October 11: What became known as the "Viet Minh" (Communist League for the Independence of Vietnam) took control of North Vietnam, on October 11, 1954.

French Indochina (1913)

It is necessary to recall that the second emperor of France, Napoleon III, son of Louis, King of the Netherlands, longed for being greater than his uncle Napoleon I.

Vietnamese Independence (950 - 1859) French Colonization (1874-1954) The French-Indochina War (1945-1954) Civil War (1954-1975) Vietnam since 1975.

So Napoleon III invaded southern China and named it "Cochinchine". So when we were young children, we were told that “Cochinchine” was equivalent to a little beyond the end of the world.

Indochina began a revolt against France in 1954: "Vietnam War". I suffered myself being an undergraduate student at Stony Brook University in early 70’s.

Nobody understood why the US got into this nationalist conflict; and France handed it to the States on a "silver platter". It was the greatest humiliation that the US has ever had in its history ... for being nosy!

All this peninsula is today Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam.