Dong Minh Hoi
Formed with Chinese sponsorship, by Vietnamese nationalists while Vichy France and Japan controlled French Indochina, the Dong Minh Hoi (DMH) (Viet Nam Revolutionary League, or Viet Nam Cach Menh Dong Minh Hoi) was created in October 1942. Its coalition included members of the VNQDD, Viet Minh and groups, such as the Phuc Quoc, which were pro-Japanese but still nationalists. It first met in Liuchow.[1] There were actually two groups with this name: this anti-Japanese coalition, and a postwar pro-Chinese political party in Vietnam.
Initially, it was under a nationalist with Kuomintang relationships, Nguyen Hai Than. The Allies, including China, expected intelligence information from the Dong Minh Hoi, but only the Viet Minh actually had operating cells in Indochina. Ho Chi Minh, therefore, was freed from Chinese imprisonment in 1943, and given control of the Dong Minh Hoi.
Ho as a new center
Not only the Chinese in Liuchow, but the U.S. Office of Strategic Services mission in Chungking, were seeking intelligence. The OSS was aware of Ho and was trying to get him released as an intelligence asset, although they were having as much trouble with the Department of State as with any nation. They had been approached, with a suggestion to work with Ho, by a representative of Mao Zedong. Both the French and Chinese distrusted the Americans, and tried to form their own alliances, the French with the British and the Chinese with the Vietnamese nationalists.[2]
By 1944, however, Ho was out of the leadership of the Dong Minh Hoi, and concentrated on his relationships with the U.S.
Back to the VNQDD
Chinese forces landed in Tonkin in September 1945, flying the flag of the Dong Minh Hoi, but the Viet Minh had broken away, leaving the Dong Minh Hoi as VNQDD-dominated and only one of various nationalist parties. Other han being more conservative than the Viet Minh, they had no clear platform. The VNQDD elements saved the DMH from being considered a pure Chinese pawn. [3]
In March, the new Vietnamese Assembly met for the first time, under Ho; it had VNQDD and DMH participation, but the Permanent Committee, which operated when the Assembly was not in session, was all Viet Minh.[4]
References
- ↑ Hammer, Ellen J. (1955), The Struggle for Indochina 1940-1955: Vietnam and the French Experience, Stanford University Press, p. 96
- ↑ Patti, Archimedes L. A. (1980). Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America's Albatross. University of California Press. , pp. 49-51
- ↑ Hammer, pp. 138-140
- ↑ Hammer, pp. 150-151