This became more apparent with at Hai Phong, where a sovereignty dispute over the right to collect customs duties saw Georges Bidault green-light a violent military resolution.

After Hai Phong, Franco-Vietnamese soldiers of the joint military commissions engaged in increasing levels of violence towards each other; their mutual confidence sinking to new lows.

[2]: 125 Having already analysed Soviet tactics at Stalingrad and their southern failures during the War in Vietnam (1945–1946), the General Staff appointed Vương Thừa Vũ to command the city's defence.

Furniture was strewn across city streets as makeshift barricades in open view of French forces, while snipers of both factions assumed their positions.

[2]: 128–130 Viet Minh set off explosives, at 20:03 in the evening of December 19, 1946, after smuggling them past French Army guards into the city's power plant.

"[2]: 128  Nonetheless, Viet Minh efforts to sabotage the Paul Doumer Bridge and the military airbase at Gia Lam failed; not a single Spitfire sitting on the latter's tarmac was destroyed.

The fighting there trapped some 20,000 Vietnamese and 10,000 Chinese civilians, yet in defiance of General Valluy's order to "hit them with the cannon and the bomb... to prove to our adversary the overwhelming superiority of our capabilities" Morliere instead blockaded the district, deliberately leaving an outlet for people to escape.

Vũ's defence allowed the DRV government to evacuate in an orderly manner, taking with them machinery, medical equipment, printing presses, and even the Voice of Vietnam’s transmitters into the countryside.

[2]: 138  Pre-battle discussions between Generals Võ Nguyên Giáp, Hoàng Văn Thái, plus party leaders Truong Chinh and Ho Chi Minh, had been pessimistic, expecting to hold on for little more than a few days – compared to their goal of 1 month – due to how poorly trained and equipped their forces were relative to the French.

[2]: 130 Ho Chi Minh was at the time ill with fever, and Võ Nguyên Giáp had ordered "all soldiers... to stand together, go into battle, destroy the invaders, and save the nation".

[2]: 141  Thousands of refugees had streamed out of other major cities when the French had struck, including Hai Phong, Hue, Nam Dinh, and Saigon.

Several Viet Minh POWs were subject to torture by their French-Vietnamese captors in the form of electric shocks to their sensitive regions, acts which later attracted notoriety during the Algerian War.