Vietnamese-French Agreements of 1946

the agreements concluded during the French aggression in South Vietnam and the occupation of the northern part of the country by Chinese Kuomintang troops shortly after the establishment on Sept. 2, 1945, of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. A preliminary convention was signed in Hanoi on March 6. France thereby recognized the independence of the Republic of Vietnam (DRV) within the Indochinese Federation and the French Union (Art. 1). Provision was made for a referendum in South Vietnam to settle the question of uniting South Vietnam (Cochin China) with the Republic. The government of the DRV agreed to the replacement of Kuomin-tang forces in North Vietnam by French forces. On September 14 the Provisional Vietnamese-French Agreement (modus vivendi) was signed in Paris. The agreement set out preliminary decisions on such main questions of Franco-Vietnamese relations as economic matters, customs, and currency. The agreement also provided for the cessation of hostilities in South Vietnam. The parties agreed to resume negotiations on the final conclusion of a general treaty no later than January 1947. These negotiations did not take place because the French imperialists, violating agreements they had reached with Vietnam, in December 1946 launched a colonial war throughout the country in order to regain their supremacy in Vietnam.