1. French Indochina

2. In the early 1900s, the French gained control of an area of Southeast Asia known as Indochina.
Later, Indochina became known as the modern day country of Vietnam.
The French wanted control of Indochina because they used the seaports and the area was a rich source of agricultural products and natural resources.
Nationalism was a factor in the area known as French Indochina. The people who lived there had worked hard to maintain independence from China, their powerful northern neighbor.

3. Nationalism
The people of Indochina shared a common history, culture, and or religion.
They saw themselves as a separate people among the many groups of Southeast Asia.

4. Ho Chi Minh
He began to work for Vietnamese independence from the French.
He supported the Communist Party.
In the 1930s, he organized the Indochinese Communist Party.
He began staging protests against French rule.

5. Vietminh League
At the end of WWII, Ho Chi Minh hoped it would mean the end of French rule in his country.
Ho Chi Minh helped to found a new group, the Vietminh League.
The goal of the Vietminh League was to gain independence for the Vietnamese.
Unfortunately after the war, the French moved to regain control of French Indochina.

6. Ho Chi Minh fights the French
1. Ho Chi Minh and his Vietminh fought with the French colonial forces for the next nine years.
2. French maintained control of most of the cities, particularly in the south, the people in the countryside supported Ho Chi Minh. They wanted control of their own country.
In 1954, the French decided to surrender control of the country to Ho Chi Minh.

7. The Geneva Conference
All parties in the conflict went to Geneva, Switzerland for a conference to end French involvement.
The United States was alarmed at the prospect of Ho Chi Minh ruling Vietnam.
The United States saw him as a communist rather than a nationalist leader.
The United States used its influence to temporarily divide Vietnam into two parts. North and South Vietnam.
The plan was to stabilize the country and then let the people vote on what type of government they wanted.

8. Democracy or Communism
The United States hoped for a democratic alternative to Ho Chi Minh.
Northern and Southern zones were drawn up during the Geneva Conference.
North and South Vietnamese began to sympathize with each other.
They wanted to be reunited.
After many years of fighting and the loss of many lives Vietnam was reunited
In April 1975, the last American helicopters left Vietnam.

9. Vietnam
The forces of Northern Vietnamese army took over the country and unified it the next day as the Republic of Vietnam.
While the new country was communist, most of the other countries in the region did not become communist.

10. Review Questions