Word: tonkin
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Last March, France recognized the Indo-Chinese "free state" of Viet Nam (the provinces of Tonkin and Annam) within the French Union. But this was not enough. The Vietnamese wanted to incorporate the southern province of Cochin China, because, they said, its people were mainly Annamese. The French agreed to hold an election to ascertain the wishes of the Cochin Chinese. Meanwhile, separatist agitation in Cochin China must stop. The Vietnamese tartly replied that if the separatist case was not properly presented, the election would be unfair. Ho & Vo. Viet Nam is headed by Ho Chih-minh (He Who Enlightens...
Necessary Effort. The French garrison mopped up most of Hanoi and fought off heavy counterattacks, but found it hard to get out except by air. Other garrisons in Tonkin were besieged. The rebels shelled Haiphong on Tonkin's coast, and Hue on Annam's coast. The French fought with planes and tanks; the rebels answered with mines, boobytraps, snipers and ambushes. The rebels claimed that Germans in the French Foreign Legion were deserting; the French answered that Japs in the Vietnamese army were committing harakiri...
...such a one, life was not easy. Leaders of Cochin China's neighbor, obstreperous, independent Viet Nam (new state formed of Annam and Tonkin), urged Thinh's countrymen to throw off Western control, called Thinh a quisling and threatened him with torture. Gentle Dr. Thinh was revolted by stories of extremists disemboweling pregnant women and burying Europeans alive...
Recently, France's good friend, Annamite Emperor Bao Dai (a topflight ping-pong player), formed a government of Viet Minh leaders who promptly ousted Bao Dai. New ruler of Annam, Tonkin and Cochin China was cagy, tuberculous Russian-speaking Premier Ho Chin Minh (known a generation ago around the Paris Peace Conference as Nguyen-Ai-Quoc). Followers of Communist Ho Chin Minh insulted and cowed the French in Saigon, tore down the World War I memorial, flung earth from the Verdun battlefield into the Saigon River...
...probing finger of Chinese columns, reaching to the Gulf of Tonkin, were 150,000 Japs in Indo-China and Thailand...