Since 1885 the French had total control of Vietnam. The French thought that Vietnam was a very profitable colony and the enslaved Vietnamese people a valuable and extremely cheap labour force. The Vietnamese were fiercely independent, so the French learned to put down any nationalist uprising though brutal repression and to control the peasantry. The Japanese took over Vietnam and worked on the same methods of control during World War 2. The only effective resistance to the Japanese was the communists, led by Ho Chi Minh and through the Viet Minh (pro-independence guerrilla army) who worked closely with the Americans to liberate Vietnam. The Viet Minh declared independence for Vietnam, and expecting the Americans to support them, called for an alliance with America when the Japanese were defeated in 1945. The USA needed France as a Cold War ally in Europe, and as France expected to regain Vietnam, the Us decided...