Shocking images such as Nick Ut's "Napalm Girl" and Eddie Adams' "Saigon Execution" have become synonymous with the widespread outrage and disapproval of the war in the United States. Land was set aside to grow opium poppies and by the 1930s, Vietnam was producing more than 80 tonnes of opium each year. Called nguoi phan quoc (traitor) by other locals, these Vietnamese supported colonial rule by collaborating with the French. If not for the climate and people, some parts of Hanoi and Saigon could have been mistaken for parts of Paris, rather than a south-east Asian capital. The nation was carved into three separate pays (provinces): Tonkin in the north, Annam along the central coast and Cochinchina in the south. For weeks, bodies, mutilated by truncheons and rifle butts, washed up on the rivers banks. On occasion, I captured communists in flagrante delicto [red-handed] and executed them forthwith. I never want to go back. The French Revolution changed everything. French colonialism was focussed largely on production, profit and labour. It contains 186,751 words in 265 pages and was updated last on March 27th, 2022. This was, in effect, a French form of the English white mans burden. Not only were local sales of opium very profitable, its addictiveness and stupefying effects were a useful form of social control. French colonialism in Vietnam lasted more than six decades. Thousands of limestone islands sit within this bay in the Gulf of Tonkin, eroded into jagged . Confident that they could act with impunity, the police herded panicked protesters onto bridges across the city, where they clubbed and then tossed them unconscious into the River Seine. The decision to invade Vietnam was made by Napoleon III in July 1857. It wasnt until the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu that the national liberation forces drove the French out of the country. The National Liberation Front (FLN) was formed in 1954, and quickly became the dominant nationalist organisation. Eventually, 26 officers and enlisted men were criminally charged, though many men responsible for the atrocities on 16 March were not charged due to the ruling in Toth v Quarles. View Politics of Colonial Violence - Gendered Atrocities in French Occupied Vietnam.pdf from HISTORY AJ30503 at University of Malaysia Sabah. [2], The location of the massacre was in the foot of M Trch Bridge, a bridge on the NorthSouth Railway, next to M Trch Railway Station. He posits 59,745 killed or disappeared from the French expeditionary Corps, of whom 2,005 were French officers, 26,923 were Vietnamese soldiers, 12,997 were non-commissioned officers and soldiers, and 17,810 were legionnaires from Africa and North Africa. " Marine Ed Austin recorded in his diary in April of 1967 an incident in the Quang Nam province in which men in his platoon sexually humiliated young girls, and he noted that "There are more civilians killed here per day than [Viet Cong] either by accident or on purpose and that's just plain murder. Rice and rubber were the main cash crops of these plantations. by Commander H. Canuel. Indochina became one of Frances most important colonial possessions. The war in Vietnam is eighteen years old. The working day could be as long as 15 hours, without breaks or adequate food and freshwater. 1. Under French colonial rule, there was no national identity or authority in Vietnam or its neighbours. It was committed to military confrontation with the French, including bombings on French soil. The children of North African immigrants continue to live on the periphery of the city of lights. ", https://open.spotify.com/show/5Th7BCpIKDE1hVTqNL3u0Q. The Vietnamese names of cities, towns and streets were changed to French names. I dont know if they fought the Vietnamese in those 3 countries (as did the US, later on), or any other enemies as well siding with DRV or separately. No reliable figures exist for the number of wounded, missing in action, or deserters on the DRV side. The infantry, chiefly of the Foreign Legion and the Colonial Legion, was even more destructive [than the air attack]. It was not uncommon for plantations to have several workers die in a single day. 76 years ago today in 1945, Vietnam declared its independence from French colonial rule. After the defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific War, the French ruling class was determined to re-establish its control over Vietnam. The French claimed a civilising mission as false as Britains white mans burden. Here the focus is on Spain & Portugal, though there were cases in many other invasions, Napoleon had already encouraged his troops to loot and kill after seiges in Italy and after the seige of Jaffar he ordered . A company of American soldiers brutally killed most of the peoplewomen, children and old . Coding. By drawing on testimonies gathered in rural Vietnam, this article focuses on the violence to which local inhabitants were subjected when Vietnam was under French rule (1883-1954). In an age when most of the world's armies strive to make military service a less bestial and more enlightened experience than it used to be, the Legion still drives its trainees to . This article related to the history of Vietnam or its predecessor states is a stub. Please, do what you can to help us get through this trying time. Conditions on the rubber plantations and in the mines were described as like slavery. She undoubtedly was safer in there with him than on the streets, subject to abuse by the partisans. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Paris sent more than 20 governors to Indochina between 1900 and 1945. If you want to learn more about the Vietnam War and its Warriors, then subscribe to this blog and get notified by email or your feed reader every time a new story, picture, video or changes occur on this website the button is located at the top right of this page. Benjamin B. Ferencz. Before the French invasion in 1830, there was a high rate of literacy. The crushing of a rising in Setif in eastern Algeria in 1945 paints a picture of a pitiless war. That is because that conflict did not take place at the center of power, and King George wasn't exactly removed . Unable. I'm not surprised that there are more VC. The karst seascape of Halong Bay is one of the best places to visit in the world for spellbinding sea views and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This included income tax on wages, a poll tax on all adult males, stamp duties on a wide range of publications and documents, and imposts on the weighing and measuring of agricultural goods. 312,000 South Korean troops rotated through Vietnam 1964-1972, with 50,000 in country at the height of deployment. The account of the brutalities is far from pleasant reading, nor is atrocity-mongering a useful form of propaganda. People burnt to death, so many were burnt, if I thought about all of that I wouldn't be able to live one minute longer. 1. Please check your inbox and click the link to confirm your subscription. One may be quoted: With a razor blade, to cut the skin of the legs in long furrows, to fill the wound with cotton and then burn the cotton.. May 8 massacre. They were the losers, but they weren't the biggest ones. The My Lai massacre was one of the most horrific incidents of violence committed during the Vietnam War. But were still facing an existential threat to our survival, and we cant keep publishing without your support. The officer was given a non-judicial punishment and a letter of reprimand. Certainly, their fight and eventual de. Good post I never had an idea about the French losses in Vietnam I think they lost 6.000 men at Dien Bien Phu which of course is a disastrous number, but obviously not the complete number. During the Vietnam War, United States troops were charged with 'war crimes' against humanity - most notable of all, the My Lai Massacre. It lasted until 1954, with a break between 1941 and 1945, when the Japanese took over during World War 2. Vietnam War memory quiz events 1946-1964, Vietnam War memory quiz events 1965-1975, Vietnam War memory quiz terms and concepts (I), Vietnam War memory quiz terms and concepts (II). French officials and colonists also benefited from growing, selling and exporting opium, a narcotic drug extracted from poppies. The French also burdened the Vietnamese with an extensive taxation system. Captain Doucin: Precise instructions were given in confidential message 280 of 8/10/30, ordering the execution of every communist caught in flagrante delicto I am well aware that bloody deeds were done. They often held positions of authority in local government, businesses or economic institutions, like the Banque de lIndochine (the French Bank of Indochina). They did this for reasons of self-interest or because they held Francophile (pro-French) views. This massacre-related article is a stub. For more information, please visit our FAQ or Terms of Use. The lawyer who wrote the MMIWG's inquiry's legal analysis of genocide explains. At one Michelin plantation, 12,000 workers died between 1917 and 1944. Correct me if I am wrong, but is it true that no French soldiers who were drafted could serve outside France. How much did you Trust your Inner Voice inVietnam? Conditions were particularly poor on the plantations owned by French tyre manufacturer Michelin. In 1925 Chau was seized by French agents in Shanghai and brought back to Vietnam for trial; he died under house arrest in 1940. To me the Vietnam war is what the Vietnamese call the American war from 1954 till 1975. But clearly the French lost many more people previously. In a statement issued that day Murat said: "The population of Madrid, led astray, has given itself to revolt and murder. Vietnam Wall in Washington DC, the US. The question above was asked on the website Quora and was answered byGrard Briais, who used data fromTeachings of the Indochina War. I found some additional data on the website, UQAM The French Faculty of Social Science and Humanity, and added it to the original. understand the war, we must understand America"-and, in doing so, we. The world contains more misfits, sadists, masochists, and people who enjoy fighting than we sometimes like to suppose. Nor do we have statistics on gender, age, or the social origins of those killed. The French colonisation of Vietnam began in earnest in the 1880s and lasted six decades. We coded this case as ending when domestic insurgents and North Vietnam defeated South Vietnamese and U.S. forces; hence we also code for a withdrawal of international forces. Though there are . The development of colonised nations was scarcely considered, except where it happened to benefit French interests. Date accessed: November 10, 2022 Even though relative to its long history, Vietnam was under the French only for a short period during the 19th and 20th . Our daily email newsletter will keep you up to date. Weve been proudly donor-supported for two decades, but our future will depend on the action our readers take today. Download the full article: French Counterinsurgency in Algeria. Pre-conquest, 80 percent of the population were considered functionally literate. Date published: January 7, 2019 The assailants used . Ending the Canadian genocide of Indigenous peoples is a legal obligation, requiring honest, active decolonization. "The wires ran to a 12-volt Jeep battery. The extracts are taken from La Franche-Indochine and deal with the hearing of June 12th: Lieutenant Lemoanne: I received the orders of Commandant Lambert to kill all prisoners. Ive also created a poll to help identify my website audience before leaving, can you please click HERE and choose the one item best describing you. After 56 days and nights, the Dien Bien Phu stronghold fell. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Over time, colonial officials and French companies transformed Vietnams thriving subsistence economy into a proto-capitalist system, based on land ownership, increased production, exports and low wages. Indochina became one of France's most important colonial possessions. James Griffiths 10 Sep 19 3377 4. Even more lucrative were the state monopolies on rice wine and salt commodities used extensively by locals. Title: French colonisation in Vietnam So long as it remained in French hands and open to French economic interests, the French government was satisfied. SHOCKING pictures have shed light on why soldiers commit horrific atrocities during times of war. Plan your sightseeing with our list of the best places to visit in Vietnam. Palowski: Yes, instructions from Monsieur Robin, who afterwards congratulated us and said: Tres bien! How else can one explain the fact that the French Foreign Legion is heavily overrecruited? In 1957, an eight-day general strike was broken by repression. This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch . I dont care that the countryside is beautiful. A Vietnamese girl whose . French Counterinsurgency in Algeria: Forgotten Lessons from a Misunderstood Conflict. The maintenance or restoration of peace is an even more elusive objective. Citation information More methodically sound estimations put the number at 300,000. The colonial legacy lives on. Vietnamese workers were paid on average 48 piastres a year for their hard labour. (LogOut/ It is also information that I never considered and if asked could not respond. The Vietnam War, as Tim O'Brien notes in the series, was "senseless, purposeless, and without direction.". Bertrand Russell Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal (two sessions, in 1967). "We'd attach wires to parts of their bodies," he recalled. 3. According to one French colonial edict, it was even illegal to use the name Vietnam. Arabs remember French murderous aircraft bombing Algerians and Syrians, French atrocities in Vietnam, in Haiti. The formulation of rules by which wars should be conducted has occupied belligerents for hundreds of years, yet man remains a primitive in governing what is the most primitive of human occupations. The most famous and the most horrendous war crime in history and of all time. In this operation, 326 houses were burnt, and more than half of the village's residents were killed. Communists! On August 31, 1969, a rape was committed in Vietnam. The massacre occurred in M Trch village, M Thy commune, L Thy District, Qung Bnh Province, Vietnam from 5 am to 8 am on November 29, 1947. Answer (1 of 6): All colonial powers used and abused native workers for their benefit. Oskar Grning: Absolutely not. The home of freedom has been assaulted by terrorists determined to attack and suppress freedom.. Melvin E. Page. The story was the same in Algeria. French propagandists held these collaborators up as an example of the mission civilisatrice benefiting the Vietnamese people. U.S. troops fought and died to take hills that were then quickly abandoned. These collaborators assisted in the administration and exploitation of French Indochina. French colonialism was focussed largely on production, profit and labour. An estimated 300,000 Algerians died , in contrast to about . Vietnam War memory quiz events 1946-1964, Vietnam War memory quiz events 1965-1975, Vietnam War memory quiz terms and concepts (I), Vietnam War memory quiz terms and concepts (II). This commission issued death sentences to all of those captured who were bearing weapons of any kind. By 1935, Frances collective sales of rice wine, salt and opium were earning more than 600 million francs per annum, the equivalent of $US5 billion today. 2022 CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website, In all, according to these 1955 official statistics, the armed forces of the French Union lost. The French have advanced the rough figure of 500,000 Vietnamese killed during the Indochina War, apparently including civilians. Get daily news, in-depth reporting and critical analysis from the journalists, activists and thinkers who are working to improve our world.. A man stands near burning tires on a street in Treichville, a suburb of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on March 8, 2011. 5. The story of the French Revolution is the story of a country collapsing in on itself. Violence wasnt the terrain chosen by the independence movement. Bao Dai was educated at Paris Lycee Condorcet and became a lifelong Francophile. Over 300 civilian residents in M Trch were assassinated, of whom 170 were women and 157 were children. The best farmland was concentrated in the hands of the colonialists and their collaborators, leaving the majority of peasants vulnerable to famine. Vietnam, 1967. Traditional local temples, pagodas, monuments and buildings, some of which had stood for a millennium, were declared derelict and destroyed. I think you meant SNAFU not SNUFU. After World War I the movement for national liberation intensified. May 5, 2012. Both were theories utilised by powerful European nations to justify their conquest and colonisation of people and places in Africa, Asia and South America. Pictures show Nazi executions in Poland and Ukraine as well as atrocities by Japanese . By the end of 1956, 450,000 French troops were on Algerian soil. This Frenchwoman does not look like she is suffering, nor the ones in the background. Profit, not politics, was the driving force behind French colonisation. After defeating the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, Ho Chi Minh concentrated on converting the South to Communism by force, in alliance with the Viet Cong. Millions of Vietnamese no longer worked to provide for themselves; they now worked for the benefit of French colons (settlers). The real motive for French colonialism was profit and economic exploitation. In 1946, the prime minister ordered the shelling of Haiphong, killing 6,000 Vietnamese. Vietnamese forces, outgunned by their adversaries, relied heavily on mines and other booby traps as well as sniper fire and ambushes. With everything going on right now from escalating white supremacy to the threat of nuclear war to the climate change-fueled disasters across the world . Anti-colonial political activists were sentenced to death or imprisoned on island fortresses. Thank you in advance! During the Vietnam War, for example, photographs and footage brought the conflict home to the American people. It wasn't until the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu that the national liberation forces drove the French out of the country. The French also imposed a range of taxes on the local population and implemented monopolies on critical goods, such as opium, salt and alcohol. In general, French colonialism was more haphazard, expedient and brutal than British colonialism. To donate by check, phone, bitcoin, or other method, see our, Dont Let the Red Ripple Overshadow the Local-Level Progressive Victories, Red Wave Is Barely a Trickle, as Dems Outperform Expectations in Midterm Races, Summer Lee, Others Score Decisive Wins in Triumphant Night for Progressives, Abortion Rights Win in Several Statewide Ballot Initiative Contests, The Right Did Worse Than Expected, But That Shouldnt Satisfy Progressives, Voters Rebuked Trumps Bid to Seed the US Political System With MAGA Loyalists, France in Talks on Surrender of Ivory Coast Strongman, Frances Intifada: Rocking the Casbah, From Paris to Algiers. This allowed enemy. They took the capitol, Saigon, on April 30, 1975, marking the definitive end to the war and the period of mass atrocities. I too have read extensively on the French experience although I did not know the figures. Thuy Bo, in Bn District, Qung Nam Province, South Vietnam. The University of Hanoi was opened by colonists in 1902 and became an important national centre of learning. The naval commander in East Asia, Rigault de Genouilly, long an advocate of . Country. Bnh Ha massacre (disputed) December 3, 1966 to December 6, 1966. 2. By the 1930s, Indochina was supplying 60,000 tons of rubber each year, five per cent of all global production. The treaty granted France with Cochinchina where missionaries had the freedom to build missions and preach. "The Annamites are revolting. Videos, Film, Music, and Movies about VN War, A Chat Between Three Veterans [live video with author], Lest We Forget Meet the Authors & Book Signing April 4th: Cherries and Donut Dolly, Interview with author John Podlaski in Examiner Magazine, American Heroes Radio interviews author of Cherries A Vietnam War Novel, Cherries Author Interviewed on British Website, U.K. Blogspot posts interviews author, John Podlaski, More Book Reviews and author interviews about Cherries, https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-French-death-toll-in-the-Vietnam-War, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Indochina, Three entertainers killed & three wounded in thewar, 8 Facts about the Vietnam War from a Former Viet Cong Soldier. Halong Bay. Lamoanne: That was to influence the population. Instead, the French relied on a small number of local officials and bureaucrats. In the months before the massacre, the American soldiers at fault had been repeatedly attacked by Viet Cong troops. . The French justified their imperialism with a civilising mission, a pledge to develop backward nations. It had a profound impact on the lives of people in Vietnam. Through education and examinations, it was theoretically possible for a Vietnamese to obtain French citizenship, with all its privileges. France never had a large military presence in Indochina (there were only 11,000 French troops there in 1900) nor were there enough Frenchmen to personally manage this transformation. Militia loyal to strongman Laurent Gbagbo, who. Small landholders were given the option of remaining as labourers on these plantations or relocating elsewhere. Some 2 million Vietnamese died during the Second World War; there was a famine despite the granaries being full with rice. The French have advanced the rough figure of 500,000 Vietnamese killed during the Indochina War, apparently including civilians. The violence of the French state was not confined to Algerian soil. It was the result not only of missionary propaganda but also, after 1850, of the upsurge of French capitalism, which generated the need for overseas markets and the desire for a larger French share of the Asian territories conquered by the West. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. In the end, of those charged, all but one -- Lt. William Calley -- were acquitted or had the charges against them dropped. The following source is from a French report into colonial repression and atrocities in French Indochina, between 1930-33: The hysterical repression that followed these native demonstrations led to great cruelties. This encouraged self-interest, corruption, venality and heavy-handedness. French blood has flowed. unvarnished truth about the war in Vietnam. This is a universal phenomena, from China to Turkey to Rome and Aztecs. (LogOut/ (LogOut/ If true makes for one huge SNUFU on the French, again. The workers on plantations in French Indochina were known as coolies, a derogatory term for Asian labourers. After the defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific War, the French ruling class was determined to re-establish its control over Vietnam. The political management of Indochina was left to a series of governors. In all, according to these 1955 official statistics, the armed forces of the French Union lost 92,800 individuals and 76,400 wounded. 538860 research . South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem and JFK were shot dead three weeks apart in 1963. Laurie Melchionne Our Team Trending on The Tempest. It's unfair to compare these events to the colonial uprising of the American Revolution. [3], The memorial park in which the memorial site is located was classified by the Ministry of Culture of Vietnam as one of the National Historical Relics of Vietnam on 27 December 2001.[4]. What was the French death toll in their VietnamWar? But for the 6 million Arabs and Berbers, French colonialism was a disaster that they resisted by any means necessary. 9 Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The amount of land used for growing rice almost quadrupled in the 20 years after 1880 while Cochinchina (southern Vietnam) had 25 gigantic rubber plantations. Using guerrilla tactics, the Vietnamese drove the French out of the North of Vietnam and finally defeated them in the . Ho Chi Minh did lead an uprising in the former French colony in Asia and has built the Vietnamese modern state that had "committed" a lot of atrocities against the French white soldiers and the US soldiers, the Chinese soldiers who invaded/colonized Vietnam. [In March 1964] It began as a broad movement of resistance to the French under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, a Communist. The United States military forces committed widespread atrocities during the Vietnam War, according to documents unearthed in the National Archives by journalist Nick Turse. Take literacy. French colonists were interested in acquiring land, exploiting labour, exporting resources and making profit. Algeria's struggle was bitter. Halong Bay. But as philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, It is not their violence, but ours, turned back. [2], Every year, November 29 is mourned as "Hatred Date" by the residents in this village. In the 20 years between the two world wars, one Michelin-owned plantation recorded 17,000 deaths. Where there were labour shortfalls, Viet farmers were recruited en masse from outlying villages. The French seized vast swathes of land and reorganised them into large plantations. They were part of a peaceful unarmed protest of some 30,000 called out by the FLN to break an imposed curfew. And, were they used to defend the homelandFrance Only French Foreign Legion from outside France could be used in the war.North Africa and other places???? Attempts at escape were met with hunger and torture. Lusia Millar Continue Reading 24 Dang Hoang Dung Lieutenant-Colonels: 18 killed; 1 disappeared or not returned from captivity, Commanders: 69 killed; 5 missing or not returned from captivity, Captains: 341 killed and 60 missing or not returned from captivity, Lieutenants and Sub-Lieutenants: 1,140 killed and 134 missing or not returned from captivity, French Colonies of North African & Black African: 15,200 killed and 13,900 wounded, Foreign Legion: 11,600 killed and 7,200 wounded, Indigenous Officers and Soldiers (mainly ethnic Vietnamese) : 27,700 killed or not returned from captivity, Indigenous auxiliary troops (suppltifs) and the armies of the Associated States of Indochina together accounted for 17,600 deaths and 12,100 wounded.

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