The Battle of Thái Nguyên, fought in Thái Nguyên province, was the small and only battle of the

August Revolution The August Revolution (), also known as the August General Uprising (), was a revolution led by the Việt Minh against the Empire of Vietnam from 16 August to 2 September 1945. The Empire of Vietnam was led by the Nguyễn dynasty and was ...

, between the communist

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a Communist Party of Vietnam, communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1 ...

and the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

. The battle lasted from 17 to 25 August 1945.

Battle

On 16 August 1945, the

forces led by

Võ Nguyên Giáp Võ Nguyên Giáp ( vi-hantu, , ; 25 August 1911 – 4 October 2013) was a Vietnamese general, communist revolutionary and politician. Highly regarded as a military strategist, Giáp led Vietnamese communist forces to victories in wars agains ...

entered Thái Nguyên. During the battle itself, only sporadic fighting broke out, as a small group of Japanese army was situated in an old French fort and the Americans were all, except for Major Thomas, away from the battle in an outside safehouse. On 25 August the final battle at Thái Nguyên ended with the Japanese "surrendering" agreeing to stay confined to their post, the same day the

Empire of Vietnam The Empire of Vietnam (; Literary Chinese and Japanese language, Contemporary Japanese: ; Japanese language, Modern Japanese: ) was a short-lived Japanese puppet state, puppet state of Empire of Japan, Imperial Japan between March 11 and Abdicat ...

(Japan's puppet) collapsed when its emperor

Bảo Đại Bảo Đại (, vi-hantu, , , 22 October 191331 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc (Phước) Vĩnh Thụy (), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was ''de jure'' em ...

abdicated. The government apparatus of the Empire of Vietnam in Thái Nguyên collapsed and its soldiers (''lính bảo an'') here automatically surrendered to the Viet Minh, and the Viet Minh established a government in this province on 28 August 1945. After the battle, the Viet Minh (''de facto'' led by communists) completely seized Thái Nguyên when Giáp founded the People's Revolutionary Committee in the province.

References

{{vietnam-stub Military history of Vietnam Viet Minh Aftermath of World War II in Vietnam Communist rebellions Communist revolutions Vietnamese independence movement 1945 in Vietnam 1945 in French Indochina

Battle

See also

References