The August Revolution (Vietnamese: Cách mạng tháng Tám), at the time known as the General Uprising (Vietnamese: Tổng khởi nghĩa cướp chính quyền, lit. 'Total uprising to seize power'), was a revolution led by the Viet Minh against the Japanese occupation of Vietnam and the Empire of Vietnam from 16 to 30 August 1945. The Empire of Vietnam was led by the Nguyễn dynasty and was backed by Japan.
Created in 1941, the Viet Minh functioned as an anti-imperialist front led by the Indochinese Communist Party, rallying wide public support across political lines around the goal of Vietnamese independence. The revolution had the participation of factions that did not follow the Viet Minh.
The Japanese army in Vietnam generally adopted a non-interventionist stance to the revolution as they de facto surrendered to the Allies in World War II. While mostly passive, a confrontation in Thai Nguyen occurred on August 20, where Viet Minh's forces besieged the Japanese garrison. The short-lived Empire of Vietnam found itself paralyzed without an effective military force to maintain control. Recognizing the Viet Minh's overwhelming popular support and its organized administrative apparatus, both Emperor Bao Dai and his cabinet chose not to resist the transfer of power. Consequently, the power transition across major urban centers was achieved with minimal bloodshed.
The Nguyen dynasty with its government of Tran Trong Kim collapsed when emperor Bao Dai abdicated in Hue on 30 August 1945. Ho Chi Minh, head of the National Liberation Committee of Vietnam, subsequently declared the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) on 2 September 1945 in Hanoi. However, the new state lacked international recognition, while the Allied powers continued to recognize French sovereignty over Indochina.
Accommodation of non-communists, including the colonial-trained bureaucracy and officials of the Empire of Vietnam, helped bring the Viet Minh to power in 1945. By emphasizing a broad nationalist platform, the Viet Minh mobilized diverse social factions, though certain non-communist nationalist groups remained opposed to its leadership, particularly the Mekong region in the South and several outlying towns in the North where Viet Minh control was limited. In the ensuing power struggle, the ICP-led Viet Minh repressed Trotskyists and non-communist nationalist parties. This further divided Vietnam into hostile camps, beginning three decades of conflict. The resulting political polarization led to the establishment of the anti-communist State of Vietnam in 1949.
Historical background
French Indochina
French colonial rule
All of Vietnam was under the French colonial rule from 1884 until the Japanese coup d'état of March 1945. In 1887, the French created the Indochinese Union including the three separately-ruled territories of Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina, which were part of Vietnam, and the newly acquired Cambodia; Laos was added to the Union later in 1893. To justify their rule, the French claimed that it was their responsibility to help undeveloped regions in Asia become "civilized." Without French intervention, they asserted, these places would remain backward, uncultured, and impoverished. In a view based more on solid reality, French imperialism was driven by the demand for resources, namely raw materials and cheap labour.
It is generally agreed that French colonial rule was politically repressive and economically exploitative to the original inhabitants; therefore, the Vietnamese struggle against French colonialism was well established by World War II, being close to a century in progress. Incursions by missionaries, gunboats, and diplomats in the 19th century had set off repeated periods of resistance because of the loyalty of the Vietnamese people to the Nguyễn monarchy and traditional Confucian values, which were completely in conflict with European, notably French, interests. From the beginning of the French occupation of Vietnam, thousands of poorly-armed Vietnamese reacted to foreign control with various rebellions, a major one being the Cần Vương movement (English: Aid-the-Emperor), a large-scale Vietnamese insurgency between 1885 and 1896 against French colonial rule in favour of restoring the de facto, and not just de jure, power of the native dynasty.
In 1917, a band of political prisoners, common criminals and mutinous prison guards seized the Thái Nguyên Penitentiary. The extraordinary regional and social diversity of its force makes the Thái Nguyên uprising a compelling prequel to the modern nationalist movements of the 1930s. Although all of the rebellions failed without exception, they remained a powerful symbol of resistance and calling to better days in the local population.
National independence movements
During the colonial period, the French (in their quest to exploit the people of Southeast Asia) transformed Vietnamese society. Western education and industry were introduced, which had the unintended effect of stimulating the development of nationalist movements.
In the north, the anti-colonial nationalist and workers' movement was heavily influenced by marxist theory after Ho Chi Minh created the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in 1925. On 3 February 1930, a special conference was held in Hong Kong under the chairmanship of Ho Chi Minh, and the Communist Party of Vietnam was born. In October, following a Comintern directive, this name was changed to the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP). Until the party officially went underground in November 1945, it held a leading position in the Vietnamese anti-colonial revolution.
Ho Chi Minh went by many names during his rise to power, including Nguyen Tat Thanh "Nguyen who shall be Successful" and Nguyen Ai Quoc "Nguyen who loves his country". The changes were used to further his cause of uniting the citizens and encouraging them to rebel. Ho Chi Minh means "Ho who aspires to Enlightenment".
In the south, the anti-colonial nationalist movement was more complicated than in the north due to political divisions. The Cao Đài was the first of southern Vietnam's three most influential political and religious organizations to emerge in the colonial era. Officially founded by colonial civil servant Ngô Văn Chiêu in 1926, it would grow to be the largest of the region's politically oriented religious entities, and in many ways the most powerful. More than a decade later, in 1939, Prophet Huynh Phu So introduced another politico-religious organization, the Hòa Hảo. Prophet Huynh Phu So's preaching, alleged miracle cures, and extreme charity drew tens of thousands of adherents to the new Hòa Hảo organization. The third organization was the Bình Xuyên. Though its origins dated to the early 1920s, it only became a cohesive political force at the end of World War II. All three groups went on to become major anti-colonial powers in southern Vietnam..
In Cochinchina, the communists also contended with a Trotskyist left opposition. In April 1939, the United Workers and Peasants coalition, led by the Trotskyist Tạ Thu Thâu, triumphed over both the stalinist's Democratic Front and the liberal Constitutionalists in elections to the colonial Cochinchina Council. Governor-General Brévié, who set the results aside, wrote to French Colonial Minister Mandel:
'"The Trotskyists under the leadership of Ta Thu Thau, want to take advantage of a possible war in order to win total liberation." The Stalinists, on the other hand, are "following the position of the Communist Party in France" and "will thus be loyal if war breaks out."
World War II and the Japanese occupation
Japanese occupation and March 1945 coup
Before 1945, France and Japan had uneasily ruled Vietnam together for over four years. In September 1940, just months after France capitulated to Germany, Japanese troops took advantage of French weakness to station troops in northern Vietnam for the purpose of cutting off the supply route to the southern flank of the China Theatre. From 1940 to March 1945, the French retained their administrative responsibilities, police duties, and even their colonial army in exchange for allowing Japanese troops and material to pass through Indochina. By 1943, however, there were signs that the Japanese might lose the war. The United States had begun the island-hopping sweep through the South Pacific. A seaborne Allied landing in Indochina and an overland attack from China became real threats to the Japanese. In addition, an upsurge of Gaullist sentiment in Indochina after Charles de Gaulle returned to Paris at the head of the French Provisional Government in September 1944 added to Japanese concerns.
In the evening of 9 March 1945, the Japanese forces attacked the French in every center and removed the French from administrative control of Indochina. In less than 24 hours, the majority of the French armed forces throughout Indochina was put out of combat. The entire French colonial system, which had been in existence for almost 87 years, came tumbling down. Practically all French civil and military leaders were made prisoners, including Admiral Jean Decoux.
After the Japanese removed the French from administrative control in Indochina, they made no attempt to impose their own direct control of the civilian administration. Concerned primarily with the defense of Vietnam against an Allied invasion, the Japanese were not interested in Vietnamese politics although they also understood the desirability of a certain degree of administrative continuity. It was to their advantage to install a Vietnamese government that would acquiesce in the Japanese military presence. With that in mind, the Japanese persuaded the Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty emperor, Bảo Đại, to co-operate with Japan and to declare Vietnam independent of France. On 11 March 1945, Bảo Đại did just that by abrogating the Franco-Vietnamese Treaty of Protectorate of 1884. In August, Vietnam regained Cochinchina (Southern Vietnam). Vietnam's new "independence," however, rested on the government's willingness to co-operate with Japan and accept the Japanese military presence.
Opportunity for Vietnamese nationalists
From March to August 1945, Vietnam was under the nominal rule of the Empire of Vietnam, backed by Japan. In the aftermath of the coup, the Japanese most definitely wanted to minimize internal change in Indochina, which would have adversely affected their military objectives.
If the 9 March coup was a disaster for the French, it was an opportunity for Vietnamese nationalists. In fact, it marked a turning point in the Vietnamese revolution. Freed from French repression, which had continued unabated in the early phase of the Japanese occupation, Vietnamese revolutionaries had much greater freedom of movement.
In May 1941, Ho Chi Minh formed the Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam), or Việt Minh for short, at the Eighth Plenum of the Indochinese Communist Party at Pác Bó in northern Vietnam. The Việt Minh encouraged the creation of "national salvation associations" and adopted guerrilla warfare as the cornerstone of its revolutionary strategy. After the coup, the Japanese were stretched thin and only control the large cities and left the countryside to the Vietnamese. The Việt Minh, in particular, took advantage of the situation to strengthen their power. During the five months of the Japanese interlude, the Việt Minh carried out propaganda activities and organizational work in the Vietnamese countryside to prepare for the anticipated popular insurrection.
However, the Việt Minh was not the only political organization to anticipate an opportunity. In fact, after the brief storm of bullets of 9 March, various political parties, groups, and associations were formed throughout Vietnam. In the south, because of the weak status of the communist movement, the Việt Minh did not take full control of the movements' leadership during the preparation for insurrection. Several politico-religious organizations mentioned above rapidly expanded their power. In the early of summer 1945, Hòa Hảo leaders opened talks with the heads of other southern nationalist groups in the south, including the Cao Đài and the Trotskyists, to fight for and defend an independent Vietnam when the war ended. In mid-1945, the Đại Việt National Alliance was the most important nationalist revolutionary force in northern Vietnam.
The Trần Trọng Kim Cabinet oversaw the unification of the country for the first time in nearly a century. In its brief four-month existence, it sought to reverse decades of colonial rule by nationalising education, culture, and the civil service, while also doing its best to cope with the devastating famine. The Empire of Vietnam’s government might have survived despite its association with the Japanese, much like Sukarno and other nationalists managed to do in Indonesia.
Vietnamese famine of 1944–1945
The famine of 1945 was another issue of utmost importance during the Japanese interlude. The famine was caused by both artificial and natural factors.
During the war, the Japanese had forced many rice farmers to grow other crops. As a result, rice production decreased, especially in the north, where crops had often been supplemented in the past by shipments from the south. Now, however, Japanese troops consumed the surplus from the south or converted it to fuel for military vehicles. Terrible flooding in the spring of 1945 added to the misery. Starving peasants flocked to the cities or died passively in the countryside.
The devastation contributed to the crisis of authority in the country. Neither the French nor the Japanese took effective measures to alleviate the famine, and Kim's government could do nothing without Japanese consent. The misery and anger combined to foster a new interest in politics, especially among the younger generation, which the Việt Minh turned to its advantage.
During the famine, the Việt Minh conducted raids on Japanese granaries and the rice storage facilities of Vietnamese landlords. In the long run, the Việt Minh thus increased popular support, highlighted the impotency of Kim's government and intensified popular feelings against the French and Japanese. The Việt Minh succeeded in creating People's Revolutionary Committees all over the north. The committees were to take over local administration when the Việt Minh launched the general insurrection.