“The President of Viet Nam and leader of the whole insurgent movement is a slight, graying little man of 55, named Ho Chi Minh… He says the alternatives are independence or scorched earth: The French have launched a war to reconquer our country. They will fight by their means. We will fight by our means. They will advance along roads, rivers, railways and canals, razing villages and killing people. We on our part will destroy everything the French own. We will destroy their factories, plantations, railroads, blow-up bridges, tear up rails. We will make Indo-China uninhabitable for Frenchmen. We will destroy all they have in order to build a new life for ourselves, even if it means we must start that new life on the smoldering ashes of French power.”
In 1954 the French gave up on Vietnam and the U.S. accepted the challenge – click here to read about it…
