Vietnam to 1960 The French took over Vietnam, assumed direct control and ran largely by Vietnamese labor. The French authorities had set up two groups which had the Grand Council tax the Vietnamese, protected monopolies, and turned over to a handful of Frenchmen and Vietnamese land farmed by the peasants. The military struggled to fight in Vietnam from 1959 to 1975, involving the North Vietnamese and the NFL which had the United States and the South Vietnamese army. In 1946 to 1954, the Vietnamese had struggled for their independence from ....