the vietnam war was called the the first

Viet Minh flags went up and the Vietnamese were jubilant.

With the Japanese defeated and the French colonials still in prison, the Viet Minh quickly stepped in to fill the existing power vacuum.

The Americans then accompanied the Viet Minh, now carrying new American weapons, to the capitol of Hanoi and all along their journey the Vietnamese-American Force was welcomed by cheering villagers waving flags and offering food. Will be in pretty bad shape to leave to-morrow morning.” Thomas wrote in his diary: “We shot our trip flares and our pyrotechnics before our troops. They all shouted ‘Hip Hip Horray.’ We’re a bunch of happy boys to-night. Upon receiving the news, the Americans of the Deer Team and the Viet Minh laughed and drank long into the night. With the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, World War II ended. Their training did not last long, however. Photo by the National Archives and Records Administration. Fenn was convinced Ho would be an excellent intelligence agent and the group he represented, the Viet Minh, would also be valuable assets in the war against Japan. Soon thereafter, Ho Chi Minh became OSS agent “Lucius.”Īllison Thomas standing alongside members of the Viet Minh preparing for the march toward Hanoi, August 1945. OSS agent Charles Fenn tracked down the man in question-Ho Chi Minh-describing him as articulate and charismatic, and both open and friendly to Americans. With their normally busy wires now silent, native agents became necessary.īoth the GBT and the US Office of Strategic Services (the OSS) reached out to a Vietnamese man who had drawn positive attention from the 14th Air Force the previous year when he escorted a downed American pilot out of Vietnam and into China. Up to this point the GBT refused to employ Vietnamese as agents because the French claimed they were untrustworthy and were only interested in acquiring weapons to fight the French, not the Japanese. One such group, known as the “GBT,” had been providing information on weather conditions, the movement of Japanese troop trains and naval vessels, and on escape routes for downed Allied airmen to the 14th US Air Force stationed in China. With the loss of French control over the colony during Meigo, Allied intelligence networks operating in Vietnam collapsed. Members of the Deer Team providing instruction to the Vietnamese on use of the M-1 carbine, August 16, 1945.

The vietnam war was called the the first