The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944–1947

THE ROAD TO WAR

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Contemporary France

General Editor: Jolyon Howorth, University of Bath

Volume 1

Humanity’s Soldier: France and International Security, 1919–2001

David Chuter

Volume 2

The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944–1947

Martin Shipway

Volume 3

France at War in the Twentieth Century: Propaganda, Myth and

Metaphor

Edited by Valerie Holman and Deborah Kelly

Volume 4

Recollections of France: The Past, Heritage and Memories

Edited by Sarah Blowen, Marion Demossier and Jeanine Picard

Volume 5

Party, Society and Government: Republican Democracy in France

David Hanley

Volume 6

The Shaping of Environmental Policy in France

Joseph Szarka

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THE ROAD TO WAR

France and Vietnam, 1944–1947

;

Martin Shipway

Berghahn Books

New York . Oxford

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First published in 1996

Second printing 1999

Paperback edition in 2003

by

Berghahn Books

www.berghahnbooks.com

© 1996,1999, 2003 Martin Shipway

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced

in any form or by any means without the

written permission of Berghahn Books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shipway, Martin.

The road to war : France and Vietnam, 1944–1947 / by Martin

Shipway.

p. cm. -- (Contemporary France)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-57181-894-4 (alk. paper)

1. Indochina--History--1945– 2. France--Colonies. I. Title.

II. Series.

DS550.S54 1996

959.7'03--dc20 96-24310

CIP

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from

the British Library.

Printed in the United States on acid-free paper

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For my mother and father

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CONTENTS

;

Acknowledgements ix

Note on Text xi

Abbreviations

Map of Indochina, 1945 xiii

Introduction 1

Part I The External and Domestic Parameters of

Colonial Policy Making

1. The Brazzaville Conference and Its Origins, 11

1940–1944: Policy Formulation and Myth Making

on the Congo

2. The Republic Strikes Back, 1944–1945: 41

Brazzaville Policy and the Metropolitan Critique

3. ‘We Are in the Midst of Colonial Crisis’: 64

The Response to International and Colonial Change

4. The Domestic Parameters of Colonial Policy Making 84

After the Liberation, 1944–1946

Part II Policy Making in Indochina and Its

Breakdown, 1945–1947

5. Calculating the Stakes: Brazzaville Policy and 115

the ‘Return’ to Indochina, December 1943–

September 1945

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viii | Contents

6. The Primacy of Action: From the ‘Return’ to Saigon, 150

October 1945, to the Signing of the Accords of

6 March 1946

7. Who Rules: Paris or Saigon? The Dalat Conference 177

and the Cochinchina Policy, March–June 1946

8. ‘A Round of the Battle We Are Fighting’: 200

The Fontainebleau Conference, June–September 1946

9. The Narrowing of French Policy Options, 222

Autumn 1946: The Accords Policy Abandoned?

10. ‘The Tonkin Vespers’, December 1946: 248

Burying the Accords Policy

Conclusion 273

Appendix I: The Administrative Structure of the 280

French Empire, 1945

Appendix II: Chronology of Events in France and 282

Indochina, 1944–1947

Bibliography 287

Index 296

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

;

Since I began the research which has found its way into this

book, I have accumulated many debts, and been at the receiv￾ing end of much kindness and hospitality. I hope that over time I

may be able to repay at least a fair proportion of these debts; my

benefactors may be assured that I am a grateful debtor.

My most particular thanks go to my two successive doctoral

supervisors, John Darwin and Vincent Wright, both of Nuffield

College. Their advice, interest, and support kept me going through￾out the somewhat prolonged gestation of my doctoral thesis, and

I am grateful for their continuing encouragement. My work has

benefited enormously from their wisdom and expertise, though I

have no doubt I could have learnt far more from their example. I

am also grateful to my examiners, Professor Douglas Johnson and,

especially, David Goldey, for their sympathetic treatment of the

work which lies behind the present volume. I have greatly appre￾ciated the interest shown in my work, in the shape of invitations to

give papers, by Robert Holland, Institute of Commonwealth Stud￾ies, London; Ralph Smith, School of Oriental and African Studies,

London; Marc Michel, Institut d’Histoire Comparée de Civilisa￾tions, Aix-en-Provence; and Tony Chafer, Amanda Sackur, et al.,

University of Portsmouth. I have received much help from the

staff of libraries and archives in Oxford, Paris, London, and Bath;

but I am especially grateful to the staff of the Centre des Archives

d’Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence, who have contributed to a num￾ber of highly productive and enjoyable research trips.

Many friends have helped and supported me with this project.

I must particularly mention Stein Tønnesson, a far more serious

scholar of Vietnam than I could aspire to be, to whom I owe my

initial interest in Indochina. He most generously shared with me

some of his finds from the nether reaches of the archives; my debt

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here was compounded by the fact that I was subsequently unable

to gain access to those same archives (see Bibliography). For mem￾ories of a now-distant summer in Aix I have to thank Stein and

many others, not least the irrepressibly hospitable Olivier Verg￾niot. Amongst my friends in Oxford, it was perhaps Simon Auer￾bach who was most supportive to me in this project, not least by

demonstrating in person how to finish a doctorate. My love of

France, and interest in all things French, I owe in the first instance

to my oldest French friend, Jean Le Noac’h.

The present work was largely produced while I was a Lecturer

in the School of Modern Languages and International Studies, Uni￾versity of Bath. From my erstwhile colleague and present friend

Claire Duchen (now translated to Sussex) I gratefully acquired

many of the tools of my trade, and to Bill Brooks I owe many

things, not least a probably quite healthy taste for the ironies of

University life. I would also like to acknowledge the support and

encouragement of Professor Jolyon Howorth in backing my

research, and to thank him as Series Editor for his guidance. Of

course, neither he nor anyone but myself bears any responsibility

for the deficiencies of what follows.

Finally, the person whose love, patience, and enthusiasm have

made this work possible, and even enjoyable, is Mary Anne Ansell.

To her, Victoria, and Jenna, for their moral support, good humour,

and friendly disparagement, I offer my special thanks.

Birkbeck College Martin Shipway

University of London 1996

x | Acknowledgements

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NOTE ON TEXT

;

For the sake of the English reader, all French sources have been

translated by the author. However, it was felt that the spirit of

the French sources was often of sufficient interest to warrant inclu￾sion of the original, which is therefore reproduced in the Notes.

No attempt is made to reproduce diacritics in Vietnamese names.

French and Vietnamese abbreviations are used throughout, rather

than an artificial and often misleading translation. In what follows

a ‘straight’ translation of abbreviated names is provided; the

reader is referred to the term’s first appearance in the text for fur￾ther clarification.

Abbreviations

AEF Afrique Equatoriale Française (French Equatorial Africa)

AOF Afrique Occidentale Française (French West Africa)

CEFEO Corps Expéditionnaire Français en Extrême-Orient (French Far East

Expeditionary Corps)

CFLN Comité Français de la Libération Nationale (French Committee of

National Liberation)

CNF Comité National Français (French National Committee)

CNR Conseil National de la Résistance (National Council of

the Resistance)

Cominindo Comité Interministériel de l’Indochine (Interministerial Committee

on Indochina)

DAE Direction des Affaires Economiques (Economic Affairs Division)

DAP Direction des Affaires Politiques (Political Affairs Division)

DGER Direction Générale des Etudes et Recherches (General Directorate

for Studies and Research)

DIC Division de l’Infanterie Coloniale (Division of Colonial Infantry)

DOM Département d’Outre-Mer (Overseas Department)

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Dong Minh Hoi Viet Nam Cach Menh Dong Minh Hoi (League of Revolution￾ary Vietnamese Parties)

EMGDN Etat-Major Général de la Défense Nationale (General Staff for

National Defence)

ENFOM Ecole Nationale de la France d’Outre-Mer (National Academy

for Overseas France)

FFI Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur (French Forces of the Inferior)

FIDES Fonds d’Investissement pour le Développement Economique

et Social (Investment Fund for Social and Economic

Development)

FOM Ministère de la France d’Outre-Mer (Ministry for

Overseas France)

FTP Francs-tireurs et Partisans Français (French Irregulars

and Partisans)

GEC Groupe d’Etudes Communistes (Group of Communist Studies)

GPRF Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Française (Provi￾sional Government of the French Republic)

Haussaire Haut-Commissaire (High Commissioner)

MDRM Mouvement Démocratique pour la Rénovation Malgache

(Democratic Movement of Malagasy Renewal)

MRP Mouvement Républicain Populaire (People’s Republican

Movement)

OSS Office of Strategic Services

PCF Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party)

PCI Parti Communiste Indochinois (Indochinese Communist Party)

PRL Parti Républicain de la Liberté (Republican Freedom Party)

SFIO Section Française de l’Internationale Ouvrière (French Section

of the Workers’ International)

UDSR Union Démocratique et Sociale de la Résistance (Social and

Democratic Union of the Resistance)

Viet Minh Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi (League for the Indepen￾dence of Vietnam)

VNQDD Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnamese National Party)

xii | Abbreviations

NB. For abbreviations used in citations of archival sources, see Bibliography.

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Indochina, 1945

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