I recently read that during World War Two, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) landed operatives in French Indochina who worked on concert with the Vietminh rebels against the Imperial Japanese & Axis aligned Vichy French colonial regime.

In reading about this, it is stated that Ho Chi Minh held “fiercely pro-American” views at the time; an absolute paradigm shift from his modern status as a strong proponent of Marxism & indeed the father of the present day Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Was it that US President Harry S. Truman did not respond favourably to Ho Chi Minh’s request for diplomatic/military assistance against the French as proposed by the latter in 1946, or was Minh’s eventual adoption of Marxism less ideological and more a case of strategic convenience (whereby he could receive aid from China or the Soviet Union more readily)?

Thank you!