The first European power to gain a foothold in southeast Asia was France. All of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam were in their hands for nearly a century, until the Hitler invaded Paris and his Japanese allies took control of the French colonies in the region. Around that time the Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Mihn (a nom de guerre) returned to lead his people against the vichy French and their Japanese puppetmasters, setting the stage for Vietnamese independence.

On this day, September 2, in 1945 Ho Chi Mihn and his Viet Mihn (Vietnamese League for Independence) guerrillas declared independence from France.

Although Ho Chi Mihn was an ally of the United States in the fight against Japan, his communist leanings persuaded the U.S. and the West to support French claims over the region rather than Vietnamese independence. French Indochina and Vietnam were at war until 1954, when a peace treaty divided Vietnam into North and South. But France was weakened by the uprisings in Algeria and elsewhere, forcing the U.S. to take over support to Vietnam, bringing about the ill-fated Vietnam War.