Transnational coalition-building and the making of the cold war in Indochina, 1947-1949

Diplomatic History

Volumn 26, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 453-480

  Lawrence, Mark Atwood ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0041305972     PISSN: 01452096     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-7709.00319     Document Type: Review

References (87)

1. Melvyn Leffler highlights these three cases in an insightful essay evaluating the contributions of scholars working in Eastern bloc archives. Melvyn P. Leffler, "Inside Enemy Archives: The Cold War Reopened," Foreign Affairs 75 (July/August 1996): 128-31.
2. Convincing studies that emphasize this point include: William I. Hitchcock, France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-1954 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1998); Thomas Risse-Kappen, Cooperation Among Democracies: The European Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy (Princeton, NJ, 1997); and various essays in The Origins of the Cold War in Europe: International Perspectives, ed. David Reynolds (New Haven, CT, 1994). For a broader argument, see Tony Smith, "New Wine for New Bottles: A 'Pericentric Paradigm' for the Study of the Cold War," Diplomatic History 24 (fall 2000): 567-92.
3. Convincing studies that emphasize this point include: William I. Hitchcock, France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-1954 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1998); Thomas Risse-Kappen, Cooperation Among Democracies: The European Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy (Princeton, NJ, 1997); and various essays in The Origins of the Cold War in Europe: International Perspectives, ed. David Reynolds (New Haven, CT, 1994). For a broader argument, see Tony Smith, "New Wine for New Bottles: A 'Pericentric Paradigm' for the Study of the Cold War," Diplomatic History 24 (fall 2000): 567-92.
4. Convincing studies that emphasize this point include: William I. Hitchcock, France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-1954 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1998); Thomas Risse-Kappen, Cooperation Among Democracies: The European Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy (Princeton, NJ, 1997); and various essays in The Origins of the Cold War in Europe: International Perspectives, ed. David Reynolds (New Haven, CT, 1994). For a broader argument, see Tony Smith, "New Wine for New Bottles: A 'Pericentric Paradigm' for the Study of the Cold War," Diplomatic History 24 (fall 2000): 567-92.
5. Convincing studies that emphasize this point include: William I. Hitchcock, France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-1954 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1998); Thomas Risse-Kappen, Cooperation Among Democracies: The European Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy (Princeton, NJ, 1997); and various essays in The Origins of the Cold War in Europe: International Perspectives, ed. David Reynolds (New Haven, CT, 1994). For a broader argument, see Tony Smith, "New Wine for New Bottles: A 'Pericentric Paradigm' for the Study of the Cold War," Diplomatic History 24 (fall 2000): 567-92.
6. Geir Lundestad, "Empire by Invitation? The United States and Western Europe, 1945-1952," in The Cold War in Europe: Era of a Divided Continent, ed. Charles S. Maier (New York, 1991), 143-68.
7. John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (Oxford, 1997), especially chs. 2 and 7.
8. Mark P. Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000). Other outstanding works centering on the war before 1950 include: Robert M. Blum, Drawing the Line: The Origins of the American Containment Policy in East Asia (New York, 1982); Lloyd Gardner, Approaching Vietnam: From World War II Through Dienbienphu (New York, 1988); George Herring, "The Truman Administration and the Restoration of French Sovereignty in Indochina," Diplomatic History 1 (1977): 97-117; Michael Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (New York, 1985); Martin Shipway, The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944-1947 (London, 1996); and Stein Tønnesson, 1946: La Déclenchement de la Guerre d'Indochine (Paris, 1987).
9. Mark P. Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000). Other outstanding works centering on the war before 1950 include: Robert M. Blum, Drawing the Line: The Origins of the American Containment Policy in East Asia (New York, 1982); Lloyd Gardner, Approaching Vietnam: From World War II Through Dienbienphu (New York, 1988); George Herring, "The Truman Administration and the Restoration of French Sovereignty in Indochina," Diplomatic History 1 (1977): 97-117; Michael Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (New York, 1985); Martin Shipway, The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944-1947 (London, 1996); and Stein Tønnesson, 1946: La Déclenchement de la Guerre d'Indochine (Paris, 1987).
10. Mark P. Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000). Other outstanding works centering on the war before 1950 include: Robert M. Blum, Drawing the Line: The Origins of the American Containment Policy in East Asia (New York, 1982); Lloyd Gardner, Approaching Vietnam: From World War II Through Dienbienphu (New York, 1988); George Herring, "The Truman Administration and the Restoration of French Sovereignty in Indochina," Diplomatic History 1 (1977): 97-117; Michael Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (New York, 1985); Martin Shipway, The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944-1947 (London, 1996); and Stein Tønnesson, 1946: La Déclenchement de la Guerre d'Indochine (Paris, 1987).
11. Mark P. Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000). Other outstanding works centering on the war before 1950 include: Robert M. Blum, Drawing the Line: The Origins of the American Containment Policy in East Asia (New York, 1982); Lloyd Gardner, Approaching Vietnam: From World War II Through Dienbienphu (New York, 1988); George Herring, "The Truman Administration and the Restoration of French Sovereignty in Indochina," Diplomatic History 1 (1977): 97-117; Michael Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (New York, 1985); Martin Shipway, The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944-1947 (London, 1996); and Stein Tønnesson, 1946: La Déclenchement de la Guerre d'Indochine (Paris, 1987).
12. Mark P. Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000). Other outstanding works centering on the war before 1950 include: Robert M. Blum, Drawing the Line: The Origins of the American Containment Policy in East Asia (New York, 1982); Lloyd Gardner, Approaching Vietnam: From World War II Through Dienbienphu (New York, 1988); George Herring, "The Truman Administration and the Restoration of French Sovereignty in Indochina," Diplomatic History 1 (1977): 97-117; Michael Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (New York, 1985); Martin Shipway, The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944-1947 (London, 1996); and Stein Tønnesson, 1946: La Déclenchement de la Guerre d'Indochine (Paris, 1987).
13. Mark P. Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000). Other outstanding works centering on the war before 1950 include: Robert M. Blum, Drawing the Line: The Origins of the American Containment Policy in East Asia (New York, 1982); Lloyd Gardner, Approaching Vietnam: From World War II Through Dienbienphu (New York, 1988); George Herring, "The Truman Administration and the Restoration of French Sovereignty in Indochina," Diplomatic History 1 (1977): 97-117; Michael Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (New York, 1985); Martin Shipway, The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944-1947 (London, 1996); and Stein Tønnesson, 1946: La Déclenchement de la Guerre d'Indochine (Paris, 1987).
14. Mark P. Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000). Other outstanding works centering on the war before 1950 include: Robert M. Blum, Drawing the Line: The Origins of the American Containment Policy in East Asia (New York, 1982); Lloyd Gardner, Approaching Vietnam: From World War II Through Dienbienphu (New York, 1988); George Herring, "The Truman Administration and the Restoration of French Sovereignty in Indochina," Diplomatic History 1 (1977): 97-117; Michael Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (New York, 1985); Martin Shipway, The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944-1947 (London, 1996); and Stein Tønnesson, 1946: La Déclenchement de la Guerre d'Indochine (Paris, 1987).
15. The one exception in this regard is Andrew Rotter's important book, The Path to Vietnam: Origins of the American Commitment to Southeast Asia (Ithaca, NY, 1987), especially chs. 7-8. Rotter shows that British diplomacy helped to persuade the Truman administration to back France.
16. Several historians have recounted the controversies surrounding Indochina in 1945. See especially David Marr, Vietnam, 1945: The Quest for Power (Berkeley, 1995).
17. For discussion of Socialist attitudes toward the outbreak of war, see Martin Shipway, The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944-1947 (Providence, RI, 1996), especially ch. 10.
18. Caffery to State Department, 15 January 1947, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, vol. 6 (Washington, D.C., 1972), 62-63.
19. Journal Officiel, 21 January 1947.
20. Quoted in R. E. M. Irving, The First Indochina War: French and American Policy, 1945-1954 (London, 1975), 38.
21. Thorez's speech of 18 January 1947 is quoted in Alain Ruscio, Les Communistes français et la guerre d'Indochine; 1944-1954 (Paris, 1985), 158-59.
22. For a fuller discussion of divisions over foreign policy within the Labour government, see Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour in Power, 1945-1951 (Oxford, 1984), 60-68.
23. Morgan, Labour in Power, 63.
24. Rotter, The Path to Vietnam, especially ch. 3.
25. Minute by C. M. Anderson, 31 January 1947, Public Record Office (hereafter cited as PRO), Foreign Office (hereafter cited as FO) 371, file 53970.
26. Bevin to Hicks, 25 February 1947, PRO, FO 371, file 63453.
27. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), 5th series, vol. 435, House of Commons, 24 March 1947 (London, 1947), 827.
28. For works that have explored internal divisions over U.S. policy toward Southeast Asia, see William J. Duiker, U.S. Containment Policy and the Conflict in Indochina (Stanford, CA, 1994) and Robert J. McMahon, Colonialism and Cold War: The United States and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence (Ithaca, NY, 1981).
29. For works that have explored internal divisions over U.S. policy toward Southeast Asia, see William J. Duiker, U.S. Containment Policy and the Conflict in Indochina (Stanford, CA, 1994) and Robert J. McMahon, Colonialism and Cold War: The United States and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence (Ithaca, NY, 1981).
30. Wallner to Byrnes, 15 January 1945, National Archives (hereafter cited as NA), RG (hereafter cited as Record Group) 263, CIA/Murphy Files, box 102.
31. Moffat to State Department, 21 December 1946, NA, RG 59, Central Decimal File, 851G.00/12-2146.
32. Moffat to Byrnes, 7 January 1947, NA, RG 59, Central Decimal File, 851G.00/1-747.
33. "India and Events in Indo-China," 24 January 1947; PRO, FO 371, file 63451; Singapore to Foreign Ministry, 3 February 1947, Archives de la Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (hereafter cited as MAE), series Asie, subseries Indochine, file 373; Singapore to Foreign Ministry, 6 February 1947, MAE, Asie/Indochine, file 373.
34. "India and Events in Indo-China," 24 January 1947; PRO, FO 371, file 63451; Singapore to Foreign Ministry, 3 February 1947, Archives de la Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (hereafter cited as MAE), series Asie, subseries Indochine, file 373; Singapore to Foreign Ministry, 6 February 1947, MAE, Asie/Indochine, file 373.
35. Ramadier to Bidault, 9 January 1947, MAE, Asie/Indochine, file 132.
36. Poll results released on 3 February 1947 showed that 42 percent of French citizens favored negotiations with the Vietminh, while another 8 percent believed France should abandon Indochina. Meanwhile, 36 percent believed the conflict must be settled by force, and 14 percent had no opinion. The New York Times, 4 February 1947.
37. Ellen J. Hammer, The Struggle for Indochina (Stanford, CA, 1954), 206.
38. Caffery to State Department, 20 March 1947, NA, RG 59, Central Decimal File, 851G.00/3-2047.
39. Burma Office to Dening, January 1947, PRO, FO 371, file 63518.
40. Dening to Killearn, 20 February 1947, PRO, FO 371, file 63518.
41. Vincent to Acheson, 8 January 1947, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States 1947 '(Washington, DC, 1947), 6:58-59 (hereafter cited as FRUS, followed by appropriate year).
42. Marshall to Caffery, 3 February 1947, FRUS 1947 6:67-68.
43. Report by Leclerc for Interministerial Committee, 24 March 1947, Archives Nationales (hereafter cited as AN), Paris, Series F60 (Archives du Président du Conseil), box 3035.
44. J. E. Coulson (Paris embassy) to Foreign Office, 25 June 1947, PRO, FO 371, file 63455.
45. Memo by Chauvel, "L'Indochine," 10 February 1947, AN, Bidault papers, box 128.
46. Bonnet to Foreign Ministry, 5 December 1946, MAE, Etats-associés, file 135.
47. High Commissariat report, "Etude sur les Activités Américaines en Indochine," 30 October 1947, MAE, Amérique, 1944-1952, file 128.
48. "Instructions pour M. le Haut Commissaire de France pour l'Indochine," 23 March 1947, AN, F60, box 2035.
49. Caffery to Marshall, 19 March 1947, FRUS 1947 6:80.
50. "Discours prononcée par M. Bollaert à Hanoi," 15 May 1947, MAE, Asie/Indochine, file 55.
51. "Note sur la solution par une entente avec Bao Dai du problème indochinoise," 7 December 1947, AN, Bidault papers, file 128.
52. Mike Gravel, ed., The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam, vol. 1 (Boston, 1971), 27.
53. Abbott to State Department, 26 May 1948, NA, RG 59, Central Decimal File, 851G.00/5-2648.
54. Foreign Ministry report, "Les Etats-Unis et l'Indochine Française, 20 November 1948, MAE, Asie/Indochine, file 255.
55. Bangkok to Foreign Office, 14 December 1948, PRO, FO 371, file 69684.
56. Minute by Mackworth-Young, 13 May 1948, PRO, FO 371, file 69656.
57. Minute by Grey, 29 September 1948, PRO, FO 371, file 69695.
58. Foreign Office report, "Communist Strategy in S. E. Asia," 8 November 1948, PRO, FO 371, file 69695.
59. Cabinet memo, "Sir William Strang's Tour in South-East Asia and the Far East," 17 March 1949, PRO, Cabinet Office Papers 129, vol. 33.
60. MacDonald to Bevin, 23 March 1949, PRO, FO 371, file 76033.
61. Paper by Foreign Office Research Department, 15 March 1949, PRO, FO 371, file 76036.
62. British Information Services release, "Mr. Bevin at the National Press Club," 1 April 1949, PRO, FO 371, file 74184.
63. State Department studies in this period repeatedly pointed out that although Ho Chi Minh was a communist, there was virtually no indication of Soviet activity in Vietnam. See Marilyn Young, The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990 (New York, 1991), 23.
64. See, for example, Lovett to Manila, 21 October 1948, NA, RG 59, Lot File 54D190, reel 11; Washington to Foreign Ministry, 22 November 1948, MAE, Asie/Indochine, file 132. The French military encountered no American resistance to its practice of transferring U.S.-manufactured military equipment from Europe to Indochina, but that scheme posed serious transport difficulties and diminished resources available in Europe. The trickle of indirect U.S. assistance arriving in this manner tell far short of what the French military believed it needed. The Truman administration's reluctance to provide military equipment surely stemmed in part from the minor furor that had resulted in 1945 when American media reported that the French and Dutch militaries were using U.S.-manufactured matériel supplied under Lend-Lease to carry out colonial reconquests in Southeast Asia. Fearing that close association with France would create a major public relations problem, American wariness of French policy closely resembled the Attlee government's attitude. See Michael Gillen, "The Roots of Opposition: The Critical Response to U.S. Indochina Policy 1945-1954" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1991), especially chs. 3 and 4.
65. See, for example, Bonnet to Foreign Ministry, 8 September 1948, MAE, Asie/Indochine, 255.
66. Butterworth to Hickerson, 25 May 1948, NA, RG 59, Central Decimal File, 759G.00/5-2548.
67. Paper for Bangkok conference, 21-26 June 1948, Southeast Asia file, box 9, Melby Papers, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO.
68. Marshall to Paris, 30 August 1948, FRUS 1948 6: 40-41.
69. Department of State Policy Statement on Indochina, 27 September 1948, FRUS 1948, 6:43-49.
70. Acheson to Paris, 25 February 1949, FRUS 1949 7:8-9.
71. Caffery to Acheson, 6 March 1949, FRUS 1949 7:9.
72. "Point de la Situation Militaire en Indochine," 22 November 1948, Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre (hereafter cited as SHAT), Chateau Vincennes, Archives de l'Indochine, series 10H, file 157.
73. See, for example, Alessandri to Valluy, August 1948, SHAT, Archives de l'Indochine, series 10H, file 169.
74. Bonnet to Foreign Ministry, 13 July 1948, MAE, Asie/Indochine, file 255.
75. Foreign Ministry report, "La Politique des Etats-Unis en Extrème-Orient," October 1948, MAE, Amérique, 1944-52, file 133.
76. Reed to Butterworth, 25 March 1949, NA, RG 59, Lot File 54D190, reel 6.
77. Report by Abbott, "Memorandum on Indochina for New Delhi Foreign Service Conference," 31 March 1949, NA, RG59, Central Decimal File, 851G.00/3-3149.
78. Pignon to Foreign Ministry, 9 April 1949, MAE, Asie/Indochine, file 256.
79. Caffery to State Department, 18 March 1949, FRUS 1949 7:14-15.
80. Bruce to State Department, 2 June 1949, FRUS 1949 7:36-38.
81. New York Times, 22 June 1949.
82. Memo by Ogburn, "Requirements for the Security of the Countries of Southeast Asia," 20 April 1949, NA, RG 59, Lot File 54D190, reel 5.
83. Ogburn to Reed, 28 June 1949, NA, RG 59, Lot File 54D190, reel 9.
84. Ruscio, Les Communistes francais, 240-42.
85. Memorandum of conversation, 14 September 1949, PRO, FO 371, file 75976; State Department memo, "Indochina," 28 September 1949, NA, RG 59, Central Decimal File, 851G.00/9-2849.
86. Memorandum of conversation, 14 September 1949, PRO, FO 371, file 75976; State Department memo, "Indochina," 28 September 1949, NA, RG 59, Central Decimal File, 851G.00/9-2849.
87. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), 5th Series, vol. 469, House of Commons, 16 November 1947 (London, 1949), 2018.