America liberates Indochina from France

Towards the end of the second World War, Roosevelt's opinion on the status of Indochina was leaning towards not returning the place to France. He offered it to Chiang at one point (who said no) and considered making Indochina independent.

What if the United States had given Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia independence at the end of the Second World War?
 
If that's true, and it happened in an ATL, I think it might serve to inspire other campaigns for independence across the occupied world at this time. It would also potentially mean far better relations between the West and Southeast Asia, meaning that they may not go Communist. And even if they do, they may not be hostile towards the United States, which could still avoid the Vietnam War. But that having been said, I do somewhat doubt they go Communist in that world, especially if Ho Chi Mihn is as influential here. He would probably have a far better view of the US, and perhaps be more inclined to model the Vietnamese government similarly.
 
The problem here is that even if the US supports Ho, the Chinese and British are still going to maintain post-war military control by force before handing the territory back to France. France is still going to blackmail the US over Indochina, and the Americans won't have real power to enforce colonial liberation. However, the big difference here is that if subsequent administrations continue supporting Ho then Vietnam is not divided in 1954 and there's no Vietnam War. So you'd still have an Indochina War fought by France in the 1940's and 50s but possibly no US war.
 
Wouldn't that needlessly alienate the French at a time when the US needs their support to hold the line against communism in Europe? Indochina probably isn't worth that.
 
Well Franco-American relations take a huge hit which will probably impact the creation of NATO and drive the French to try for an independent nuclear deterrent even faster.
 

thorr97

Banned
Perhaps as part of a "leap frog up the coasts to reach Japan" strategy in which the US and UK - France not being liberated at the time the strategy was agreed upon - the US conducts landings along the Indochina coast and the British do so to retake Hong Kong. All this continuing until the Allies hold coastal China all the way up to the Korean peninsula thereby forcing the IJA to either retreat from China in essentially a rout or be cut-off. Then with bases so close to the Japanese mainland the Allies have far better invasion options for Downfall than starting with Kyushu.

After the war's end, the US is left holding Indochina and, in keeping with the overall anti-colonial nature of America's foreign policy aims, insists that the French agree to Indochinese independence in much the same way as America was handing sovereignty back to the Philippines. Indochina could become part of the overall "Commonwealth of France" and not thus be entirely out of French control. It'd be a bitter pill for the French to swallow but the US could sweeten it with more and better loan guarantees to rebuild France's industry and so on.

Thus the US would get to be the hero throughout South East Asia and the post-colonial movements would take on a very different bent.
 
Perhaps as part of a "leap frog up the coasts to reach Japan" strategy in which the US and UK - France not being liberated at the time the strategy was agreed upon - the US conducts landings along the Indochina coast and the British do so to retake Hong Kong. All this continuing until the Allies hold coastal China all the way up to the Korean peninsula thereby forcing the IJA to either retreat from China in essentially a rout or be cut-off. Then with bases so close to the Japanese mainland the Allies have far better invasion options for Downfall than starting with Kyushu.

After the war's end, the US is left holding Indochina and, in keeping with the overall anti-colonial nature of America's foreign policy aims, insists that the French agree to Indochinese independence in much the same way as America was handing sovereignty back to the Philippines. Indochina could become part of the overall "Commonwealth of France" and not thus be entirely out of French control. It'd be a bitter pill for the French to swallow but the US could sweeten it with more and better loan guarantees to rebuild France's industry and so on.

Thus the US would get to be the hero throughout South East Asia and the post-colonial movements would take on a very different bent.

The problem is that France badly needs a prestige boost in the immediate aftermath of the war - surrendering to American bullying would be politically very difficult and probably permanently damage relations between Paris and Washington DC, regardless of what gloss the US tried to give it.

Now I think FDR was arrogant enough to do something like this, especially given his general treatment of the French but I don't think the negative impact it would have on American interests in Europe can be handwaved away.
 
The question is, what can France do?

Are they going to turn down Marshall Plan aid and expose themselves to greater risk of the Soviet threat in response to the Americans advocating for decolonization?

If Adenaur has to pick between the Americans and the French, my hunch is he picks the Americans.
 
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