User:Ahudson/Sandbox

This is my sandbox page. I am using it as a temporary online repository for draft versions of very large and apparently controversial article changes, such as reducing the length of major war articles. Ahudson 20:52, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

By the way, please leave comments on the corresponding talk page, not here. Ahudson 00:19, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Background
During World War II, Vietnam was under de facto Japanese control, but still officially a French colony. Hồ Chí Minh founded the "League for the Independence of Vietnam" (better known as the Viet Minh) to oppose the Japanese in the north. In 1944 the Japanese overthrew French control and granted nominal independence to Vietnam. After the japanese surrender at the end of the war, the Japanese army assisted the Viet minh and other resistance groups to supress the remaining occupying forces, and Hồ Chí Minh declared independence on 2 September 1945.

However, as a result of the Potsdam Confrence, Vietnam was jointly occpupied by the Breitish and the Nationalist Chinese; after the defeat of the Nationalist Chinese in the Chinese Civil War, Communist Premier Mao Zedong began to provide direct military support to the Viet Minh, turning them into a more modern and conventional military force.

In spite of support from the U.S. Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG), the French military still received a major military defeat at Ðiện Biên Phủ, and granted independence to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, as a result of negotiations at the Geneva Convention. Vietnam, however, was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel; above which the Viet Minh established the socialist Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and below a non-communist state was established under the Emperor Bảo Đại. Bao Dai's Prime Minister, Ngo Dinh Diem, shortly thereafter removed him from power, and established himself as President of the new Republic of Vietnam.