August 1945 - Japanese surrender unconditionally. Vietnam's puppet emperor,Bao Dai, abdicates. Ho Chi Minh's guerrillas occupy Hanoi and proclaim a provisional government.
September 2,1945 - Japanese sign the surrender agreement in Tokyo Bay formally ending World War II in the Pacific. On this same day,Ho Chi Minh proclaims the independence of Vietnam by quoting from the text of the American Declaration of Independence which had been supplied to him by the OSS -- "We hold the truth that all men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,among them life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This immortal statement is extracted from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. These are undeniable truths."
Ho declares himself president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and pursues American recognition but is repeatedly ignored by President Harry Truman.
September 13,1945 - British forces arrive in Saigon,South Vietnam.
In North Vietnam,150,000 Chinese Nationalist soldiers,consisting mainly of poor peasants,arrive in Hanoi after looting Vietnamese villages during their entire march down from China. They then proceed to loot Hanoi.
September 22,1945 - In South Vietnam,1400 French soldiers released by the British from former Japanese internment camps enter Saigon and go on a deadly rampage,attacking Viet Minh and killing innocent civilians including children, aided by French civilians who joined the rampage. An estimated 20,000 French civilians live in Saigon.
September 24,1945 - In Saigon,Viet Minh successfully organize a general strike shutting down all commerce along with electricity and water supplies. In a suburb of Saigon,members of Binh Xuyen,a Vietnamese criminal organization, massacre 150 French and Eurasian civilians,including children.
September 26,1945 - The first American death in Vietnam occurs,during the unrest in Saigon,as OSS officer Lt. Col. A. Peter Dewey is killed by Viet Minh guerrillas who mistook him for a French officer. Before his death,Dewey had filed a report on the deepening crisis in Vietnam,stating his opinion that the U.S. "ought to clear out of Southeast Asia."
October 1945 - 35,000 French soldiers under the command of World War II General Jacques Philippe Leclerc arrive in South Vietnam to restore French rule. Viet Minh immediately begin a guerrilla campaign to harass them. The French then succeed in expelling the Viet Minh from Saigon.
1946
February 1946 - The Chinese under Chiang Kai-shek agree to withdraw from North Vietnam and allow the French to return in exchange for French concessions in Shanghai and other Chinese ports.
March 1946 - Ho Chi Minh agrees to permit French troops to return to Hanoi temporarily in exchange for French recognition of his Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Chinese troops then depart.
May-September - Ho Chi Minh spends four months in France attempting to negotiate full independence and unity for Vietnam,but fails to obtain any guarantee from the French.
June 1946 - In a major affront to Ho Chi Minh,the French high commissioner for Indochina proclaims a separatist French-controlled government for South Vietnam (Republic of Chochinchina).
