The August Revolution of 1945

The August Revolution of 1945 compressed decades of Vietnamese political ambition into a single fortnight. By the end of August the Việt Minh controlled most of the country, the last Nguyễn emperor had abdicated and a new republic was about to be proclaimed in Hanoi.

Background

By 1945 Vietnam had endured nearly eighty years of French colonial rule. Since September 1940 it had also been occupied by Japanese forces, who had originally left the Vichy French administration in place. The compromise broke down on 9 March 1945, when Japan launched a coup, interned the French and granted nominal independence to a Vietnamese government under Emperor Bảo Đại and the historian-prime minister Trần Trọng Kim.

The new regime had little time, capacity or armed force. It struggled with the immediate consequences of a famine that killed perhaps one to two million people in northern and north-central Vietnam between late 1944 and mid-1945, the result of war disruption, Japanese requisitioning, French rice policies and severe weather.

The Việt Minh, formed by Hồ Chí Minh and his colleagues in 1941, had spent the war building a base area in the mountains of Cao Bằng, Bắc Kạn and Lạng Sơn under the military leadership of Võ Nguyên Giáp. By mid-1945 they had established a "liberated zone" of six provinces and were ready to move into the lowlands.

What happened

Japan announced its surrender on 15 August 1945. The Allied powers had agreed at Potsdam that Chinese Nationalist forces would accept the Japanese surrender north of the 16th parallel and British forces would do so to the south, but neither had yet arrived. For about two weeks Vietnam had no occupying army on the ground.

The Việt Minh moved fast. A National Conference at Tân Trào in Tuyên Quang province on 13 to 15 August authorised a general uprising and formed a National Liberation Committee chaired by Hồ Chí Minh.

The key events of the next fortnight included:

• 16 August: a small Việt Minh column under Võ Nguyên Giáp marched from Tân Trào towards Thái Nguyên.
• 17 August: a mass rally in central Hanoi, originally organised by civil servants in support of the Trần Trọng Kim government, was turned into a Việt Minh demonstration when activists hoisted the red flag with a yellow star.
• 19 August: a coordinated rising in Hanoi seized the residence of the imperial delegate, the city hall and other key buildings without significant fighting; the date is now celebrated as the anniversary of the August Revolution.
• 23 August: Việt Minh forces took Huế, the imperial capital, and the citadel garrison surrendered.
• 25 August: power was seized in Saigon by a Việt Minh-led front, the Provisional Executive Committee for the South.
• 30 August: Emperor Bảo Đại abdicated at the Ngọ Môn gate of the Huế citadel, handing the imperial seal and sword to a Việt Minh delegation led by Trần Huy Liệu. He accepted the title of supreme adviser to the new government.
• 2 September: Hồ Chí Minh stood before a large crowd in Ba Đình Square in Hanoi and read the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, opening with words drawn from the American Declaration of Independence of 1776.

Within days, however, Allied troops began to arrive. Chinese Nationalist forces under General Lu Han occupied the north, looting widely and remaining until 1946. British forces under General Douglas Gracey landed in Saigon and, in the absence of clear policy from London, re-armed French troops and helped restore French authority. By late September fighting had broken out in Saigon between French forces and Việt Minh militias, beginning the long First Indochina War.

Why it matters

The August Revolution gave Vietnam its first government of national independence in modern times and dated the end of the Nguyễn dynasty and the French protectorate. The Việt Minh's ability to seize power in days, with very little bloodshed in most cities, gave it a legitimacy that opponents found hard to dislodge.

The events also set the terms for the next thirty years. France's decision to restore colonial rule led to the First Indochina War of 1946–1954 and, after the partition at the 17th parallel, to the Second Indochina War with the United States. Vietnam's national day on 2 September dates from the Ba Đình declaration.

What you can see today

• Ba Đình Square in Hanoi remains the country's main civic space, with the Hồ Chí Minh Mausoleum, the Presidential Palace and the National Assembly building around it.
• The Bắc Bộ Phủ on Ngô Quyền street in Hanoi, the former French residency-general and the first headquarters of the new government, still stands and is used as the State Guest House.
• The Tân Trào historical site in Tuyên Quang province preserves the banyan tree, communal house and conference hall where the August uprising was authorised.
• The Ngọ Môn gate of the Imperial Citadel in Huế is the spot where Bảo Đại abdicated; a small plaque commemorates the moment.

Related reading

• Hồ Chí Minh biography
• French colonial era
• The Nguyễn dynasty
• Vietnam War summary
• Hanoi region guide