tour 2 of 16
Vietnam: Behind the Lines
Nguyen Van Binh (born 1917)
Before the Second World War (1939-45) Vietnam
had been a French colony. From 1940, it was occupied by the
Japanese, resulting in a strong nationalistic resistance movement
(the Viet Minh) led by the Communist hero Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969).
After the Second World War, the Viet Minh controlled the north and
were poised to take control of the rest of the country but the
French wished to resume their colonial position. The Franco-Viet
War began in 1945 and was initially a fight against colonial rule,
lasting until the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Vietnam was then split for governance into Communist north and
non-Communist south along the 17th
Parallel.
Van Binh trained
at the Fine Arts College in Hanoi, graduating in 1943. From 1946 to
1954 he worked as a journalist, using his artistic skills to record
many dramatic events during the resistance to French rule. This
drawing shows two Vietnamese soldiers aiming a light machine gun in
a forest setting. Such ephemeral images from the Franco-Viet
conflict are comparatively rare.