Battle of Hanoi (1946)

For the 1873 battle, see Battle of Hanoi (1873). For the 1882 battle, see Battle of Hanoi (1882).

On December 19, 1946, Viet Minh soldiers detonated explosives in Hanoi, and the ensuing battle, known as the Battle of Hanoi marked the opening salvo of the First Indochina War.

Battle of Hanoi
Part of the First Indochina War
Viet Minh soldier Nguyen Van Thieng holding a Lunge mine at Hàng Đậu Street on December 1946.
Date 19 December 1946 – 18 February 1947 Location Hanoi, French Indochina Result Viet Minh withdrawal
Belligerents
French Union	Viet Minh
Commanders and leaders
Louis Morlière Pierre-Louis Débes	Võ Nguyên Giáp Hoàng Văn Thái Vương Thừa Vũ
Casualties and losses
160 soldiers and 100 civilians killed ^[1] 230 civilians missing	Several hundred

History

On September 14, 1946, France and the DRV had signed a modus vivendi, promising reciprocal rights and negotiations to end armed hostilities. The French did not follow through with any political concessions. In November 1946, local disputes led to colonialist massacres at Haiphong, "Langson" (Lạng Sơn) and "Tourane" (Da Nang). Then, France landed reinforcements at Da Nang in violation of an accord signed on March 6, 1946.^[2]

Viet Minh set off explosives, at 20:03 in the evening of December 19, 1946, after smuggling them past French Army guards into the city's power plant. The explosion plunged Hanoi into darkness, and throughout the city the Viet-Minh began attacking French military positions and French homes.^[3] About 600 French civilians were abducted during this time.^[4] Surviving French troops, alerted by friendly spies, gradually gained a numerical superiority. French artillery shelled the city, and house to house searches were conducted searching for the Viet-Minh leadership.

Ho Chi Minh was at the time ill with fever, and Võ Nguyên Giáp ordered "all soldiers... to stand together, go into battle, destroy the invaders, and save the nation". Eventual French superiority in firepower forced the Viet-Minh to withdraw to the mountains 80 miles to the north of Hanoi.^[5]

After expunging the Viet-Minh from the city, the French demanded the military surrender of their opponents, but the latter refused. The United States, alarmed at the incident, dispatched Abbot Low Moffat on a special mission to Saigon and Hanoi to consider a negotiated referendum. However, the realization that the Viet-Minh would not accept any compromise, and the fact that the US did not want to formally mediate between the two sides, led to the US abandoning the idea.^[6]

Gallery

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  Document "The word of the National Assembly of War Resistance" handwritten by Hồ Chí Minh on December 19, 1946.

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  The youngest in the winter of 1946.

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  Vietnamese government delegation and British, American, Chinese delegation conferring for the evacuation of Hanoian commons in 1947.

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  Colonial troops of the Thang-long Regiment, national guard, about to go into battle, December 1946. One of them has a Japanese helmet.

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  A statue of Nguyen Van Thieng holding his Lunge Anti-Tank Mine. Photo taken from the Vietnam Military History Museum, Hanoi, Vietnam.

Memorials

• Monument Determined to Brave Death for the Survival of the Fatherland by artist Nguyễn-kim-Giao at Hàng-Dầu Street.
• Monument Determined to Brave Death for the Survival of the Fatherland by artists Vũ-đại-Bình and Mai-văn-Kế at Vạn-Xuân Park.
• Bronze sculpture Lunge Mine soldier by artist Trần-văn-Hòe.
• Sculpture Hanoi in the winter 1946 by Ngũ-xã's artists at the Đồng-Xuân Market.
• Statue of Nguyen Van Thieng holding his Lunge Anti-Tank Mine at the Vietnam Military History Museum in Hanoi, Vietnam.

References

1. Duiker, page 400
2. "Pentagon Papers". United States National Archives. 2011-06-13. p. Part 1, A-38. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
3. Bradley, Mark Philip (2009-05-15). Vietnam at war. Oxford University Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-19-280349-8.
4. "The Haiphong Incident". World History. 2015.
5. Vo, Nghia M. (2006). The Vietnamese boat people, 1954 and 1975-1992. McFarland. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-7864-2345-3.
6. Schulzinger, Robert D. (1998-12-01). A time for war: the United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975. Oxford University Press US. pp. 28–31. ISBN 978-0-19-512501-6.

• Hammer, Ellen Joy (1954). The struggle for Indochina. Stanford University Press.
• William J. Duiker (2000). Ho Chi Minh. Hachette Books, New York.
• Buttinger, Joseph (1972). A dragon defiant: a short history of Vietnam. Praeger.
• Fall, Bernard B. (1967). Hell in a very small place: the siege of Dien Bien Phu. Lippincott.
• Kedward, Rod (2006). La vie en bleu: France and the French since 1900. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-013095-9.
• Roy, Jules (1963). The battle of Dienbienphu. Pyramid Books.
• Windrow, Martin (2005-12-26). The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81443-3.
• Fall, Bernard B. (1994). Street without joy. Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-1700-7.
• Devillers, Philippe; Lacouture, Jean (1969). End of a war; Indochina, 1954. Praeger.
• Fall, Bernard B. (1963). The two Viet-Nams: a political and military analysis. Praeger.