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Ho Chi Minh\'s declaration of Vietnam\'s independence on 2 September 1945 made little impression on the Allies. Once Japan had surrendered, they proceeded to put into effect the agreements made at Potsdam in regard to Indochina. During September British troops under the control of General Sir Douglas Gracey occupied the south of Vietnam (in effect Cochinchina and parts of Annam), while Chinese nationalist troops under general Lu Han occupied the north. Soon trouble would follow due to two different systems. The British worked in collaboration with French brigades and they even got support by Japan. On 22 September French paratroops and foreign legionnaires went on rampage in Saigon, attacked the Vietnamese and destroyed Viet Minh institutions. The people reacted by launching physical attacks against the French, riots and city-wide labour strike. The British Prime Minister Clement Attlee and Charles de Gaulle were forced to preserve their influence in Indochina. Ten thousands of soldiers were sent to the colony to strike back. The Viethmin stopped all military actions, remained in the underground and were awaiting further instructions by Ho Chi Minh. The north of Vietnam was struggled by a huge famine and political disorder. So he wrote a letter to the US president Truman in which he declared his country as a territory under the control of America if indigence was not achieved immediately. He never got any answer.
The Chinese government offered the French the occupied north. The French abandoned territories in China and got control over whole Vietnam. So Ho Chi Minh offered to accept the French back in the northern part, provided that they recognised the legitimacy of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The French proposed to grant diplomatic recognition to Ho\'s republic if it remained under their control. They reached an agreement in March 1946. However, some time later the French troops decided to return back to northern Vietnam. Ho tried to intervene by political petitions. He was humiliated and not taken serious. The enemy armies had occupied the whole territory after some time.
On 23 November there was the first battle at the port of Haiphong, when French troops and warships destroyed the Vietnamese districts of this city. One month later the Viet Minh striked back, drestroyed a municipal power plant and attacked the French garrison. Their forces counter-attacked and the war was totally broken out. By broadcasting over the radio Ho Chi Minh wanted his countrymen to join his organisation for a freedom war. Until 1947 the troops of the VMLA were pressed to the border to China, where they were protected by the friendly population and could plan their guerrilla tactics. As the French war effort finally bogged down, they realized that they would need more military support in the form of weapons delivered by the United States. The US government was largely a spectator. Although they had more sympathy to the French they were favouring a compromise between the two parties. They were also busy with the cold war which broke out after WWII. In Vietnam nothing had changed and the war didn\'t seem to end soon. So the United States put increasing pressure on the French government to stimulate a non communist nationalism in Vietnam and peace. Eventually the French agreed an independent and united State of Vietnam (SOV) under the rule the former Ho Chi Minh adviser Bao Dai. However, the whole thing was a fraud and the French retained effective control over the army, finances and foreign policy. At the same time the Republic of China and the Soviet Union recognised Ho Chi Minh as the only legitimate leader and the DRV. Almost immediately the Cold War mentality took over in American councils, and on 7 February 1950 the United States and Europe decided to help Bao Dai and the SOV to avoid further extension of the communism. Now the Americans were totally involved in this war. During the Indochina War the United States spent three billion dollars on the effort and paid more than eighty percent of the costs. Due to the well planned tactics and combats of the Viet Minh the situation of the French became more and more critical. As well, the famous Ho Chi Minh trail, a complex of trails and paths through the mountains, was built and the communists were able to infiltrate troops and supply into central and southern Vietnam. In 1952 the French launched heavy air attacks on this trail to stop the supply. Finally they believed they had shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and planned the invasion of the strategic important town Dienbeinphu. Now they believed in the victory and in March 1954 a heavy battle started for this city. Running short of food, water and medical support, always under massive shelling, the French troops were doomed at Dienbienphu. Faced to this great disaster general Paul Ely, the French chief of staff, flew to Washington and formally asked for help in the Vietnam case. So heavy airstrikes were planned in connection with the use of nuclear weapons, but the intervention didn\'t broke of because of different opinions. President Eisenhower was under pressure to intervene nevertheless to stop communist expansion in Asia. They also insisted that any American military action should be supported by the other allies, especially Britain. Although everybody feared the global communism there was no military intervention to save the last French garrisons at Dienbienphu, which were finally ran over. On 8 May 1954 nine national delegations gathered in the old League of Nations building in Geneva to open discussions on how to end the Indochina War. All in all the final Declaration of Geneva, signed by most of the national delegations, provided free elections under international supervision to the Vietnamese population to decide over its future. These elections held out the possibility that Vietnam would be reunited peacefully. In the meantime the south and the north were separated from each other by a three miles demilitarised zone. During that time the people could choose where they wanted to live, in the SOV or in the DRV. The French also proceeded in their withdrawal from Indochina. The realisation of a peaceful, reunited Vietnam depended on the attitudes of the two different government. That of the SOV was not good and the leaders refused to sign the final treaties. The US government didn\'t participate the congress in Switzerland, they just observed the whole thing. Although Stalin died in March 1953 they didn\'t trust the communists and were afraid of a south Vietnam under the control of Ho Chi Minh, who would surely win the elections. The county was still separated in two parts and a collusion between the SOV and the United States would undermine the accords and would make a new war in Indochina a near certainty.
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