From Bac Le to Haiphong: Local Officials, Miscommunication and Sino-French Conflict in Vietnam

Abstract

In June 1884,in the midst of the Sino-French War, a column of French and colonial soldiers marched along country roads in northern Vietnam on their way to occupy the town of Lang Son. En route they encountered a larger Chinese force near the village of Bac Le, where a brief but bloody firefight took place. In March 1946, 62 years after the 'Bac Le Incident', Chinese and French forces again clashed in northern Vietnam. This time, Nationalist forces of Jiang Jieshi's [Chiang Kai-shek] Republic of China exchanged fire with French ships arriving at the port city of Haiphong in an attempt to restore French colonial rule to Vietnam after the Japanese occupation during the PacificWar.