The construction of defensive villages to support guerrilla warfare in the Central Highlands during the resistance against the French (1945-1954)

Abstract

The defensive village (làng chiến đấu) was a unique organizational form created by the Vietnamese army and people during the resistance against French colonial invasion. Serving as both base and support for guerrilla warfare, these villages were the staging grounds of local armed forces, reservoirs of manpower and resources, and sites for directly weakening enemy forces and defeating their rural strategies. In the Central Highlands, defensive villages developed from the beginning, from small to large, from weak to strong, with varied models: highland villages (e.g., Xốp Dùi, Stơr), plateau and valley villages (e.g., Ya Hội, Đất Bằng), and Kinh settlements (e.g., Xóm Ké). Together they created an extensive guerrilla warfare network interwoven with French forces, simultaneously exhausting the enemy and maintaining control over the countryside. This study clarifies the strategic significance of the Central Highlands through representative models of defensive villages, evaluating their roles in the development of guerrilla warfare during the antiFrench resistance (1945-1954).