In article .com, "Phil Kane"
writes:

On 18 Dec 2004 14:30:24 GMT, N2EY wrote about Vietnam:

Spurred on by the success of Algerian independence, they managed to
push out the French in 1953.

IIRC the French weren't pushed out of Algeria until 1961 or so.
Dien Bien Phu was in 1954 while Algeria was under tight French
control.


Right you are, Phil!

Thanks for the correction. Somehow I got the British Empire breakup (India,
South Africa, what they called Palestine, etc.) confused with the French loss
of colonies. If anything, the Algerians were encouraged by the Vietnamese
success rather than the other way around.

--

In any event, the point I was making was that the Vietnamese simply wanted
independence, and when the Western powers refused them, they turned to the
Soviets for help. And the Soviets were only too eager to help out.

One wonders what would have happened if the USA and others had not supported
France. After all, if the Vietnamese people really wanted independence, why
should they remain a French colony - particularly when the French had not been
able to protect them from the Japanese during WW2?


73 es tnx agn de Jim, N2EY