Book contents
- The Civilianization of War
- Human Rights in History
- The Civilianization of War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Civilianization of War and the Changing Civil–Military Divide, 1914–2014
- Part I Who Fights? Combatants, Mobilization and the Changing Nature of War
- Part Ia The ‘Total War’ Era, 1914–1945
- Part Ib The Cold War and Decolonization, 1945–2000
- 4 The Collapsing Civil–Military Divide in Wars of Decolonization: Two Case Studies from the Indochina War (1945–1954)
- 5 Parallel Ambiguities: Prisoners during the Algerian War of Independence
- 6 East Pakistan/Bangladesh 1971–1972: How Many Victims, Who, and Why?
- 7 ‘I Wasn’t a Boy, I Was a Soldier’: Militarization and Civilianization in Narratives of Child Soldiers in Africa’s Contemporary Conflicts, c.1990–2010
- Part II A Moving Target: Strategic Bombing and Civilians, 1916–2014
- Part III Civilian Protection and International Norms and Organizations: When and How Much?
- Index
4 - The Collapsing Civil–Military Divide in Wars of Decolonization: Two Case Studies from the Indochina War (1945–1954)
from Part Ib - The Cold War and Decolonization, 1945–2000
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 July 2018
Book contents
- The Civilianization of War
- Human Rights in History
- The Civilianization of War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Civilianization of War and the Changing Civil–Military Divide, 1914–2014
- Part I Who Fights? Combatants, Mobilization and the Changing Nature of War
- Part Ia The ‘Total War’ Era, 1914–1945
- Part Ib The Cold War and Decolonization, 1945–2000
- 4 The Collapsing Civil–Military Divide in Wars of Decolonization: Two Case Studies from the Indochina War (1945–1954)
- 5 Parallel Ambiguities: Prisoners during the Algerian War of Independence
- 6 East Pakistan/Bangladesh 1971–1972: How Many Victims, Who, and Why?
- 7 ‘I Wasn’t a Boy, I Was a Soldier’: Militarization and Civilianization in Narratives of Child Soldiers in Africa’s Contemporary Conflicts, c.1990–2010
- Part II A Moving Target: Strategic Bombing and Civilians, 1916–2014
- Part III Civilian Protection and International Norms and Organizations: When and How Much?
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines how the First Indochina War (1945-54) collapsed the divide between civilians and soldiers. Two case studies are at the core of this essay – the Battle of Hanoi that marked the start of the conflict and the Battle of Dien Bien Phu that ended it in a remote northern valley in mid-1954. The Battle of Hanoi saw Vietnamese partisans, civilians and soldiers, take up arms to prevent the French army from retaking the city by force. At Dien Bien Phu, the Vietnamese communist transformed their guerilla army into a professional one. Although the Vietnamese communist party relied on two very different types of warfare in Hanoi and Dien Bien Phu, in each case the divide between civilians and professional soldiers was always blurred. Regular troops may have fought the French in set piece battle at Dien Bien Phu; but the party mobilized hundreds of thousands of civilians to serve as their human logistics service.
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- Information
- The Civilianization of WarThe Changing Civil–Military Divide, 1914–2014, pp. 82 - 99Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018