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First Indochina War





Military Information

  conflict First Indochina War
  caption A French Foreign Legion unit patrols in a communist controlled area
  date 19 December 1946 &ndash 1 August 1954
  place French Indochina
  casus The Haiphong incident of 23 November 1946
  result Viet Minh victory<br>Departure of the French from Indochina<br>Provisional division of Vietnam
  combatant1 ''' French Union ''' <br />
  combatant2 Viet Minh
  commander1 ''' French Expeditionary Corps '''<br>
  commander2 Ho Chi Minh <br> Vo Nguyen Giap
  strength1 French Union: 190,000<br>Local Auxiliary: 55,000<br>State of Vietnam: 150,000{{cite book
  Last Windrow
  First Martin
  Title The French Indochina War 1946-1954 (Men-At-Arms, 322)
  Publisher Osprey Publishing
  Date 1998
  Location London
  Pages p 11


  strength2 125,000 Regulars<br>75,000 Regional<br>250,000 Popular forcesWindrow p 23
  casualties1 94,581 dead<br>78,127 wounded<br>40,000 captured
  casualties2 300,000+ dead<br>500,000+ wounded<br>100,000 captured


The First Indochina War (also known as the '''French Indochina War''', the '''Franco-Vietnamese War''', the '''Franco-Vietminh War''', the '''Indochina War''' and the '''Dirty War''' in France and in contemporary Vietnam , as the '''French War''') was fought in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 until 1 August 1954 between the French Union 's French Far East Expeditionary Corps , led by France and supported by Bao Dai 's Vietnamese National Army against the Viet Minh , led by Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap . Most of the fighting took place in Tonkin in Northern Vietnam, although the conflict engulfed the entire country and also extended into the neighboring French Indochina Protectorates of Laos and Cambodia .

The Viet Minh launched a rebellion against the French authority governing the colonies of French Indochina. The first few years of the war involved a low-level rural insurgency against French authority. However, after the Chinese communists reached the Northern border of Vietnam in 1949, the conflict became a conventional war between two armies equipped with modern weapons supplied by the two superpowers.