Postage stamps of French Indochina with portraits of people who participated in the colonial wars, as a result of which the peoples of the Indochina Peninsula became dependent on France, were issued in 1943-1944 to glorify and perpetuate colonial figures - military leaders, travelers, governors, Catholic missionaries, etc.

The stamps depict, for example, the monk Alexander de Rod, who established Jesuit missions in Vietnam in 1626-1627, and the Bishop of Adran, the head of missionaries engaged in intelligence activities.

After years of war, Vietnam and Cambodia united in 1887 to form the Indochina Union. In 1893, it was joined by occupied Laos. The invasion of French colonialists in the second half of the 19th century put an end to the independent development of the peoples of the Indochina Peninsula (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia). Indochina was governed by governors appointed by the French Government. The postage stamps depict Jean-Marie Lanessan, Pierre Pasquier, and Paul Doumer, later President of France. The French Post Office issued a stamp in 1951 in honor of Prime Minister Jules Ferry, one of the most aggressive agents of colonial policy. His name is associated with the conquest of Tunisia in 1881, the war with Madagascar and the beginning of the conquest of North Vietnam - in 1883.In 1931 and in 1946, stamps of Madagascar with a portrait of Joseph Gallieni, known for his cruelty in the wars in Sudan, Indochina and Madagascar, were put into circulation. Epidemiologist Alexander Iersen is one of the few people who enjoyed the respect of the Vietnamese people. In the 1920s, he was head of the Pasteur Institute in Indochina.

In August 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of North Vietnam. On March 2, 1946, the leader of the Vietnamese people, Ho Chi Minh, was elected President and Prime Minister of the DRV, and the first postage stamps with his portrait appeared at the same time.

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