Battle of Hanoi (1946)
On December 19, 1946, Viet Minh soldiers detonated explosives in Hanoi, and the ensuing battle, known as the Battle of Hanoi marked the opening salvo of the First Indochina War. History. On September 14, 1946, France and the DRV had signed a "modus vivendi", promising reciprocal rights and negotiations to end armed hostilities. The French did not follow through with any political concessions. In November of 1946, local disputes led to "incidents" at Haiphong, "Langson" (Lạng Sơn) and "Tourane" (Da Nang) and France landed reinforcements at Da Nang in violation of an accord signed on March  6, 1946. The Viet-Minh set off explosives, at 20:03 in the evening of December 19, 1946, after smuggling them past French Army guards into the city's power plant. The explosion plunged Hanoi into darkness, and throughout the city the Viet-Minh began attacking French military positions and French homes. Surviving French troops, alerted by friendly spies, gradually gained a numerical superiority. French artillery shelled the city, and house to house searches were conducted searching for the Viet-Minh leadership. Ho Chi Minh was at the time ill with fever, and Võ Nguyên Giáp ordered ""all soldiers... to stand  together, go into battle, destroy the invaders, and save the nation"". Eventual French superiority in firepower forced the Viet-Minh to withdraw to the mountains 80 miles to the north of Hanoi. After expunging the Viet-Minh from the city, the French demanded the military surrender of their opponents, but the latter refused. The United States, alarmed at the incident, dispatched Abbot Low Moffat on a special mission to Saigon and Hanoi to consider a negotiated referendum. However, the realization that the Viet-Minh would not accept any compromise, and the fact that the US did not want to formally  mediate between the two sides, led to the US abandoning the idea.