On 7th May 1954, after a four-month siege led by Vietnamese nationalist, Ho Chi Minh, French colonialist forces were forced to surrender at Dien Bien Phu; a defeat that was the figurative death knell for French colonialist influence in Vietnam. The Geneva Accords of 21st July, 1954, concluded the war, and effectively excluded France from the country, decisively ending an era of French Vietnamese domination. But the process of decolonisation in Vietnam was far from facile; in fact, it was an elaborate, drawn-out affair that lasted just short of a decade, and involved the Vietnamese people having to go to war to rid themselves of the yoke of French influence. The destructive nature of colonisation in Vietnam, and the lengths that the Vietnamese people had to go to, to achieve decolonisation raises the question as to whether France is morally obligated to compensate Vietnam in the present. Indeed, the notion of a ‘colonising debt’ is one that is particularly significant, due to the legacy of colonialist influence most often being one of destruction and subjugation; one that is seared even now into the culture and emotional landscape of a country.
The desire for decolonisation in Vietnam was driven in large part by reaction to the atrocities of colonialism on the native people. The habitual argument in favour of colonialism suggests that the colonialist influence brought with it improvements in education, transport, infrastructure and medical care. This is proven erroneous, however, by the fact that in 1939, less than 15 percent of all school age children received any form of schooling, and 80 percent of the population was illiterate. The economic improvements lauded by some were likewise not beneficial to the majority of Vietnamese people, having only profited the small class of wealthy Vietnamese created by the colonial regime. The lack of civil liberties, and the exclusion of the Vietnamese from the modern sector of the economy (particularly trade and industry) similarly served to repress the native population. Vietnamese land was seized by the French and collectivised into large rubber and rice plantations, on which local farmers were forced to labour under appalling conditions. French colonists also imposed a range of taxes on the local population, and placed monopolies on important goods. Indeed, France became notorious for its callous attitude towards the Vietnamese people; Robert D. Shulzinger asserts that France’s “rule was often incompetent, usually inconsistent, and regularly harsh”. Is it any wonder then, that Vietnam wished to regain its freedom? This treatment, in addition to traditional Vietnamese resistance to foreign rule (in the 10th century AD, Vietnam succeeded in overthrowing Chinese imperialism), served to create a strong independence movement in Vietnam, advocating for immediate decolonisation.
Although the anti-colonial movement in Vietnam existed as early as the establishment of French rule, with guerrilla groups composed of individuals from defeated armies, the resistance did not properly gain traction until after the Second World War. Previously, there had been resistance movements on a smaller scale. In 1908, for example, the Vietnamese people held mass demonstrations demanding tax reductions, a phenomenon that occurred in multiple cities. Yet it wasn’t until after Japan’s surrender in World War II that Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent of France; a step that heralded the beginning of the First Indochinese War. The presence of an enormous crowd gathered in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square, applauding the proclamation, demonstrated that decolonisation was driven by popular support. Indeed, the fact that the Vietnamese people were willing to go to war for their cause is indicative of an overriding desire for independence, and serves to demonstrate even more acutely the extent of French tyranny and oppression.
The process of decolonisation was far from painless. After the Viet Minh declared Vietnam an independent state, French forces opened discussions with the Viet Minh, but the talks collapsed in 1946. Despite signing an agreement on 6th March 1946 that declared Vietnam a free state, the French navy bombed the Vietnamese city of Haiphong on the 23rd of November, killing thousands of people in a bid to reclaim power in Northern Indochina. In response, the Viet Minh attacked the French districts of Hanoi, resulting in dozens of casualties. This was the beginning of a brutal eight-year war, in which both sides would suffer enormous losses, under which the very fabric of Vietnam would be altered irrevocably. Evidently, decolonisation was a violent event that wreaked immense destruction on both the people and the land. Chinese and American intervention, aiding the Vietnamese and French forces respectively, further escalated the conflict, by supplying both sides with weapons, equipment and instructors. As Vietnam became a battleground for rivalling ideologies, one might argue that the meaning behind the conflict was lost, which was essentially to gain independence for the Vietnamese population.
Ultimately, it is irrefutable that French colonialism in Vietnam served to disenfranchise and suppress the native population. France’s actions cannot be justified, and thus certainly it owes a debt to the Vietnamese population for the crimes inflicted upon them. The difficulty and violence required to remove French influence similarly contributes to this debt. The importance of discussing the idea of a ‘colonising debt’ cannot be understated. We must ensure that as a society, we recognise the wrongs perpetuated by colonising nations in the past to guarantee that the same does not occur in the present.
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