WI: US doesn't support France in the First Indochina War?

Hard to imagine as France was an ally of the United States. However, if somehow the United States doesn't support France theirs a good chance the Vietnam war doesn't happen. That would make Lbj presidency in a more positive light since he doesn't have to deal with an unpopular war.
 
it would have saved the USA a lot of money.
They might not have needed to go off the gold standard in the early 1970s.
 
it would have saved the USA a lot of money.
They might not have needed to go off the gold standard in the early 1970s.
The US would've been off the gold standard around this time anyways. Balance of trade deficits and continuous French conversion of US dollars for gold meant that a gold standard during that time was unsustainable (not to mention silly in a modern economic system, but I digress).
 
Perhaps area not get to hands of commies. USSR hardly would be so intrested if USA not be there.
 
Perhaps area not get to hands of commies. USSR hardly would be so intrested if USA not be there.
I'm afraid you're wrong, my fellow countryman. The Viet Minh succeeded against the French with minimal Soviet aid. Most of their equipment during the French War was French, Japanese or funnily enough, American. They also had the support of large swathes of the people, and after 1945, the French only really controlled the towns.
 
I'm afraid you're wrong, my fellow countryman. The Viet Minh succeeded against the French with minimal Soviet aid. Most of their equipment during the French War was French, Japanese or funnily enough, American. They also had the support of large swathes of the people, and after 1945, the French only really controlled the towns.

Don't forget Chinese. Victory at DBP was possible because Chinese provided shitloads of artillery and (likely, though Vietnamese are reluctant to say so,) advisors.

And for a long time US didn't support French and placed serious restrictions on how their military aid was to be used. So French got US military aid but weren't allowed to send it to Vietnam. Things only changed after Korean war when Vietnam war was seen as part of global communist bid for world supremacy.
 
IIRC Ho Chi Min was a great fan of America until they supported the French. If the USA had been neutral in behaviour and friendly behind the scenes Vietnam could have become a left wing democratic state rather than communist I suspect and perhaps butterfly away the Vietnam War.
 
IIRC Ho Chi Min was a great fan of America until they supported the French. If the USA had been neutral in behaviour and friendly behind the scenes Vietnam could have become a left wing democratic state rather than communist I suspect and perhaps butterfly away the Vietnam War.​

Or at the very least the Asian equvilient of Yugoslavia. Should have just leaned on the French to get them out of Indochina, maybe use self-determination as an excuse. If they don't get to vote on their status then France don't get its Marshall Plan aid. The big question is whether or not the gambit would blow up in your face.
 

Archibald

Banned
And for a long time US didn't support French and placed serious restrictions on how their military aid was to be used. So French got US military aid but weren't allowed to send it to Vietnam. Things only changed after Korean war when Vietnam war was seen as part of global communist bid for world supremacy.
Spot on. When Indochina war started in 1946 (and until 1949 or so) France had to use first, salvaged Japanese fighters (!) with Ju-52 (!!) as bombers. Spitfires and Mosquitos followed, but both were utter failures - the British marvels did not liked Indochina at all (Mosquito had wooden structures, Spitfire had shorts legs).
P-63, Bearcats, and Invaders had to wait after 1950...
 
If a French leader pisses off the right people fiercely enough, I could see an act of anti-Imperialist pique chiding France to keep its filthy paws off of Vietnam.

This would have to happen quickly, before the PRC/1949, before the 1948 Berlin Airlift, Ho Chi Minh gets to make the right impression on the right person at an opportune time...

I mean, sure, France would more than kind of despise America for a bit, but, America would be SAVED.:)
 
In his presidential memoirs, Ike says he wrote to the French and told them, as a military man, that they were walking into a trap at Dien Bien Phu and what would happen. They wouldn't listen. What if, once the battle was over, he was exasperated enough to send an envoy to talk with Ho. Would Ho and his party be too hardcore Stalinist to spurn a deal to turn Titoist and agree to a U.S. lease on Cam Ranh Bay in return for huge American aid and investment? Was the knee-jerk version of anti-communism so strong in Washington that Ike would be unable to sell such a deal to Congress? Or was he so disillusioned by the behavior of our former Soviet ally at the end of the war that he wouldn't even consider such a deal?
 
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