Decrees of 10 September (ibid., p. 10) maintained in being the existing régime of indirect taxation, including monopolies and customs, with Trinh Van Binh as Director. However, since trade was not functioning normally there was presumably little revenue from customs.
54 PRO: FO 371/46309/F.9312.
55 Tri, Vo Nhan, Croissance Economique de la République Démocratique du Viet Nam (Hanoi, 1967), p. 110; he adds that the sum of public debt at that time was 564,367,522 piastres; but it is not clear how much of that could be written off following the defeat of Japan.Google Scholar
56 Cong-Bao, No. 1, 29 September 1945, p. 4.Google Scholar
57 Fall, B. B. (ed.), Ho Chi Minh: On Revolution (New York, 1967), pp. 146–7. Nevertheless Vietnamese sources complain of not having obtained enough Japanese arms at this time.Google Scholar
58 Breaking Our Chains, pp. 64–5.Google Scholar
59 Histoire de la Révolution d'Août, p. 138–9.Google Scholar
60 Cf. Smith, R. Harris, OSS: the Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency (Berkeley, 1972), pp. 331ff, 348ff.Google Scholar
61 Chinh, Truong, The August Revolution (Hanoi, 1960),Google Scholarreprinted in The Resistance Will Win (New York, 1963), p. 42.Google Scholar
62 South China Morning Post, 28 November 1945.Google Scholar
63 Decoux, , A la Barre de l'Indochine, p. 445–6.Google Scholar
64 Bulletin Statistique de la Féderation Indochinoise: Quatrième Trimestre, 1946 (Saigon, 1947), p. 24.Google Scholar
65 Bulletin Statistique de l'Indochine 1947 (Saigon: Union Française, Haut Commisariat pour l'Indochine, 1948).Google Scholar
66 Tri, Vo Nhan, Croissance Economique, p. 109.Google Scholar
67 Sainteny, J., Histoire d'une Paix Manquée: Indochine, 1945–1947 (Paris, 1967), p. 163, giving the text of a proclamation to that effect fixed to the walls of Hanoi.Google Scholar
68 South China Morning Post, 28 November 1945.Google Scholar
69 FEER, Vol. II, No. 11 (12 03 1947).Google Scholar
70 South China Morning Post, 28 November 1945.Google Scholar
71 Sainteny, , Histoire d'une Paix Manquée, p. 163.Google Scholar
72 For the text of this announcement, see Martin, F., Heures Tragiques au Tonkin (Paris, 1948), pp. 220–1.Google ScholarThe author was in Hanoi at the time. Cf. also Sainteny, , Histoire d'une Paix Manquée, p. 159, who says that large quantities of the notes had been printed immediately before the surrender.Google Scholar
73 Ch'en, , Vietnam and China, p. 135, citing a report by the Chinese official Chu Hsieh, who took part in the negotiations on the Chinese side.Google Scholar
74 Ch'en in ibid., p. 136, accepts the Vietnamese version, which may well be correct; the French source is Martin, , Heures Tragiques au Tonkin, p. 221–2. Sainteny does not commit himself.Google Scholar
75 Martin, , Heures Tragiques au Tonkin, pp. 225–6, including an undated quotation from the newspaper La République.Google Scholar
76 Ch'en, , Vietnam and China, pp. 137–8.Google Scholar
77 Cong-Bao, No. 13, 8 December 1945, p. 160.Google Scholar
78 Cong-Bao, No. 16, 29 December 1945, p. 196.Google Scholar
79 Cong-Bao, No. 14, 15 December 1945, p. 170.Google Scholar
80 Tri, Vo Nhan, Croissance Economique, pp. 109–10.Google Scholar
81 The August Revolution (Hanoi, 1962),Google Scholarreprinted in Primer for Revolt (New York, 1963), pp. 44ff.Google Scholar
82 Tse-tung, Mao, Selected Works, Vol. II (Peking, 1967), p. 318:Google Scholarquoted from the essay The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party, written in December 1939.Google Scholar
83 See especially the account in Thirty Years of Struggle of the Party (Hanoi, 1960), Book I.Google Scholar
84 See, for example, Kataoka, Tetsuya, Resistance and Revolution in China: the Communists and the Second United Front (Berkeley, 1974). It is important to remember that Nguyen Ai Quoc (i.e. Ho Chi Minh), after leaving Moscow in the autumn of 1938, spent some time in Yenan and then in Chungking at precisely the period when the Chinese debate on the United Front was getting under way. He was not, however, involved in any was in the Rectification Movement of 1942–44 in which the Chinese Communist Party accepted the ideas of Mao Tse-tung instead of those of Chen Shao-yu, the Comintern delegate to that Party.Google Scholar
85 Trang Su Moi, p. 25.Google Scholar
86 Cong-Bao, No. 1, 29 September 1945, p. 10.Google Scholar
87 Fenn, Charles, Ho Chi Minh, a Biographical Introduction (London, 1973), p. 75;Google ScholarSmith, Harris, OSS, the Secret History of America's first Central Intelligence Agency, p. 325.Google Scholar
88 Cong-Bao, No. 4, 20 October 1945.Google Scholar
89 Cong-Bao, No. 1, 29 September 1945, pp. 13, 14.Google Scholar
90 Ibid., pp. 6–7.
91 Cong-Bao, No. 10, 24 November 1945, p. 125.Google Scholar
92 Ibid., pp. 128–9.
93 Chinh, Truong, The August Revolution, p. 45.Google Scholar
94 Le Peuple (Hanoi), 21 and 25 April 1946: series of articles entitled ‘Comment la Révolution a Triomphé de la Famine’, by Hoang Van Duc.Google Scholar
95 Ibid., 25 April 1946.
96 Cong-Bao, No. 12, 1 December 1945, p. 146.Google Scholar
97 Le Peuple, 25 April 1946.Google Scholar
98 Ibid., 5 May 1946.
99 Cong-Bao, No. 4, 20 October 1945, p. 47.Google Scholar
100 South China Morning Post, 16 October 1945.Google Scholar
101 Chen, , Vietnam and China, p. 133.Google Scholar
102 Sainteny, , Histoire d'une Paix Manquée, opposite p. 96.Google ScholarSainteny, met Giap on 27 August 1945, and the photograph may have been taken on that occasion. Patti remained in Hanoi till late September or early October 1945.Google Scholar
103 Cong-Bao, No. 12, 1 December 1945, p. 140.Google Scholar
104 Cf. Giap's own account, in A Heroic People, Memoirs from the Revolution (Hanoi, 1965), pp. 141–2.Google Scholar
105 For the text of its decision, see Breaking our Chains, pp. 23–42.Google Scholar
106 Histoire de la Révolution d'Août (Hanoi, 1972), p. 100.Google Scholar
107 Ibid., and also Thirty Years of Struggle of the Party (Hanoi, 1960).Google Scholar
108 Histoire de la Révolution d'Août, pp. 100, 119.Google Scholar
109 Cong-Bao, No. 1, 29 September 1945, pp. 4, 10, 12.Google Scholar
110 Ibid., No. 12, p. 140.
111 Devillers, , Histoire du Viêt-Nam, pp. 218, 221.Google Scholar Giap did not become Minister of Defence until November 1946; Le Peuple, 7 November 1946.Google Scholar
112 Histoire de la Révolution d'Août, p. 31.Google ScholarFor an account of the journey to Pac-Bo, from lowland Tongking, made by Truong Chinh, Hoang Quoc Viet and others, cf. Hoang Quoc Viet's account in A Heroic People, pp. 196ff.Google Scholar
113 For Nguyen Luong Bang's activities after the escape, see his account in A Heroic People, pp. 55ff. Tran Dang Ninh had been involved in the Bac-Son rising of 1940, before being imprisoned; he rose to a high position in the Army before his death in 1955.Google Scholar
114 For this group, see the memoirs by Vu Anh and by Giap himself in Souvenirs sur Ho Chi Minh (Hanoi, 1962), pp. 154ff and 172ff.Google Scholar
115 Sacks, I. M., ‘Marxism in Vietnam’ in Trager, F. N. (ed.), Marxism in Southeast Asia (Stanford, 1960), p. 158;Google Scholarciting La République, 18 November 1945. He suggests in a footnote that the decision was opposed by Tran Van Giau, at that time (but not for very long afterwards) leader of the Communist movement in the South.Google Scholar
116 Cf. p. 596 above.Google Scholar
117 Devillers, , Histoire du Viêt-Nam, p. 232; he presumably draws his information from French intelligence sources; the context suggests that the information belongs to a date around February 1946.Google Scholar
118 Souvenirs sur Ho Chi Minh, pp. 56ff.Google Scholar
119 Contribution à l'Histoire des Mouvements Politiques de l'Indochine (Hanoi, 1933), Vol. IV, pp. 15–16, 19–20. He died in 1951.Google Scholar
120 A Heroic People, pp. 247–9.Google Scholar
121 Devillers, , Histoire du Viêt-Nam, p. 202.Google Scholar From 1952 to 1956, Nguyen Luong Bang was Vietnamese Ambassador in Moscow.
