Operational Priority Communication from Archimedes Patti

In 1945, during World War II, Japanese troops took control of Vietnam (under French rule at the time). At the end of the war, Ho Chi Minh—the Vietnamese Communist leader—seized an opportunity to escape decades of French rule. The day Japan surrendered to the Allies, Ho Chi Minh declared independence in front of a crowd of exhilarated Vietnamese. In a deliberate appeal for American support, he opened his speech with the words: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Before he declared independence in front of thousands of cheering citizens in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh asked U.S. Office of Strategic Services officer Archimedes Patti to check his wording of the first passage. He needed an American for the job because he’d borrowed it from the Declaration of Independence. Patti recorded his impressions of the Viet Minh (a national independence coalition dominated by communists) in this report. He wrote: “From what I have seen these people mean business and I’m afraid that the French will have to deal with them. For that matter we will all have to deal with them.”

China and Britain oversaw the repatriation of Japanese soldiers from Vietnam after the end of the war. The U.S. government adopted a neutral policy when France went to war to recolonize Vietnam in 1945; and President Harry S. Truman later authorized financial and military assistance to the French in 1950.