ww1

Although the role played by Vietnam (called Annam or French Indochina in the effort to deny that an actual nation of Vietnam existed) in World War I was certainly not a major one, their contribution deserves a second look. The war began during the reign of the august Emperor Duy Tan at a time when the young monarch was becoming more disgusted at France's control of his country.
Just like native peoples from Senegal to Equatorial Africa, the Vietnamese were expected to help France fight her enemies a world

away in Europe. This was a standard practise with most of the Allied countries like Great Britain, however, most 1st world countries did not view the "colonials" like the troops from Vietnam to be trustworthy or as capable as European soldiers. For that reason most of the Vietnamese troops who were sent to serve in World War I served as laborers, building railroads and digging trenches for the Europeans to fight in.
During the war the French government realized that their supply truck drivers could be used in combat and their second line duties delegated to the colonials. Therefore, many Vietnamese served in the Great War as supply truck drivers (after training in how to operate an automobile of course). The most famous American soldier of World War I, Sgt. Alvin York, wrote that his unite was driven to the front by what this backwoodsman called Chinamen in French uniforms. These were of course French-clothed Vietnamese. It has been reported that one of these drivers was the infamous Ho Chi Minh.
In 1916, with still no end in sight for the war, Emperor Duy Tan decided that France was sufficiently occupied in Europe to launch his rebellion in an attempt to restore the independence of Vietnam. His father, Emperor Thanh Thai, was also displaying his anger at French rule by openly hoping for a German victory. Weapons were smuggled into the Forbidden City and the 16-year-old Emperor Duy Tan sailed up the countryside in his junk calling from the deck for the people to rise in revolt. Sadly, Emperor Duy Tan was betrayed by one of his followers and exiled from Vietnam along with his father. The next Emperor pledged cooperation. In France however, the world community was about to be introduced for the first time to the man who would become known as "Uncle Ho". After joining the French Communist Party and hearing U.S. President Wilson's high-sounding speeches calling for freedom to subject peoples Ho decided to crash the Versailles meeting and present his own demands for Vietnamese 'freedom'. He failed to grasp that Wilson's speeches and the famous 14 Points applied only to Germany and the other Central Powers and not the vast global empires of Britain and France. Naturally, Ho Chi Minh was no more successful than Emperor Duy Tan who had right on his side, and Vietnam would be dragged into still another World War before winning freedom from their colonial masters.