1946: Viet Minh fights French

On this day, 30,000 Viet Minh soldiers under Ho Chi Minh attack French positions in Hanoi, Vietnam starting three decades of war in Indochina. Ho Chi Minh first travelled to France at the end of the First World War to crusade for Vietnamese independence. On 2nd September 1945, hours after Japan surrendered to the Allies in the Second World War, Ho proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, hoping to prevent the French from reclaiming their former colonial possession. Diplomatic efforts to gain independence collapsed, and French warships bombarded the North Vietnamese city of Haiphong in November 1946. On December 19 1946, the date commonly recognised as the start of the First Indochina War, the Viet Minh launched the attack against the French in Hanoi. Eight years later, an armistice was signed, in which Vietnam was divided into northern and southern regions, with Ho in command of the north and Emperor Bao Dai in control of the south pending free elections. In 1975, at the end of the Second Indochina War, Vietnam was united under communist rule.