Vietnam: State, War, and Revolution (1945–1946)

744 Pages·2013·13.511 MB·English

by  David G. Marr

A
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Vietnam
FROM INDOCHINA TO VIETNAM:
REVOLUTION AND WAR IN A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Edited by Fredrik Logevall and Christopher E. Goscha
1. Assuming the Burden: Eu rope and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam, by Mark
Atwood Lawrence
2. Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonization, 1858– 1954, by Pierre Brocheux and Daniel Hémery
3. Vietnam 1946: How the War Began, by Stein Tønnesson
4. Imperial Heights: Dalat and the Making and Undoing of French Indochina, by Eric T.
Jennings
5. Catholic Vietnam: A Church from Empire to Nation, by Charles Keith
6. Vietnam: State, War, and Revolution (1945– 1946), by David G. Marr
Vietnam
State, War, and Revolution
(1945– 1946)
David G. Marr
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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University of California Press
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University of California Press, Ltd.
London, En gland
© 2013 by Th e Regents of the University of California
Ch 3 is reprinted by permission of the publisher from “Creating Defense
Capacity in Vietnam, 1945–1947” in THE FIRST VIETNAM WAR:
COLONIAL CONFLICT AND COLD WAR CRISIS, edited by Mark
Atwood Lawrence and Fredrik Logevall, pp. 74–101, Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, Copyright © 2007 by Th e President and
Fellows of Harvard College.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Marr, David G.
Vietnam : state, war, and revolution, 1945–1946 / David G. Marr.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-27415-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Vietnam (Democratic Republic)—History. 2. Indochinese War,
1946–1954. I. Title.
DS560.6.M37 2013
959.704'1—dc23
2012036193
Manufactured in the United States of America
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For our grandchildren
Grace, Billy, Jimmy, and Ella
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Foreword xi
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
1. Forming the DRV Government 19
2. Th e Government at Work 57
3. Defense 111
4. Peace or War? 183
5. Seeking Foreign Friends 258
6. Material Dreams and Realities 315
7. Dealing with Domestic Opposition 383
8. Th e Indochinese Communist Party and the Vidt Minh 442
9. Mass Mobilization 499
Epilogue 569
Notes 579
Sources 689
Index 701

Illustrations
MAPS
1. Northern Vietnam xx
2. Central and southern Vietnam xxi
FIGURES
1. First DRV cabinet, September 1945 21
2. Hanoi electees to the National Assembly meet the public 5 1
3. Hò Chí Minh presenting new Cabinet to National Assembly,
2 March 1946 62
4. Hò Chí Minh standing outside Northern Region Offi ce 72
5. 1946 postage stamps 92
6. Allied fl ags festoon Saigon’s former Hôtel de Ville 115
7. Poorly armed patriots face British- Indian- French force in the south 1 17
8. “Southern Advance” volunteers at Tuy Hòa station, October 1945 1 24
9. Southern militia group 1 29
10. Franco- Vietnamese military parade, 22 March 1946 1 47
11. Refi lling cartridges 1 64
12. Võ Nguyên Gíap in the Vidt Båc 1 78
13. French residents of Hanoi welcome Leclerc convoy, 18 March 1946 204
14. Dalat Conference 2 16
15. Young “Vietnam” off ers 6 March 1946 Preliminary Accord to
“France,” in exchange for something more lasting 230
ix