Ho Chi Minh attacks the French. Thirty thousand Viet Minh soldiers under the command of Ho Chi Minh attack French positions in Hanoi, Vietnam, marking the beginning of thirty years of war in Indochina. Ho Chi Minh had first traveled to France at the end of World War I to advocate for Vietnamese independence and communist revolution. On September 2, 1945, hours after Japan’s surrender in World War II, Ho proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, hoping to forestall France’s reclamation of its former colonial possessions. An attempt to secure independence through diplomacy failed, and in November 1946, French warships bombarded the North Vietnamese city of Haiphong. On December 19, 1946—the date conventionally marking the beginning of the First Indochina War—the Viet Minh attacked the French. Eight years later, an armistice was signed, dividing Vietnam into two regions: North and South. Ho was appointed leader of the North, and Emperor Bao Dai of the South, until free elections could be held. In 1975, at the end of the Second Indochina War, Vietnam was reunified under a communist regime.
