National Day of Homage to Soldiers Who Died for France in Indochina Date in the current year: June 8, 2026

France controlled Vietnam as part of French Indochina from 1887 until it was invaded by Japan in 1941. Japan’s capitulation in August 1945 created a power vacuum in Vietnam, enabling Vietnamese nationalists led by Ho Chi Minh to take control and declare the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

France attempted to reestablish control over Vietnam by sending troops to what the French still regarded as French Indochina. After a year of low-level conflict, a full-scale war broke out in December 1946 between French and Viet Minh forces. What began as an anti-colonial war gradually became part of the broader Cold War, as the Viet Minh received support from the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union, while France was increasingly backed by the United States.

The First Indochina War lasted more than seven years and ended in August 1954 with a Viet Minh victory and the partition of Vietnam into North and South Vietnam. France lost more than 47,000 metropolitan, African, and legion soldiers during the war, as well as some 28,000 locals fighting on the French side.

After the war, thousands of deceased French soldiers and civilians remained buried in cemeteries in North and South Vietnam, which France paid to maintain. On June 8, 1980, the remains of the “Unknown Soldier of Indochina” (Soldat inconnu d’Indochine) were buried at Notre Dame de Lorette (Ablain St.-Nazaire French Military Cemetery), a cemetery that holds the remains of French soldiers and victims of concentration camps.

In 1982, Vietnam demanded that France remove the remains from three cemeteries in densely populated areas of Saigon, Vũng Tàu, and Hanoi. Rather than reburying them in Vietnam, France repatriated the remains in 1986–1987. They are currently buried in the Indochina War Memorial (Mémorial des guerres en Indochine) near Fréjus, which was inaugurated in 1993.

In 2004, several associations representing veterans of the First Indochina War requested the establishment of a memorial day to honor those who died in the war. The following year, the French government designated June 8 as the National Day of Homage to Soldiers Who Died for France in Indochina. This date was chosen to commemorate the internment of the unknown soldier’s remains at Notre Dame de Lorette.

The National Day of Homage to Soldiers Who Died for France in Indochina is marked across the country with official wreath-laying ceremonies. The main ceremony takes place at the Indochina War Memorial.

Vietnam also has a remembrance day dedicated to those who died or were injured in the First Indochina War. Observed on July 27, Martyrs’ and Wounded Soldiers’ Day was established in 1947 to soldiers who were wounded in the fight for Vietnam’s independence and was later expanded to include those who died in the war.