Southeast and East Asia: Independence Through Negotiation and War

Sukarno unilaterally proclaimed Indonesia's independence on 17 August 1945, immediately after Japan's surrender, but the Netherlands refused to recognize it, triggering the Indonesian National Revolution of 1945-1949. International pressure eventually forced the Dutch to negotiate, and independence was formally recognized at the 1949 Hague Round Table Conference; Sukarno went on to promote the "Pancasila" ideology, host the 1955 Bandung Conference, and progressively establish a system of "Guided Democracy" before being ousted following the attempted coup of 1965 and the mass anti-communist repression led by Suharto that followed. In French Indochina, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 2 September 1945, and the Indochina War broke out in December 1946 between the Viet Minh and French colonial forces, with the United States backing France from 1950 as part of its policy of containment. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (March-May 1954) delivered a decisive defeat to French forces, leading directly to the Geneva Accords of July 1954, which temporarily divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel and formally recognized the independence of Laos and Cambodia.