Another notable reason led to the defeat of the French was the supports from China and Soviet Union to the Viet Minh. China and Soviet Union were the two biggest alliances of Viet Minh and played an important role in the outcome of the war. The former recognized the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 18 January 1950 while the latter did so two weeks later. China, under the leadership of Mao Zedong greatly influenced the morale of the Viet Minh as it now shared border with a great ally which increased the weapon supplies and aid thus put more pressure on France (Sagar D. , 1991). Even before the recognition from People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union, the Viet Minh gained support from China since the early years of the war when the Chinese …show more content…
An example showing the improvement of the Viet Minh forces under the military assistance of China was the loses of French garrisons near the Sino-Vietnamese border where French lost around 6,000 of 10,000 men, 13 artillery pieces, 125 mortars and 450 trucks (Davidson, 1988). Chinese aid did not end with just military advisors; in 1952 they provided 250 tons of supplies a month which keep increasing dramatically to 1,500-4,000 tons a month in 1954 (Clodfelter, 1995). Up to 20,000 peasants were carrying supplies from China along a trail which later was called the Ho Chi Minh trail (Sutherland, 1990). All of these supports enabled Viet Minh to be capable of defeating the French army in large scale offensive operations. China also contributed to the victory of Viet Minh in Dien Bien Phu as a Chinese advisor name Wei Guoqing alerted them of the opportunity provide by the French reoccupation of the valley (Seals, 2008). Soviet Union, in addition to China, gave many kinds of support to Viet