08/03/1945 Vietnam Independence Day Ceremony – the end of World War II, in French Indochina, the Japanese had already defeated the French — and they helped forming a new Vietnamese government.
The Japanese persuaded the renounced scholar, Mr. Trần Trọng Kim to take up the Prime Minister post, his cabinet included scholars who were effectively his inner circle friends — they were scholars, they were not politicians.
The Japanese then suggested to the Prime Minister to request them to help tracking down and get rid of Ho Chi Minh’s forces once and for all.
— The Prime Minister refused, based on the rationality that they were also Vietnamese, and Vietnamese should not use foreign forces kill other Vietnamese. The Prime Minister believed he could make political arrangements with the communists.
The rest, as they say, is history!
In the photo, feature in the background was the traditional Vietnamese National Flag — a yellow background with three parallel red stripes.
— This traditional Vietnamese National Flag was later become the flag of The Republic of Vietnam, and now is it the symbol of all overseas Vietnamese whom reject communists.
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A few months later, in a rather simple coup d’etat, Ho Chi Minh had overthrown the government of Prime Minister Trần Trọng Kim. And Ho declared Vietnam “independent” on the 02/September/1945, after he had already invited the French back!
Seeking to retake Indochina, the French pushed Ho Chi Minh into hiding, till Điện Biên Phủ in 1954 — the French completely destroyed by the Chinese: resulting in Vietnam divided into two by the Geneva 1954 Accord.
Had Prime Minister Trần Trọng Kim agreed to the Japanese suggestion, Vietnam would have found peace pretty much immediately in early 1945.
Việt Nam: Văn Hóa, Chính Trị 