American foreign policy toward Indochina from Roosevelt to Truman 1943-1946

The Turning Point of Indochina

Abstract

During the Second World War, President Roosevelt formulated a concept known as "International Trusteeship" to present the resumption of French rule in Indochina. The Soviet Union and China supported his idea. The goal of the international trusteeship would allow the nationalists to unify and govern the nation but under the supervision and assistance from a group of nations i.e. the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, when Roosevelt death in April, 1945, The international trusteeship and self-determination of Indochina died with him. The new president Truman learned that the Soviet Union going to exert itself as a postwar force throughout the world and the communism would spread to dominate the world. He adopted the containment policy to prevent the spread of communism and decided not to support Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam's independence. Truman needed France to act as a shield against communist expansion in Europe as well. Therefore, he declined to interfere in the French plan to govern her former colony. Truman agreed to returned the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos back to France.