Evening star., 1947-01-12
Says Annomites Fight
For Busic Liberties
Writer Blames French for War
In Indo-C China Colony ,
Bv, Harold r. Isd1cs.

In Indo.C China Colony y
By Harold r. Isaucs.
Here are the facts behind the revolu-
ton In Indo- China as this reporter
found them in meetings and interviews
with Wet Nam Nationalist leaders and
in first-hand observation in the months
after the war.
The issues between Wet Nam and the
French are precisely the issues OF the
American Revolution Of 1776. The Wet
Namese, or Annamites, are a colonial
people fighting for their independence.
They believe they have q strong case
for their freedom.
They tried to get hearing by appeal
ing to the United States, the United
Nations and the conscience OF the world.
But they have been ignored. Now that
blood is again flowing in bitter battles
on their home ground, attention finally
Is being directed to their struggle.
The Wet Nam regime was created by
leaders who rose from the wartime anti
japanese underground. In the months
before Ho Chi-minh became President
of the newly formed republic, he was
leading Annamite guerrilla bands IN
Tonkin under the direction of American
combat teams flown in from China and
with arms parachuted to him by Amer
ican planes. The Annamites engaged
the full strength of the Japanese 2lst
Division in the China border region for
months. Before that, the Annamite
underground fought both the Japanese
and their French puppets.
The French have tried to create the
impression that the Wet Nam govern
ment was created and sponsored by the
Japanese This charge comes with Ill
grace from country whose representa-
tives in Indo-China capitulated to the
japanese in 1910 and 1s4l without a
struggle, and who then helped the Japa-
nese establish in Indo-China a base
from which they launched their in
vasions of the Philippines and Southeast
Asia.
The French administrators in 1ndo-
China functioned as docile puppets OF
the japanese right up to the spring OF
1945, few months before the war ended.
The Annanlite Nationalists were alone
in their dogged resistance to the foreign
rulers, French and Japanese alike.
** X n
Almost at the last minute, the Japa-
nese tried to set up puppet Annamite
regime, but it was a feeble gesture in
which few joined. When Japan col
iapsed, the Nationalists came up out
of the underground, pushed the puppets
aside, and set up their own government.
In Hanoi on September 2, 1s45, they
issued a declaration Of independence
and announced that French rule in their
country was at an end.
French capitulation to the Japanese
removed, in Annamite eyes, even the
sanction of force as justification for
French overlordship. The AnnaE1ite
Nationalists took the Atlantic Charter
at its face value, believing that Allied
victory would bring them freedom.
In their declaration of independence,
the Wet Nam patriots indicted their
former rulers in these terms:
"They have deprived us of all liber-
ties. They have imposed upon us in
human laws. They have built
more prisons than schools. They have
despoiled our ricelands, mines, forests
-. They have drowned our revolutions
in blood We solennly declare to
the world: Wet Nam has the right to
be free and independent"
The Wet Nam government was q
coalition Of various political elements,
from Conservative Nationalist to Com
munist. Ho Chi-minh, the leader and
President, was formerly Communist
but when I saw him in Hanoi he said,
MY party is my country and my pro-
gram is independence. We are ready
to negotiate to safeguard French eco
nomic interests, but our independence
must come first"
The British came Into 1ndo-Chin
after Japans surrender for the nominal
purpose of disarming Japanese troops.
Wet Nam welcomed them and offered
full cooperation in the speedy COM
pletion OF that job. But the British
instead, set the Japanese troops to fight-
ing Apnamite nationalists. japanese
arms went not to the Annamites, but
to French soldiers released from intern
ment.
These French troops, with open
and avowed British support, staged
coup d'etat In Saigon on September %,
1945, seiZing government buildings and
killing and arresting scores Of AMMAN
iat fN Ha
nearby countryside whence Q bitter
guerrilla war was launched.
British and Japanese soldiers carried
the brunt of the fighting. French REIN
forcements, fully equipped with Ameri-
can lease-lend arms and supplies. were
rushed from France, mostly in chartered
American vessels-also on lease-lend
account-and were thrown into the fray
as quickly as they arrived
Not until the French were deemed
strong enough we're the Japanese finally
command turned over to the French. II
1t had not been for the British and the
use they made of the Japanese, the
French never would have been able to
return to their rich rice and rubber pro-
ducing colony without amphibious land
ings on the beaches.
Meanwhile. the Wet Nam regime con-
tinued to function in the north, occu-
pied by the Chinese. There, in order to
regain entry, the French yielded treaty
concessions to the Chinese. They then
negotiated an agreement with the Wet