The French were almost universally despised by the people of Indo-China because of their land greed, their tendency to relegate the local populace to second class citizenship, and their Gallic arrogance.
The First Indo-China War began in 1946 when the French tried to reclaim their old colonial holdings in Southeast Asia. The war against the French was, at first, largely an insurgency fought in the northern one-third of the country. When the Communist Chinese extended their control to the northern borders of Vietnam in 1949, they began pouring supplies and Russian military equipment across the border to the North Vietnamese. The conflict quickly escalated into a full fledged war between two combatant armies largely on a par in terms of equipment.
The United States supported the French effort with money and equipment. The French Army in Indo-China was equipped largely with surplus American military equipment left over from WW II, at least in the early years: Corsairs, Bearcats, P-38s, M-1 Garands, etc. By 1954 the United States was bearing 80% of the cost of the war effort. After the debacle at Dien Bien Phu, the U.S., at the request of the government of South Vietnam, began to shoulder the physical burden of the conflict; first with military advisors, and then with men and materiel.
The only time the French fought in this war without substantial American help was in the first few years of the conflict. It is doubtful that the faltering government of the Fourth Republic could have sustained the struggle as long as they did without the massive influx of arms and materiel from the United States.
