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Could Japan have chosen to invade Indonesia instead of Vietnam in late 1940? How important were the bases in Vietnam to a invasion of the DEI? IOTL, the Japanese invaded Vietnam and Vichy France did not offer much in the way of resistance. It did however raise tensions between the west and Japan, resulting in the oil embargo against Japan, and ultimately Pearl Harbor. It seems plausible that Japan could strong-arm the orphaned Dutch colonies into giving the Japanese basing rights and then invade, just as they did to French Indochina. It would probably cause the U.S. to take a harder line against Imperial Japan as per OTL, but now they can't take away the IJN's oil.
Or (and this was the main point of this post ) are the bases in French Indochina necessary to make an invasion of Indonesia logistically feasible? Was there some resource in French Indochina just as important to Imperial Japan as oil?