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Vietnam: Former Emperor Bao Dai, shortly after abdicating on 25 August, 1945 in favour of the Viet Minh, sitting with Ho Chi Minh as a 'simple citizen'.

Vietnam: Former Emperor Bao Dai, shortly after abdicating on 25 August, 1945 in favour of the Viet Minh, sitting with Ho Chi Minh as a 'simple citizen'.

Japan surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, and the Vietminh under the leadership of Hồ Chí Minh attempted to take power in a free Vietnam.

Hồ was able to persuade Bao Dai to abdicate on 25 August 1945, handing power over to the Vietminh — an event which greatly enhanced Hồ's legitimacy in the eyes of the Vietnamese people.

Bao Dai was appointed 'supreme advisor' to Hồ's Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi, which asserted its independence on 2 September 1945, but was ousted by the French in November 1946, leading directly to the First Indochina War and to French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

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