Seventy years ago, on August 19, 1945, the August Revolution took place in Vietnam. In fact, it was with her that the history of modern sovereign Vietnam began. Thanks to the August Revolution, the Vietnamese people managed to free themselves from the yoke of the French colonialists, and later to win a bloody war and achieve the reunification of their country. The history of Vietnam goes back millennia. The Vietnamese cultural tradition was formed under the influence of the culture of neighboring China, but acquired its own unique characteristics. Over the centuries, Vietnam has repeatedly become the object of aggression from hostile powers, was under the rule of the occupiers - Chinese, French, Japanese, but found the strength to restore sovereignty.
French Indochina under Japanese rule
By the time of the events of August 1945, which will be discussed in this article, Vietnam remained part of French Indochina, which also included the territories of modern Laos and Cambodia. French colonialists appeared here in the middle of the 19th century and, as a result of several Franco-Vietnamese wars, seized three main regions of Vietnam in turn. The southern part of the country - Cochinchina - became a French colony in 1862, over the central part - Annam - in 1883-1884. a French protectorate was established, and the northern part - Tonkin - became a French protectorate in 1884. In 1887, all regions became part of the Indochina Union, a territory controlled by France. However, with the outbreak of World War II, when France surrendered to Nazi troops and the power of a puppet Vichy government was established in Paris, French Indochina fell into the sphere of Japanese influence. The Vishy government was forced to allow the presence of Japanese troops in Indochina, led by Major General Takuma Nishimura. But the Japanese decided not to stop at the deployment of garrisons, and soon the units of the 5th Japanese division of Lieutenant General Akihito Nakamura invaded Vietnam, which managed to quickly suppress the resistance of the French colonial troops. Despite the fact that on September 23, 1940, the Vichy government officially addressed Japan with a note of protest, the provinces of Vietnam were captured by Japanese troops. The Vishists had no choice but to agree with the occupation of Vietnam by Japanese troops. A joint Franco-Japanese protectorate was formally established over the country, but in fact all the key issues of the political life of Vietnam from that time on was decided by the Japanese command. Initially, the Japanese acted rather cautiously, trying not to quarrel with the French administration and, at the same time, enlist the support of the Vietnamese population. Among the Vietnamese in the early 1940s. national liberation sentiments intensified, since the appearance of the Japanese - "brothers of the Asians" - inspired the supporters of Vietnamese independence with hope for an early deliverance from French power. Unlike the French, Japan did not seek to officially turn Vietnam into its colony, but hatched plans to create a puppet state - like Manchukuo or Mengjiang in China. To this end, the Japanese provided all-round support to the right side of the Vietnamese national movement.
It should be noted here that in the Vietnamese national liberation movement in the period between the two world wars, there were two main directions - the right and the left. The right wing of the national movement was represented by traditionalists who advocated the return of Vietnam to the forms of statehood that existed before French colonization. The left wing of the Vietnamese national movement was represented by the Communist Party of Indochina (KPIK), a pro-Soviet communist party founded in Hong Kong in 1930, based on several that have existed since the mid-1920s. communist organizations.
With the outbreak of World War II, the French authorities of Indochina, with the support of the Japanese, managed to seriously restrict the activities of the communists in Vietnam. As a result of police repression, the Vietnamese communists were forced to move to South China, while the right wing of the Vietnamese national movement continued to function successfully in Vietnam. Organizations such as the National Socialist Party of the Grand Viet and the People's Government Party of the Grand Viet were established. These organizations were supported by the Japanese occupation administration. At the same time, the religious organizations "Kaodai" and "Hoa hao" became more active, which during the period under review also tried to express their political positions. The Hoa Hao sect, created shortly before the war by the preacher Huyin Fu Shuo, advocated a return to the primordial values of Buddhism, but at the same time had an anti-French and nationalist character. In addition, Huyin Fu Shuo was no stranger to the slogans of social populism. The French colonial authorities reacted negatively to the Hoa Hao preaching and placed Huyin Fu Shuo in a psychiatric hospital and then deported him to Laos. On the way to Laos, Huyin Fu Shuo was kidnapped by the Japanese special services and until 1945 was kept under house arrest in Saigon - it is obvious that the Japanese expected to use the preacher in their own interests in a certain situation. Another major religious organization, Caodai, emerged in the late 1920s. Its origins were the former official Le Van Chung and the prefect of the island of Fukuo Ngo Van Tieu. The essence of her teaching approached Buddhism - to achieve a person's exit from the "wheel of rebirth", and the Kaodaists actively used spiritualist practices. Politically, Kaodai was also affiliated with the national movement, but to a greater extent than Hoahao, it sympathized with the Japanese. Both "Caodai" and "Hoa Hao" later created their own armed groups, numbering thousands of fighters. Meanwhile, in 1941 on the territory of South China, the creation of the League of Struggle for the Independence of Vietnam - "Viet Minh", was proclaimed, the basis of which were members of the Communist Party of Indochina, led by Ho Chi Minh. In contrast to the right wing of the Vietnamese national movement, the communists were inclined to an armed struggle not only against the French, but also against the Japanese occupiers.
Restoration of the Vietnamese Empire
The political situation in Vietnam began to change rapidly at the beginning of 1945, when Japanese troops suffered serious defeats in the Philippines and in a number of other regions. By the spring, the Vichy regime in France had virtually ceased to exist, after which the possibility of further coexistence of the French and Japanese administrations in Indochina disappeared. On March 9, 1945, the Japanese command demanded that the French colonial administration disarm the subordinate units of the colonial troops. In Saigon, the Japanese arrested and killed several French senior officers, and later beheaded two officials who refused to sign the French administration's surrender. Nevertheless, under the command of Brigadier General Marcel Alessandri, a combination of 5,700 French soldiers and officers, primarily those of the Foreign Legion, managed to break through from Indochina to southern China, which was under the control of the Kuomintang. Japan, having liquidated the French colonial administration in Indochina, embarked on its proven practice of creating puppet states. Under the influence of Japan, the independence of the three parts of French Indochina was proclaimed - the Kingdom of Cambodia, the State of Laos and the Vietnamese Empire. In Vietnam, with the support of the Japanese, the restoration of the monarchy of the Nguyen dynasty took place. This dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1802, including as an independent state until 1887, and from 1887 ruled the Annam protectorate. As a matter of fact, the imperial dynasty of Nguyen went back to the princely family of Nguyen, who in 1558-1777. ruled the southern part of Vietnam, but were then overthrown during the Teishon uprising. Only one branch of the princely family managed to escape, the representative of which Nguyen Phuc Anh (1762-1820) was able to seize power in Annam and proclaim the creation of the Annam Empire.
By the time the Second World War broke out, Bao Dai was considered the formal emperor of Vietnam. He was the thirteenth member of the Nguyen imperial family and it was he who was destined to become the last monarch of Vietnam. At birth, Bao Dai was named Nguyen Phuc Vinh Thuy. He was born on October 22, 1913 in the city of Hue, the then capital of the country, in the family of the twelfth emperor Annam Khai Dinh (1885-1925). Since at the time of the birth of Bao Dai, Vietnam had long been under French rule, the heir to the throne was educated in the metropolis - he graduated from the Lycée Condorcet and the Paris Institute for Political Studies. When Emperor Khai Dinh passed away in 1925, Bao Dai was crowned the new Emperor of Annam. In 1934 he married Nam Phung. The future empress also bore the Christian name Maria Teresa and was the daughter of a prosperous Vietnamese merchant - a Catholic educated in France. In fact, prior to the Japanese invasion of Vietnam, Bao Dai did not play a significant role in Vietnamese politics. He remained the puppet head of the Vietnamese state and was more focused on his personal life and solving his financial problems. However, when Japanese troops appeared in Vietnam, the situation changed. The Japanese had a special interest in Bao Dai - they hoped to use him for the same purpose as Pu Yi in China - to proclaim the head of a puppet state and thereby gain the support of the broad masses of the Vietnamese population, for whom the emperor remained a symbol of national identity. and the personification of the age-old traditions of the Vietnamese statehood. When on March 9, 1945, Japanese troops carried out a coup d'état and liquidated French administration in Indochina, the Japanese leadership demanded that Bao Dai declare Vietnam's independence, otherwise threatening to surrender the throne of the emperor to Prince Kyong De.
On March 11, 1945, Bao Dai announced the denunciation of the Vietnamese-French treaty of June 6, 1884 and proclaimed the creation of an independent state, the Empire of Vietnam. The pro-Japanese nationalist Chan Chong Kim became the prime minister of the Vietnamese Empire. However, the emperor and his government tried, taking advantage of the defeats of the Japanese troops in the battles with the Americans in the Asia-Pacific region, to push through their interests. Thus, the government of the Vietnamese Empire began work on the reunification of the country, divided during the French domination into the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin and the colony of Cochin Khin. After the coup of March 9, 1945, Kochin was under the direct control of the Japanese command, and the emperor insisted on its reunification with the rest of Vietnam. Actually, the very name "Vietnam" was established at the initiative of the imperial government - as a combination of the words "Diveet" and "Annam" - the names of the northern and southern parts of the country. The Japanese leadership, fearing in a difficult situation of losing the support of the Vietnamese, was forced to make concessions to the imperial government.
- flag of the Vietnam Empire
On June 16, 1945, Emperor Bao Dai signed a decree on the reunification of Vietnam, and on June 29, the Japanese Governor-General of Indochina signed decrees on the transfer of some of the administrative functions from the Japanese administration to independent Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Japanese and Vietnamese officials began work on preparations for the reunification of Cochin Khin with the rest of Vietnam, with the latter being credited to the Japanese authorities. It was emphasized that without Japan's help, Vietnam would have remained a French colony and not only would not have been reunited, but would not have acquired the long-awaited political independence. On July 13, it was decided to transfer Hanoi, Haiphong and Da Nang under the control of the Vietnamese Empire from July 20, 1945, and the Vietnam reunification ceremony was scheduled for August 8, 1945. Saigon was determined as the venue for the ceremony. Meanwhile, the international military-political situation for Japan was far from being the best. Already in the summer of 1945 it became clear that Japan would not be able to win the war against the Allies. This was well understood by the political circles in the countries of Southeast Asia, which were in a hurry to reorient themselves to the allies, fearing a possible arrest for collaboration after the withdrawal of Japanese troops. On July 26, 1945, at the Potsdam Conference, Japan was presented with a demand for unconditional surrender. In Vietnam, panic broke out among the political elite close to Emperor Bao Dai. The government resigned and a new government was never formed. After the Soviet Union entered the war with Japan, the ending of events became finally predictable. The position of the imperial regime was aggravated by the intensification of the Viet Minh struggle, led by the Vietnamese communists.
Communist Party and Viet Minh
The anti-Japanese and anti-colonial guerrilla movement in Vietnam was led by the Communist Party of Indochina. Like many other communist parties in East, South and Southeast Asia, it was created under the influence of the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia and the deepening interest in socialist and communist ideas among the advanced circles of Asian countries. The first Vietnamese communist group emerged in early 1925 among Vietnamese émigrés in Guangzhou and was called the Fellowship of the Revolutionary Youth of Vietnam. It was created and headed by the representative of the Comintern, Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), who came from Moscow to Guangzhou, a Vietnamese revolutionary who emigrated from the country in 1911 and lived for a long time in France and the United States.
Back in 1919, Ho Chi Minh wrote a letter to the heads of state that had concluded the Versailles Treaty, asking them to grant independence to the countries of Indochina. In 1920, Ho Chi Minh joined the French Communist Party and since that time has not betrayed the communist idea. The Association, created by Ho Chi Minh, set as its goal national independence and the redistribution of land to the peasants. Realizing that the French colonialists would not just give up their power over Vietnam, the members of the Partnership advocated the preparation of an armed anti-French uprising. In 1926, the Fellowship began to set up branches in Vietnam and by 1929 had over 1,000 activists in Tonkin, Annam and Cochin. On June 7, 1929, a congress was held in Hanoi, which was attended by over 20 people representing the Tonkin branches of the Association of Revolutionary Youth. At this congress, the Indochina Communist Party was formed. In the fall of 1929the remainder of the Fellowship's activists formed the Annam Communist Party. At the end of 1929, another revolutionary organization was created - the Indochina Communist League. On February 3, 1930, in Hong Kong, the Annama Communist Party, the Indochina Communist Party and a group of Indochina Communist League activists united to form the Indochina Communist Party. Assistance in the creation of the Communist Party was provided by the French communists, who actually took patronage over the "younger brothers" - like-minded people from the Indo-Chinese colonies. In April 1931, the Indochina Communist Party was admitted to the Communist International. The activities of this political organization took place in a semi-underground, since the French authorities, who could still tolerate the communists in France, were very afraid of the spread of pro-Soviet and communist sentiments in the colonies and protectorates. After the outbreak of World War II, the Communist Party decided to prepare for armed struggle, since legal and semi-legal methods of activity in combat conditions became ineffective. In 1940, an uprising broke out in Cochin, after the suppression of which the French colonial authorities proceeded to harsh repressions against the communists. A number of leading communist leaders were arrested and executed, including the general secretary of the Communist Party of Indochina, Nguyen Van Cu (1912-1941), and the previous general secretary of the Communist Party, Ha Hui Tapa (1906-1941). In total, at least 2 thousand Vietnamese became victims of the repressions against the communists during the Second World War. Ho Chi Minh, who left for China, was arrested by the Kuomintang police and spent over a year in a Chinese prison. Nevertheless, despite the arrests and repression, the Vietnam Independence League (Viet Minh), created on the initiative of the communists, was able to start armed resistance to the French and Japanese troops in the country. The first Viet Minh guerrilla units were formed in Cao Bang Province and Baxon County, Langsang Province. The northern part of Vietnam - "Viet Bac" - the Chinese borderland, covered with mountains and forests - has become an excellent base for the emerging guerrilla groups. The communists were engaged in political education of the peasant population, distribution of agitation and propaganda literature. To spread the struggle to the flat part of Vietnam, in 1942 the Vanguard Detachment was formed to march to the South. It was decided to appoint Vo Nguyen Gyap as its commander.
Vo Nguyen Giap (1911-2013), a member of the communist movement since 1927, was educated as a lawyer at the University of Hanoi, then lived for a long time in China, where he underwent military and revolutionary training. In fact, it was he who, by the beginning of World War II, was the main military leader of the Vietnamese communists. Under the leadership of Vo Nguyen Giap, the formation of detachments of Vietnamese partisans took place.
By 1944, the communists had established control over the provinces of Cao Bang, Langsang, Bakkan, Thaingguyen, Tuyen Quang, Bakzyang, and Vinyen in North Vietnam. In the territories controlled by the Viet Minh, governing bodies were created, the functions of which were performed by the territorial committees of the Communist Party of Indochina. On December 22, 1044, the first armed detachment of the future Vietnamese army was formed in Caobang province, which consisted of 34 people, armed with 1 machine gun, 17 rifles, 2 pistols and 14 flintlocks. Vo Nguyen Gyap became the commander of the detachment. In April 1945, the number of armed Viet Minh units reached 1,000 fighters, and on May 15, 1945, the creation of the Vietnamese Liberation Army was proclaimed. By the spring of 1945, the Viet Minh controlled part of North Vietnam, while Japanese troops were stationed only in strategically important cities in the country. As for the French colonial troops, many of their servicemen made contact with the communists. June 4, 1945the first liberated region was formed with the center in Tanchao. The number of combat units of the Viet Minh was by this time at least 10 thousand fighters. However, in the south of the country, the Viet Minh had practically no political influence - their own political organizations operated there, and the socio-economic situation was much better than in North Vietnam.
The revolution was the beginning of independence
On August 13-15, 1945, in Tanchao, the center of the liberated region, a conference of the Communist Party of Indochina was held, at which it was decided to start an armed uprising against the puppet imperial regime before the Anglo-American troops landed on the territory of Vietnam. On the night of 13-14 August, the National Committee of the Uprising was created, and Vo Nguyen Giap was appointed its chairman. Vo Nguyen Gyap's first order was to start an armed uprising. On August 16, the Viet Minh National Congress was held in Tanchao, which was attended by at least 60 delegates from various party organizations, national minorities of the country and other political parties. At the Congress, it was decided to begin the seizure of power and the proclamation of a sovereign Democratic Republic of Vietnam. During the meeting of the Congress, the National Committee for the Liberation of Vietnam was elected, which was to perform the functions of the interim government of the country. Ho Chi Minh was elected chairman of the National Committee for the Liberation of Vietnam. Meanwhile, on August 15, 1945, the Emperor of Japan addressed his subjects by radio announcing the surrender of Japan. This news caused a real panic among the representatives of the political elite of the Vietnamese Empire, who expected to be in power under the patronage of the Japanese. Some high-ranking Vietnamese officers and officials supported the Viet Minh, while others were focused on armed resistance to the communists. On August 17, 1945, armed Viet Minh detachments, moving out of Tanchao, entered Hanoi, disarmed the palace guards and took control of the main strategic facilities of the capital. On the same day, a massive popular demonstration took place in Hanoi, and on August 19, thousands of people rally took place at the Theater Square in Hanoi, at which the leaders of the Viet Minh spoke. By this time, Hanoi was already completely under the control of the Viet Minh.
The day of August 19 from this time is considered the Victory Day of the August Revolution in Vietnam. The next day, August 20, 1945, the People's Revolutionary Committee of North Vietnam was formed. Emperor Bao Dai of Vietnam, left without support from the Japanese, abdicated on August 25, 1945. On August 30, 1945, at a rally in Hanoi, the last emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, officially read out the act of abdication. This is how the Vietnamese Empire, the state of the Nguyen dynasty, ended its existence. On September 2, 1945, the establishment of the sovereign Democratic Republic of Vietnam was officially announced. As for Emperor Bao Dai, for the first time after his abdication, he was officially listed as the supreme adviser of the republican government, but after a civil war broke out in Vietnam between the communists and their opponents, Bao Dai left the country. He emigrated to France, but in 1949, under pressure from the French, who created the State of Vietnam in the southern part of the country, he returned and became the head of the State of Vietnam. However, the return of Bao Dai was short-lived and soon he left back to France. In 1954, Bao Dai was reappointed as the head of the State of Vietnam, but this time he did not return to the country, and in 1955 South Vietnam was officially proclaimed a republic. Bao Dai passed away in Paris in 1997 at the age of 83. Interestingly, in 1972, Bao Dai sharply criticized the policies of the United States and the authorities of South Vietnam.
First Indochina - France's response to Vietnam's independence
The proclamation of Vietnam's independence was not part of the plans of the French leadership, which did not want to lose the largest colony in Indochina, and even in a situation where half of Vietnam's territory was controlled by the communists. On September 13, 1945, units of the 20th British Division landed in Saigon, the command of which accepted the surrender of the Japanese command in Indochina. The British released the officials of the French administration from the Japanese prison. British troops took over the protection of the most important facilities in Saigon, and in the 20th of September transferred them under the control of the French administration. On September 22, 1945, French units attacked Viet Minh detachments in Saigon. On March 6, 1946, France recognized the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as part of the Indochina Federation and the French Union. After the British troops left the territory of Indochina at the end of March 1946, the leading role in the region returned to France. French troops began to carry out all sorts of provocations against the Viet Minh. So, on November 20, 1946, the French fired at a Vietnamese boat in the Haiphong port, and the next day, November 21, they demanded that the DRV leadership release the Haiphong port. The refusal of the Vietnamese leaders to comply with the French requirements led to the shelling of Haiphong by the French naval forces. Six thousand civilians in Haiphong became victims of the shelling (according to another estimate - at least 2,000, which does not mitigate the severity of the deed). Note that for the commission of this flagrant war crime, "democratic" France has not yet incurred any responsibility and the French leaders of that time never caught up with their "Nuremberg".
The criminal actions of France meant for the Vietnamese leadership the need for a transition to preparation for long-term hostilities. The First Indochina War began, which lasted almost eight years and ended in a partial victory for Democratic Vietnam. In this war, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was opposed by France, one of the largest colonial empires and the most economically developed countries in the world. The French government, unwilling to weaken its position in Indochina, threw a huge army against Democratic Vietnam. Up to 190 thousand soldiers of the French army and the Foreign Legion took part in the hostilities, including units arriving from the metropolis and from the African colonies of France. The 150,000-strong army of the State of Vietnam, a puppet formation created on the initiative and under the control of the French, also fought on the side of France. Also, in fact, the armed formations of the Caodai and Hoahao religious movements, as well as the troops of Chin Minh Tkhe, a former officer of the Caodai troops, in 1951 at the head of 2,000 soldiers and officers detached from Caodai and created his own army against the Viet Minh. Since the French army was much better armed than the Viet Minh forces, and France had almost absolute superiority in the naval and air forces, at the first stage of hostilities, the situation was clearly in favor of the French. By March 1947, the French troops managed to practically clear all large cities and strategically important areas from the DRV troops, pushing the communists back to the territory of the Viet Bac mountain region, from where the anti-colonial and anti-Japanese guerrilla resistance of Viet Minh actually began during the Second World War. In 1949, the creation of the State of Vietnam was proclaimed and even Emperor Bao Dai was returned to the country, though without being elevated to the rank of monarch.
In the meantime, however, the Viet Minh received comprehensive support from the young People's Republic of China. Since 1946, Khmer partisans from the Khmer Issarak movement, with which the Viet Minh entered into an alliance agreement, acted on the side of the Viet Minh. A little later, Vieminh had another ally - the Pathet Lao Lao patriotic front. In 1949, the Vietnamese People's Army was created, in which regular infantry units were formed. Vo Nguyen Ziap remained the commander-in-chief of the VNA (pictured). At the end of 1949, the Viet Minh forces numbered 40,000 fighters, organized into two army divisions. In January 1950, the government of North Vietnam was recognized by the Soviet Union and China as the only legitimate government of independent Vietnam. A reciprocal step by the United States and a number of other Western states was the recognition of the independence of the State of Vietnam, headed at that time by the former emperor Bao Dai. In the fall of 1949, the Vietnamese People's Army launched an offensive against the French positions for the first time. Since that time, a turning point has come in the war. The courage of the Vietnamese fighters allowed the Viet Minh to significantly press the French. By September 1950, several garrisons of the French army were destroyed in the area of the Vietnamese-Chinese border, and the total losses of the French army amounted to about six thousand troops. On October 9, 1950, a major battle took place at Cao Bang, during which France again suffered a crushing defeat. The losses of the French amounted to 7,000 soldiers and officers killed and wounded, 500 armored vehicles and 125 mortars were destroyed.
On October 21, 1950, French troops were driven out of the territory of North Vietnam, after which they proceeded to the construction of fortifications in the Ka River delta. After the crushing defeats suffered by the Viet Minh troops, the French government had no choice but to recognize the sovereignty of the DRV within the framework of the French Union, which was done on December 22, 1950. However, the Viet Minh set as his goal the liberation of the entire Vietnamese territory from the French colonialists, therefore, at the beginning of 1951, the Vietnamese People's Army under the command of Vo Nguyen Giap launched an offensive against the positions of the French colonial troops. But this time, luck did not smile at the Vietnamese - the Viet Minh suffered a crushing defeat, losing 20,000 fighters. In 1952, Viet Minh forces launched a series of attacks on French positions, again unsuccessfully. At the same time, the Vietnamese People's Army was being strengthened, the number of its personnel was growing and weapons were improving. In the spring of 1953, units of the Vietnamese People's Army invaded the territory of the neighboring Kingdom of Laos, which since 1949 had been in alliance with France against the DRV. During the offensive, Vietnamese units destroyed the French and Lao garrisons on the border. In the village of Dien Bien Phu, 10 thousand soldiers and officers of the French army were landed, whose tasks were to obstruct the activities of the communist bases on the territory of Laos. On January 20, 1954, France began at the position of the communists in Annam, however, since the troops of the State of Vietnam played the main role in the offensive, the offensive did not achieve its goal. Moreover, cases of desertion from the army of the State of Vietnam have become more frequent, since its rank and file were not eager to shed blood in the war with their compatriots. A major victory for the Communists was the incapacitation of half of the French military transport aviation based at two airfields - Gia-Lam and Cat-Bi. After this sortie, the supply of the French troops in Dien Bien Phu sharply deteriorated, since it was carried out precisely from the indicated airfields.
December 1953 - January 1954 characterized by the beginning of the Viet Minh offensive against Dien Bien Phu. Four divisions of the Vietnamese People's Army were transferred to this settlement. The battle lasted 54 days - from March 13 to May 7, 1954. The Vietnamese People's Army won the victory, forcing 10,863 French troops to surrender.2,293 French soldiers and officers were killed, 5,195 soldiers were injured of varying degrees of severity. In captivity, the French military also had a very high mortality rate - only 30% of the French soldiers and officers who were captured by the North Vietnamese returned. On May 7, Colonel Christian de Castries, who commanded the Dien Bien Phu garrison, signed an act of surrender, but some of the French soldiers and officers, led by Colonel Lalande, stationed at Fort Isabelle, attempted to break through to the French troops on the night of May 8. Most of the participants in the breakthrough were killed, and only 73 servicemen managed to reach the French positions. Interestingly, Colonel de Castries, who failed to organize the proper defense of Dien Bien Phu and signed the act of surrender, was promoted to brigadier general for the "defense of Dien Bien Phu". After four months in captivity, he returned to France.
Another crushing defeat of the French troops in Dien Bien Phu actually ended the First Indochina War. Great damage was done to the prestige of France, and the French public was indignant, outraged by the colossal human losses of the French army and the capture of more than 10 thousand French soldiers. In this situation, the Vietnamese delegation led by Ho Chi Minh, which arrived the day after the surrender of the French troops in Dien Bien Phu for the Geneva conference, managed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire and the withdrawal of French troops from Indochina. In accordance with the decision of the Geneva Conference, firstly, hostilities between the DRV and Vietnam ceased, and secondly, the territory of Vietnam was divided into two parts, one of which was under the control of the Viet Minh, the second - under the control of the French Union. Elections were scheduled for July 1956 in both parts of Vietnam to reunite the country and establish a government. The supply of weapons and ammunition to the territory of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos by third countries was prohibited. At the same time, the United States of America did not sign the Geneva agreements and subsequently took the bloody baton from France, unleashing the Second Indochina War, in which the forces of North Vietnam also managed to defeat.
Celebrating the anniversary of the August Revolution every year on August 19, the citizens of Vietnam remember that the history of their country's independence is directly related to those distant events. On the other hand, it is obvious that the entry of the Soviet Union into the war with militaristic Japan, soon after which the Japanese emperor announced his surrender, played an important role in overthrowing the pro-Japanese puppet regime in Vietnam. The Soviet Union also played a crucial role in further assistance to the Vietnamese people during the national liberation struggle against the French colonialists and American aggression.
