Why did war break out between the Vietnamese Nationalists and the French?

1 Answer
May 15, 2016

As colonial powers went, the French were uniquely tone-deaf to the needs of their colonies.

Explanation:

Among the great colonial powers of the 19th and 20th Centuries, it can be hard to distinguish the good and competent ones from the bad and incompetent. In the Caribbean islands alone, there is a bit of a disparity in wealth and livability between former Spanish colonies and former English ones. Former French colonies are among the worst, though.

Vietnam had some unique circumstances, but in its colonial days, among other factors, the French gave favorable treatment to the Vietnamese who converted to Catholicism to those who retained their Buddhist heritage, and the split between North and South is almost precisely along religious lines. Had the Buddhists of the North aligned themselves with someone other than the Communists, the West might have formulated a better exit strategy than the one that ultimately became the Vietnam War.