Why Did The French Want To Continue The Vietnam War

The French Empire was a strong entity that lasted for well over a century. This empire began to disintegrate after World War II. Although the people of the colonies were hopeful that the war would lead to the end of imperialism, but the Fourth Republic, which came to power during the end of World War II, voted to continue the Empire. There were several reasons for this vote to continue the empire. The French wanted to dull the humiliation of the German occupation, use the colonial resources to help the postwar recovery, and gain greater global power to compete with the United States and the USSR. Naturally, the native peoples were resistant to the continuation of the Empire. This unrest and desire for freedom resulted in two colonial wars.
The Indochina War began in 1946.
The resistance against French rule was launched by Ho Chi Minh, a communist who had benefitted from French assimilation. Ho Chi Minh founded the Communist Party of Vietnam, and began his work, but he was forced to flee when the Japanese began to occupy Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh, upon his return to Vietnam, formed a guerilla group called the Viet Minh to fight occupation. Eventually, the Viet Minh became a large and effective army that made the war a difficult fight. To gain aid in the war effort, France reworked the Indochina War as a war on communism, not a war to maintain the French Empire. This new image resulted in the United States aiding the French, since the United States Cold War policies trumped their anti-imperialist beliefs. Even the American assistance was not enough to prevent the French's defeat. The French army was defeated at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. The peace treaty that officially ended the war was signed at Geneva. The French were removed from Indochina and Vietnam was split into the communist north and the independent south; the two separate entities were to be reunited in 1956, but this did not occur as
planned. The Algerian War immediately followed the end of the Indochina War. Algeria was the most prized French colony, and many French settlers in the colony strove to keep the colony firmly under French control. The settlers lived a privileged existence in the colony, while the Arab population was pushed to the margins of society. The first major sign of unrest was the Setif Massacre. When hundreds of Arabs took to the streets to celebrate the end of World War II, the French police attacked the crowd and started a riot. This conflict began the emergence of the National Liberation Front, also known as the FLN. By 1954 the group was a powerful organization that aimed to make Algeria an independent nation under Islamic law. The Algerian War was characterized by urban guerilla warfare. The Battle of Algiers is a notable example of this type of fighting. The Arab warriors would blend into the urban crowd, which caused confusion and frustration in the French Army; the army could not see who they were fighting. This confusion led to atrocities; the army captured many Arabs and began torturing their captives for information. They took FLN members, sympathizers to the FLN agenda, and even innocent people. The brutal acts were kept secret for a short time, but news of the torture eventually reached France. This war divided the Fourth Republic and paralyzed the government. The unrest caused the White Settler Rebellion of May 1958. The French settlers, backed by a few soldiers, planned to stage a coup against the government and place France under a kind of military state until the war was ended. This rebellion was counteracted by the Charles de Gaulle; he was asked to return to Paris and when the settlers heard, the rebellion was put to an end. With de Gaulle in power, the Fourth Republic was replaced with the Fifth Republic. De Gaulle realized that France could not keep Algeria, so he came to an agreement with the FLN. De Gaulle officially ends the French Empire in 1960 and all of the French colonies were made into independent nations.