Country Information: Vietnam was conquered by the armies of China's Han dynasty in 111 BC, it was not until 939 AD that the Vietnamese were able to expel the Chinese and begin a southward domination that, by the mid-18th century, had reached the Gulf of Siam. The 17th and 18th centuries were marked by the power struggles between feuding families in the north and south, as they attempted to control the largely ineffectual kings of the Le dynasty. Vietnam finally fell to French colonial rule in 1884, after fierce resistance. Integral to Vietnam's eventual independence was Ho Chi Minh, who was one of many who established the Viet Minh - a broad coalition of anti-French groups. When Japan ousted France from power in March 1945, the Viet Minh began to infiltrate the countryside from their mountain bases in the north.