Free French forces and Viet Minh/Indochinese Communist Party fight guerilla war against Japanese.
Potsdam Conference: End of WWII, Allied leaders decided Japanese would surrender to British in southern Vietnam, to Chinese Nationalists in north.
August 1945, Japan surrenders to Ho Chi Minh and Viet Minh.
Ho declares the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945). Based in Hanoi, north Vietnam. Forces Emperor Bao Dai to abdicate.