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The Viet Minh was founded as a league for the independence from France. The Viet Minh also opposed Japanese occupation in 1945 for the same reason.
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A deep famine struck northern Vietnam due to a combination of poor weather and French/Japanese exploitation
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The Japanese had been defeated and surrendered unconditionally. In French Indochina this created a power vacuum as the French were still interned and the Japanese forces stood down.
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The leader of the Viet Minh, declared the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam before a crowd of 500,000 in Hanoi.
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The communist nations, led by the People's Republic of China (PRC), recognized the Viet Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam as the government of Vietnam.
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Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson visited Saigon and enthusiastically declared Diem the "Winston Churchill of Asia."
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John F. Kennedy bitterly disagreed with Soviet premier when they met in Vienna over key U.S.-Soviet issues.
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John F. Kennedy bitterly disagreed with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev when they met in Vienna over key U.S.-Soviet issues
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Johnson said, "the battle against communism... must be joined... with strength and determination.”
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"Rolling Thunder" deluged the north with a million tons of missiles, rockets and bombs.
