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Ho Chi Minh walked a distance of well over 100 miles, all while avoiding Japanese patrols. He met with various American intelligence officers upon arrival. Many first hand accounts of Ho in these days emphasize his ephemeral nature. Clearly he had to have been a fascinating character to these men steeped in spy-craft. <MORE>
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This was the moment the Vietminh 803rd Regiment had been waiting for and which was going to give them control of the plateau area before the armistice negotiations were terminated in Geneva; the battle, finally, which would wipe off the face of the earth the hated Korea Regiment which still wore on its sleeve the white star and Indian head of the 2nd US Infantry Division… MORE>>
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In the course of the First Indochina War the French Expeditionary Force endured terrible losses. Entire classes from the most elite military schools perished. The French were increasingly forced to fall back on locally recruited material. This tendency, which the French called jaunissement, the “yellowing” of the army, was increasingly apparent by 1952-53… MORE>>
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No more than ten percent of Vietnamese received any formal schooling at all. But some of those who received western-based schooling were to have enormous political impact. The schools were filled with the sons of government officials and merchants, both French and Vietnamese. They became versed in the French concept of Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité. So it isn’t surprising that some of these students would become oppositional to a colonial system that looked down on and exploited the native population. These were young people for the most part, and many felt that their elders had debased themselves for French favors. The result was the emergence of a strong strain of Vietnamese self-awareness with a powerful anti-French edge. And it was the better educated who would drive the virulent anti-French sentiments as time went on…. MORE>>
Posted in Asia, Biography, Essays, History, Vietnam, War
Tagged Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, Vietnam War
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