With the liberation of Paris in 1944 and the consequent rise of the de Gaulle faction within the Indochinese regime, the Japanese army began to fear the arrival of Allied forces in Indochina, and thus carried out a coup d'état in which they attacked French forces in Saigon, Hanoi, and other cities. Two days later, Emperor Bao Dai declared the independence of the Vietnamese Empire. On April 7, Trân Trong Kim (1883–1953) became prime minister and picked a cabinet (April 17). This thoroughly puppet regime collapsed when Japan did in mid- to late August.
Following the defeat of the Axis powers in Europe and Asia, Hô Chi Minh, Nationalist Communist leader of the native resistance to Japan in Tonkin, and Gen. Giap established a provisional government in Hanoi under Hô. Bao Dai abdicated as emperor (Aug. 23). (See Vietnam, 1945–2000)
