War in Vietnam (1945–1946)
The 1945–46 War in Vietnam, codenamed Operation Masterdom by the British, and also known as the Southern Resistance War (Vietnamese: Nam Bộ kháng chiến) by the Vietnamese, was a post–World War II armed conflict involving a largely British-Indian and French task force and Japanese troops from the Southern Expeditionary Army Group, versus the Vietnamese communist movement, the Viet Minh, for control of the southern half of the country, after the unconditional Japanese surrender.
| War in Vietnam | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War | ||||||||
A Japanese naval officer surrendering his sword to a British naval lieutenant in Saigon on 13 September 1945 | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| Belligerents | ||||||||
|
Japan | Việt Minh |
Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
|
Douglas Gracey Philippe Leclerc |
Hồ Chí Minh Võ Nguyên Giáp Trường Chinh |
Huỳnh Phú Sổ Phạm Công Tắc Lê Văn Viễn Nhất Linh | ||||||
| Strength | ||||||||
| Unknown number of soldiers | Unknown number of soldiers |
At least 15,000 Hòa Hảo militants Unknown number of Cao Đài and VNQDD forces Some 2,500 Bình Xuyên forces | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
|
40 dead "Slightly higher than British casualties" |
British estimation: 2,700 dead (600 by British forces, the rest by French and Japanese) | Unknown | ||||||
Western countries recognise three Indochina Wars: the first being France's unsuccessful eight-year conflict with the Viet Minh nationalist forces (1946–1954); the second being the war for control of South Vietnam, featuring an unsuccessful American-led intervention, ending in 1975; finally, the conflict in Cambodia, sparked by the Vietnamese invasion in 1978. This numbering overlooks the brief but significant initial conflict — from 1945 to 1946 — that grew out of the British occupation force landing at Saigon to receive the surrender of Japanese forces.
The Viet Minh were defeated by the combined British/French/Japanese force, and southern control of Vietnam was reasserted by the French colonial empire, leading to the First Indochina War.