Here are some GREAT links to provide some corrections to your "history" and what's particularly good about them is they are contemporary views from the time in question. Happy reading!

From TIME magazine:

One popular French author's view, from November 1958, of US interference in Vietnam

The PLAN - from October 1948 (During Democrat President Truman's Term) - Explaining Russian intentions in Southeast Asia.

More on Japan's "New Order" in East Asia (from Sept. 1940)

Cambodia (pop. 3,000,000) is one of the three Associated States of French Indo-China; its King Norodom Sihanouk Varman, visiting New York a fortnight ago, had a warning for the free world: unless the French give his people more independence "within the next few months," there is real danger that they will rebel against the present regime and become a part of the Communist-led Viet Minh. Said he: "They do not want to die for the French." from this 1953 article

Surely he can't have meant your "successful colonist" French occupiers could he have? Or perhaps this 1954 description of post French Rule Hanoi sums it up nicely:

"They Watch What You Do." This is the oblivion that is settling down upon the 12 million people of Northern Viet Nam, whose fate reflects the tragedy and helplessness of Asia. Born and raised under a French colonial rule that has much to answer for, subjected to 15 almost consecutive years of war, they are now condemned to the compulsory joy of the Communist empire.

A great read, that article. For folks who wanted to really know what we were fighting against, and fighting for, in Vietnam.

I could go on like this for much longer - pointing links and period references to blow your history out of the water - but this is more than enough reading for most Zoners to commit time too for one post. ;-)

Though in the end, the reading I've linked to here is well worth the time spent.

SDAI-Tech1