Historical Dictionary of The Indochina War 1945 1954

264 LÊ QUẢNG BA

luy, dispatched Le Puloch to Paris in an attempt to City Committee for Hanoi before becoming the
convince the French government that a total break deputy secretary of the party’s Special Committee
with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was for the Hanoi Zone. In 1949, he was the deputy
necessary. Le Puloch stayed on in Indochina after head of the Committee for Political Propaganda
the Thierry d’Argenlieu’s removal in early 1947, and Ideological Training for the party’s Central
although little is known about his activities until Committee and a member of the Standing Com-
October 1949 when he left. mittee of Inter-Zone III’s (Lien Khu III) party
committee. He served in this post during the battle
LÊ QUẢNG BA (ĐÀM VĂN MÔNG, 1914– of Cao Bang. Between 1950 and 1954, he headed
1988). Senior Vietnamese military commander in the Bureau for Political Propaganda and Ideolo-
the north during the war against the French. Born gical Training within the army’s General Political
in Cao Bang province along the Chinese border, Directorate (Tong Cuc Chinh Tri). In 1954–1955,
he was of ethnic Tai origin. In the 1930s, he be- he was a delegate to the Mixed Central Armistice
came active in communist and nationalist politics. Commission of Hanoi.
In 1936, he joined the Indochinese Communist
Party and directed guerrilla operations in the LÊ QUANG HÒA (LÊ THÀNH KIM, 1914–
Cao Bang region from 1941. In 1944, he joined 1993). Political commissar in the armed forces of
the Viet Minh and the fledgling army. Between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in
November 1945 and 1947, he served as a deputy northern Vietnam during the Indochina War. Born
commander of war Zone I (Khu Chien 1), then in Hai Hung province in northern Vietnam, he joi-
commander of the Hanoi zone before directing ned the Indochinese Communist Party in 1939
war Zone XII (Khu Chien XII). Between 1948 before the French arrested and sentenced him
and 1949, he was deputy commander of Front 2 to five years in prison that same year. In March
(the northeastern part of Vietnam) before being 1945, thanks to the Japanese coup de force, he
named commander of the Front for the Maritime regained his freedom and began building up party
Provinces in the northeast and along the Chinese bases in Son Tay province and helped the Viet
border. In December 1949, he became comman- Minh take power there in mid-1945. He entered
der-in-chief of the Inter-Zone Viet Bac (Lien the DRV army in 1945. Between November 1945
Khu Viet Bac) and the first commander of the 316th and 1949, he worked as a political commissar in
Division. Inter-Zone III (Lien Khu III), serving there as a
secretary of the party’s Military Committee at the
LÊ QUANG ĐẠO (NGUYỄN ĐỨC NGUYÊN, inter-zonal level. He was also a member of the
1921–1999). Influential Vietnamese communist Standing Committee of the zone’s regional party
leader in northern Vietnam, Haiphong, and Hanoi committee. Between 1950 and 1955, he was the
during the Indochina War. Born in Bac Ninh pro- deputy then the head of the army’s General Staff
vince in the North, he became politically active Bureau for Politico-Military Training. See also
during the Popular Front period and joined the CENTRAL PARTY MILITARY COMMITTEE.
Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) in 1940.
He rose quickly in the northern communist orga- LÊ QUANG HUY (1909–?). Well-known nationa-
nization. By late 1942, he had become a member list politician in the Associated State of Vietnam.
of the Party’s Territorial Committee for Tonkin Born in Sa Dec province in southern Vietnam, Le
(Xu Uy Bac Ky). Between 1943 and 1945, he ser- Quang Huy was educated in France, graduating
ved as secretary for the party’s powerful Cadres in the early 1930s as an engineer from the École
Committee for the city of Hanoi, a member of the centrale des arts et manufactures in Paris. In
Standing Committee of the Territorial Committee April 1930, he presented a petition to the minister
for Tonkin, an editor for the Viet Minh’s mouth- of the Colonies and the president of the Repu-
piece, Cuu Quoc, and the ICP’s Co Giai Phong. blic protesting the French condemnations of the
Between August 1945 and 1946, he was a politi- Vietnamese perpetrators of the Yen Bay uprising
cal commissar in the armed forces in Bac Giang earlier that year. Back in Indochina, he joined the
province and then secretary of the party’s Urban public works division as a contractual inspector
Committee for Haiphong. Between 1946 and for the colonial railways. Between 1938 and
1949, he was a member of the ICP’s Territorial early 1946, he was chief of material and tractions
Committee for Tonkin and secretary of the party’s in the 1st District of the Indochinese Railroad in

LÊ TẤN NAM 265

Tonkin and Northern Annam. With the outbreak Help Pay Agriculture Taxes, won him prizes from
of war on 19 December 1946, he left Vietnam in the government in 1951 as the resistance entered
February 1946 to reside in France. Between 1946 the more intensive phase of the General Counter
and 1950, he worked as chief of the Office for Offensive and land reform. See also CINEMA;
the Planning of Materials at the Central Railway CULTURE; INTELLECTUALS; NOVELS.
Office for Overseas France in Paris. He returned
to Saigon in February 1950 to work for the newly LÊ QUỐC SẢN (1920–2000). Vietnamese mili-
created Associated State of Vietnam. In early tary commander in southern Vietnam during the
1950, he became the minister of Public Works war against the French. Born in Nam Ha province,
and Reconstruction in the Nguyen Phan Long he joined the Vietnamese army in April 1945 and
government. He also served as a member of the the Indochinese Communist Party that same
Vietnamese delegation to the Pau Conference year. In August, he commanded the Liberation
in June of that same year. He became minister of Forces of the overseas Vietnamese in Savan-
Public Works, Transportations, and Telecommu- nakhet. He sought refuge in Thailand following
nications in the second cabinet of Tran Van Huu, the violent French reoccupation of Laos in mid-
constituted on 18 February 1951. Le Quang Huy 1946. In December of that year, he became the
maintained this post in the government of Prince deputy commander of the Tran Phu Detachment
Buu Loc, constituted on 11 January 1954. (Chi Doi Tran Phu) that delivered weapons from
Thailand to southern Vietnam. From that point
LÊ QUANG VINH (BA CỤT, c. 1920–1955). A until his repatriation to northern Vietnam after
supporter of the Hoa Hao Buddhist faith during the Geneva Conference of 1954, he was deputy
the Indochina war. This former buffalo keeper regimental commander, regimental commander,
from Long Xuyen in southern Vietnam switched inter-regimental commander then military head of
from one side to another during the conflict. In the province of Vinh Tra for the DRV. See also
1945–1946, he collaborated militarily with the THAKHEK.
nationalist forces of the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam (DRV) against the French before joining LÊ SỸ QUỲ. See THIẾU SƠN.
the Hoa Hao when relations with the Viet Minh
soured during the first half of 1947. In June of that LÊ TẤN NAM (1899–?). Strong partisan of the
year, he crossed over to the French side for the French and non-communist politician in the
first of four times, his final “act of submission” Associated State of Vietnam in the early 1950s.
occurring in November 1953. The French saw in Born in Sa Dec province in southern Vietnam,
him and his men a force to be used against the Le Tan Nam completed his secondary education
DRV in the southwestern part of the country. But at the Lycée Chasseloup Laubat in Saigon before
Ba Cut did not just have enemies among the Viet graduating in 1921 from the École supérieure de
Minh. In 1956, forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Diem droit et d’administration in Hanoi. Between 1921
had him executed. See also CIVIL WAR; COL- and 1924, he worked in the colonial civil service as
LABORATION; DESERTION; VIETNAMESE an assistant in the Résidence supérieure in Phnom
NATIONALIST PARTY. Penh. Between 1924 and 1927, he pushed paper
in the colonial offices of Cholon before serving
LÊ QUỐC LỘC (1916–1987). Painter in the in a variety of similar posts in southern Vietnam.
Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s Propaganda In August 1938, he traveled to France to take up
Office during wars against the French and the a year-long training course in the Ministry of the
Americans. Educated in colonial Indochina in Colonies, where he worked as an attaché in the
the arts, he put his artistic talents in the service of Cabinet of Georges Mandel until September 1939.
the nationalist cause after 1945. He worked in the In that same year, he chose to be naturalized as a
Painting Section of the Bureau of Propaganda in French citizen. In October 1939, he transferred
war Zone III (Khu Chien III) in the Hanoi area. to the Cabinet of the Governor of Cochinchina.
In this capacity, he trained painters in the liberated During World War II, he continued his work under
zone and in the French-occupied ones to imple- the Vichy regime. Following the Japanese coup
ment the government’s propaganda needs. He de- de force of 9 March 1945, he was demoted by the
signed scores of posters during the Indochina War. Japanese for his pro-French sentiments. Howe-
Two of his works, Everything for the Front and ver, despite holding French citizenship, he kept

266 LÊ THẮNG

his job as an administrator in My Tho province. Greater Vietnam Nationalist Party (Dai Viet
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) Quoc Dan Dang). On 1 October 1948, he assumed
relieved him of all of his duties because of his the leadership of the party following the death of
pro-French attitude. Le Tan Nam subsequently Dr. Dang Vu Lac. Between July 1949 and January
kept a low profile in Saigon until the return of the 1950, Le Thang served as under-secretary of state
French in force in October 1945. Between 14 No- in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Bao Dai
vember 1945 and 7 September 1947, with French government and maintained the same post in the
support, he became head of the province of Tan subsequent government formed by Nguyen Phan
An in southern Vietnam. His collaboration with Long. Le Thang supported a number of non-
the French earned him the wrath of nationalists. communist nationalist political groups in nor-
On 15 April 1946, the DRV’s courts condemned thern Vietnam and ran the Vietnamese-language
him to death in absentia. Nguyen Binh personally paper, Quoc Dan, the mouthpiece of the National
ordered his execution for collaboration with the People’s Movement (Phong Trao Quoc Gia Dinh
enemy. Following the French failure to create an Dan, founded in March 1951). He also remained
Indochinese Federation, on 8 October 1947 Le an active entrepreneur. In June 1952, he joined the
Tan Nam became under-secretary of state for the Nguyen Van Tam government as minister for So-
Interior in the Nguyen Van Xuan government. cial Action and Labour, a post he maintained until
He maintained this post until July 1949 when he January 1954. He became minister of Information
became advisor to the government and an expert in the government of Prince Buu Loc, constituted
on the commission for the implementation of on 11 January 1954. See also FREEMASONS.
the recently signed Franco-Vietnamese Accords
of March 1949 to create the Associated State of LÊ THÀNH KIM. See LÊ QUANG HOÀ.
Vietnam. In February 1951, he became prefect of
the Saigon-Cholon region and minister of Justice LÊ THANH NGHỊ (NGUYỄN KHẮC XỨNG,
in the government of Nguyen Van Tam, created 1911–1989). Senior Vietnamese communist and
on 6 June 1952, a position he maintained until military official in the Red River Delta and Hanoi
January 1954. This author is unaware of his sub- during the Indochina War. Born in Hai Duong
sequent activities. See also CIVIL WAR. province in northern Vietnam, he worked in the
coal mines as an electrician before World War II.
LÊ THẮNG  (LÊ VANG THẮNG, 1903–?). He became a political activist among the miners
Vietnamese journalist, French-trained lawyer, and, in 1930, joined the Indochinese Communist
and non-communist nationalist politician. Born in Party (ICP). In that same year, the French arres-
Phuc Yen in northern Vietnam, he was a popular ted him, sentenced him to forced labor for life,
public speaker in his Masonic Lodge of Confucius and shipped him off to Poulo Condor. Thanks to
during the interwar period and one of the directors the liberal policies implemented by the Popular
of the Vietnamese newspaper, L’Annam Nouveau, Front government, however, he recovered his
founded by his friend Nguyen Van Vinh. Le Thang freedom in 1936 and resumed his political activi-
was affiliated with the Section française de l’In- ties among the working classes of Hanoi where he
ternationale ouvrière in the 1930s and a member was a member of the ICP’s branch for the capital.
of the French League of Human Rights (the Ligue In late 1937, he returned to his native Hai Duong
des Droits de l’Homme, section “tonkinoise”). He to organize workers there. In late 1939, he joined
was married to a French woman, Diane Beccari. the ICP’s Territorial Committee for Tonkin (Xu
In 1934, he was the secretary for the Office of Uy Bac Ky), before being arrested by the French
the Chamber of Representatives for Tonkin and in early 1940, who sentenced him to a term of five
served in that post until 1940 as its delegate to years and dispatched him this time to the Son La
the Grand Council of Financial and Economic prison. In early 1945, he left prison and rejoined
Interests for Indochina. In May 1935, he became the ICP’s Territorial Committee of Tonkin, di-
municipal counselor for Hanoi. Little is known recting military affairs in the Hoang Hoa Tham
of his activities during World War II. On coming Military Zone. In August 1945, he served as the
to power in September 1945, the Democratic Territorial Committee of Tonkin’s representative
Republic of Vietnam held him in great suspicion. to the maritime region and joined its Standing
Following the outbreak of war on 19 December Committee in 1946. In 1948, he ran the secretariat
1946, Le Thang returned to Hanoi and joined the of the ICP’s Central Committee. Until 1954, he

LÊ TRỌNG NGHĨA 267

served as the secretary for the party’s Committee to represent the government in a joint military
for Inter-Zone III (Lien Khu III), president of the commission with the French to oversee the with-
Resistance and Administrative Committee of In- drawal of Chinese nationalist troops by their
ter-Zone III, and political commissar for the same French counterparts. This task required a Viet-
region. Between 1951 and 1986, he was a member namese officer with the rank of general. In 1946,
of the Executive Committee of the Party’s Central Le Thiet Hung received this honor, when he was
Committee. From 1952, he served as the secretary named major general (though it appears to have
of the party’s branch for Hanoi. only been officially bestowed in 1948). Between
1947 and 1950, Le Thiet Hung was the first gene-
LÊ THỊ XUYỀN. Former teacher at the Collège ral inspector of the Army, commander of the Bac
de jeunes filles de Dong Khanh in Hue, she sup- Kan front, and headmaster of the Politico-Military
ported the nationalist cause of the Democratic Middle-Level Refresher Academy. Between 1950
Republic of Vietnam. Around 1946, she helped and 1954, he served as the headmaster of the
create the Women’s Association for National Vietnamese Infantry Academy as well as chief
Salvation in collaboration with counterparts of the Bureau for Politico Military Training. In
who had taught in other girls’ schools in upper 1950, he traveled to Yunnan province in southern
Vietnam, such as Nguyen Thi Thuc Vien, Phan China to run the army’s military academy (Truong
Thi Anh, and Nguyen Xien. She married Le Van luc quan) in collaboration with Tran Tu Binh. In
Hien, minister of Economy and ranking member tandem with the Chinese, he oversaw the training
of the Indochinese Communist Party. and politicization of thousands of Vietnamese
officers and soldiers in this academy. He was also
LÊ THIẾT HÙNG (LÊ VĂN SỬU, LÊ VĂN on watch when 4,000 soldiers undergoing rectifi-
NGHIỆM, LÊ QUỐC VỌNG, 1908–1986). One cation in China in 1952 “admitted” under heavy
of the major architects of the Democratic Repu- questioning to working for enemy intelligence
blic of Vietnam’s (DRV) army. Born in Nghe services in order to placate their accusers. See also
An province in upper central Vietnam, he left for INDOCTRINATION; TORTURE.
Thailand in 1923 before moving on to Guangzhou
(Canton) in late 1924, where Ho Chi Minh in- LÊ TRỌNG NGHĨA (ĐOÀN XUÂN TÍN, LÊ
ducted him into the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth NGỌC) (1922–). Member of the Vietnamese
League in 1925, told him to learn Chinese fast, Democratic Party (Dang Dan Chu Viet Nam)
and enrolled him in the Whampoa Military Aca- who helped the Viet Minh take power during the
demy to study modern military science. Working August insurrection in Hanoi in 1945. A trusted
in these Sino-Vietnamese networks, Le Thiet communist, he was a member of the Indochinese
Hung became a member of the Chinese Natio- Communist Party’s (ICP) territorial committee
nalist Party (Guomindang) and an officer in the for Tonkin. In the late 1930s or early 1940s, the
Chinese nationalist army. He also secretly became French incarcerated him in Hoa Lo prison. He
a member of the Indochinese Communist Party regained his liberty around May 1945. In that
(ICP) in 1930. During the 1930s, he served as a month, Le Duc Tho assigned him to work in
mole for the Vietnamese and Chinese commu- the ICP’s Party Affairs Committee inside the
nist parties, providing important intelligence on Vietnamese Democratic Party. In this capacity,
the final nationalist attacks Chiang Kai-shek Le Trong Nghia helped win over its intellectuals,
launched against the Jiangxi communist soviets. notables, students, and government officials to
In 1941, Ho Chi Minh instructed Le Thiet Hung to the Viet Minh cause. He was a member of the
help create what became the Vietnamese national Hanoi Revolutionary Military Committee before
army. In mid-1945, Le Thiet Hung served as the joining the Northern Region Revolutionary
first director of the Cao Bang Military Academy People’s Committee, responsible for liaison with
and helped the Viet Minh take power in the Cao the Japanese. Little is known about his activities
Bang region. With the creation of the DRV, he until 1950, when he became head of the Army’s
returned to upper central Vietnam to command Bureau of Military Intelligence (Cuc Quan Bao),
what became known as military Inter-Zone IV chief of the General Staff’s Military Intelligence
(Lien Khu IV). In late 1945, he served as chief of Department, and head of intelligence for the Dien
this zone. Following the signing of the Accords Bien Phu campaign in 1954. He was clearly a
of 6 March 1946, the ICP recalled him to Hanoi very important communist party member in order

268 LÊ TRỌNG TẤN

to hold such an essential position at the head of with the signing of the Geneva Accords dividing
military intelligence. the country into two states, he returned to Saigon
to live and work.
LÊ TRỌNG TẤN (LÊ TRỌNG TỐ, 1914–1986).
Led the famous 312th Division into battle at Dien LÊ VǍN HIẾN (1904–?). Ranking Vietnamese
Bien Phu in 1954. Born in Ha Tay province in communist who served as minister of Finances
northern Vietnam, he became politically active during the Indochina War. Born in central Viet-
in 1944 and joined the Indochinese Communist nam, he began his career in the colonial postal ser-
Party in 1945. He helped the Viet Minh take vice before becoming involved in radical politics
power in his native Ha Dong province in August in the late 1920s. In 1928, he joined the Vietnam
1945 as a military cadre. Between late 1945 and Revolutionary Youth League and was arrested
1950, he was a deputy then a regimental com- three years later on a charge of sedition. In 1933,
mander, as well as a political commissar in the upon his release, he opened a bookshop in Da
army. He led the 209th regiment and served as its Nang, joined the Indochinese Communist Party
deputy commander during the battle of Cao Bang in 1935, and agitated during the Popular Front
in 1950. Between December 1950 and the end of period. In 1940, he was arrested again and remai-
the war, he was the first commander of the newly ned in jail until the end of World War II. Upon
constituted 312th Division and commanded it to his release, he joined the Democratic Republic
victory during the battle of Dien Bien Phu. of Vietnam government in September 1945, ser-
ving first as minister of Labor then, from March
LÊ TRỌNG TỐ. See LÊ TRỌNG TẤN. 1946, as minister of Finances. He held this post
until 1958. In 1946, he entered the Vietnamese
LÊ VǍN CHI (1907–1993). One of the early National Assembly. During the war years, he was
architects of the educational system of the Demo- deeply involved in high-level decision-making
cratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in southern on important economic, financial, and political
Vietnam. Born in Tien Giang province in southern questions for the party and the government. In
Vietnam, he graduated from the Pedagogical Se- 1995, he published his wartime memoirs in two
condary School in Saigon in 1927 as a primary volumes, Nhat ky mot bo truong or Diary of a
school teacher. He then moved to Hanoi to study Minister.
in the Higher Pedagogical School. After gradua-
tion, he taught in the My Tho High School and LÊ VǍN HOẠCH (1896?–1978). Non-communist
served as a primary school inspector in Can Tho Cochinchinese politician active in the late 1940s
before taking up a teaching position in the Pétrus in creating a counter-revolutionary Vietnamese
Truong Vinh Ky School in Saigon. Little else government allied with the French. Born in Can
is know about him before 1945. Following the Tho province in southern Vietnam, he completed
Japanese coup de force of 9 March 1945, he be- his secondary studies at the Lycée Chasseloup
came a member of the Vanguard Youth League Laubat in Saigon and then graduated as a doctor
(Thanh Nien Tien Phong). Although he remained in medicine from the École de médecine in Hanoi.
in Saigon after war broke out in southern Vietnam For eight years, he worked in the Hôpital Lalung
on 23 September 1945, he was sympathetic to Bonnaire, where he specialized in opthalmology,
the DRV. In late 1947, upset by the French refusal before setting up his own private practice in Can
to take decolonization seriously, he left the city Tho as an opthalmologist and general practitioner.
for the resistance zones. He worked in the Edu- He maintained a number of contacts with the
cational Service for Nam Bo (So Giao Duc Nam Japanese during World War II and was named,
Bo) in Inter-Zone IX (Lien Khu IX). He played a after the Japanese coup de force of 9 March
pivotal role in obtaining and developing teaching 1945, Police Commissioner for the Municipality
materials for secondary schools, for both teachers of Can Tho. He resigned in July of that same year.
and students. From 1948, he helped create Resis- This did not prevent him from intervening on
tance Teacher Training Schools and secondary several occasions to save the lives of French and
schools in the south. Besides teaching himself, he Vietnamese threatened by the Japanese because of
also served as the principal of the south’s major their relations with the French. After the Japanese
resistance secondary schools: Nguyen Van To, defeat, Le Van Hoach kept a low profile as Viet-
Thai Van Lung, and Huynh Phan Ho. In 1954, namese groups hostile to the restoration of French

LÊ VǍN VIỄN 269

colonial rule took control of the south. However, links also ensured him an important place in the
when the French returned in late 1945, he offered party after the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
his cooperation and was named delegate for the came to life in September 1945. On returning to
province of Can Tho within the Cochinchinese southern Vietnam around this time, he became
Council. He actively participated in the creation an alternate member on the Party’s Territorial
of the Provisional Government of the Republic Committee for Nam Bo (Xu Uy Nam Bo). In Ja-
of Cochinchina, officially announced by Admiral nuary 1946, he traveled to Hanoi where he helped
Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu on 1 June 1946. In Truong Chinh direct the Party’s review, Su That,
July, Le Van Hoach was elected vice president of and its publishing house of the same name. He did
its Assembly. On 29 November 1946, he replaced so until May 1947, when he was selected to run
Dr. Nguyen Van Thinh as president of the Cochin- the ICP’s Central Committee’s secretariat. He also
chinese Republic following the latter’s suicide. became an alternate member on the ICP’s Exe-
Le Van Hoach ran the Republic until September cutive Committee for the Central Committee and
1947. He was also involved in the French-inspired in 1948 he headed the Organizational Board for
Bao Dai Solution. He accompanied Pham Cong the Central Committee. During the Second Party
Tac to meet with Bao Dai in April 1948 and was Congress held in early 1951, he was elected to the
one of the signatories of the Ha Long Bay accords Executive Committee of the Central Committee
in May 1948. Le Van Hoach turned to the non- and named an alternate Politburo member. Some-
communist religious sects in order to build up time shortly thereafter, he became a full Politburo
support for a counter-revolutionary government member and was responsible for internal party
led by Bao Dai, the Associated State of Vietnam. organizational matters, a powerful position. He
To this end, he created the Rassemblement na- was also involved in developing and applying the
tional du Sud Vietnam, with the support of some land reform program. In 1954, he became vice
Cao Dai and Hoa Hao forces. On 8 March 1952, minister of the Interior. He was the younger bro-
he was named minister of Agriculture in the third ther of the famous writer, Nguyen Cong Hoan.
government presided by Tran Van Huu. He was In 1956, as punishment for his errors during the
named minister of Health in the Nguyen Van Tam land reform, Le Van Luong was stripped of his
government formed on 6 June 1952. However, ranking positions, removed from the Politburo,
his failure to obtain more important ministerial and downgraded from a full to alternate member
posts provoked dissensions with his Cao Dai in the Central Committee.
allies, as did his failure to consult with them. On
13 June 1952, Hoach lost the support of Cao Dai LÊ VǍN NGHIỆM. See LÊ THIẾT HÙNG.
leader Pham Cong Tac. During a shake-up of the
government, on 9 January 1953, Le Van Hoach LÊ VǍN SỬU. See LÊ THIẾT HÙNG.
became vice premier and minister of Information
and Psychological Warfare. Le Van Hoach was LÊ VǍN THẮNG. See TRẦN VǍN KHA.
an avid hunter, traveler, and amateur pilot.
LÊ VǍN VIỄN (BẢY VIỄN, 1904–1972). Best
LÊ VǍN LẠC. See TRẦN MAI. known leader of the Binh Xuyen who defected
from the armed forces of the Democratic Repu-
LÊ VǍN LƯƠNG (NGUYỄN CÔNG MIỀU, blic of Vietnam (DRV) to those of Bao Dai and
PHẠM VǍN KHƯƠNG, 1912–1995). Powerful the French. Born in Cholon, he grew up street-
behind-the-scenes Vietnamese communist who wise, learning to box, frequenting secret societies,
rose within the party during the Indochina War. and increasingly on the wrong side of the law.
Born in Hung Yen province in northern Vietnam, in On 14 May 1921, he was sentenced to 20 days
1927 he joined the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth in prison for theft. He was 17. Between 1921 and
League. In 1930 or 1931, he became a member 1940, he was sentenced at least five more times
of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP). The for burglary, unauthorized possession of weapons,
French arrested him in March 1931 and incarcera- and “bad company” (associations de malfaiteurs).
ted him at Poulo Condor. He remained there until The French shipped him off to Poulo Condor. He
1945. During those 14 years, he became part of the succeeded in escaping only to be arrested again
party’s inner circle in Poulo Condor, together with in December 1939. He was apparently released
Le Duan, Pham Hung, and several others. Those from jail in the early 1940s. During World War II,

270 LÊ VANG SANG

he joined a band of brigands and outlaws active order to build a national army along the lines
in the village of Binh Xuyen south of Saigon, set out by General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny,
whence the name. Bao Dai named Le Van Vien brigadier general
on 7 April 1952. The truck driver and common
Following the overthrow of the French and criminal of the 1930s had come a long way. In
the advent of the DRV, Le Van Vien and the Binh exchange, Le Van Vien signed an agreement with
Xuyen supported the nationalist cause against the the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao to support Bao Dai.
French. He briefly served as the commander in Le Van Vien instigated the creation in May 1954
chief of Saigon-Cholon until the French forced the of the National Salvation Front (Mat Tran Quoc
Viet Minh out of Saigon on 23 September 1945. Gia Cuu Quoc) allying the Binh Xuyen, Cao Dai,
In February 1946, the leader of the Binh Xuyen, Hoa Hao, and some Catholic groups. He was a
Ba Duong, died in a firefight with the French and member of its presidium. On 14 January 1953, he
Le Van Vien was chosen to take over the move- also became president of the Automobile Club of
ment as its supreme commander and head of its Vietnam.
armed forces. For about two years, Le Van Vien
allied the Binh Xuyen with the DRV and its army After the signing of the Geneva Accords in
under the direction of Nguyen Binh. As the move- 1954 provisionally dividing Vietnam into two
ment’s spokesman put it at the time, “From now states, Le Van Vien entered into conflict with the
on the Binh Xuyen bids farewell to its adventurous new Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem. When Le
past and is now ready to swear its loyalty to the Van Vien refused on 15 March 1955 to respond to
government and to sacrifice itself for the country”. Diem’s desire to meet, violence broke out at the
Despite differences with Nguyen Binh and the end of the month between Binh Xuyen militia and
DRV’s desire to create a unified, national army, State of Vietnam paratroopers. The latter won. Le
in July 1946 Le Van Vien served as his deputy in Van Vien fled to France where he lived out the rest
war Zone VII (Khu Chien VII). However, serious of his life. He was laid to rest in 1972 in a Parisian
problems continued to divide the two men. And cemetery.
the communist core at the helm of the DRV did
little to assuage Binh Xuyen worries. LÊ VANG SANG. See TRẦN VǍN SOÁI.

The final break occurred in June 1948, when Le LÊ VANG THẮNG. See LÊ THẮNG.
Van Vien and forces loyal to him decided to cross-
over to the French-backed Vietnamese govern- LÉA, OPÉRATION. On 29 January 1947, a
ment. To formalize his new loyalty, Le Van Vien month after the outbreak of full scale war in
was received by General Pierre Boyer de la Tour Indochina, High Commissioner Georges Thi-
and Bao Dai. On 10 September 1948, the French erry d’Argenlieu issued secret orders to begin
formalized his ralliement. Documents were signed military preparations to capture the headquarters
integrating his armed forces into those of the of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV)
French Union, in which he obtained the rank of located in northern Vietnam. He followed this
colonel. In January 1949, Le Van Vien established up on 17 February instructing military planners
his operations in the Saigon-Cholon area as the to use paratroopers and commandos to capture
French authorities looked the other way. The latter the enemy leadership by early March. The new
needed his political and military support to build high commissioner for Indochina Émile Bollaert
a counter-revolutionary alternative to the DRV. In maintained this operation, issuing directives on
November 1950, Bao Dai received Le Van Vien 19 May 1947 authorizing a commando operation
in a private audience in Dalat. The latter promised to be launched against the north from September
to support the Associated State of Vietnam and 1947 in order to harass the DRV and to cut its
to collaborate militarily with the Cao Dai forces. supply routes running to southern China. These
In 1952, Le Van Vien obtained the right to run a were in effect the two main goals of what became
variety of gambling operations in Saigon-Cholon known to the French as opération Léa or Bac Kan
in exchange for a tax paid to the government. He to the Vietnamese.
was deeply involved in the operations of the fa- Opération Léa began on 7 October 1947, when
mous colonial gambling center, Le Grand Monde. Lieutenant Colonel Henri Sauvagnac landed
He also successfully placed Binh Xuyen men in with his paratroopers at the frontier village of Bac
the Ministry of Interior and the Public Security Kan while other commando groups parachuted
Services of the Associated State of Vietnam. In

LECLERC 271

into adjoining regions in a move to encircle the taken prisoner along with the rest of the General
DRV’s leaders. The French operation numbered Staff of the 4th Infantry Division. He escaped, took
some 1,000 men at the outset and it almost suc- up arms, was wounded, and sent back to prison.
ceeded in apprehending much of the Vietnamese On 17 June he escaped again and made his way
leadership located there. Indeed, the DRV intel- to London where he joined General Charles de
ligence services were caught badly off guard by Gaulle adopting the pseudonym of “Leclerc”. In
the French attack and the leadership only barely August 1940, de Gaulle dispatched him to French
escaped capture. Some did not: paratroopers killed Equatorial Africa where Leclerc helped win over
the well-known scholar and minister Nguyen Van the colony to the Free French cause. In November
To as he tried to escape. In the next ten days, the 1940, he became a colonel and the designated
French would bring in some 10,000 men to take military commander for Chad. He commanded
control of strategic points along the frontier run- troops in major campaigns at the head of the 2nd
ning to Cao Bang. Though the French had failed Armored Division. He landed at Normandy in
to capture Ho Chi Minh, General Raoul Salan August 1944 and led the liberation of Paris.
was happy to have deprived the DRV of its trad-
ing routes to southern China. The DRV would With the war over, he took command of the
not regain access to China until 1950, when they French Expeditionary Corps on 16 August 1945
inflicted a defeat on the French at Cao Bang. The and was charged with re-establishing French
French also launched Léa to “pacify” Tonkin. sovereignty over Indochina. He traveled first to
The operation ended in early November 1947. Tokyo to sign the Japanese act of surrender on 2
September 1945. In command of the 2nd Armored
Pacification, however, proved illusory as the Division, he landed in Saigon on 5 October 1945
DRV’s troops melted into the jungle, before re- and asserted control of the major cities, routes,
activating a guerrilla war that would keep them and bridges in most of Indochina below the 16th
alive until the arrival of Chinese military aid parallel. Following the Accords of 6 March
changed the nature of the war. The French high 1946 and the concomitant military convention
command, led by General Jean Valluy, had failed signed in early April 1946, 15,000 French troops
to wipe out the leadership and end the war in one were authorized to land in northern Indochina
final operation. See also AID, CHINESE COM- above the 16th parallel to replace the withdraw-
MUNIST. ing Chinese troops. Leclerc entered Hanoi on 18
March to a cheering French population and a wary
Lebris. Former inspector of Public Instruction in Vietnamese one. He also met on several occasions
Indochina before World War II and a general in with Ho Chi Minh.
the reserve forces in the colonial army. At ease
in Vietnamese, he served as commissioner of the While Leclerc was aware of the reality of
French Republic for Central Annam in 1947. Vietnamese nationalism and was not adverse
He participated in Émile Bollaert’s negotiations to dialogue with the Democratic Republic of
with Bao Dai in the Bay of Ha Long in December Vietnam (DRV), he was also committed to re-
1947. A member of the Democratic Republic establishing French sovereignty over all of Indo-
of Vietnam considered him to be “a [colonial] china as de Gaulle had instructed him to do. If he
diehard, one of the most intelligent and dangerous made concessions during the 6 March Accords, it
of our adversaries”, though little is known of his was largely because he was faced with combined
activities other than that he returned to France in Vietnamese and Chinese opposition to a coup de
August 1949. force against the north. Like Georges Thierry
d’Argenlieu, in mid-1946 Leclerc scolded Gen-
Leclerc, Philippe Marie de Hau- eral Jean Crépin for not showing the Vietnamese
tecloque (1902–1947). One of France’s government “that we are stronger” (nous sommes
most illustrious generals during World War II and les plus forts), “the only way to obtain a reconcil-
in the early stages of the Indochina War. In 1924, iatory attitude from their representatives in Paris”.
Leclerc graduated from Saint-Cyr and was pro- Leclerc left Indochina on 18 July 1946. He was
moted major in the Cavalry. During the interwar named general (général d’armée) and general
period, he worked as an instructor at Saint-Cyr inspector of Land Forces in North Africa, having
and served in posts in Germany and Africa. In late refused to replace Thierry d’Argenlieu as high
May 1940, during the Battle of France, he was commissioner for Indochina in early 1947. On
28 November 1947, Leclerc died in a plane crash

272 LECUIR

in Algeria. He is buried in the Invalides and was service there and military career. See also H122
posthumously named Maréchal de France (Field AFFAIR.
Marshal). One of his sons died in a DRV prisoner
of war camp. LÉGION ÉTRANGÈRE. See FOREIGN LE-
GION.
Lecuir, Henri. Career colonial civil servant
in Indochina. He first served during the interwar LEJAY-CLER. See GUILLAUME CHASSIN.
period as police commissioner in Saigon-Cholon.
Following the Japanese coup de force of 9 March Leroy, Jean (1915–?). Born in the southern
1945, he was incarcerated and tortured by the Vietnamese province of Ben Tre of a Vietnamese
Japanese. After his liberation by the Allies, he mother and a French father, Leroy was one of the
worked as head police chief in charge of the 2nd best known métis in the French army. While the
Quarter of Saigon. In February 1949, he became details of his early life are hard to come by, he was
head of the Central Commissariat of Cholon. He in the Garde indochinoise between 1942 and 1944.
was described as acting police chief for Saigon In 1947 he worked as an administrative delegate
when on 25 March 1950 Nguyen Tan Cuong in Ben Tre province. A Catholic, in 1947 he began
replaced him on behalf of the newly created As- organizing and arming southern Catholic villages
sociated State of Vietnam. with French approval against the influence of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). As the
Léger, Paul-Alain (1922–1999). French war intensified, he drew upon Catholic communi-
special operations officer during the Indochina ties to create “self-defense units” and “voluntary
War. In April 1942, he joined the 1er Régiment de brigades” which he transformed into the Unités
zouaves and transferred to the third regiment of mobiles de défense des Chrétiens (UMDC) or
the same name. In that unit, he conducted intelli- Mobile Defensive Units for Christian Outposts
gence operations for the French resistance before consisting of some 1,000 troops. He created
going to the United Kingdom where he studied at 94 first aid posts in territory under his control.
Ringway to become a paratrooper. In July 1944, With the support of the French, in August 1950
he parachuted into France where he was active the UMDC numbered between 3,000 and 4,000
until his return to England in February 1945. After mainly Catholic militia men and women who en-
the war, he returned to France and volunteered sured the security of the Ben Tre area. The French
to serve in Indochina. He landed in Saigon in promoted him to lieutenant colonel in recognition
February 1946 and joined the 1er bataillon S.A.S of his work. With the creation of the Associated
which became the Demi-brigade S.A.S. He left State of Vietnam, Leroy joined the emerging non-
Indochina around October 1947 and was involved communist, French-backed national army. Al-
in training and leading commandos in France and though he supported Bao Dai on anti-communist
French Equatorial Africa. He returned to Indo- grounds, he refused to integrate his militia troops
china for a second tour of duty in April 1953 and into the new army. His refusal led President Tran
was assigned to the Groupement de commandos Van Huu in 1952 to ask General Raoul Salan to
mixtes aéroportés and instructed commandos at remove Leroy. Salan refused.
Cap St. Jacques. In Indochina, he specialized in British novelist Graham Greene, who wrote
counter-insurgency, Service Action, and decep- the preface for Leroy’s memoirs, was fascinated
tion operations against the forces of the Demo- by this Franco-Vietnamese commando officer
cratic Republic of Vietnam in central Vietnam. who was also an avid reader of Proudhon, Mon-
During his time in Indochina, he also worked tesquieu, and Pascal. But the reality was perhaps
closely with the Service de documentation et less glorious. There were relatively few Catholics
de contre-espionage. He led troops into action in Ben Tre province at the time. And the Viet-
at the Cu Lao Ré base in central Vietnam until namese Catholic leadership in Vietnam refused to
December 1954, when he returned to France to allow Leroy to refer to his troops as “Catholics”,
direct the Centre d’études asiatiques et africaines. while others saw in Leroy’s actions a strategy de-
During the Algerian war, he played a pivotal role signed to turn Ben Tre province into his personal
in mounting the famous Bleuïte operation before fiefdom – free of the control of the DRV and the
his participation in the Officer’s Putsch ended his Associated State of Vietnam. Others questioned
his methods. French war correspondent Lucien

LEUAM INSĪXIANGMAI 273

Bodard painted a much darker picture of Leroy He became deputy of the 1st National Assembly
than his admirers. Following the Indochina War, of the 4th Republic for the department of Sarthe,
Leroy’s opposition to Ngo Dinh Diem led him where he served until 1956. He was the minister
to join the French army rather than submit to the of Posts and Telegraphs until December 1946
national pretensions of the Republic of Vietnam. and in 1947 he became minister of Commerce,
then minister for Reconstruction and Urbanism.
LES VIET. Disparaging term used within the Between 1949 and 1953, he served as the minister
French army during the Indochina War to refer of Overseas France and state minister in charge
to the Vietnamese soldiers and by the end of the of relations with the Associated States of Indo-
conflict the civilians associated with the Demo- china.
cratic Republic of Vietnam. While “Viet” refers
to the Vietnamese word referring to the majority Upon the death of General Jean de Lattre de
Viet ethnic group living in today’s Vietnam, it Tassigny in January 1952, he was named high
appears to have begun in French as a derivative commissioner for Indochina and moved to Sai-
of the term Viet Minh. By the end of the conflit, gon. Letourneau was opposed to real negotiations
les Viet could refer in French, especially in Indo- with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and
china, to the Vietnamese in general, regardless was determined to make the Associated States
of political affiliation or location. The word is of Indochina work in order to maintain French
still used by some in French today to refer to the influence in the Far East and contain communism.
Viet Minh, although not always with a pejorative In May 1953, Letourneau withdrew from the
intention in mind. See also CIVIL WAR; COL- Indochinese scene to concentrate upon Africa. He
LABORATION; FRANÇAIS D’INDOCHINE; served as an advisor to the French Union between
LANGUAGE OF WAR; VIET CONG; VIET 1956 and 1958. He was a member of the Acadé-
GIAN; VIET QUOC. mie des Sciences d’Outre-mer and president of the
association Amitié France-Vietnam. Despite his
Lesseps (de), Louis (1914–1971). French earlier opposition to negotiating with the enemy,
intelligence officer during the Indochina War. he praised the results obtained by Pierre Mendès
Lesseps was a trained lawyer and a member of France in the Geneva Accords.
the French resistance during World War II. In
September 1944, he was assigned to work in intel- LEUAM INSĪXIANGMAI (1917–). Ranking
ligence in the French Military Mission under the non-communist politician in Laos and brother-in-
command of Jean Sainteny in Kunming. Lesseps law to Prince Bunum. Born in Savannakhet prov-
thereafter served in intelligence-gathering for the ince, Leuam completed his primary education in
rest of the conflict in Saigon, then in Laos. He par- Vientiane and his secondary studies at the Lycée
ticipated in the audacious rescue mission mounted Sisowath in Phnom Penh. He began his career
by General Jean Boucher de Crèvecoeur to pick in the Lao level of the colonial administration in
up soldiers fleeing the besieged French camp at 1937, serving as a district chief (chaomuang) until
Dien Bien Phu before moving on to Algeria. He 1945. He served as secretary to the prime min-
wrote several novels about his life as a soldier in ister of the Kingdom of Luang Prabang between
Indochina and Algeria (e.g. Soldats de la pluie, 1942 and 1944. With the return of the French, he
1966).  became governor (chaokhouang) of Savannakhet
in late 1945 and a member of the Constituent
Letourneau, Jean (1907–1986). Pivotal fig- Assembly created in 1947. He was hostile to the
ure in the French 4th Republic and in its colonial Lao Issara and openly supportive of the French
policy in Indochina. In the late 1930s, Letourneau cause, volunteering to join the French army in
became a member and then director of the Parti June 1947. Between December 1947 and Febru-
démocrate populaire, the ancestor of the Mou- ary 1949, he served as minister of Finances in the
vement républicain populaire (MRP). During Suvannarāt government. Between March 1949
World War II, he joined the French resistance and and February 1950, he was minister of the Interior
worked closely with Georges Bidault. In 1944, and of Justice in the Bunum government. In 1950,
Letourneau became director of the press in the he was elected deputy of Savannakhet for the
provisional Republic’s Ministry of Information Independent Party and was named minister of the
and joined the Directing Committee of the MRP. National Economy. He became minister of Health
in 1953 in the Associated State of Laos.

274 LEUBA

Leuba, Jeanne (1882–1979). French writer in history, ethnology, and archeology at the Indo-
Indochina imprisoned by the Japanese after the chinese University during the war. Following the
coup de force of 9 March 1945. Upon liberation, outbreak of full-scale war between the French and
she worked in the newly constructed colonial ra- the Vietnamese on 19 December 1946, the French
dio service in Phnom Penh, thanks to her knowl- took back control of the EFEO’s headquarters in
edge of music and literature. She remained there Hanoi. Between 1947 and 1950, Lévy served as
until 1950. She also wrote a number of colonial director of the EFEO in Hanoi at a difficult time.
novels, including Le métis ensorcelé (1941). She In 1950, he accepted a post at the École pratique
was married to Henri Parmentier, head of the des hautes etudes (4th section) in Paris. No longer
Archeological Service of the École française attached to the EFEO, Lévy felt free to express
d’Extrême-Orient. his opposition to the French war in Indochina. As
a specialist of Vietnam, he took part in the Febru-
Levain, Marcel (?–1989). Worked in Hanoi ary 1950 informational meeting on the Indochina
during World War II for the Intercolonial Intel- War organized by Christian activists at Issy-les-
ligence Service (Service de renseignement inter- Moulineaux. He ended his address to this meeting
colonial) during which time he began organizing by criticizing a war that sowed only “ruin, hate,
resistance cells against the Japanese. As early as and bloodshed”. He joined the Comité d’étude et
1940, he had begun creating a resistance intel- d’action pour le règlement pacifique de la guerre
ligence network in Indochina with his Chinese du Vietnam, called on the French government for
nationalist counterparts and established the first a settlement to the conflict, and would later speak
covert operations units in that same year. He out against the American war in Vietnam. See also
later worked secretly with the French Military CHRISTIANS AND FRENCH OPPOSITION
Mission in Kunming under the direction of Jean TO THE WAR; INTELLECTUALS; PUBLIC
Sainteny and helped run its covert operations into OPINION.
Indochina. Levain helped organize the two secret
missions of François de Langlade into Indochina LI BISHAN. See LÝ BAN.
during the War. After the Japanese coup de force
of 9 March 1945, he was sent to a concentration LI PEIWEN. See LÝ BAN.
camp in Hoa Binh, but escaped to make his way
to China to continue working for Sainteny. Little LI YING. See LÝ BAN.
is known of his activities until 1953, when he
was serving as chief of the Deuxième Bureau for LIBERATION FLAG (Cờ Giải Phóng). In 1941,
French Ground Forces in North Vietnam (Forces the provisional general secretary of the Indochi-
terrestres du Nord Vietnam). He held that post nese Communist Party (ICP), Truong Chinh,
from 1 March 1953 until the end of the Indochina began publishing what he called the new series of
War. the Liberation newspaper on behalf of the ICP. It
was considered a “new” series because the party’s
lÉvy, Paul (1909–1998). Director of the École Territorial Committee for Tonkin (Xu Uy Bac Ky)
française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), who op- under Hoang Van Thu had already been publish-
posed the French war in Indochina. Born in ing an earlier version of Liberation. On 10 October
Saigon, Paul Lévy obtained his undergraduate 1942, the standing committee of the ICP’s central
degree from the Institut d’ethnologie in Paris in committee began publishing Liberation Flag
1934 before becoming a member of the EFEO in (Co Giai Phong), from then on referred to as the
1937. He worked on archeological digs in Laos propaganda mouthpiece for the central committee
and Cambodia before studying ethnic groups in of the ICP. Truong Chinh was directly responsible
northern and central Vietnam. He contributed to for its publication. Contributors included Hoang
the development of colonial museums throughout Quoc Viet, Hoang Van Thu, Le Quang Dao,
Indochina and was named in 1938 conservator of and Le Liem among many others. Following the
the ethnology and prehistory department of the advent of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam,
Musée Louis Finot in Hanoi. He co-founded with Truong Chinh published the paper in Hanoi. On
Pierre Huard the Institut indochinois pour l’étude 12 September 1945, the first open edition of the
de l’homme, working together with Vietnamese paper appeared. Following the dissolution of
scholars during the Pacific War. He also taught the ICP in November 1945, the daily Liberation

LON NOL 275

Flag became the monthly review, Truth (Su That), to mention China’s security. Ho Chi Minh agreed
published for internal party distribution only. and both sides decided to coordinate their policies
so as to reach an accord with the French. To this
LIÊN KHU. See INTER-ZONE. end, it was agreed that: the 16th parallel could
serve as the temporary dividing line for Vietnam;
LIÊN VIỆT (Hội Liên Hiệp Quốc Dân Việt Nam). elections to create a coalition government for
In May 1946, as armed clashes broke out between all of Vietnam would occur; a non-communist
the forces of the Democratic Republic of Viet- political solution was accepted for Cambodia; the
nam (DRV) and the Indochinese Communist Chinese and Vietnamese would negotiate strongly
Party on the one hand and the anti-communist to acquire concentration zones for the Pathet Lao
nationalist parties on the other, the DRV created in Samneua and Phongsaly provinces in Laos.
a new national front called the Association of Significantly, the Vietnamese also agreed that the
United Vietnamese People (Hoi Lien Hiep Quoc Pathet Lao would no longer be considered as a
Dan Viet Nam) or Lien Viet for short. Ho Chi competing national government, but rather as a
Minh was honorary president of this new associa- political entity which could eventually participate
tion which regrouped all patriotic individuals who in general elections to form a coalition govern-
had not yet joined the Viet Minh front. Huynh ment and a neutral Laos.
Thuc Khang was elected its chairman, seconded
by Ton Duc Thang. Given that the opposition Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam and argued
parties (and the French) had been quite successful successfully to the Vietnamese Workers’ Party
in portraying the Viet Minh as a communist-run that all these concessions, including the provi-
entity, the DRV needed to attract non-communist sional division of Vietnam pending elections,
groups in order to isolate the anti-communist par- were vital to obtaining an accord with the French
ties and broaden its popular base and legitimacy. and preventing the Americans from intervening
The Lien Viet remained a classic Leninist front directly. Zhou Enlai also revealed in the Liuzhou
organization designed to increase national sup- talks that he had come to understand that “Indo-
port for the DRV and isolate the opposition. As china” was not a nation, but rather a colonial state
Truong Chinh said, “all persons worthy of being which now consisted of three “national states” –
called Vietnamese must become members”. The Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. While Zhou Enlai
main idea was for the anti-communist parties to accepted that Indochina had been one battlefield
either accept the front and submit or face civil during the war against the French, he argued in
war with the DRV. See also LANGUAGE OF favor of recognizing the national legitimacy of
WAR; VIET QUOC; VIET CONG. the Royal Governments in Laos and Cambodia.
Ho Chi Minh agreed to this at Liuzhou. As Zhou
LIUZHOU CONFERENCE. At a crucial junc- reported to the Chinese government in August
ture of the Geneva Conference, between 3 and 1954 on the Liuzhou meeting, Ho Chi Minh
5 July 1954, Ho Chi Minh and Zhou Enlai met “expressed the opinion that the five principles [of
in the Chinese border town of Liuzhou to discuss co-existence] were completely applicable to the
and align their negotiating strategies. Much had consolidation and development of friendly rela-
changed during the course of the negotiations on tions among Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia”. See
Indochina since early May. Accompanying Ho also ASSOCIATED STATES OF INDOCHINA;
Chi Minh were Hoang Van Hoan and Vo Nguyen BAO DAI SOLUTION; INDOCHINESE FED-
Giap. Zhou Enlai had recently returned from a ERATION.
meeting with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in New
Delhi, concerning the need to neutralize Southeast LON NOL (1913–1985). Influential Cambodian
Asia in order to keep the Americans from inter- politician and military officer during the Indochi-
vening in the region in general and in Indochina na War. He completed his primary studies at the
in particular. Zhou Enlai argued convincingly to École Doudart de Lagrée in Phnom Penh and his
Ho Chi Minh that direct American intervention secondary studies in Saigon at the Lycée Chassel-
was possible; an accord thus had to be reached at oup Laubat (1928–1934), where he also became
Geneva by all possible means in order to prevent politically active and studied with the likes of
this. American intervention, Zhou Enlai stressed, Sirik Matak Sisowath. He returned to Cambodia
would greatly complicate the DRV’s battle, not in 1934 and worked in the colonial administration
in Siem Reap as a judge before transferring to

276 LONGEAUX

become a police officer in Kompong Cham prov- returning to France, where he contacted one of
ince. According to Nasir Carime-Abdoul, between his resistance confidants from Indochina, now
1939 and 1944 Lon Nol rose in the administrative in charge of Charles de Gaulle’s Cominindo,
ranks of Kompong Cham province (1939, deputy François de Langlade. The latter introduced him
to the district chief of Kompong Siem; 1939, the to de Gaulle’s new high commissioner for Indo-
same post in Prey Chhor district; 1940, deputy china, Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu, who took
to the governor of Kompong Cham; 1940–1942, Longeaux on as his chief of civilian cabinet. The
district chief of Kassutin; and 1942–1944, district two got on well and Longeaux entered Thierry
chief of Tbaung Khmum). d’Argenlieu’s close circle of advisors involved in
devising policy in Indochina, especially towards
Following the Japanese coup de force of 9 the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Following
March 1945, he accepted a Japanese invitation the departure of Thierry d’Argenlieu, Longeaux
to serve as governor of Kratié province and then remained in Indochina working as chef des per-
work as chief of the Cambodian police force. sonnels des administrations.
This was shortlived, however. When the French
returned to Cambodia in October, they overthrew Lorillot, Henri augustin (1901–1985).
the Son Ngoc Thanh government installed by French officer serving in central Vietnam during
the Japanese. Lon Nol nevertheless navigated the Indochina War. Graduated from Saint-Cyr
the period deftly and became governor of Bat- in 1921, Lorillot made his career in colonial
tambang province in 1947 after the Thais returned Africa during the interwar period. He served in
it to Franco-Cambodian control in late 1946. He the 1920s in the Bureau of Indigenous Affairs
joined forces with Nhiek Tioulong in September in Morocco and took part in the “pacification”
1947 to create the Parti de la Rénovation khmère. of revolts there. In 1935, he entered the École
His attempts to get elected to the National As- supérieure de guerre in France and studied and
sembly as a member of this party failed, however. worked there until 1937. Following the French
In 1949, Lon Nol headed the investigation into capitulation in 1940, Lorillot served in the French
the assassination of Democrat Party leader, Ieu Delegation to the German Armistice Commission
Koeus. The Democrat government led by Huy before returning to French North Africa. There,
Kanthoul briefly arrested Lon Nol, triggering the he crossed over to Free French forces following
ire of Norodom Sihanouk. In December 1952, the Allied invasion of North Africa in Novem-
Sihanouk put Lon Nol in charge of fighting parti- ber 1942. He worked as a liaison officer to the
sans of Son Ngoc Thanh in Battambang province British 1st Army and then transferred to join the
and promoted him to the rank of colonel a year French General Staff in Great Britain in 1944. On
later. During Sihanouk’s crusade for indepen- 1 August 1945, he became head of the RMLE/
dence, Lon Nol was an important supporter and EO, renamed the 2nd Foreign Legion Infantry
became governor and commander of Battambang Regiment (2ème Régiment étranger d’infanterie) in
province. In 1954, following the signing of the January 1946. Promoted to colonel, he arrived in
Geneva Accords, he presided over the mixed Nha Trang in February 1946 at the head of the
commission that worked with the International 2nd Foreign Legion Infantry Regiment in charge of
Commission for Supervision and Control to the French reoccupation of central Vietnam below
oversee the withdrawal of the Democratic Re- the 16th parallel. His activities were both military
public of Vietnam’s personnel from Cambodia. and political. From 1946, he held the combined
functions of commissioner for the Republic to
Longeaux, louis (1908–1996). Gradu- Southern Annam (below the 16th parallel) and
ated from the École polytechnique and Ponts-et- military commander for the same region. In June
Chaussées, Longeaux began his colonial career in 1947, he was promoted to brigadier general. He
Indochina in 1935 working as a mining engineer left Indochina in June 1948, but returned in 1949
in Tonkin. A Freemason, he joined the French to serve simultaneously as commissioner for the
resistance inside Indochina, working as a deputy Republic in Central Vietnam and commander of
to the commander-in-chief of Armed Forces French Forces in the same region. In 1951 he re-
in Indochina Aymé Mordant. Longeaux fled to turned to France before shipping off to participate
southern China with General Sabbatier after in the Algerian War.
the Japanese coup de force of 9 March 1945.
Longeaux then made his way to Calcutta before

LOZERAY 277

loubet, lucien vincent. Longtime colo- Union and Vietnamese families of all sides of the
nial administrator in Cambodia, Loubet served conflagration are still trying to find the remains
between 1929 and 1938 as deputy administra- of their loved ones lost in the conflict, submitting
tor for various provinces in Cambodia, before themselves to DNA testing and traveling to sites
becoming résident of Kompong Cham between around the country hoping to reach some kind of
1938 and 1939. In 1939, he was named delegate closure.
for the French protectorate to the Cambodian gov-
ernment. In 1941, he served as general secretary Despite the propaganda to which they were
of the Phnom Penh Courthouse and political com- subjected, soldiers often went into battle and
missioner in charge of relations with the Japanese. endured not for the “empire”, not for ideologies
He ran into problems during the war, however, such as nationalism or communism, but because
because of his membership of the Freemasonry of the intimate bonds of love they had created
movement and was suspected of being a Gaullist with their fellow combatants.
by Vichy hardliners. In 1942, he transferred to
Laos as the new résident of Savannakhet, then as However, love was not without its manipula-
résident mayor of Vientiane. Between 1945 and tions during the Indochina War. While control was
1947, he served as advisor to the prime minister never “total”, the communist party closely con-
of Cambodia. Between 1947 and 1948, he was trolled marriages among ranking cadres, ensuring
inspector of Political Affairs for Cambodia and in that match-making was done in the best interest of
1948, director of the Office of the commissioner the Party and in line with the new communist mo-
for the Republic to Cambodia. Between May 1948 rality. Although the high-ranking couple Nguyen
and February 1949, he was commissioner for the Thi Ngoc Toan and Cao Van Khanh clearly
Republic to Cambodia, replacing Léon Pignon. loved each other from their school days in Hue
In February 1949, Loubet was severely injured in and did not exactly have perfect class résumés,
an airplane accident and transferred to the office their nationalist credentials and loyalty to the Party
in charge of personnel and financial affairs for the right through the heat of the battle of Dien Bien
general commissioner for France in Indochina Phu made them an exemplary couple. No sooner
where he worked between 1950 and 1956. Loubet had the battle ended than the party arranged their
was a member of the Franco-Cambodian delega- marriage on the war-torn battlefield, even though
tion dispatched to Washington to solve the border Toan would have preferred to organize a traditional
dispute with Thailand in 1946. marriage in their native Hue, “an important, sol-
emn occasion” with family and friends. The Party
love and war. Little if anything has been thought otherwise and prevailed. The chief of the
written about the question of love and war during army’s General Political Department, Tran Luong,
the Indochina conflict. And yet love made itself personally officiated at this marriage ceremony
felt at various levels. Like any war, love manifest- held on 22 May 1954 at Dien Bien Phu. Theirs
ed itself in scores of letters written by parents to was one of several, hastily arranged, politically
their children in the French Union, Democratic motivated marriages. As for the wedding gifts,
Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and Associated Toan later recalled that “we got two medallions,
State of Indochina’s armies. The archives in one was an Uncle Ho medallion and the other was
France hold letters from mothers trying to locate an Uncle Mao medallion … Then Tran Luong told
their sons missing in action. The same could be us to kiss, and everyone sang”.
said of lovers and husbands and wives. Follow-
ing skirmishes and battles, soldiers often found The DRV, like the French, also manipulated
love letters on the dead addressed to girlfriends gender and sexuality in order to obtain intelli-
and photographs of children they would never gence on the enemy via “love brigades”. And
see in this world. French Union veterans or their despite its claims to moral superiority, the com-
descendents hold many such documents and no munist leadership could also look the other way.
doubt Vietnamese veterans possess similar things. We now know that Le Duan, who spent years in
Some forty years after the war ended, French in- the south away from his first wife, had a second
telligence officer Léon Fallon returned the private one in the south. He was not the only male leader
documents and diary of Hoang Xuan Binh to his to enjoy polygamy.
family in Vietnam. To this day, former French
Lozeray, Rodolphe Henri (1898–1952).
Important member of the French Communist
Party who supported the independence cause of

278 LU HAN

the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). in a primary school. During this time, he became
Following the liberation of France in 1945, he involved in left-wing politics and joined the
became a member of the constituent Assemblies Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1926 and
of 1945–46 and deputy to the National Assembly began work mobilizing students in the province.
between 1946 and 1951. As a specialist on colo- He rapidly rose in the provincial party ranks and,
nial questions, he served as a vice-president of the with the outbreak of the Chinese civil war a year
National Assembly’s Commission for Overseas later, he distinguished himself as a competent
Territories between 1945 and 1950, and as an ad- military leader. In 1930, he joined the Red Army
visor to the French Union. He was also a member as a political commissar where he remained until
of the French delegation to the Fontainebleau the Chinese communist victory in 1949. In 1949,
Conference. While Lozeray sympathized with General Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the army,
the need to find a negotiated settlement with the assigned him to the 7th Corps in Beijing where he
DRV, he preferred not to push the Vietnamese also became bureau chief of the CCP’s Central
case too hard for fear of hurting the communist Military Commission.
party’s national appeal as elections approached in
France. In March 1947, however, with war now When the CCP decided to provide diplomatic,
raging in Indochina, he delivered a speech to the military, and economic aid to the DRV, Luo Guibo
National Assembly calling upon the government was selected to go to Vietnam to represent the
to negotiate with Ho Chi Minh. CCP and to carry out a three-month tour to evalu-
ate the DRV’s needs. He arrived in Vietnam on
LU HAN (c. 1894–1974). Born in Yunnan province 16 February 1950 and reported to the Central
in southern China, Lu Han graduated from the Committee of the Indochinese Communist
Military Academy of the same province (like Viet- Party (ICP) on 10 March. Based largely on Luo’s
namese General Vuong Thua Vu) and from 1932 reports from Vietnam and requests from the
served as chief of the Military Council Bureau of Vietnamese, the CCP decided in March 1950 to
the Nanjing-based Republic of China. Lu Han send a Chinese Military Advisory Delegation to
commanded the First Group Army in the Ninth Vietnam under the leadership of Wei Guoqing.
War Area in the early 1940s and was in charge of This military delegation answered to Luo Guibo,
relations with the Vietnamese Nationalist Party who also officially headed the Chinese Political
(Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang or VNQDD) active in Advisory Delegation which arrived in Vietnam
Yunnan province. In August 1945, with the defeat in December 1950. He was thus the highest rank-
of the Japanese, Chiang Kai-shek appointed him ing Chinese leader in DRV Vietnam, in charge
leader of the Allied Occupation Force for Indo- of both the military and political delegations. In
china. Lu Han accepted the Japanese surrender in late 1950, he was officially referred to as China’s
Hanoi; however, he refused to fly the French flag advisor-general to the DRV. During this time, he
during the Japanese capitulation ceremony for met with the highest ranking leaders of the ICP to
lack of orders. Chiang Kai-shek later appointed discuss Chinese aid, the military strategy against
him governor of Yunnan province, replacing Lung the French, the new policies the DRV/ICP would
Yun, who had been deposed by Chiang Kai-shek adopt in this new stage of the war, and socialist
while Lu Han and his Yunnanese troops were in transformation. After the Geneva Conference
Indochina. ended the Indochina War in 1954, Luo Guibo
served as China’s first ambassador to the DRV.

LUANG KOVIT APHAIWONG. See KHUANG LƯU ĐOÀN HUYNH (1929–2010). Born in
APHAIWONG. Laos, the son of a non-commissioned Vietnamese
officer in the Garde indochinoise stationed there
LUO GUIBO (1907–1995). Served as the top- and a half Lao, half Vietnamese mother, Luu
ranking communist Chinese advisor directing and Doan Huynh attended the Lycée Auguste Pavie in
coordinating the military and political parts of Vientiane. In mid-1945, following the Japanese
China’s assistance to the Democratic Republic overthrow of the French in March and the Allied
of Vietnam (DRV) during the latter half of the victory over the Japanese a few months later, Luu
Indochina War. In 1924, Luo Guibo entered the Doan Huynh joined a Viet Minh fighting unit in
Jiangxi Provincial Teacher’s College in Guanzhou Savannakhet in October, and suffered injuries du-
before returning to his native Nankang to teach ring the violent French return there in April 1946.

LÝ ANH TƯ 279

Huynh was taken to a hospital in Thailand where 1949, Luu Van Lang signed a second declaration
he slowly recovered. Once better, he went to work opposing the Bao Dai Solution and called upon
in Thailand monitoring regional and international the French once again to negotiate with the go-
radio broadcasts and preparing reports on current vernment represented by Ho Chi Minh. See also
events for the Democratic Republic of Viet- ATTENTISME.
nam’s (DRV) delegation in Bangkok. In 1948, he
helped escort a Burmese government delegation LƯU VĂN LỢI (1913–). Leading propagandist for
to Inter-Zone IV (Lien Khu IV), including an im- the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) du-
portant arms delivery. When the DRV’s mission ring the Indochina War. Trained in law, Luu Van
in Bangkok closed in 1951, Huynh returned to Loi put his knowledge of French in the service of
northern Vietnam by way of Rangoon. He entered the new Republic. Between 1945 and December
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before being sent, 1946, he worked in Hanoi on the editorial team
in 1952, with his boss Nguyen Duc Quy, to work of the government’s first two French-language
in the government’s new Embassy in Moscow newspapers, La République and Le Peuple. In
led by Ambassador Nguyen Luong Bang. Luu 1947, he joined the army and continued to work
Doan Huynh was part of the first generation of in journalism and propaganda. In 1947, he headed
postcolonial diplomats of modern Vietnam and a the army’s first Bureau for the Proselytizing of
specialist in Asian and Western affairs, as the rest the Enemy or dich van (Truong Phong Dich Van)
of his diplomatic career would make clear. and from 1949 he directed the proselytizing office
of the army political bureau (Cuc chinh tri). He
LƯU ĐỨC PHÓ. See NGUYỄN DUY TRINH. led Vietnamese propaganda efforts to promote
desertions among soldiers in the French Expe-
LƯU VĂN LANG (1880–1969). One of a number ditionary Corps, to win them over to the Viet-
of southern intellectuals in Saigon who suppor- namese cause, and to indoctrinate and use them
ted the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) as propaganda weapons in the conflict. Until the
during the late 1940s. After having completed his end of the war in 1954, he worked closely with the
secondary studies at the Lycée Chasseloup Laubat French Communist Party’s official delegate to
in Saigon, he obtained a scholarship to pursue his the Vietnamese party, Jean Marrane (“André”).
studies in France where he specialized in enginee- Together they devised more effective propaganda
ring at the École centrale in Paris. On his return and proselytizing methods for rallying French de-
to Vietnam, he was sent to Yunnan province in serters and stimulating the anti-war movement in
southern China to work on the Yunnan railway the army and in France. They edited the French-
line being built by the French between Kunming language paper, Paix et repatriement, to attract
and Hanoi. Between 1909 and 1940, he worked desertions and oversaw the release of a number of
in the colonial civil service in Saigon as a civil French prisoners of war “to stimulate the anti-war
engineer. He was also active in intellectual, social, movement in France”. Luu Van Loi also worked
and patriotic politics. He was one of the founders closely with Marouf, the delegate of the Moroc-
of the Hoi Khai Tri Tien Duc in Hanoi and the Hoi can Communist Party dispatched to Vietnam to
Samipic in Saigon. He was actively involved in help proselytize among North African troops in
finding scholarships to help poor students obtain the French Union Army. In 1950 and 1951, Luu
an education. Little is known about his activities Van Loi also served as the editor-in-chief of the
during World War II. In September 1945, when People’s Army Newspaper (Bao Quan Doi Nhan
the French moved to retake southern Vietnam, Dan). He was a member of the DRV’s delegation
Luu Van Lang refused to collaborate with them. charged with the implementation of the Geneva
He actively called upon the French to accept Accords of 1954 and was a member of the team
the national reality of the DRV and to negotiate sent to negotiate with the French on the exchange
with Ho Chi Minh. Luu Van Lang worked with of prisoners of war. Luu Van Loi later served on
a number of other non-communist intellectuals the Vietnamese team dispatched to Paris in the
to prepare and submit to the French authorities late 1960s to negotiate with the Americans, and
a declaration calling on the French to negotiate has published his memoirs on these matters.
with the Vietnamese government. They presented
the document and their demands in person to High LÝ ANH TƯ. See NGUYỄN SƠN.
Commissioner Émile Bollaert, but in vain. In

280 LÝ BÁ PHẨM

LÝ BÁ PHẨM (1923–2008). Born in southern cratic Republic of Vietnam and duly returned
Vietnam, Ly Ba Pham attended primary school to Vietnam in July 1946. The Indochinese Com-
in Can Tho between 1930 and 1940 before munist Party put him in charge of its Bureau
completing his secondary schooling in Saigon in for Overseas Chinese Affairs (Hoa Kieu Vu).
1942. Little is known of his activities until 1949, In 1948, he led the Committee for the Mobiliza-
when he joined the second class of the National tion of the Overseas Chinese. He also worked in
Military Academy in Hue. In 1950, now an officer the Ministry of Defense taking care of important
in the army of the Associated State of Vietnam, political matters relating to Chinese aid and was
he participated in combat operations in upper involved in establishing closer relations with the
Vietnam against the Democratic Republic of CCP in the late 1940s. He was also something of
Vietnam until 1953. In that year, he also became an ardent Maoist advocate of radical social change
an instructor and, for a short time, Chief of the and land reform in the early 1950s. See also AID,
Instruction Section of the National Military Aca- CHINESE; INDOCTRINATION; NEW HERO;
demy. In 1955, he attended the French Command RECTIFICATION.
and General Staff College in Paris. He was allege-
dly affiliated with the Hoa Hao faith. LY SEO NUNG (1914–1982). Lieutenant in the
French army and intermediary between the French
LÝ BAN (LI BISHAN, LI PEIWEN, LI PING, Groupement de commandos mixtes aéroportés
LI YING, 1912–1982?). A powerful if little (GCMA) and upland ethnic non-Viet minority
known Vietnamese communist of Chinese origin. groups. An ethnic Nung himself, Ly Seo Nung
Born in Long An province in southern Vietnam, was a non-commissioned officer in the Bataillon
he grew up in an overseas Chinese family and de tirailleurs tonkinois in 1939 and joined the
was introduced to communist ideas via overseas French resistance to the Japanese after the coup
Chinese revolutionary networks. In 1933, he left de force of 9 March 1945, before following them
Vietnam secretly for China where he became into southern China shortly thereafter. He returned
active in revolutionary politics and joined the to Vietnam and helped retake areas east of Lao
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He studied Cai from Chinese occupying forces and then Viet-
in the Chinese Soviets in Ruijin province and namese nationalist forces. Opposed to the Demo-
underwent intensive ideological training there. cratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), in early 1951
He fled these areas when Chinese nationalists he volunteered to work in the French GCMA and
forced Chinese communists to make the famous helped develop an anti-DRV maquis around the
Long March, but had to drop out because of sick­ Red River near Nghia Lo. However, the DRV’s
ness. Ly Ban fell into the hands of the Chinese entry into this area and the Geneva accords of
nationalist forces, but regained his liberty soon 1954 put an end to the GCMA and their aid to Ly
thereafter for lack of incriminating evidence. He Seo Nung and other ethnic minorities. Tracked by
then returned to Shantou. Using the alias of Li the DRV’s forces, Ly Seo Nung barely escaped
Ying, he resumed undercover communist activi- to Laos, from where the French evacuated him to
ties with the approval of the party. He was active New Caledonia. He obtained French nationality
in the anti-Japanese resistance and helped the in 1962, became a battalion leader in the French
CCP rebuild its clandestine networks in southern army, and apparently died in Nouméa. See also
China. During World War II, he was active in the CIVIL WAR; COLLABORATION; MINORITY
Fujian–Guangdong–Jiangxi border area. In all, Ly ETHNIC GROUPS; TAI FEDERATION.
Ban was active in China for some ten years.
As World War II came to an end, he requested LÝ THƯỜNG KIỆT, BATTLE OF. See NGHIA
authorization from the CCP to return to Vietnam LO, BATTLE OF.
to support the cause of the newly founded Demo-

M

MĀ KHAIKHAMPHITHŪN (1904–?). Behind- He met often with Léon Pignon and relentlessly
the-scenes leader of the Pathet Lao, closely al- supported French efforts to use the former Viet-
lied with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam namese emperor to create a government capable
(DRV). An ethnic Phu Tai born in Savannakhet of containing communism at the Indochinese
province, Mā Khaikhamphithūn joined the Lao pass. During meetings with General Jean de Lat-
Issara after World War II. In 1946, he became a tre de Tassigny in Singapore on the defense of
member of the highly secret Lao Issara Commit- Southeast Asia, MacDonald stated that the “line
tee for the East, which collaborated closely with of defense for Malaysia went through Tonkin”.
Vietnamese communists in central Vietnam. In MacDonald also played an important role in the
August 1950, he took part in the creation of the transformation of the British Empire in Asia. He
Lao Resistance Government and national front, served as high commissioner in India between
the Pathet Lao. He served as a special delegate 1955 and 1960 and headed the British delegation
of the Pathet Lao to the DRV in Inter-Zone V, at the second Geneva Conference on Laos in
where he met regularly with Pham Van Dong. 1961–1962. See also NEUTRALIZATION OF
Mā Khaikhamphithūn joined the Indochinese INDOCHINA.
Communist Party during this time and was
in charge of training new Lao politico-military MAI CHÍ THỌ (NĂM XUÂN, NGUYỄN XUÂN
cadres. In 1953, he became president of the Ad- MAI, 1922– 2007). Senior communist leader and
ministrative Committee of the Pathet Lao for Sam behind-the-scenes organizer of the Democratic
Neau province. He was a member of the Pathet Republic of Vietnam’s security forces. He be-
Lao delegation to the Geneva Conference. came involved in radical politics during the Popu-
lar Front period in the late 1930s, when he was
MacDonald, Malcolm (1901–1981). Brit- a high school student at the Lycée Khai Dinh in
ish Commissioner General for South East Asia who central Vietnam (formerly known as the Collège
strongly advocated the Bao Dai Solution. Educated Quoc Hoc). In the early 1940s, he was allegedly
at Queen’s College, Oxford, he began his political arrested and tortured by the French. He landed
career as a Labour Member of Parliament between at Poulo Condor where he agitated behind bars
1929 and 1931. He then became involved in with Le Duan, Pham Hung, and Nguyen Van
colonial matters, serving as parliamentary under- Linh. They all returned to southern Vietnam on
secretary to the British Dominions Office between 23 September 1945, where Mai Chi Tho played
1931 and 1935 before becoming secretary of an important role in the creation and administra-
state for the Dominions between 1935 and 1938 tion of the Public Security Services (Cong An).
and then for the Colonies until 1940. Between He was the younger brother to another powerful
1941 and 1946, he was British commissioner for communist leader, Le Duc Tho. Following the
Canada and then governor general of the Malayan division of Vietnam during the Geneva Confer-
Union and Singapore, a post he assumed in May ence of 1954, Mai Chi Tho remained in southern
1946. In 1949, as the Cold War spread with full Vietnam with Le Duan to set up secret intel-
force into Asia, MacDonald became the British ligence and counter-espionage networks on the
commissioner general for Southeast Asia. Dur- direct orders of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party.
ing this time, he closely collaborated with the From December 1954, Mai Chi Tho helped run
French in Indochina to protect the region from the the Party’s southern Territorial Committee’s
threat of communism. He visited Indochina on Research Branch Responsible for Following the
several occasions and made a point of supporting Enemy Situation (Ban Nghien Cuu Dich Tinh Xu
the French bid to create a viable, counter-revolu- Uy). He returned temporarily to the north in 1955.
tionary Associated State of Vietnam, capable of See also ANTOINE SAVANI; JEAN COUS-
taking on the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. SEAU; LE GIAN; MAI HUU XUAN; MAR-

282 MAI HỮU XUÂN

CEL BAZIN; MAURICE BELLEUX; PIERRE COMMITTEE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS;
PERRIER; SERVICE DE DOCUMENTATION HOANG VAN HOAN; INDOCHINESE COM-
EXTÉRIEURE ET DE CONTRE-ESPIONNAGE; MUNIST PARTY; INDOCHINESE FEDERA-
SÛRETÉ FÉDÉRALE; TRAN HIEU. TION; NGUYEN KHANG; NGUYEN THANH
SON; PARTY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE; LAO
MAI HỮU XUÂN. French-trained police agent RESISTANCE GOVERNMENT.
who ran the Associated State of Vietnam’s security
services until 1954. Little is known of his educa- MAI THẾ CHÂU (CHÂU LƯƠNG). Stranded
tion and early career. He learned the police and in Madagascar in 1940 at the outbreak of war in
spying trade from one of the French colonial France, and fluent in French and English, Mai
administration’s security czars, Marcel Bazin. The Chau accepted a British offer to work in the
Under Bazin, Mai Huu Xuan served in the highly Vietnamese section of the British Information
secret and often very efficient Police spéciale de Service based in Calcutta. He was also a commit-
l’Est, in charge of tracking and eliminating the ted nationalist. In August 1945, with the Pacific
Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s (DRV) un- War over, he left for New Delhi where he became
derground urban-based party and military forces. the unofficial diplomatic representative for the
When Bazin was assassinated by agents of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in
DRV in April 1951, Mai Huu Xuan stepped in to India. He contacted Indian statesmen, including
become the leading security person in the newly Jawaharlal Nehru, to plead for diplomatic and
created Associated State of Vietnam. In August military assistance for the Vietnamese fighting the
1950, he assumed the direction of the southern return of French colonialism. He met with Indian
Vietnamese security forces. Before the end of journalists and radio broadcasters in a bid to turn
the Indochina war, he had replaced Tran Van Indian public opinion, already hostile to colonial
Don at the head of Military Security. Following domination, against the French. He represented
the provisional division of Vietnam during the the DRV at the Inter-Asian Relations Conference
Geneva Conference in 1954, Bao Dai tried to in New Delhi in 1947. In 1951, when the DRV
shift control of the police to the Binh Xuyen led opened its first Embassy in Beijing, he transferred
by Le Van Vien. Not to be sidelined, Mai Huu there to work with Hoang Van Hoan.
Xuan created his own military security service
to take on the Binh Xuyen. This earned him the MAI VĂN HIẾN (1923–2006). Artist in the
support of the new Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Vietnamese army during the Indochina War. He
Diem, at least for the time being. See also JEAN became politically active in 1945 when he sup-
COUSSEAU; MAURICE BELLEUX; SERVICE ported the nationalist cause of the Democratic
DE DOCUMENTATION EXTÉRIEURE ET DE Republic of Vietnam (DRV). He joined the army
CONTRE-ESPIONNAGE; SÛRETÉ FÉDÉRALE. in 1947 and the Indochinese Communist Party
two years later. He was a graduate of the École
MAI LÂM. One of the first diplomats trained by the française des Beaux-arts in Hanoi and is consid-
Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s diplomatic ered to be one of the founding fathers of contem-
services and trusted by the communist party to porary Vietnamese painting. From the outset, he
run sensitive missions on the outside. He left with put his painting in the service of the war effort
Hoang Nguyen in 1948 to work in Southeast Asia. and nation-making. In late 1945, he painted the
He started in Burma but was then transferred to first official banknote for the DRV with Ho Chi
Thailand to administer to the revamping of the Minh’s portrait on it. He began working for the
Indochinese Communist Party’s relations with armed forces in 1946. Throughout the conflict, he
the Lao and Cambodian resistance and budding painted and drew heroic Vietnamese fighting men
communist movements. He carried out particular- and women. He was present during the battles of
ly important tasks in Cambodia in the late 1940s Cao Bang, Upper Laos, and Dien Bien Phu. In
and again following the overthrow of the Khmer 1954, he received a national award for his paint-
Rouge after 1975. Mai Lam spearheaded the ing entitled The Meeting (Gap nhau).
Vietnamese transformation of Tuol Seng prison in
Phnom Penh into a museum of the Khmer Rouge’s Maisonneuve, Regis Bouvet. French
atrocities. See also ADVISORY GROUP 100; captain and head of the Bureau for Chinese Af-
CAMBODIAN RESISTANCE GOVERNMENT; fairs in Tonkin in the late 1940s.

MAO ZEDONG 283

Malleret, Louis (1901–1970). French ar- MAO ZEDONG (1893–1976). President of the
cheologist at the head of the Hanoi-based École People’s Republic of China between 1949 and
française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) during the 1976 and the driving force in the Chinese Com­
latter part of the Indochina War. Malleret was a mun­ist Party (CCP) until his death. Unlike Zhou
specialist in Indochinese literature, history, and Enlai, Mao never left China before 1949. Instead
archeology. He served as director of the EFEO he played a pivotal role in the making of Chinese
between 1950 and 1956, playing a pivotal role in communism as it was forced out of the coastal cit-
moving the school from its colonial to postcolo- ies of Shanghai and Guangzhou (Canton) by civil
nial context. He transferred the EFEO to France war and into the peasant world of the Chinese in-
at the end of the war, but bequeathed much to terior. Mao consolidated his power and leadership
research institutes of the Democratic Republic at the head of the Party during the Long March and
of Vietnam and the Republic of Vietnam. At the especially at Yan’an during the Sino-Japanese war,
EFEO, Malleret created research centers in Laos advocating the importance of ruralizing Chinese
and Cambodia and promoted major archeological communism and rectifying the Party and army.
digs in Angkor. He returned to France in 1957 and The displacement of the CCP towards the
published several erudite studies on Indochina, in- north, the expansion of the Chinese civil war, and
cluding a seven volume series on the Archeology the outbreak of World War II made it harder for
of the Mekong Delta published between 1959 and Chinese and Vietnamese communists to maintain
1963. See also CULTURE; HISTORY; INTEL- their earlier collaboration in southern China. It is
LECTUALS. not known whether Mao Zedong ever knew Ho
Chi Minh in Guangzhou during the First United
mansfield, michael joseph (1903– Front period (1923–1927). Nor do we know
2001). Democratic congressman who opposed di- whether Mao met Ho during the latter’s return to
rect American intervention in the Indochina War. Vietnam from the Soviet Union by way of Yan’an
In the 1930s, Mansfield left his work as a miner in the late 1930s. Contact was always difficult.
to obtain his undergraduate and master’s degrees The resumption of the Chinese civil war in 1946
at the Montana State University, specializing in further isolated the Chinese communists from
Asian affairs. In 1942, he was elected U.S. con- their Vietnamese counterparts. This changed,
gress representative of the 1st Montana District, however, in 1949 when the Chinese communists
a post he held until 1952 and during which time led by Mao Zedong defeated the Chinese Repub-
he served on the Foreign Relations Committee. licans and established a new communist state in
In 1952, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. His China, sharing a long border with Indochina.
specialization in foreign affairs and Asia in par- Impressed by the Chinese victory and con-
ticular led him to take an active interest in the war vinced that the prospects for revolution were bet-
in Indochina. On 8 February 1954, as the battle of ter in Asia than in Europe, Joseph Stalin ceded
Dien Bien Phu shaped up, Mansfield asked the to Mao the task of running internationalist com-
Senate whether it was ready to send American munist affairs in Asia, most notably with regard
troops to Indochina if the French and Associated to Korea and Vietnam. Mao Zedong, Chinese
State of Vietnam forces faltered. On 16 May, in historians Chen Jian and Qiang Zhai tell us, was a
the wake of the French debacle at Dien Bien Phu, dedicated internationalist. While security was an
Mansfield announced his opposition to American important factor in Mao’s decision to support Ho
military intervention in the war. The Americans Chi Minh’s struggle against the French, the Chi-
should support Asians opposing communism, but nese helmsman also believed in the importance of
the U.S. could not fight their battles for them. In supporting communist revolutions on the move.
August and September 1954, Mansfield made a The Vietnamese version was one such case. In
fact-finding mission to Southeast Asia. Upon January 1950, Chinese communists led by Mao
his return, on 15 October 1954, he declared his not only recognized the Democratic Republic
support for Ngo Dinh Diem and his government, of Vietnam diplomatically, but Mao personally
as the sole leader capable of leading a non- persuaded Stalin to forget the past and support Ho
communist Vietnam. Any attempt to replace him Chi Minh and the Vietnamese communist move-
would be a mistake, Mansfield argued. The latter ment. Stalin agreed. During the rest of the Indo-
was an old acquaintance of Ngo Dinh Diem. See china War, Mao Zedong took a personal interest in
also AID, AMERICAN. the course of the Indochina War, providing advice

284 MARCHAL

to his advisors working with the Vietnamese in 1934–1935. Marrane’s mother worked in the
political, economic, and above all military mat- secretariat of the Third Communist International
ters. He closely followed preparations for and in the Soviet capital. In December 1950, the
operations during the battle of Dien Bien Phu and FCP dispatched him to the Democratic Repub-
during the Geneva Conference. lic of Vietnam (DRV) as one of its two special
delegates assigned to work with the Vietnamese
marchal, Léon (1900–1956). Between May communists. This followed upon the diplomatic
1949 and March 1951, Marchal served as French recognition of the DRV by Moscow and Beijing
plenipotentiary ambassador to Bangkok. He was in early 1950 and the return of Vietnamese com-
involved in negotiations with the Thais leading munists to the internationalist fold with which
to Bangkok’s diplomatic recognition of the As- they had lost touch at the outbreak of World War
sociated States of Indochina in early 1950. He II. His dispatch also followed upon the return of
also played an important role in negotiating the the FCP’s Léo Figuères, who confirmed that the
return of the majority of Lao Issara leaders based Vietnamese communist party was now on the right
in Thailand following the signing of accords to internationalist track. Marrane arrived in northern
create an Associated State of Laos. Vietnam in time to take part in the second party
congress, held in early 1951, giving birth to the
Marion, roger françois marie mau- Vietnam Worker’s Party. He remained in north-
rice (1917–1971). French colonial administra- ern Vietnam until January 1953. During his two
tor who made his career in Indochina. Upon his years working in the DRV, he collaborated closely
liberation from a Japanese prisoner camp in 1945, with Luu Van Loi in organizing propaganda cam-
he took part in the restoration of French control paigns towards the French Expeditionary Corps
over lower Vietnam. Between 1946 and 1950, and prisoners in DRV hands. Jean Marrane is the
he worked in administrative posts in Cambodia. nephew of the French communist leader, Georges
Between 1951 and 1952, he was head of the prov- Marrane (whose daughter married the Catholic
ince of Haut Donnai before moving on to Laos. nationalist intellectual, Nguyen Manh Ha). Jean
Between 1952 and 1956, he served as cabinet Marrane contributed to the making of the docu-
chief to the French high representative to Laos mentary film, Le silence des rizières, on French
(1952–1953), as the French representative to the soldiers serving in the DRV, insisting that French
King of Laos (1953–54), and then as the French prisoners of war taken by the Vietnamese were
representative to upper and middle Laos between never mistreated. See also BOUDAREL AFFAIR;
1956 and 1957. CROSSOVERS; DESERTION; INDOCTRINA-
TION; INTELLECTUALS; PRISONERS OF
Marneffe, Hubert (1901–1970). French WAR; PUBLIC OPINION.
specialist in tropical diseases who taught at the
Faculty of Medicine at the Indochinese Univer- Marson, Paul (1906–1987). French special
sity. In April 1946, he became director of the Pas- operations officer who served during the Indo-
teur Institute in Saigon and then general director china War. He joined Free French forces during
for all the Pasteur centers in Indochina between his service in Chad in August 1940 and led colo-
1949 and 1955. During this time, he studied and nial troops into combat in North African battles
published widely on typhus, leprosy, and rabies. and the liberation of Europe in 1944–45 as part
With the end of the French colonial presence in of General Philippe Leclerc’s 2nd Armored Divi-
Vietnam in 1954, Marneffe was able to negotiate sion. In September 1945, Marson followed the 2nd
an agreement with the new national governments Armored Division to Indochina where he took part
based in Hanoi and Saigon by which the French in the French reoccupation of Indochina below the
were allowed to maintain 50 percent control over 16th parallel between October 1945 and February
the Pasteur Institutes in Vietnam for 10 years in 1946. Following the signing of the Accords of 6
Saigon, Hanoi, Dalat, and Nha Trang. March 1946, he landed in Haiphong as part of the
limited French contingent transferred to northern
marrane, jean (LE CHINH, ANDRE, Indochina to replace the withdrawing Chinese. He
1923–). A lifetime member of the French Com- participated in the violent French reoccupation of
munist Party (FCP), Jean Marrane first met Hanoi between December 1946 and February
Ho Chi Minh in Moscow during the winter of 1947. He then transferred to the 5th and later the

MARTINI 285

3rd Colonial Battalion of Paratroopers as a captain. The affaire Henri Martin certainly caught the at-
He served several tours of duty in Indochina in tention of French public opinion, until then little
this capacity between 1948 and 1952. Between interested in the war in Indochina, and contributed
April 1952 and June 1954, he led the Groupe- to mobilizing public opinion against the war. See
ment mixte d’intervention aéroportée régional for also ANTICOLONIALISM; JEAN MARANNE;
Laos. Between 1956 and March 1960, he worked NEW HERO; INDOCTRINATION; INTEL-
on the French military base at Séno in Laos. LECTUALS; MAURICE THOREZ; MYTH OF
WAR; RECTIFICATION.
Martin, Henri (1927–). French communist
activist opposed to the French Indochina War Martinet, André (1905–1964). French naval
whose arrest and incarceration set off a national officer who served in General Philippe Leclerc’s
outcry in France in 1950. Martin grew up in a com- General Staff during World War II and headed the
munist and Catholic family. He joined the French French Liaison Committee with the South East
resistance during World War II and participated Asia Command under the leadership of General
in the liberation of France within a company of Louis Mountbatten, charged with disarming de-
the communist-oriented Francs tireurs partisans feated Japanese troops stationed below the 16th
(FTP). He was a member of the French Commu- parallel. In 1946–1947, Martinet became naval
nist Party (FCP). In 1945, he signed up with the commander and led an Armored Regiment of Na-
French Navy on a five year contract thinking he val Fusiliers during the reoccupation of northern
was going to fight the Japanese in Asia. He ended Indochina. In 1947 and 1948, he headed the Com-
up taking part in military operations against the bined Operation Section in the General Staff of
communist-led Democratic Republic of Viet- the French Navy in Indochina. In 1948 and 1949,
nam (DRV) and witnessed the violent take-over of he commanded the vessel Paul Goffeny and then
Haiphong in November 1946. He requested to be served as chief of General Studies in the Naval
repatriated and returned to France in 1947. Back General Staff. Promoted to colonel (capitaine de
in the metropolis, but still in the army, he secretly vaisseau) in 1951, he commanded River Forces in
agitated against the colonial conflagration among South Vietnam and Cambodia between 1952 and
his comrades. In July 1949, stationed at the naval 1953. In 1954, he served as the naval expert for
dockyard in Toulon, he began distributing politi- the French delegation to the Geneva Conference,
cal tracts to new recruits urging them to oppose and between 1958 and 1959 he was a military
the conflict in Indochina. Military authorities ar- advisor and French naval delegate to the South
rested him in March 1950 because of his actions. East Asia Treaty Organization.
The FCP rallied behind Martin and his cause in
order to mobilize public opinion against the Martini, François joseph (1895–1965).
war. Militants organized propaganda campaigns, Franco-Cambodian scholar who came to oppose
petitions, and songs. Pablo Picasso painted his the French war in Indochina. Born in Can Tho
portrait. In October, Martin appeared before a in southern Vietnam to a Corsican father and a
military court, was tried on charges of demoral- Cambodian mother, Martini studied law and phi-
izing the army, and was sentenced to five years losophy before taking up arms during World War
in prison. Vincent Auriol had him discreetly re- I. In one battle on the Western Front, an artillery
leased on 2 August 1953, as the FCP continued to barrage buried him until his comrades pulled him
rally behind him and the anti-colonial cause. The out of the pulverized ground in a coma. He sur-
French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre also threw vived the war and returned to his studies. Aware of
his intellectual weight behind Martin’s cause, his interest in languages, Sylvain Lévi persuaded
publishing in late 1953 L’affaire Henri Martin. him to study Sanskrit, Thai, and Khmer and thus
Alain Rusico, a leading French specialist of mod- began the scholarly career of François Martini.
ern Vietnam favorable to the DRV and a longtime He studied these languages at the École nationale
member of the FCP, has more recently kept the des langues orientales vivantes and was heavily
memory of Henri Martin alive. To this day, Viet- influenced by the famous linguist André Martinet
namese official communist historiography judges at the École pratique des hautes études. Between
Henri Martin to be a “friend” (ban) of the DRV, 1941 and 1946, Martini was professor at the
for having “stepped up the struggle of the French Colonial Academy (École coloniale) and at the
people against the invading war in Vietnam”. École pratique des hautes études between 1940

286 MARTINOFF

and 1944. In 1945, he debarked in Indochina August Revolution guerillas; workers engaged
as an administrative liaison officer and appar- in national defense; and youth who died in the
ently rendered important services to the École defense of the nation. Although the law of 1956
française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) during this theoretically excluded class, religion, and ethnic-
time. He arrived in Cambodia with the French ity as criteria for choosing martyrs, in practice the
Expeditionary Corps in 1946 with the rank of communist-minded DRV made selections based
colonel. He was named advisor to the Cambodian on such ideological factors. In 1962, the DRV had
minister of the Fine Arts and Religion and, with on file 11,290 “martyr families” (gia dinh liet si).
the support of the EFEO and the commissioner Such a legal status entailed more than honor for
for the Republic to Cambodia, became general the families. It also entitled widows, parents, and
secretary of the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh children of the deceased to state privileges and
in 1947. He also became an associate member of financial support. For the DRV leadership, control
the EFEO in that same year, responsible for the of the heroic dead allowed it to reinforce its legiti-
conservation of the monuments of Cambodia. He macy, control the meaning of the war from which
returned to France in 1950 to take up the position its legitimacy derived, and keep pension costs
of professor which he had already acquired in manageable. See also CEMETERIES; EXPERI-
1947 at the École nationale des langues orientales ENCE OF WAR; MYTH OF WAR.
vivantes. He was also one of the few colonially
trained scholars who publicly advocated decolo- MASSACRES. See CAM LY, MASSACRE; EX-
nization. See also ANTICOLONIALISM; LOUIS PERIENCE OF WAR; HÉRAULT, MASSACRE;
MALLERET; PAUL MUS. KHMER KROM; MY THUY, MASSACRE;
MYTH OF WAR; THAKHEK, BATTLE OF.
Martinoff, raymond (1926–1954). He
arrived in Indochina in 1947 and served as a ser- Massu, Jacques ÉMILE CHARLES MA-
geant with the Moroccan infantry sharpshooters. RIE (1908–2002). French paratrooper and officer
A volunteer, he made three tours of duty during during the Indochina War. Graduated from the
the conflict. In 1953, he obtained a Rolleiflex cam- École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1930,
era and a chance to cover the war for the French Massu served in France and in the colonial army
Press Information Service. As a photographer, in Africa in the 1930s. He was an avowed admirer
he accompanied troops into battle. An artillery of Marshal Louis Hubert Lyautey. He crossed
shell killed him as he was photographing planes over to Free French forces in Chad and in 1942
evacuating wounded troops during the battle of was battalion leader, commanding the Bataillon
Dien Bien Phu. de marche no.1. In August 1944, he joined the
famous 2nd Armored Division led by General
martyr. Vietnamese communists at the helm of Philippe Leclerc and distinguished himself dur-
the Democratic Republic of Vietnam defined, ing the French and German campaigns. In Sep-
codified, and categorized their ‘chosen’ fallen sol- tember 1945, handpicked by Leclerc, Massu left
diers of the Indochina War according to a system for Indochina at the head of the Groupement de
of martyrs (liet si). This patriotic elite, as Benoit Marche of the 2nd Armored Division (groupement
de Tréglodé has shown, provided an important Massu) and landed in Indochina on 19 October
source of legitimacy for the party and the state it 1945. He participated in the reoccupation of Indo-
ran. In order for families to receive a posthumous china below the 16th parallel, leading opération
certificate recognizing the entry of their deceased Moussac the day after his arrival, and debarked
into the realm of the martyrs, surviving members with his section in Haiphong after the signing of
had to demonstrate that the former soldier or the Accords of 6 March 1946. He became colonel
resistance bureaucrat had died as the result of a in March 1946. His section retired in September
direct confrontation with the enemy or as a result 1946 and he left Indochina in November of that
of bombing or imprisonment, including torture. year (though he made a brief trip there between
In July 1956, the government defined five groups 25 December 1946 and 15 February 1947 for
of people who could qualify for “national martry- unclear reasons). Back in France, he trained in-
dom” as cadres and bureaucrats of the revolution: tensively as a paratrooper in the École des troupes
those of the land reform campaign; members of aéroportées de Pau and created a center for the
the people’s army; those of the Viet Minh’s pre- training of paratroopers in Brittany for deploy-

MCGOVERN 287

ment to Indochina. It was called the 1ère Demi Bri- 1950. Between 1951 and 1954, Mathivet was the
gade coloniale de commandos parachutistes (1/2 French representative to lower Laos and was an
B.C.C.P). He took command of this special force advisor to the French high commissioner to Cam-
on 1 October 1947. In two years, he trained six bodia, then to the French Embassy replacing it,
battalions in paratrooper commando operations. between 1955 and 1958.
He returned briefly to Indochina in June and July
1948 as part of a fact-finding mission related to his MAYER, RENÉ (1895–1972). French premier
training program. In 1949, he transferred to Africa between January and May 1953. He joined Free
and was promoted to brigadier general in 1955. French forces during World War II and served
He commanded French paratroopers during the as minister in several governments in the 4th
Suez invasion of 1956. He led the army rebellion Republic. Mayer was a strong supporter of the
in Algiers in 1958 against the French government, European Defense Community (EDC). While
which led to the fall of the 4th Republic and the the French government had signed the treaty to
return of Charles de Gaulle to power in that year. create the EDC, the National Assembly had not
He became famous during the battle of Algiers yet ratified it. Upon becoming premier in January
and controversial because of the army’s use of 1953, Mayer continued to support the ratification
torture during the Algerian War. of the treaty. However, he understood that in order
to do so he would have to find a way to wind down
Mast, Charles (1889–1977). French general the war in Indochina. This would allow him to
graduated from the École nationale des langues appease deputies opposed to such heavy military
orientales vivantes with a specialization in Japan­ and financial commitments in Asia and Europe at
ese civilization and language. He joined the the same time. For Mayer, Europe took priority
infantry in 1907 and graduated from Saint-Cyr over Indochina. He thus began to seek a “sortie
before World War I. He made his career in Japan honorable” from the Indochina War. It was in this
during the interwar years, where he served in the context that he named Henri Navarre command-
Embassy as a specialist on Japanese military mat- er-in-chief of the Armed Forces in Indochina,
ters. He became brigadier general in May 1940, instructing him to create the necessary conditions
when he fell into German hands during the Battle on the battlefield to strengthen the French hand
of France. He was released upon the request of at the negotiating table. See also GENEVA AC-
Vichy and dispatched to Algeria where he headed CORDS.
the Division of Algiers for Philippe Pétain. Mast
crossed over to the Free French side following MCGOVERN, JAMES B., JR. (EARTHQUAKE
the Allied invasion of North Africa in November MCGOON, ?–1954). Captain in the United States
1942. In 1943, General Charles de Gaulle named Air Force and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
him résident général for France in Tunisia, a post operative. McGovern made a name for himself
he held until 1947 when he was promoted to the during World War II as a fighter pilot serving in
rank of general (général d’armée). His name was the 14th Air Force in China under the command
tainted, however, by the “Generals Affair”. Mast of General Claire Chennault, who founded the
was identified as having committed the indiscre- Flying Tigers in southern China. Chennault also
tion of allowing the Democratic Republic of founded the civilian airline known as Civil Air
Vietnam to obtain a copy of the sensitive report Transport (CAT) to supply Chinese Republican
by General Georges Revers on the troubled forces during the civil war against their commu-
situation in Indochina. Following a Parliamentary nist adversaries. An imposing figure, McGovern
investigation, Mast “retired” on 5 October 1949 flew C-119s for the CAT operations in China and
and resigned from the Army (together with Gen- elsewhere in Asia before moving on in 1953 to
eral Revers). help French forces and their allies in Indochina
fighting the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
mathivet de la ville de mirmont, (DRV). On 6 May 1954, while attempting to drop
pierreantoine (1914–1998). Between 1945 a howitzer to the besieged French garrison at Dien
and 1947, he served on the Comité intermini- Bien Phu, McGovern’s plane came under enemy
sériel de l’Indochine before being dispatched to fire and crashed 75 miles to the west in Laos. Dien
Cambodia where he worked as a private advisor Bien Phu fell to the DRV the next day. It was only
to King Norodom Sihanouk between 1947 and in 2006 that American forensic experts positively

288 MEDICAL EVACUATIONS

identified his skeletal remains and returned them Douglas Gracey in southern Indochina after World
to his family in the United States. War II. Educated at Monkton Combe School and
Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he began his dip-
MEDICAL EVACUATIONS, FRENCH. Of the lomatic career as a student interpreter in the Siam
50,377 individuals repatriated to France until (later Thailand) Consular Service in 1923 and was
1953 for medical reasons during the Indochina named vice consul (Grade 2) in April 1925. Be-
War, almost a third was due to serious wounds tween 1927 and 1928, he was in charge of the Sai-
suffered in combat. The remaining evacuations gon Consulate-General and became vice consul in
were due to disease (tuberculosis, paludism, etc.) 1928 before being sent to Batavia (Jakarta) later
and “severe psychic troubles”, according to of- that year. He then alternated between Siam and
ficial French medical records. See also CASUAL- the Dutch Indies (Indonesia) until being made
TIES; EXPERIENCE OF WAR; EXPERIENCE acting consul general at Saigon in May 1941. Fol-
OF WAR, DIEN BIEN PHU; HELICOPTERS. lowing a brief transfer to Dakar, he was promoted
to Foreign Service officer and appointed consul
MEDICAL TREATMENT, FRENCH UNION. general at Saigon in October 1945 before leav-
551,257 French, North African, African and ing for good in November 1947. He also served
Foreign Legion troops were treated for medical in late 1945 and early 1946 as political advisor
reasons related to the war during the Indochina to General Gracey during the British occupation
War, as well as 142,866 “Indochinese”. See also of southern Indochina below the 16th parallel.
CASUALTIES; DISEASE; EXPERIENCE OF He deftly advised Gracey on political matters.
WAR; DIEN BIEN PHU, EXPERIENCE OF During his time in southern Vietnam, he also met
WAR. with southern representatives of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam and the French concerning
Mehta, A. N. Indian major attached to the Indian the question of hostages and survivors of the mas-
Agency General in Chongqing during World War sacre at the Cité Hérault. Meiklereid was highly
II. On 26 November 1946, he was appointed first critical of what he saw as the shocking behaviour
Indian vice consul for Indochina in Saigon. He of the local French population and soldiers to-
worked closely with Dr. Charles Aeschlimann wards the Vietnamese in Saigon during the days
and John Embree and was favorable to the anti- leading up to 23 September 1945; however, he
colonial cause of the Democratic Republic of also took the Vietnamese nationalists to task for
Vietnam. He was also a trusted confidant of demanding too much, too fast. Gracey nominated
Jawaharlal Nehru and apparently related to the Meiklereid for the 1946 King’s Birthday Honors
latter’s family by marriage. See also DOUGLAS List, in light of his “tactful determination to steer
GRACEY; INDIA; INDIANS. the political ship out of what promised to be very
troubled waters” in Vietnam. See also ARTHUR
MEI JIASHENG. Chinese officer who arrived in GEOFFREY TREVOR-WILSON.
Vietnam as the deputy commander of the Chinese
Military Advisor Delegation, under the leader- MELBY–ERSKINE MISSION. This joint survey
ship of Wei Guoqing, and took full command of team arrived in Saigon on 15 July 1950 following
the delegation shortly thereafter. Mei Jiasheng the American decision to accord increased military
worked directly with Vo Nguyen Giap and his aid to the French fighting in Indochina. The mission
chief of staff until 1953, Hoang Van Thai. He was consisted of officials from the State and Defense
directly involved in devising military strategy and Departments. John F. Melby of the State Depart-
tactics to be deployed against the French. Most ment led the mission; Major General Graves B.
importantly, he introduced Chinese wave tactics Erksine of the U.S. Marine Corps was in charge of
being used in Korea against the Americans. In military matters. The Melby–Erskine mission was
January 1954, when Vo Nguyen Giap decided to responsible for determining the long-term French
delay the attack on Dien Bien Phu, Mei Jiasheng needs and nature of American aid and how best to
agreed with his Vietnamese counterpart that the go about providing it. During its three weeks in In-
attack was premature. dochina, the team observed French military opera-
tions and installations. While Erskine in particular
Meiklereid, Ernest William (1899–?). had little good to say about the French army, the
British diplomat and political advisor to General team leaders seemed to agree that solving the war

MÉMORIAL DES GUERRES EN INDOCHINE DE FRÉJUS 289

was a political problem, one which depended upon EXPERIENCE OF WAR, DIEN BIEN PHU;
the French granting full independence as quickly MARTYRS; MYTH OF WAR; WAR MEMO-
as possible to the Associated State of Vietnam. RIAL, DIEN BIEN PHU.
Melby concluded at one point that “the political
interests of France and the Associated States are MEMORIAL, FRANCE. See NECROPOLIS,
not only different, they are mutually exclusive”. In FRÉJUS.
the end, however, what mattered most was hold-
ing the line against possible Chinese communist MEMORIAL DAY, INDOCHINA WAR. In
intervention, something that the French could not response to the 2004 request of several associa-
do at the current level of American military aid. tions representing veterans of the Indochina War,
The Melby–Erskine mission thus recommended the French government approved by decree on 26
that a U.S. military assistance advisory group for May 2005 the creation of an official memorial day
Indochina be established rapidly. This mirrored a for the Indochina War (journée du souvenir de la
move by the Chinese to set up a remarkably similar Guerre d’Indochine). The associations selected 8
advisory group in Vietnam to help the Democratic June, for it corresponds to the day in 1980 when
Republic of Vietnam. The French, however, were the remains of the “unknown soldier of Indochina”
opposed to the American mission’s recommenda- (soldat inconnu d’Indochine) were interred in the
tion, worried that it would send the wrong signal national necropolis of Notre-Dame de Lorette in
to their Vietnamese allies, who would wonder who the department of Pas-de-Calais. Notre-Dame de
was really in charge, the French or the Americans, Lorette is home to the French National Military
thereby allowing them to play the Americans Cemetery, site of a major battle of World War I, and
against the French. See also AID, AMERICAN; the final resting place of the unknown soldiers of
AID, CHINESE. that war, World War II, and the Algerian War. On 8
June 2005, Michèle Alliot-Marie, then minister of
MELBY, JOHN F. See MELBY–ERSKINE MIS- Defense, and Hamlaoui Mekachera, then deputy
SION. minister of Veteran Affairs, attended the first com-
memoration of the Indochina Memorial Day. On
MEMORIAL, CAO BẰNG. In 2001, the Associa- that day, Mme Alliot-Marie addressed the coffin
tion nationale des anciens prisonniers internés containing the remains of the unknown soldier
d’Indochine (ANAPI) submitted a project to the of the Indochina War. She said: “Through him, it
French President Jacques Chirac to construct a is the totality of his comrades to whom we pay
stele along the former colonial Route no.4 in tribute today”. This unknown soldier had “fallen”
memory of French soldiers who died not only during the battle of Dien Bien Phu. His remains
during battles in Cao Bang between 1944–1945 were discovered in Vietnam in December 2004
and 1947–1950, but also those who perished in and were later inhumed at the necropolis in Fréjus,
prisoner of war camps run by the Democratic where the official ceremony for Indochina Memo-
Republic of Vietnam. While the current Viet- rial Day is now held. The life of the dead carries
namese authorities appear open to the memorial on. See also ASSOCIATION NATIONALE DES
project, French funding has not been accorded ANCIENS D’INDOCHINE ET DU SOUVENIR
as of early 2011. This memorial is designed to INDOCHINOIS; ASSOCIATION NATIONALE
complement the one the ANAPI helped create at DES ANCIENS ET AMIS DE L’INDOCHINE ET
Dien Bien Phu and which is funded and officially DU SOUVENIR INDOCHINOIS; ASSOCIATION
recognized by the French state. See also ASSO- NATIONALE DES ANCIENS PRISONNIERS ET
CIATION NATIONALE DES ANCIENS D’IN- INTERNÉS D’INDOCHINE; ASSOCIATION NA-
DOCHINE ET DU SOUVENIR INDOCHINOIS; TIONALE DES COMBATTANTS DE DIEN BIEN
ASSOCIATION NATIONALE DES ANCIENS ET PHU; ASSOCIATION OF MOTHERS OF SOL-
AMIS DE L’INDOCHINE ET DU SOUVENIR DIERS; BOUDAREL AFFAIR; CEMETERY;
INDOCHINOIS; ASSOCIATION NATIONALE EXPERIENCE OF WAR; EXPERIENCE OF
DES ANCIENS PRISONNIERS ET INTERNÉS WAR, DIEN BIEN PHU; MARTYRS; MYTH
D’INDOCHINE; ASSOCIATION NATIONALE OF WAR; WAR MEMORIAL, DIEN BIEN PHU.
DES COMBATTANTS DE DIEN BIEN PHU;
ASSOCIATION OF MOTHERS OF SOLDIERS; MÉMORIAL DES GUERRES EN INDOCHINE
BOUDAREL AFFAIR; EXPERIENCE OF WAR; DE FRÉJUS. See NECROPOLIS, FRÉJUS.

290 MENDÈS FRANCE

Mendès France, Pierre ISAAC ISIDORE war from the French on China’s southern flank.
(1907–1982). French statesman instrumental in In the early hours of 21 July 1954, the Geneva
bringing an end to the Indochina War during the Accords on Indochina were signed.
Geneva Conference. Pierre Mendès France stud-
ied law at the École libre des sciences politiques menon, krishna vengalil krishnan
and became heavily involved in socialist politics (1897–1974). Indian diplomat who represented
as a member of the Parti radical. He supported Jawaharlal Nehru during the Geneva Confer-
the left-wing Popular Front in the late 1930s ence of 1954. Educated at the Presidency College
and was in uniform in North Africa when World in Madras, Menon joined the Theosophical Soci-
War II broke out. Following the fall of France in ety and was active in the home rule movement. He
1940, the Vichy government arrested this Jewish graduated from the London School of Economics,
statesman, sentenced him to six years in prison for where he studied law in the 1920s. In 1927, he be-
trying to escape to North Africa, and put him be- came the general secretary of the India League in
hind bars in Clermont-Ferrand (where he rubbed Britain and through it developed a lifelong friend-
shoulders with the father of French revolution- ship with Nehru in the Indian nationalist move-
ary warfare in Indochina, Charles Lacheroy). ment. Following independence, Prime Minister
Mendès France’s famous escape shortly thereafter Nehru appointed him first high commissioner to
allowed him to make his way to London where the United Kingdom. Menon was instrumental in
he joined Charles de Gaulle and the Free French keeping India within the British Commonwealth.
movement. De Gaulle made him commissioner He served as a member of the Indian parliament
and then minister of National Economy in the between 1952 and 1967.
provisional government in waiting. Following Keen on promoting a peaceful solution to the
the liberation of France in 1944, Mendès France Indochina War, Nehru sent Menon, now Indian
resigned from this position and was re-elected ambassador to Moscow and delegate to the United
deputy of Eure in 1945. Nations, to Geneva to work with Anthony Eden
He had first publicly criticized the govern- as a commonwealth member and independently in
ment’s conduct of the Indochina war in 1950, fol- order to facilitate contacts among the various par-
lowing the French failure to hold the frontier town ties in order to reach a negotiated solution. Menon
of Cao Bang (thus allowing Chinese communist arrived in the Swiss capital on 24 May 1954 and
aid to flow directly to the Viet Minh) and in light quickly went to work meeting with the Chinese
of the financial burden of the war. He called for diplomat Zhou Enlai and his American coun-
the opening of negotiations to reach a political terpart Walter Bedell Smith among others. One
solution to the conflict or for the institution of Geneva delegate went so far as to describe Menon
the draft in order to fight the war correctly on the as a “germ carrier” at Geneva – peace germs for
ground. some, germs of discord for others.
Four years later, as Vietnamese communist What is clear is that through Menon, Nehru
forces scored an even more stunning victory over made it clear to Zhou Enlai and Viatcheslav Mo-
the French army at Dien Bien Phu, Mendès France lotov that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s
risked his position as head of the government to (DRV) refusal to pull out of Laos and Cambodia
find a diplomatic solution to the conflagration. On and desire to impose “resistance governments”
the day of his investiture, he announced he would there threatened to jeopardize Chinese and Soviet
resign one month later, on 20 July, if a cease-fire relations with non-communist South and South-
were not reached in negotiations already under- east Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, and
way in Geneva. To make sure it happened, he Burma. Menon’s arguments had a real influence
personally assumed the portfolio of minister of on Zhou and his decision to distance himself from
Foreign Affairs. His strategy sought to neutralize the DRV’s Indochinese ambitions. One month
Laos and Cambodia and to divide Vietnam so that later, on 24 June, Zhou Enlai made his historic trip
a non-communist state could survive in the south. to New Delhi to talk to Nehru about the course
He was largely successful in this endeavor thanks of the Geneva negotiations, conceding that the
to the willingness of Chinese Prime Minister royal governments of Laos and Cambodia were
Zhou Enlai to accept the neutralization of Laos legitimate on the condition that they remained
and Cambodia and the division of Vietnam in neutral in the Cold War. Menon had helped
order to keep the Americans from taking over the facilitate this important inter-Asian contact. He

MÉTIS 291

also negotiated India’s role as president of the on 25 August 1945 charged with re-establishing
International Commission for Supervision and French sovereignty to Indochina as commissioner
Control. See also CAMBODIAN RESISTANCE for the Republic in Tonkin and North Annam.
GOVERNMENT; INDONESIA; LAO RESIS- However, on 27 August, he fell into the hands
TANCE GOVERNMENT; NEUTRALIZATION of Viet Minh forces. Some two months later, he
OF INDOCHINA. escaped captivity and joined the French Mission
under Jean Sainteny, now based in Hanoi, and
MEO. See MINORITY ETHNIC GROUPS. served as the commissioner for the Republic in
Tonkin and North Annam. Messmer entered high-
MERCY TEAM, HANOI. With the defeat of the level colonial affairs in 1946, when he became
Japanese, the American Office of Strategic Ser- general secretary of the Comité interministériel
vices moved on its plans to drop rescue teams into de l’Indochine. He participated in the first Dalat
Japanese POW camps in Asia to protect prisoners Conference in April – May 1946, during which he
and return them to Allied control. One such team stood up to High Commissioner Georges Thierry
was sent to Hanoi to tend to several thousands Al- d’Argenlieu by stating that Vietnam was a single
lied POWs held there. Archimedes Patti headed nation and that separating it from Cochinchina
up the Hanoi Mercy Team, arriving in late August was a dangerous policy. He was also instrumental
1945. in warning against any further French military ac-
tion against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Méric, Édouard  (1901–1973). French colo- after the Haiphong and Langson clashes in No-
nial administrator in Indochina during the con- vember–December 1946. Messmer accompanied
flict. Graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1923, he made Maurice Moutet on his mission to Indochina in
his career in colonial Morocco during the interwar late December 1946. Between 1947 and 1948, he
years. He joined Free French forces during World served as personal secretary to Émile Bollaert,
War II and distinguished himself as a commander. the new high commissioner to Indochina, before
Between 1946 and 1949, he served as a lieutenant returning to France to become chief administrator
colonel in Indochina at the head of the 3rd Foreign for Overseas France (Administrateur en chef de la
Infantry Regiment (3e REI) and commander of France d’Outre-mer). He held numerous colonial
the Eastern Zone of Cochinchina. He returned to posts in French Africa (governor of Mauritania and
Indochina as a colonel in the late 1940s to serve the Ivory Coast) and served as minister of Defense
as chief of staff to General Pierre-Georges Boyer at the time of the Algerian War. He also served as
de la Tour. French prime minister between 1972 and 1974. In
1998, looking back over his colonial career and the
Messmer, Pierre Auguste Joseph decolonization of the French Empire, he published
(1916–2007). French colonial administrator deeply Les Blancs s’en vont, récits de décolonisation.
involved in the troubled decolonization of Indo-
china. Graduating from the Colonial Academy MÉTIS. The French term referring to children of
(École coloniale) in 1934, Messmer held a doc- ethnically mixed marriages. The Vietnamese use
toral degree in law from the École nationale the term tay lai; the Lao say luk khrung. Mixed
des langues orientales vivantes. He began his Franco-Indochinese unions were not uncommon
military service in Senegal in 1937. Following during the colonial period, but by no means as
the French defeat in 1940, he joined Free French common as those occurring in colonial Indonesia.
forces in London in July and was sent to North Af- Métis or Eurasians in Indochina only numbered a
rica in the Foreign Legion, where he participated few thousand at any given time during the colonial
in numerous battles, including Bir Hakeim and period. French men, usually colonial administrators,
El Alamein. He landed in Normandy in August officers, and traders, often married “Indochinese”
1944 and entered Paris as part of the liberating women. Given that the 35–40,000 Europeans
army. He was named major in the French army in living in Indochina on the eve of World War II
January 1945 and dispatched to Calcutta to create were concentrated in eastern Indochina and in the
a French Administrative Liaison Military Mission lowland cities, they tended to marry Vietnamese
(Mission militaire de liaison administrative) in women. Many European settlers and soldiers also
the capacity of acting colonial commissioner had concubines. Of these relationships hundreds
for the Republic. He parachuted into Tonkin of Franco-Vietnamese children were born.

292 MÉTIS faithfully as a trusted advisor in the Sûreté and
secret go-between with Vietnamese of all political
During the early colonial period, European colors. In Hanoi, the Franco-Vietnamese Charles
colonial society tended to shun métis children Petit, inspector for the Sûreté, secretly infiltrated
and discouraged mixed marriages for fear of the forces of the DRV in late 1946. He tipped the
“contaminating” French “blood”. The fact that the French off about the planned Vietnamese attack
majority of Eurasians were born out of wedlock, for the night of the 19 December 1946. The DRV
sometimes of an unknown father, also meant that took his family hostage in reprisal.
they could not legally obtain French national-
ity. This often made their integration in French The DRV also relied upon tay lai during the
colonial society all the more difficult. During the conflict, one of the best examples being Jean
colonial period, private Eurasian welfare societies Moreau who handled sensitive military and in-
tried to change this and scoured the countryside telligence missions. Ngo Van Chieu dedicates an
for Eurasian children abandoned by their fathers. entire chapter in his memoirs to the DRV’s reli-
Opposed to the idea of these métis living among ance on a loyal métis in the army, who “chose his
the Vietnamese, these civilian societies took the mother’s country (Vietnam) and proved it”.
children, sometimes by force, from their mothers
and placed them in orphanages. However, Eurasians were not the only métis
touched by the Indochina War. Inter-Asian cou-
Eurasians born to legal unions were in a better ples and their métis children were just as notable
situation. Indeed, a number of such métis became and much more important numerically than the
important figures in colonial and postcolonial Franco-Indochinese ones. Sino-Vietnamese mar-
Indochina, such as William Bazé and Henri de riages and children are a case in point. In 1921,
La Chevrotière. French women also married Viet- Cochinchina was home to 64,500 Minh Huong,
namese men and had métis children. The future the Vietnamese term referring to the métis children
diplomat-at-large for the Democratic Republic of Sino-Vietnamese unions. A decade later the
of Vietnam (DRV), Dr. Pham Ngoc Thach, number had risen to 73,000. During the Indochina
married a French woman, Marie Louise Jeandot, War, the nationalist-minded Viet Minh had no
while Nguyen Manh Ha married the daughter of problems recruiting these bilingual and bi-cultural
Georges Marranne, a senior leader in the French Asian métis into its ranks, especially to help main-
Communist Party and deputy in the National tain good relations with the Chinese populations,
Assembly. Neither woman came from the French to translate increasingly large amounts of political
colonial society in Indochina. The couples met in and technical information coming from commu-
the metropolis. nist China, to help run commercial affairs inside
and outside Vietnam, and even to work in intel-
While the social and legal status of abandoned ligence. Vietnamese did not just marry Europeans
Eurasian children improved by the late 1930s, the coming from the metropolis. Not only was the
métis always occupied something of a grey area Vietnamese General Nguyen Son a ranking mem-
in colonial society, one that became dangerous ber of the Chinese and Vietnamese communist
with the outbreak of the Indochina War. Upon its parties, but he had also married a Chinese woman
creation, the DRV passed legislation requiring during his time in China.
Eurasians to adopt Vietnamese nationality. For
some xenophobic Vietnamese nationalists, métis Of the thousands of mainly male Vietnamese
were the living symbol of illicit collaboration cadres sent to work in western Indochina many
with the enemy, the colonizer. Eurasians some- married local women in Laos and Cambodia.
times found themselves in the crossfire when Unsurprisingly, the DRV cultivated close rela-
French and Vietnamese took to arms to determine tionships with métis born of Lao–Vietnamese and
who would rule Vietnam. In Saigon, during the Cambodian–Vietnamese mixed marriages. Again,
massacre in the mixed quarter of Hérault, Viet- these children, now adults, spoke both languages
namese attackers singled out métis in their raids, and provided the DRV with an entry into western
kidnapping and killing dozens of them in horren- Indochinese politics, societies, and cultures. Two
dous circumstances. During the war, the French of the DRV’s most important allies in Laos and
Sûreté and Deuxième Bureau recruited métis Cambodia were Vietnamese–Lao and Vietnam-
into their ranks, in light of their mastery of both ese–Khmer métis: Kaisôn Phomvihān and Son
languages and ability to penetrate into Vietnamese Ngoc Minh. The “Red Prince” Suphānuvong,
circles much more easily than their French coun- close ally to Vietnamese communists during 30
terparts. Fernand Faugère served Léon Pignon

MILITARY ASSISTANCE ADVISORY GROUP 293

years of war, married a Vietnamese woman from Michel, Étienne didier (1916–1950).
a prominent Dalat family. Their luk khrung chil- During the Battle of France, the Germans took
dren hold high-ranking positions in Laos to this him prisoner. Michel escaped captivity in late
day. See also KHMER KROM; LANGUAGE 1943 and made his way to North Africa where he
OF WAR; LOVE AND WAR; HERAULT, MAS- joined the French resistance and was wounded
SACRE. during the Alsace campaign. Between 1946 and
1948, he worked in Indochina as the director of
Michaudel, Maurice Marie Auguste Information in Cochinchina, then as deputy to the
(1901–1975). Lao specialist and colonial official political advisor to the French high commissioner
who made his career in Indochina. Graduated in Indochina and finally as political advisor to the
from the École nationale des langues orientales high commissioner. He accompanied High Com-
vivantes with a degree in law, Michaudel first missioner Émile Bollaert during negotiations
served in Cambodia in 1926–1927 as an attaché in with Bao Dai in the Bay of Ha Long in December
the résident supérieur’s cabinet and as a deputy to 1947. He left Indochina in 1949.
the head of the province of Kompong Cham. He
dedicated the rest of his career to Laos. Indeed, migration. See DESERTION; HANOI; SAI-
he was something of an admirer of all things Lao. GON.
He spoke the language fluently and lived with a
Lao woman, with whom he had three children. MILITARY ASSISTANCE ADVISORY GROUP
Between 1927 and 1933, he served in Vientiane (MAAG), INDOCHINA. Following Chinese and
(1927–1929), Pakse (1930–1931), and then worked Soviet diplomatic recognition of the Democratic
on administrative and legislative questions in the Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in January 1950 and
Résidence supérieure until 1933. Between 1934 the outbreak of the Korean War in June of that
and 1942, Michaudel moved around much of year, in September American President Harry S.
Laos working as provincial chief in the Upper Truman authorized and dispatched the Military
Mekong (1934), résident to Thakhek (1935), Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to Vietnam
Saravane (1936–1938), and Savannakhet (1939– to assist the French in using American aid to fight
1942). He served Vichy Indochina in Vientiane as the DRV. The Griffin and Melby–Erskine mis-
chief of the office of the Lao résident supérieur sions had prepared the way earlier in the year for
(1942–1944), then head of the Service local de the implementation of such military assistance,
l’information, de la propagande et de la presse albeit that much remained to be ironed out. The
(1944 – March 1945). Michaudel was a close col- American contingent arrived in September 1950
laborator of Charles Rochet, and helped edit and and was eventually placed under the leadership of
publish Nouveau Laos, Lao Nhay, and Tin Lao in General Francis G. Brink. MAAG was up and
French, Lao, and Vietnamese, respectively. On 2 working as of 17 September 1950. Like their Chi-
June 1945, the Japanese placed Michaudel under nese adversaries assisting the DRV, the Americans
“internement spécial”. Following the Japanese were responsible for providing military and eco-
defeat, the Commission d’épuration in Indochina nomic aid to the French and advising on military
cleared him of charges of “collaboration with strategy and tactics. Brink presided over a team
the enemy”. He was back at work in December of sixty, working in five branches: Aid Supply,
1945 at the head of the Office for Laotian Af- Transport, Technical Services, Logistics, and
fairs operating from Saigon, a job he held until Operations. In December 1950, the French, the
August 1946. With the French reoccupation of Americans, and the three Associated States of In-
Laos in mid-1946, Michaudel returned to Laos dochina signed the Pentalateral Mutual Defense
and worked as the chief of the “General Admin- Assistance Pact establishing the rules by which
istration” for the Commissioner for the Republic military assistance would be provided. However,
to Laos (1946–1947) and then as Commissioner the combination of the ambiguous wording of
for the Republic in Laos on an interim basis (July certain clauses concerning the supervision of
1947 – March 1948). In 1948, he took leave in military assistance, the small size of the advisory
France. He returned to Indochina in 1950 to work group, French reluctance to allow the Americans
as the head of the Diplomatic Services in the high to become too directly involved in internal
commissioner’s office for Indochina. It is unclear military questions and operations, and problems
when he left Indochina definitively. of language greatly limited the effectiveness of

294 MILITARY REGIONS

American attempts to oversee and inspect the the northern border of Quang Ngai province
utilization of their military aid. In addition to the ‘up’”, probably meaning to the border with the 3rd
army, MAAG Air Force and Navy teams also pro- military region. It also modified the 4th military
vided aid to the French. Brink personally flew to region to include the central highlands and central
Tokyo in 1951 to obtain crucial supplies from the Vietnam from the northern border of Quang Ngai
Far East Command Headquarters for the French down, meaning to region 1 in southern Vietnam.
and he made another trip there during the battle for In 1956, when it became increasingly clear that
Phat Diem. Despite such assistance, General Jean Vietnam would not be unified, the Republic of
de Lattre de Tassigny complained that MAAG Vietnam redefined the pre-existing zones to cover
was responsible for turning down French requests areas below the 17th parallel. See also INTER-
for aid. Brink’s investigation of this matter turned ZONE; ZONE.
up no evidence substantiating such an allegation.
The French were particularly opposed to Ameri- MINH VIÊN. See HUỲNH THÚC KHÁNG.
can and non-communist Vietnamese desires to
bypass the French in order to channel military MINORITY ETHNIC GROUPS. Ethnic minor-
aid directly to the national armies of the Associ- ity groups in former French Indochina were
ated States of Indochina. As American historian caught in the crossfire in the war mainly between
Georges Herring has pointed out, whatever the the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV)
talk of a “Western alliance against communism”, and Franco-Vietnamese forces between 1945 and
relations between the French and the MAAG of- 1954.
ficers were often stormy. MAAG officers visited The ethno-linguistic make-up of Laos, Cam-
the battlefields in 1953 and early 1954, although bodia, and Vietnam was and remains very hetero-
the French had refused to consult MAAG before geneous. A colonial census of 1938 recorded 16.7
the operation began in November. Between 1950 million ethnic Vietnamese, 2.9 million Khmer
and 1954, American military aid to the French ex- and almost 800,000 Lao. Colonial authorities also
ceeded 2.6 billion dollars. The MAAG remained counted sizeable “minority” populations, includ-
operational following the signing of the Geneva ing some 600,000 Tai and Tho, 214,000 Man
Accords, allowing the Americans to continue to and Hmong, 1 million “Moi”, including Bahnar,
provide aid and training to the armed forces of the Sedang, Stieng, Jarai, and Rhadé located mainly in
Republic of Vietnam (The Geneva accords rec- the central Vietnamese highlands.
ognized the on-going validity of the pre-existing During the Indochina conflict, the French ad-
agreements.). In January 1962, MAAG was opted the well-known strategy of “divide and rule”.
subordinated to the newly created Military As- The army recruited from among the different eth-
sistance Command, Vietnam (MACV). In 1964, nic minorities in Indochina, convinced that it could
when it became clear that a new war for Vietnam turn their supposed anti-Vietnamese animosities
was in the making, MAAG was phased out. See against the DRV in strategically important upland
also AID, AMERICAN; AID, CHINESE COM- areas. Of particular importance were the Tai, Nung,
MUNIST; AID, SOVIET; FINANCIAL COST and Hmong populations located behind DRV lines
OF INDOCHINA WAR, FRANCE. in the highlands of northwestern Vietnam as well
as those located in the central highlands, what the
MILITARY REGIONS, ASSOCIATED STATE French referred to as the Pays montagnards du
OF VIETNAM. In July 1952, the French and sud (PMS) since 1946.
the Associated State of Vietnam authorities of- Pushed by the Americans, the French Groupe-
ficially divided Vietnam into four major military ment de commandos mixtes aéroportés relied
regions. The 1st military region included southern heavily on upland peoples to harass the DRV in
Vietnam, the 2nd covered central Vietnam, the its own territory. Notable allies for the French
3rd incorporated northern Vietnam, including the among the ethnic minorites were Deo Van Long,
mountain areas, while the 4th military region re- president of the Tai Federation created by the
ferred specifically to the central highlands (vung French in 1948, and Chau Quang Lo, an ethnic
cao nguyen mien nam). Bao Dai signed into law Hmong. The French army even created distinct
the decree creating these zones. In March 1954, batallions based along these ethnic minority lines,
a new decree amended the 2nd military region to some of which were present during the battle of
include that portion of Vietnam running “from Dien Bien Phu, itself located in Tai-Lao lands.

MODUS VIVENDI 295

French support for the creation of new ethnic mi- by the Japanese in Indochina. Upon liberation
nority armies, communities, and identities worked around September 1945, he joined Jean Sain-
against the efforts of the DRV and the Associated teny’s mission in Hanoi where he administered
State of Vietnam to incorporate them into a Viet- financial questions related to the re-establishment
namese citizenship. of French sovereignty to Indochina. He was and
remained virulently hostile to what he saw as
With the end of the war in mid-1954 and the American interference in French internal matters
division of Vietnam into two provisional states in Indochina. He resented above all American
at the 17th parallel, the French could do little to Major Archimedes Patti’s activities in Hanoi in
help their partisans who now fell squarely under late 1945. Missoffe returned to France in 1946 to
the national control of the DRV in the north and pursue a career in business and politics. He served
that of the Republic of Vietnam in the south. The as French ambassador to Japan between 1964
French evacuated a small number of minority and 1966. In 1977, he published a book on Asia,
ethnic allies and their families to southern Viet- including his activities in Indochina, entitled Duel
nam and France following the Geneva Accords, rouge. He loved jazz and in his youth had even
while some escaped by foot to Laos. However, created a jazz orchestra with none other than
most remained behind and some paid with their Boris Vian. See also BANK OF INDOCHINA;
lives for their collaboration with the French. In CURRENCY, FRENCH INDOCHINA; FINAN-
areas below the 17th parallel, the minority ethnic CIAL COST OF THE WAR.
troops returned to their homes but they too soon
came under the tighter national control of the mistral, jean édouard (1922–1995).
Republic of Vietnam led by Ngo Dinh Diem. As French colonial civil servant. Between 1945
for the leaders of the DRV, they countered French and 1949, he served as the head of the district of
efforts to turn the minority groups against them in Mdrack in the central Vietnamese highlands and
military and political ways. In exchange for their was chief of cabinet to the high commissioner for
cooperation, communist authorities granted them Indochina for the upland populations of southern
greater degrees of autonomy. Vietnamese commu- Indochina (Les populations montagnardes du
nists also counted among their own ranks ethnic Sud-Indochine) in Ban Me Thuot. See also MI-
minority leaders such as Hoang Dinh Giong of NORITY ETHINIC GROUPS; PAYS MONTAG-
Tai origin and Chu Van Tan from the Nung. See NARDS DU SUD (PMS).
also KHMER KROM; OVERSEAS CHINESE;
OVERSEAS VIETNAMESE. MIXED MARRIAGE. See LOVE AND WAR;
MÉTIS.
MISSING IN ACTION. The Democratic Re-
public of Vietnam has never released the official MOBILE FIELD BROTHEL. See BORDELS
statistics revealing how many men and women MOBILES DE CAMPAGNE.
went missing in action (mat tich) between 1945
and 1954. In 1962, however, Bac Ninh provincial MODUS VIVENDI, FRANCO-CAMBODIAN.
authorities officially identified 262 families, in- Because the British facilitated the return of the
cluding 80 “missing in action families”. The total French to Indochina below the 16th parallel in
number of “absentees, missing or unreturned” September 1945, the French were able to reoc-
(absents, disparus ou non rentrés) from the mili- cupy Cambodia rapidly. On 15 October 1945,
tary forces of the French Union numbered 20,661 General Philippe Leclerc had Son Ngoc Thanh
as of 17 October 1954. The number for the armed arrested and opened negotiations with the Cam-
forces of the Associated States was about 9,000. bodian royal family to re-establish the status
See also CASUALTIES, INDOCHINA WAR; of this former protectorate and its place within
CEMETERIES; MARTYRS; MEMORIAL DAY, the emerging French Union and its component
INDOCHINA WAR; MYTH OF WAR. Indochinese Federation. On 7 January 1946,
the two sides signed a modus vivendi allowing
Missoffe, François (1919–2003). Diplo- for the internal autonomy of the Kingdom but
mat, politician, and Asian specialist for the French placing it within an Indochinese Federation and
government during the Indochina War. The son of the French Union. Faced with increasing Khmer
a navy admiral, he joined the French resistance calls for liberal reforms, Norodom Sihanouk and
at the outset of World War II and was captured

296 MODUS VIVENDI and the Thais in 1946 over the retrocession of
Cambodian and Lao provinces annexed by Thai-
the French agreed to promulgate a constitution, land in 1941.
guaranteeing political freedoms and universal
male suffrage. In May 1946, direct, universal Born into a prominent Manhattan family and
male suffrage was established. Sihanouk created graduated from Harvard University in 1923, Mof-
a provisional National Assembly to deliberate the fat obtained his law degree from Columbia Uni-
drafting of a constitution as set out in the Franco- versity before serving as a prominent lawyer and
Khmer talks. Elections occurred on 1 September Republican politician in New York. In 1943, he
1946, giving the Democrat Party a victory. The resigned his state seat and joined the United States
majority democrat leadership declared itself a Department of State, where he served as head
Constituent Assembly and called for the right to of the Philippine and Southeast Asian Division
lead the government as the majority party. At the between 1944 and 1947. He headed a mission to
second Dalat Conference in August 1946, Lao Saigon and Hanoi in early December 1946, dur-
and Cambodian delegates accepted the French ing which time he received French thanks for his
proposals to create an Indochinese Federation and role in obtaining the Thai retrocession of Cambo-
signed a document denouncing the Democratic dian provinces. During his trip to Hanoi, he also
Republic of Vietnam’s alleged claim to represent met with Hoang Minh Giam, Hoang Huu Nam,
all of Indochina. and Vo Nguyen Giap. If Moffat was at ease with
the two Hoangs, he was repelled by Giap, whom
MODUS VIVENDI, FRANCO-VIETNAMESE. he characterized in 1946 as the “typical commie,
Before giving up on the Fontainebleau Confer- the cartoon commie”. Against the wishes of Jean
ence, the delegation of the Democratic Republic Sainteny, Moffat also met with president Ho Chi
of Vietnam (DRV) sought to obtain a modus Minh in December of that year.
vivendi in order to hold the French to respecting
the latter’s promise to allow a referendum on Although Dean Acheson had warned Moffat to
the unification of Cochinchina with Vietnam. “keep in mind Ho’s clear record as [an] agent [of]
However, the head of the Vietnamese delegation, international communism”, in his reports Moffat
Pham Van Dong, refused to sign the document underscored the historical reality and force of na-
when it was presented to him on 10 September tionalism in Vietnam and was sympathetic to the
1946, since the French had still refused to set a anti-colonial cause of the Democratic Republic of
date for such a referendum. The Fontainebleau Vietnam. He had also warned against supporting
Conference thus ended in failure. Determined to what he saw as the corrupt government of Chiang
avoid war, however, Ho Chi Minh stayed behind Kai-shek against the Chinese communists. His
and pleaded with his French interlocutors to give views did nothing to prevent the outbreak of war
him something he could take home to appease in Indochina in late 1946. They did, however, at-
those calling for an end to negotiations with the tract the attention of Joseph McCarthy, who wrote
French. As he put it to Jean Sainteny, “Don’t let Moffat off as a “pro-communist”.
me leave like this, arm me against those who seek
to cast me aside; you will not regret it”. During the Moffat regretted the shift in American Asian
early hours of 15 September 1946, Ho Chi Minh policy towards what he saw as blind anti-
persuaded Marius Moutet, socialist minister of communism, asserting at one point that it seemed
the Colonies, to sign a provisional modus vivendi, as if things had regressed “right back in[to] the
prepared by Léon Pignon and dated 14 Septem- wars of religion”. He felt that the support of vi-
ber. The main idea was that a cease-fire would able nationalist aims was the best way for the US
be instituted in southern Vietnam (Article 9) and to head off the communist threat. He deplored
once calm was restored then negotiations on the French reluctance to decolonize in Indochina and
holding of a referendum in and on Cochinchina argued that such a policy was pushing Vietnam
could resume (Article 10). Negotiations on reach- into the arms of the communists. He became an
ing a definitive agreement were to be held before open critic of subsequent American involvement
1 February 1947. in Vietnam. Speaking to the Fulbright committee
in 1972, Moffat criticized the absence of instruc-
Moffat, Abbot LOw (1901–1996). American tions from the State Department after World War
diplomat involved in negotiations between the II, since “it seemed Ho was hoping that I would
French and Vietnamese and between the French have some message for him and I was miserable
not to be able to say anything”.

MOREAU 297

While Moffat was right to say that he had no monthéard, henri denis alfred
instructions as to dealing with Ho Chi Minh upon (1911–1961). Born in Hanoi, Monthéard was a
his departure for Hanoi in December 1946, they career colonial administrator in French Indochina.
were waiting for him on his return to Saigon. Between 1935 and 1945, he served in various posts
They were that he should avoid giving the impres- in northern Vietnam and Hanoi. Between 1945 and
sion that the United States would interfere with 1947, he was in charge of the service for repatria-
French policy with regards to Indochina. See also tions and secretary of the commission for purging
AID, AMERICAN; COLD WAR; OFFICE OF (épuration) Vichy’s Indochinese administration.
STRATEGIC SERVICES. He also oversaw the early intelligence operations
of the Bureau fédéral de documentation’s Hanoi
MOLOTOV, VIATCHESLAV SKRIABINE base. Between 1948 and 1954, he held ranking
(1890–1986). Soviet diplomat and foreign minis- administrative positions close to the political
ter who played a pivotal role in reaching an agree- advisor for the French high commissioner to Indo-
ment on Indochina at the Geneva Conference of china (1948–1951) and to the deputy diplomatic
1954. He joined the communist party at 16 and advisor (1952–1953). In 1954, he became advisor
became one of Joseph Stalin’s loyal collabora- to the Liaison for Pacification working with the
tors. He became commissar for Foreign Affairs commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Follow-
in May 1939 and was involved in negotiating the ing the signing of the Geneva Accords of 1954,
German – Soviet Pact of that year. He held this he returned to France to serve in the ministry in
post until 1949, when he became vice president charge of relations with the Associated States for
of the Council of Ministers. In 1953, following Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
the death of Stalin, he took over the direction of
Soviet foreign policy. During the Berlin confer- Moreau, Jean (DƯƠNG BÁ LỘC, 1925–).
ence in early 1954, he strongly supported the Born in central Vietnam to a French colonial civil
participation of the People’s Republic of China servant and a Vietnamese–Italian mother, Moreau
in the upcoming conference on the Korean and grew up in Phu Yen where his father was stationed.
Indochina Wars at Geneva. He promoted just such He completed his primary and secondary studies
a meeting in order to “diminish tension in inter- in Hue. Following the Japanese coup de force of
national relations”. As co-president with Britain’s 9 March 1945 and the emergence of the Demo-
Anthony Eden, Molotov played a pivotal role in cratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), Moreau
preparing and reaching an agreement to end the had to choose his nationality if not his national
Indochina War during the Geneva Conference of identity. More at ease in the Vietnamese culture
1954. His relationship with Stalin’s successor, and language, and sympathetic to the Vietnamese
Nikita Khrushchev, was however an increasingly quest for independence, he opted to become a
rocky one. Molotov would lose his post at the citizen of the DRV in 1945, adopting the Viet-
head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1956 namese name of Duong Ba Loc. He participated
and would be expelled from the party between in the August Revolution in Phu Yen province
1962 and 1984. See also AID, SOVIET. before joining the Vietnamese army. He joined the
Indochinese Communist Party in 1947.
Moneglia, Vincent. French military officer During the Indochina War, Moreau worked in
in charge of the Vietnamese Military Academy intelligence operations in the French-occupied
in Hanoi, created in the early 1950s to train a city of Nha Trang and as a military intelligence
modern Vietnamese officer corps for the Associ- cadre in the Tay Nguyen military region. He ran a
ated State of Vietnam. He headed a delegation number of sensitive and dangerous covert opera-
of French and Vietnamese (Associated State) tions for the DRV. Thanks to his bilingualism, he
officers to the front lines in Korea to study Ameri- also served as a cultural and political instructor in
can methods of troop training and to coordinate the Vietnamese army. After the Geneva Accords,
them with those being used in Indochina as part Moreau relocated to northern Vietnam. French of-
of a wider front against communist forces in Asia. ficers who encountered him during his transfer to
See also AID, CHINESE; AID, SOVIET; ARMY, the north were astonished by his refusal to return
ASSOCIATED STATE OF VIETNAM; COLD to France. For Moreau, there was no question,
WAR; DOMINO THEORY; KOREAN WAR. however: he was Vietnamese. He nonetheless
played the roles of French and American officers

298 MOREAU Saint-Cyr shortly thereafter. During the interwar
period, he fulfilled four missions to Indochina.
in a number of DRV propaganda films, including Though deeply involved in colonial and military
The 17th Parallel Night and Day (Vi Tuyen 17 affairs, he demonstrated a real interest in the
Ngay Va Dem) and There Is Only One Person Left country and people. Between 1938 and 1940, he
Alive (Chi Mot Nguoi Con Song) among many was deputy then chief of staff for Georges Man-
others. As of early 2011, he lives in Vietnam with del, then minister of Colonies. During World War
his family. See also CROSSOVERS; CULTURE; II, Vichy assigned him to North Africa, where he
LANGUAGE OF WAR; LOVE AND WAR; MÉ- crossed over to Free French forces when the Al-
TIS; NOVELS. lies landed there in late 1942. He fought with the
Americans against the Germans in North Africa.
moreau, louis guy marle (?). Graduated Named brigadier general, he landed in southern
from the Colonial Academy (École coloniale) in France in 1944 with the 9th Colonial Infantry
1947, he was assigned to the commissioner for Division and took part in the French and German
the Republic in Hue between 1948 and 1949. campaigns. During the liberation of France, Mor-
Between 1951 and 1954, he was provincial chief lière was replaced at the head of the 9th Colonial
of Pleiku. He returned to France at the end of the Infantry Division by the younger Jean Valluy.
Indochina War and joined the section in charge of This had implications for the course of events in
the former Associated States of Vietnam, Laos, Vietnam in 1946.
and Cambodia in the French Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. In 1955, he was named the representative In 1946, Morlière was sent to Indochina as
to Haiphong of the French general delegate be- commanding officer of French Forces in Northern
fore transferring to the General Delegation of the Vietnam, where he would also serve as acting
French government in Hanoi between 1955 and commissioner of the Republic for Tonkin and
1958. See also MINORITY ETHNIC GROUPS; North Annam while Jean Sainteny was away in
PAYS MONTAGNARDS DU SUD (PMS). France. During this time, he did his best to respect
the Accords of 6 March 1946 in order to avoid
MOREl, André (1916–1979). A naval officer war. Between August and December 1946, he did
in 1940, Morel joined resistance forces in June of not prevent the Democratic Republic of Viet-
that year. He also signed up to serve in the French nam’s (DRV) efforts to shut down the anti-French
Naval Fusiliers. He saw combat at Bir-Hakeim non-communist parties, such as the Vietnamese
in June 1942 and participated in major battles Nationalist Party and the Dong Minh Hoi. Mor-
in North Africa and in the liberation of Europe lière increasingly found himself in disagreement
in Italy and France. Following World War II, he with his superior in Saigon, Jean Valluy and his
left for Indochina with the 1st Regiment of Naval subordinate and chief of staff, Colonel Pierre
Fusiliers. Admiral Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu Debès. The latter and Valluy shared Georges
awarded him in Saigon the Croix de la libération Thierry d’Argenlieu’s open hostility for the
on 11 November 1946. Morel faithfully served DRV. Friction came into the open when Morlière
Thierry d’Argenlieu in 1945–1946. He left his tried to prevent Debès’s hard-handed occupation
regiment in July 1947. While he apparently of Haiphong in November 1946. The latter, how-
remained in Indochina, the details of Morel’s ever, had acted in Haiphong upon direct orders
precise activities remain unclear. from Valluy.

Moret, André. Head of the Tonkin Section of Morlière’s desire to reach a peaceful settlement
the Direction de la Police et de la Sûreté générale displeased Valluy, Debès, and Thierry d’Argenlieu,
and in northern Annam between December 1945 all of whom increasingly sidelined Morlière in their
and November 1948. Little else is known of his plans and contacts with the Vietnamese. When
activities in Indochina. See also SÛRETÉ FÉ- colonel Julien Fonde reported on Ho Chi Minh
DÉRALE. and Vo Nguyen Giap’s refusal to accept any more
ultimatums in December 1946, Morlière responded
Morlière, Louis Constant (1897–1980). regretfully: “Yes, we are now headed for the irrepa-
One of the few ranking French military officers rable. I have said it. I have written it. You know it
opposed to the road leading to full-scale war in full well… Alas! They [the DRV Vietnamese] are
1946. Morlière fought in World War I in the 2nd now resolved [to fight], I feel. They will persevere
Colonial Infantry Regiment and graduated from and fortify their blockade. And blood will cement

MOUNTBATTEN 299

their unity [of purpose]”. On the basis of a recom- and sorrow of the Indochina War – The Mothers
mendation signed by General Philippe Leclerc, of Gio Linh. The song tells the true story of Viet-
Morlière left Indochina in February 1947, with a namese mothers whose sons – the commune head
full-blown colonial war now underway. Between Nguyen Duc Ky and teacher Nguyen Phi – were
November and January, he wrote several reports on beheaded by French Union soldiers in August
the Franco-Vietnamese crisis, some of which were 1948. Their severed heads were displayed along
leaked to the French press. public roads to strike fear into other villagers
tempted to support the Viet Minh. Both men
MORT EN FRAUDE. Rare French film critical were from Gio Linh village. During his service
of the war in Indochina made by Marcel Camus. in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Pham
Adapted from Jean Hougron’s novel of the same Duy allowed this song to be used for propaganda
name, Mort en Fraude tells the story of a young purposes. However, the song continues to be sung
Frenchman who debarks in Indochina around to this day both in Vietnam and among overseas
1950 only to fall victim to a smuggler’s scheme Vietnamese. See also ANTICOLONIALISM;
before realizing that his suffering is nothing com- BORIS VIAN; CAM LY, MASSACRE; EXPERI-
pared to that of the Vietnamese who have long ENCE OF WAR; MARTYR; MY THUY, MAS-
been victimized by colonialism. The Frenchman SACRE; MYTH OF WAR; TORTURE.
throws in his lot with the local resistance, discov-
ers Vietnamese nationalism, and, in so doing, him- Mountbatten, Louis, Lord (1900–1979).
self. Camus became much better known in France Served as the head of the British South East Asia
and abroad for his next film, Black Orpheus. See Command responsible for accepting the Japanese
also CINEMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF surrender in much of Southeast Asia and in charge
VIETNAM; CINEMA, FRANCE; CULTURE; of occupying the southern half of former French
NOVELS. Indochina below the 16th parallel in accordance
with decisions made at the Potsdam conference.
Motais de Narbonne, Léon (1906–1971). Son of the German Prince Louis de Battenberg,
Career colonial civil servant in Indochina. He first Mountbatten was the Anglicization of the family
studied law in Aix-en-Provence before special- name. Mountbatten began his career as a naval
izing in colonial law in the Colonial Academy officer in 1916 during World War I. In 1939,
(École coloniale) in Paris. He arrived in Saigon in he received his first important command, the
1932, where he made his career in the Indochinese destroyer Kelly, which was sunk off the coast
colonial administration. Little is known of his of Crete in 1941. Churchill named him chief
activities during World War II. After the war, he of Combined Operations in the Armed Forces
remained in Indochina where he served as general in 1941. Mountbatten organized the disastrous
delegate for the Red Cross. In 1948, he became raid on Dieppe in August 1942, but would ap-
advisor to the French Union for the Associated ply the lessons learned from this experience to
States of Indochina. In 1952, he represented the the planning of the successful Allied Landing at
interests of the French résident within the Council Normandy in 1944. In September 1943, he was
of the French Republic. Motais was an ardent named supreme commander of Allied Forces
believer in the French Union and supporter of in South East Asia. He was in charge of British
the Associated States of Indochina in collabora- troops sent to accept the Japanese capitulation in
tion with the French. However, the meltdown of former French Indochina below the 16th parallel
the French presence in Indochina following the from September 1945 to early March 1946. He
debacle at Dien Bien Phu left him bitter and dis- absolved himself of any further responsibility at
enchanted, although he continued to represent in this date upon learning that the French General
France the interests of French residents in the Far Philippe Leclerc was preparing an imminent in-
East. See also FRANÇAIS D’INDOCHINE. vasion of northern Indochina by shipping forces
from the south to the north. Mountbatten played
MOTHERS OF GIO LINH. Upon returning to a pivotal role in negotiating the independence of
Vietnam in 2005, the Vietnamese singer and song India in 1947, as well as that of Burma. See also
writer, Pham Duy, travelled to central Vietnam to 23 SEPTEMBER 1945; 19 DECEMBER 1946;
retrace the steps that had first led him to compose DOUGLAS GRACEY; JEAN CÉDILE.
one of his most powerful songs on the violence

300 MOUTET

Moutet, Marius (1876–1968). Ranking lead- line during the Fontainebleau Conference that
er of the Section française de l’Internationale ended in failure in September 1946. If the French
ouvrière in France, a defender of human rights, were to let go in Vietnam, he reasoned, then they
but also one of the most dedicated colonial minds would soon be forced to do so in the rest of the
of the 3rd and 4th Republics. He founded the first Empire. The MRP supported colonial federalism
section of the Ligue des droits de l’homme in with the French at the helm, but not decoloniza-
Lyon in 1914 and fought for more political rights tion along national lines, not even within a com-
for the “indigenous” in Algeria and dreamed of a monwealth. However, by owing so much to the
“democratic colonization”. He served as minister person of Charles de Gaulle, Bidault and others
of the Colonies in 1936–1938. During this time, found it hard to reverse or to adjust the former’s
he implemented many reformist measures in the orders to restore French colonial rule over Viet-
colonies, outlawing forced labor, freeing scores of nam for fear of undermining their fragile domestic
political prisoners in Indochina, and even naming base and nationalist credentials.
the first black man as colonial governor of Guade-
loupe, Félix Eboué. In 1940, following the Ger- The MRP’s support of the aggressive High
man defeat of the French, Moutet was one of 84 Commissioner Thierry d’Argenlieu in Indochina,
deputies who refused to vote in favor of according the party’s inability to grasp the historical reality
“full powers” to Philippe Pétain. As a result, Mou- of decolonization, and its hardline reactions to
tet was sidelined from the Vichy regime. After Ho Chi Minh’s attempts to negotiate a peaceful
World War II, he served as minister of Overseas solution in 1946 all contributed to the outbreak of
France in several governments. During this time, full-scale war on 19 December 1946. The MRP
he met with Ho Chi Minh in an attempt to head continued to adopt a tough position on the war
off war, but to no avail. During his fact-finding throughout the duration of the conflict. Rather
mission to Indochina on behalf of Léon Blum in than resuming negotiations with Ho Chi Minh,
late December 1946 and January 1947, Georges the party’s leadership supported the Bao Dai So-
Thierry d’Argenlieu prevented the Democratic lution, granting to the former emperor what had
Republic of Vietnam (DRV) from presenting to been refused to Ho Chi Minh: national unity and
Moutet their side of the story behind the outbreak independence. The problem, however, was that
of war on 19 December 1946. And now at war, this French party was also opposed to granting real
Moutet was not particularly determined to sound independence to the Associated State of Vietnam,
out the Vietnamese. The renewal of talks would something which further compromised the possi-
have to wait. He supported military operations. bility of reaching a viable non-communist nation-
See also 23 SEPTEMBER 1945; 19 DECEMBER alist solution. See also ASSOCIATED STATES
1946; ACCORDS OF 6 MARCH 1946; MODUS OF INDOCHINA; GENEVA ACCORDS.
VIVENDI.
MUNE. Collaborator with Prince Phetxarāt in
MOUVEMENT RÉPUBLICAIN POPULAIRE Thailand who joined Prince Suphānuvong and
(MRP). In 1945–1946, the MRP participated in his Vietnamese backers following the dissolution
a French coalition government (with the social- of the Lao Issara in 1949. Born in the Ban Keun
ists and communists). The MRP strongly opposed region of Vientiane province, Mune began his ca-
the decolonization of Indochina, supported the reer in the colonial bureaucracy in the Garde des
maintenance of the Empire, and backed Admiral eaux et forêts during the interwar period. Little is
Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu’s heavy-handed known about his activities during World War II.
policies in Vietnam in 1945–1946 to re-establish He joined the Lao Issara government in October
colonial authority over Indochina, lost after the 1945 and followed the government into exile in
Japanese coup de force of 9 March 1945. Thailand following the return of the French in
Georges Bidault was its most important leader mid-1946. He collaborated closely with Prince
during the Indochina War, serving as president Phetxarāt in Thailand, but crossed over to Prince
and minister of Foreign Affairs during the crucial Suphānuvong’s entourage upon the dissolution of
period between June and December 1946. Like the Lao Issara in 1949. He followed Suphānuvong
Charles de Gaulle, Bidault was convinced that to northern Vietnam to rebuild a new Lao Issara
the Empire had and would continue to make movement in association with the Vietnamese. In
France “grande”, leading Bidault to adopt a hard August 1950, Mune participated in the congress
that created the Lao Resistance Government and

MUS 301

a new national front. Between 1950 and 1954, he Vietnamese nationalism he witnessed. It marked
was apparently active in the area west of Vientiane. a turning in his thinking. While he remained a
See also COLLABORATION; CROSSOVER. colonial humanist, he began to factor the reality
of Vietnamese nationalism into his thinking. Back
MƯỜI CÚC. See NGUYỄN VǍN LINH. in Paris, he became political advisor to General
Philippe Leclerc and accompanied him during
MƯỜI HƯƠNG. See TRẦN QUỐC HƯƠNG. the French reoccupation of southern Vietnam. In
1946, Mus returned to Paris and began warning
Mus, Paul (CAILLE, 1902–1969). French spe- French politicians of the dangers of not taking
cialist in Asian cultures and one of the few intellec- Vietnamese nationalism seriously. But de Gaulle
tuals to speak out against the war in Indochina at brushed him away saying that “We will return
the time. The son of a school teacher and colonial to Indochina because we are stronger”. Between
educator in Indochina, Mus grew up and worked 1946 and 1950, Mus served as director of the
in Vietnam until World War II. After graduat- École nationale de la France d’Outre-mer, the
ing from the Lycée Albert Sarraut in Hanoi, he former Colonial Academy (École coloniale). In
completed his studies in France under the French December 1946, he joined the prestigious Col-
philosopher, pacificist, and his godfather, Alain. lège de France, holding the Chair in Civilisation
Mus’s father was a Freemason and Mus may well d’Extrême-Orient. In April 1947, Émile Bollaert
have been one, too. Between 1921 and 1925, Mus charged Mus with delivering what amounted to an
obtained his undergraduate degree in philosophy ultimatum to Ho Chi Minh. Mus traveled to the
and then began a career in Asian studies at the remote headquarters of the Democratic Republic
École pratique des hautes études and joined the of Vietnam (DRV) in the hills of Tonkin. Ho Chi
École française d’Extrême-Orient as a permanent Minh refused the French demands, telling Mus on
member in 1929. His subjects of research were as 11 May: “si nous acceptions cela, nous serions
wide ranging as his interdisciplinary approach. He des lâches. Dans l’Union française, il n’y a pas
published a monumental study of Borobudur in de place pour les lâches”.
1935, analyzed the meaning of temples at Ang-
kor, and traveled into Cham territories in central During the late 1940s, Mus became increasing-
Vietnam. Mobilized in 1939, he saw brief but ly frustrated by and critical of French policy to-
intense combat in France in 1940. Following the wards Vietnam. The breaking point came between
armistice, Vichy named him in 1941 Director of August 1949 and January 1950 when he wrote a
Education for French West Africa, a post he held series of essays critical of French colonial policy
until 1943. and the use of torture in Indochina in the pages
Following the Allied landing in North Africa, of the progressive Christian paper, Témoignage
Free French forces made him a lieutenant and Chrétien. This cost him his job at the colonial
sent him to Asia in light of his knowledge of academy and coincided with his decision to take
Vietnamese and Indochina. He arrived in India up a teaching position in Southeast Asian studies
under the code name caille (quail) and served in at Yale University, where he alternated with teach-
a commando unit preparing to be dropped into ing at the Collège de France. In 1952, he published
Indochina under François de Langlade, a repre- his classic study of the (mainly DRV) Vietnamese
sentative of Charles de Gaulle in the Far East. and their revolution, Viêt-Nam: Sociologie d’une
In January 1945, Mus parachuted into southern guerre and followed it up with a little-known book
Laos and made his way to Hanoi as head of a psy- on the French colonial mind, entitled Le destin de
chological warfare unit for the French resistance l’Union française: de l’Indochine à l’Afrique,
in Indochina. His mission was to make contact published in 1954 as the French colonial empire
with Vietnamese elites to strengthen the internal in Indochina came tumbling down.
resistance in Indochina. He met Admiral Jean
Decoux but hardly had time to build up resistance His impact upon the American anti-war move-
networks before the Japanese struck. Indeed, Mus ment during the Vietnam War would turn out to
barely escaped from Hanoi during the Japanese be greater than his influence in France during the
coup de force of 9 March 1945. Indochina War. Frances Fitzgerald’s Fire in the
As he was making his way into the country- Lake was inspired by Mus’s work. She dedicated
side, he was deeply moved by the outpouring of her Pulitzer Prize-winning book to the former
head of the French Colonial Academy. Together
with Philippe Devillers, Mus was one of the

302 MUTINY

first to write and teach about contemporary Viet- MYTH OF WAR, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
namese history in France and the United States OF VIETNAM. To this day, communist party ac-
in the wake of World War II. Mus, however, had counts of the Indochina war focus on the heroism
little to say about the communist core driving the of the combatants and the glorious victory that
DRV; nationalism and colonialism were his post they achieved on the battlefields leading to Dien
World War II research subjects. See also ALGE- Bien Phu on 7 May 1954. For the Democratic
RIAN WAR; ANTICOLONIALISM; BERNARD Republic of Vietnam, the victory of Dien Bien
FALL; ESPRIT; JEAN CHESNEAUX; PAUL Phu is a vital chapter in the party’s inevitable
LEVY; PUBLIC OPINION. march towards complete victory in 1975 (nhat
dinh thang loi) and an integral part of its national-
MUTINY. See COURT MARTIAL. ist legitimacy.
With almost a million and a half dead by 1975,
MỸ THỦY, MASSACRE. According to Vietnam- the party has confirmed George Mosse’s myth of
ese sources and direct witnesses, in early 1948, the experience of war by creating an elaborate
French Union ground and naval forces opened national cult in honour of its “fallen soldiers”,
fire on and bombed the village of My Thuy lo- complete with shrines for martyrs, war cemeter-
cated on the coast of Quang Tri province, killing ies, and monuments. Through an array of official
a total of 562 villagers, including women and publications, school textbooks, and documenta-
children. French Union paratroopers then went ries, the party not only defines but also controls
on a shooting rampage in the village while naval the meaning of the war.
assault forces used heavy cannons to flatten much To challenge the heroic myth of war in com-
of what was left of the village. It remained largely munist Vietnam is thus to invite the wrath of the
abandoned until 1975. As at My Lai during the leadership. And yet a veteran of the Vietnam War,
American War, the scale of the massacre left an Bao Ninh, did just that in 1991, when he dared to
indelible scar on the village and poses enormous write of the “sorrow” of war and the indescribable
existential problems to this day for the survivors suffering it inflicted upon soldiers and civilians.
and their families. After 1975, with the end of the Instead of speaking of heroism, Bao Ninh spoke
second Indochina War, villagers decided to build of the ugliness of war, the bloody dismemberment
a small temple and altar in memory of those who of comrades hit by American shells. He even ques-
had perished in My Thuy. It also serves as a sacred tioned whether the party’s wars were worth it all
place to perform rituals to soothe the spirits of in the end as communism gave way to capitalism
those who had been killed but whose souls con- in the early 1990s. Caught off guard by one of its
tinue to roam the land. While apparently reluctant own soldiers, the party lashed out, aghast that this
at first to support such religious activities, Viet- heroic soldier could speak of such things, but wor-
namese communist authorities have since realized ried that his account could undermine the leader-
the importance of patronizing such important ship’s control over the meaning of the war. Thirty
local initiatives for the sake of their own political years earlier, another veteran, Tran Dan, had
legitimacy. In 2001, the Ministry of Culture and tried to describe something of the “reality” of the
Information officially recognized My Thuy vil- battle violence he had witnessed as a soldier-artist
lage as a national monument and in 2005 the at Dien Bien Phu. With an eye on the competing
government invested 500 million dong to create Vietnam taking form in the south after the Geneva
a temple on the site where the massacre occurred. Accords, the party made sure that his account
This temple allows those who lost loved ones to of Dien Bien Phu, published in 1955, stayed on
perform the needed religious rituals of ancestor nationalist cue. When he began to stray, the party
worship. It also serves as a powerful local site of shut him down for thirty years.
memory symbolizing the sorrow generated by the Until very recently, to write about the “real”
Indochina War. See also CAM LY, MASSACRE; face of war in Vietnam, above all that of the his-
CASUALTIES; CEMETERIES; EXPERIENCE toric battle of Dien Bien Phu, is to challenge the
OF WAR; HÉRAULT, MASSACRE; MARTYR; most powerful myth of the regime – heroic, sa-
MYTH OF WAR; NECROPOLIS, FRÉJUS; cred, patriotic resistance (cuoc khang chien than
TORTURE. thanh). See also CAO BANG; EXPERIENCE
OF WAR, DIEN BIEN PHU; MYTH OF WAR,
FRANCE; NASAN.

MYTH OF WAR 303

MYTH OF WAR, FRANCE. In France, veterans latter put it to the Association nationale des anciens
of the Indochina War and veteran associations and d’Indochine on the meaning of Dien Bien Phu and
their families have been actively involved in defin- his film on it 40 years later: “tout était donc perdu.
ing the meaning of the Indochina War. No sooner Alors, dans un ultime sursaut, des centaines et des
had the Indochina conflict ended in 1954 than a centaines d’hommes obscurs et ordinaires vinrent,
small but highly influential group of veterans non pour redresser une situation désormais sans
adopted the themes of “tragedy” and “abandon- espoir, mais pour maintenir jusqu’au bout et le
ment” by the government in order to sacralize the plus haut possible quelque chose qui ressemblait
soldier and by extension the army’s “heroic” and à une certaine idée de la France”.
“noble” role in the Indochina War. Writers, most
notably Jean Lartéguy, had developed the idea It is this “certain idea of France”, an all too
of “les centurions”, the title of one of his legend- obvious allusion to Charles de Gaulle’s national-
ary semi-fictional novels, who soldiered on nobly ist justification to fight on in 1940 for the “real
against all hope in France’s long wars of decoloni- France”, that provides the nationalist source for
zation. Roger Delpey popularized the idea further this mythic reading of the Indochina War. In the
in Soldats de la boue, a series of romans de gares 1980s, as the American government stepped up
in which he celebrated France’s heroic, forgotten its search for the missing in action and Ronald
soldiers. Other authors never hesitated to evoke Reagan led the charge to recast the American
the idea of a government stab in the back. commitment to Vietnam as a noble effort, veteran
No one man has contributed more to popular- associations in France mobilized, multiplied, and
izing the “noble” meaning of the army’s role in pushed for wider official and public recognition
France’s colonial wars than Pierre Schoendo- of their cause and its positive role in the French
erffer, novelist, film producer, “Indo” veteran, nation. Monuments emerged in France and even
and a former member of the army’s official pho- in communist Vietnam honoring the sacrifice of
tographic service during the conflict. To Schoen- the army. These veterans associations latched on
doerffer, the soldiers of France’s colonial wars to the Boudarel affair in the early 1990s in order
were unsung heroes, who had been sacrificed by to make their case and advance their cause, not
inept politicians and abandoned. Heroic tragedy is without considerable success. Leading the charge
Schoendoerffer’s favorite theme. When asked what against Georges Boudarel was Erwan Bergot, a
he felt about the Indochina debacle, he replied: novelist, nationalist, and veteran of the Indochina
La honte. La rage d’avoir été abandonné par la War. Like the Vietnamese myth of war, this French
France. This message comes through clearly in the one does not seek to question or understand the
317ème section; the entire film is focused on a lone reasons for the French involvement in the Indo-
combat unit desperately trying to escape annihila- china or Algerian Wars. That is not what myths
tion as its French commanders learn of the fall of are designed to do. See also ANTI-COLON­
Dien Bien Phu. Anti-communist, Schoendoerffer IALISM; ASSOCIATION NATIONALE DES
declared in 1984 that he would never return to ANCIENS D’INDOCHINE ET DU SOUVENIR
Vietnam because of what happened. He did, how- INDOCHINOIS; ASSOCIATION NATIONALE
ever, in order to film Dien Bien Phu in 1992, yet DES ANCIENS ET AMIS DE L’INDOCHINE ET
another heroic commemoration of the besieged DU SOUVENIR INDOCHINOIS; ASSOCIATION
French men fighting on during the battle of Dien NATIONALE DES ANCIENS PRISONNIERS ET
Bien Phu. At the heart of his reflection, however, INTERNÉS D’INDOCHINE; ASSOCIATION NA-
is an ardent desire to legtimate military defeat and TIONALE DES COMBATTANTS DE DIEN BIEN
erase humiliation by recasting it in national terms PHU; ASSOCIATION OF MOTHERS OF SOL-
as a sacred sacrifice. DIERS; COMICS AND WAR; EXPERIENCE
A variety of veteran associations share his point OF WAR; MARCEL BIGEARD; MISSING IN
of view and Schoendoerffer’s efforts to cast the ACTION; REMAINS; PIERRE LANGLAIS;
Indochina War in tragic yet purifying terms. As the WAR MEMORIAL, DIEN BIEN PHU.

N

NA SAN, BATTLE OF. In late 1952, in a bid to study the fortified camp carefully. Indeed, the
block the advance of the Democratic Republic lessons of Na San served the DRV well when the
of Vietnam’s (DRV) army into northwestern French decided, in the following year, to set up “a
Vietnam and Laos, General Raoul Salan trans- super Na San” not too far away, in a valley named
formed Na San, a small upland village located Dien Bien Phu. What General Henri Navarre
along the Lao border, into a major entrenched (and others) did not anticipate was that the Viet-
position. Some 20,000 men were transferred to namese would deliver their artillery to Dien Bien
Na San to turn it into a “usine de guerre fabuleuse Phu and knock out the French airstrip early on. For
pour l’époque”. At the height of the work, Da- both the French and the Vietnamese, Na San and
kota planes were landing or taking off every 15 Dien Bien Phu were thus closely intertwined. As
minutes. The French dug trenches, installed heavy one French analyst has correctly described French
artillery, and built an airbase to supply the camp strategy: “Dien Bien Phu est inscrit dans Na San”.
from afar. A defensive fortress, supplied by air, No Vietnamese military historian worth his mettle
was thus waiting for the Vietnamese when they would disagree. For Na San was an integral part of
attacked. DRV preparations for Dien Bien Phu.
General Vo Nguyen Giap was confident that
he could take the isolated camp and consolidate NAISON SICHAN. See NGÔ THẤT SƠN.
his hold over strategically important Tai regions in
northwestern Vietnam and northern Laos. He had NAM. See TÔ KÝ.
taken Nghia Lo from the French earlier that year;
he counted on doing the same at Na San. How- NĂM BI. See HỒ THỊ BI.
ever, his intelligence services failed to provide
him with accurate information on the new type NAM BỘ. See COCHINCHINA.
of defensive war Salan was preparing for him in
Na San. On 30 November, Vo Nguyen Giap sent NAM CAO (1919–1951). Vietnamese intel-
waves of his troops from the 308th and 312th divi- lectual who ardently defended the cause of the
sions against the camp. He was shocked by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the
ferocity of the French reponse. Enemy artillery Indochina War. Nam Cao distinguished himself
and aerial bombing decimated his men attacking in the 1940s for his realist and psychologically
under the cover of night. Indeed, French artillery nuanced descriptions of the daily life and world
fired 5,600 mortars alone during the night of 30 of the Vietnamese peasants and local teachers
November–1 December. No sooner had the battle in northern Vietnam. He also became a militant
started than Giap had to call it off on 2 December communist during this time and put his cultural
1952. The Vietnamese lacked the artillery they and literary talents in the service of the Indochi-
needed to knock out such a fortified position. Nor nese Communist Party and the fight against the
did they have the logistical capacities to transport French. While he continued to write works of lit-
large quantities of such artillery to the battlefield. erary value, he also took an active part in the war
Vo Nguyen Giap also realized that his inability to on the propaganda front. While on a mission to
take out the airstrip meant that the French could mobilize populations behind enemy lines in 1951,
continue to supply the camp. Instead of taking Na he died during an enemy ambush.
San, the Vietnamese simply decided to go around
it and a few months later Salan pulled his troops NĂM ĐẠO. See HOÀNG MINH ĐÀO.
out of Na San.
While Na San was a crushing defeat, the DRV NĂM ĐỜI. See HOÀNG MINH ĐÀO.
also learned precious lessons. Vo Nguyen Giap
sent intelligence teams back to the battlefield to NAM HÙNG. See NGUYỄN CHÍ THANH.

NATIONAL DEFENSE REVIEW 305

NAM KỲ. See COCHINCHINA. was a horrifying experience. As Ngo Van Chieu
described his platoon’s first experience with it in
NǍM LỬA. See TRẦN VǍN SOÁI. early 1951: “Hell first came in the form of ovide
containers dropped by the first and then by a sec-
NAM PHƯƠNG (1914–1963). Wife of Bao Dai ond plane. Then, in an instant, an immense wall
and Empress of Vietnam until 1945. A French of fire running for hundred of meters terrorized
national and Catholic, her full name was Marie- my men. That’s napalm! Fire that falls from the
Thérèse Nguyen Huu Thi Lan. Born in Go Cong sky… Was that an atomic bomb, asked one of my
province in southern Vietnam, she studied at the men, his pupils dilated by fear. No, it’s napalm!”
Couvent des Oiseaux in Dalat. In 1934, she mar- During the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the French
ried Bao Dai and adopted the dynastic name of used American-supplied “Flying Boxcar” C-119s
Nam Phuong (the Southern Direction). The couple to drop more than six tons of napalm on enemy
had five children: Crown Prince Bao Long, Phu- communication lines and targets located around
ong Mai, Phuong Lien, Phuong Dung, and Bao the battlefield.
Thang. In 1939, despite the Vatican’s opposition
to her marriage with a non-Catholic, she visited NATIONAL ANTHEM, DEMOCRATIC RE-
Rome and met the pope in an official audience. PUBLIC OF VIETNAM. Nguyen Van Cao first
With the advent of the Democratic Republic of wrote what became the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam, she and her husband initially supported Vietnam’s (DRV) national anthem in 1944 in a
the new Vietnamese government when Bao Dai secret hideout in the north. He refined it and pub-
abdicated. In early 1946, when Admiral Georges lished it in the Viet Minh’s clandestine newspaper,
Thierry d’Argenlieu offered to restore the mon- Doc Lap, as Tien Quan Ca (March to the Front). It
archy in exchange for their collaboration, she was used during the August Revolution in Hanoi
apparently sent his emissaries packing. In January in 1945, became the official national anthem of
1947, she escaped with her children from Hue, as the DRV in 1946, and was used in government
war between the French and the DRV engulfed the Inter-Zones throughout the Indochina War. Tien
imperial capital. They went to live in Dalat before Quan Ca became the national anthem for all of
rejoining Bao Dai in Hong Kong. Later in 1947, Vietnam following the DRV’s reunification of the
she and the children moved to Chateau Thorenz country under Hanoi’s communist rule in 1976.
near Cannes. In 1963, she died of a heart attack in
Cabrignac, France. NATIONAL ANTHEM, REPUBLIC OF VIET-
NAM. The origins of the national anthem of
NĂM THU. See HOÀNG MINH ĐÀO. the Republic of Vietnam are to be found in the
marching song Appeal to the Youth (Tieng Goi
NAM TIẾN. See ADVANCE SOUTHERN Thanh Nien), composed by Luu Huu Phuoc. The
UNITS. Tran Trong Kim government declared indepen-
dent by the Japanese after the overthrow of the
NAM XUÂN. See MAI CHÍ THỌ. French in March 1945 first used it as its national
anthem. Even though Luu Huu Phuoc went on
NAPALM. Derived from the combination of the to become a member of the Viet Minh and the
words “naphthene” and “palmitate”, napalm is a Vietnamese Worker’s Party, the Republic of
highly incendiary jelly which the Americans de- Vietnam decided in 1955 to keep the song as its
veloped and began to deliver by air as incendiary national anthem on the grounds that it remained a
bombs during World War II. From 1950, thanks national asset and that Luu Huu Phuoc was not a
to supplies from the Americans, the French Air communist when he first composed the song.
Force began using napalm bombs in Indochina
against the armed forces of the Democratic Re- NATIONAL DEFENSE REVIEW (Quốc Phòng
public of Vietnam, though civilians were often Toàn Dân). The official military review of the
victims of its use. Napalm not only burns its People’s Army of Vietnam under the control of
targets, but it also deoxygenates the area within the Ministry of Defense and the Central Party
its zone, often causing death to humans and Military Committee (Quan Uy). It first came to
animals by asphyxiation. Vietnamese sources life in April 1948 under the name Quan Su Tap San
have long revealed that the French use of napalm and then Quan Chinh Tap San. In August 1957, it

306 NATIONAL MILITARY ACADEMY

became officially known as the Vietnamese Army he was named lieutenant general and ran the Gen-
Review (Tap Chi Quan Doi Nhan Dan). It kept eral Staff for Marshal Alphonse Juin in charge of
that name until April 1988, when it became Quoc Allied Forces in Central Europe.
Phong Toan Dan.
When French authorities began to look for a
NATIONAL MILITARY ACADEMY, ASSOCI- younger, more dynamic officer to replace General
ATED STATE OF VIETNAM. See academy, Raoul Salan in Indochina, premier René Mayer
associated state of vietnam. selected Navarre for the job. In May 1953, Na-
varre became commander of French armed forces
NATIONAL SALVATION ARMY (Cứu Quốc in Indochina. Navarre devised a plan, approved by
Quân). This small militia came to life in 1941 the government, to create the necessary military
after the failed Bac Son uprising in northern conditions in Indochina to allow the government
Vietnam. Under the leadership of the Indochinese to negotiate an end to the war from a position
Communist Party (ICP), it operated at the squad- of strength. At the heart of Navarre’s plan was
ron level and was more involved in protecting operation Atlante, designed to retake much of
party leaders and obtaining food from villagers central Vietnam from the adversary. However,
than in conducting serious military manoeuvres. when the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s
Chu Van Tan was the driving force behind the forces seemed determined to take Laos, Navarre
National Salvation Army. decided to block them by digging in at Dien Bien
Phu. While Dien Bien Phu was second in impor-
NATIONAL SALVATION NEWSPAPER (Báo tance to central Vietnam for Navarre, he remained
Cứu Quốc). On 21 January 1942, this paper nonetheless determined to use the valley to break
became the official mouthpiece for the General the Vietnamese army if it dared to attack the en-
Directorate of the Viet Minh (Tong Bo Viet Minh) trenched camp as had happened during the battle
for which the provisional general secretary of the of Na San.
Indochinese Communist Party, Truong Chinh,
was directly responsible. At the outset, it was Navarre erred badly by underestimating his
secretly published in Ha Dong in the office of enemy and by overestimating his own tactics
the Party’s Territorial Committee for Tonkin (Xu and strategy. It cost him the battle when the
Uy Bac Ky). With the advent of the Democratic Vietnamese, supported by the Chinese, delivered
Republic of Vietnam in September 1945, it was the artillery to positions surrounding Dien Bien
published in Hanoi. Xuan Thuy replaced Truong Phu, calibrated it with devastating effectiveness,
Chinh to run the paper from this point. Other and took out the vital airstrip. On 7 May 1954,
members of the editorial team included Tran Huy the French camp fell to the Vietnamese. In June
Lieu, Nhu Phong, Xuan Dieu and Pham Van Hao. 1954, Navarre lost his job in Indochina when
General Paul Ely replaced him. Navarre returned
Navarre, Henri EUGÈNE (1898–1983). to France in June 1954 and retired from the army
French general who made the decision to fight in 1956, humiliated and bitter. He published a
at Dien Bien Phu. Graduated from Saint-Cyr in defense of his actions in Agonie de l’Indochine.
1917, Navarre served on the Western Front during See also DIEN BIEN PHU, BATTLE PREPARA-
World War I. He made his career as a specialist TION AND CONTEXT; GENEVA ACCORDS;
of Germany in the intelligence services and in NAVARRE PLAN.
the colonial army in Africa. In 1940, he worked
as head of the 2nd Office for General Weygand NAVARRE PLAN. The Navarre Plan owes its
in North Africa before crossing over to Free name to Henri Navarre, the general the Joseph
French forces under General Jean de Lattre de Laniel government selected to take over in Indo-
Tassigny. Navarre was named colonel in March china until an acceptable negotiated settlement
1944 and commanded French occupation forces could be reached to end the war in Indochina.
in Germany between 1945 and 1948. Transferred Laniel’s Prime Minister René Mayer was a strong
to Algeria, he commanded the Division of Con- believer in strengthening France’s role in Europe
stantine between 1948 and 1949. Named major and the Atlantic community; the Indochina War
general in 1950, he returned to Germany in 1952 had diverted France’s attention from this prior-
as deputy commander of French Forces. In 1952, ity. Financially, France could no longer afford to
undertake a war in Indochina and contribute to
European defense at the same time. An “honor-

NAVY 307

able end” (une sortie honorable) to the Indochina It was in this context that Navarre surprised
War thus had to be reached. With this in mind, the Vietnamese, when he decided to commit
on 8 May 1953, the Laniel government named to a battle in remote Dien Bien Phu in order to
Navarre commander-in-chief of the armed forces block the DRV from taking Laos although that
in Indochina. The government instructed Navarre was never the latter’s strategic intention. Nor had
to create the necessary military conditions for an Navarre’s decision to occupy Dien Bien Phu been
acceptable political solution to the war. a part of his initial “plan”. His main objective
was and remained operation Atlante against Inter-
In this context, Navarre devised a plan for Zone V. What reassured Vo Nguyen Giap was
1953–1954 designed to avoid large-scale battles Navarre’s decision to deviate from his own initial
with the enemy in order to rebuild French Union plan to take on the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu
forces. In 1954–1955, the army would deliver and his simultaneous commitment to executing
decisive military blows to the army of the Demo- operation Atlante. In the Politburo’s view, opera-
cratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in order to tion Atlante only contributed to dispersing French
force the enemy to the negotiating table on terms forces away from what now became the DRV’s
favorable to the French. During the period of growing fixation on winning at Dien Bien Phu. Vo
1953–1954, Navarre decided to adopt a defen- Nguyen Giap was now determined to knock out
sive posture in the north and avoid engaging the the airbase, bring in the artillery needed to make
DRV’s main divisions, while moving much more it happen, and create the logistics needed to inflict
aggressively against weaker forces in southern a major battle defeat on the French at Dien Bien
and especially central Vietnam, which had been Phu before opening negotiations in Geneva. The
under enemy control since the start of the war in Politburo and National Assembly officially ap-
1945–1946. The Americans were involved in the proved land reform in December 1953, vital to
making of the plan and paid most of its bill, hop- mobilizing the troops and manpower to supply the
ing to keep the French in the war and containment battlefield for this showdown.
alive without having to commit troops themselves.
In July 1953, the French government approved On 13 May, hours after learning by radio that
the “Navarre Plan”. Upon arriving in Indochina, the French were attacking in central Vietnam,
Navarre focused his attention on the Red River Vo Nguyen Giap launched his attack. On 7 May
Delta and prepared his main offensive, operation 1954, the French camp at Dien Bien Phu fell to
Atlante, against DRV positions in Inter-Zone V DRV forces, while Navarre’s attempt to take back
(Lien Khu V). central Vietnam ended in failure. The Navarre
plan never got a second chance. The Geneva Ac-
In September 1953, thanks in part to the Chi- cords put a political end to the war on 21 July
nese, the DRV’s intelligence services acquired 1954.
a good understanding of the basic elements of
the Navarre Plan and the General Staff used NAVY, ASSOCIATED STATE OF VIETNAM.
it in preparing the 1953–1954 Winter Spring Like the army, the French Navy came under
Campaign. Ho Chi Minh concluded from this budgetary pressure to increase the number of Lao,
that Navarre was “massing his forces to occupy Cambodians, and especially Vietnamese in its
and hold the Tonkin lowlands, so we will force ranks. With the creation of the Associated State
him to disperse his forces out to other sectors so of Vietnam in 1949, the French were in a position
that we can annihilate them”. Indeed, rather than to push for the creation of a Vietnamese navy ca-
trying to attack the delta, where the French could pable of working with them. In 1951, the French
concentrate their artillery and air power easily on established a naval training center in Nha Trang
the attacking forces, the Politburo decided to dis- with the goal of training a Vietnamese river police
perse the French, taking advantage of the rougher force and coast guard. In 1952, the French initi-
terrain in northwest Tonkin and Laos. The idea ated a naval academy to train Vietnamese officers
was to disperse the French as much as possible in Nha Trang, while other candidates trained at the
by attacking towards the northwest at Lai Chau Naval Academy in France. In 1954, the Associated
and Phongsaly in Laos, then towards central and State of Vietnam’s navy counted 22 naval officers
southern Laos, even as far as northeast Cambodia. and 750 sailors, not a particularly large number
The third move would be to mobilize guerrillas compared to the some 10,000 French navy men
behind enemy lines. serving in Indochina. French naval officers con-

308 NAVY

tinued to oversee the Associated State’s fledgling Republic of Vietnam had no real navy of which
navy until the end of the war. The real take-off in to speak and because neither the Soviets nor the
the Vietnamese navy occurred under the Republic Chinese communists supported their Vietnamese
of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. ally by sea, the FMEO was never engaged in
classic naval battles during the entire Indochina
NAVY, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF VIET­ conflict. Instead, the navy focused on coastal
NAM. On 5 September 1949, the General Staff surveillance and transport, moving both by sea
of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and up Vietnam’s long coastlines or penetrat-
established a “Naval Studies Section” to begin ing into its myriad of rivers, canals, and coves.
work on creating a navy. The government in- The coastal surveillance operation, known as
structed this section to begin training officers in SURMAR (surveillance maritime), patrolled the
coastal and astronomical navigation and develop- Indochinese coast from Thai waters in the Gulf
ing maritime supply routes between southeastern of Siam to the Gulf of Tonkin bordering southern
China and eastern Vietnam. A special naval unit China. Its main goal was to stop the enemy’s
called “Company 71” traveled to south-eastern clandestine, inter-zonal traffic especially active
China in 1950–1951 to undergo intensive train- from departure points in the central Inter-Zones
ing. However, Chinese communist knowledge IV and V. Between 1948 and 1952, SURMAR’s
of modern naval techniques was spotty at best vessels inspected some 30,000 junks and sampans
and had never been a priority for Chinese com- and destroyed or confiscated more than 17,000 of
munists based since the 1930s deep inside China. them, taking 4,000 tons of rice, 2,500 tons of salt,
The People’s Republic of China thus provided 284 tons sugar as well as weapons and medicines.
little modern naval training at this point. Nor did The French Navy played a pivotal role in debark-
the Soviet Union. Back in Vietnam, Company 71 ing French troops in central and northern Vietnam
nonetheless initiated efforts to open water routes in 1946 as well as during the battle of Dien Bien
between southern China and Hainan and the bay Phu. Of the 10,400 air missions operated during
of Ha Long and central Vietnam. The results were the battle between 20 November 1953 and 8 May
very limited, however. The main Chinese supply 1954, 1,267 were flown by the French Navy. In
lines going to Vietnam remained overland ones. In April 1954, as the battle raged at Dien Bien Phu,
the end, naval operations remained rudimentary the Americans loaned the Belleau Wood aircraft
and focused on using Vietnam’s myriad of rivers carrier to the French, manned by French person-
and estuaries. The DRV Navy had no modern war nel. The French navy also helped transport tens
vessels at this time, and the French Navy, backed of thousands of Vietnamese leaving northern
increasingly by the US from 1950, monitored Vietnam for the south following the signing of the
effectively the South China Sea and the Gulf of Geneva Accords ending the war in July 1954. On
Siam. However, during the battle of Dien Bien 15 May 1955, the French navy evacuated the last
Phu, the DRV mobilized hundreds of river crafts French Union troops from northern Vietnam.
to transport rice, men, weapons, artillery and even
trucks to the frontlines. See also HO CHI MINH NECROPOLIS, FRÉJUS. In 1986, the French
TRAIL. and Vietnamese governments signed a protocol
for the repatriation of the remains of French
NAVY, FRENCH. The French naval force in Union soldiers killed in Vietnam between 1940
Indochina was referred to as the Forces mari- and 1954. On 10 October 1986, Jacques Chirac,
times d’Extrême Orient (FMEO). It was at first then prime minister, received at Roissy airport the
represented in Indochina by the aircraft car- first coffins carrying the remains of French Union
rier Arromanches, carrying the 3rd Carrier Assault Forces killed during the Indochina War. In all,
Squadron equipped with SB2C Helldivers and some thirty thousand remains were returned over
the 11th Carrier Fighter Squadron equipped with the next year or so. As a result, the French govern-
F6F Hellcats. The French navy also deployed six ment decided to create a necropolis in Fréjus to
heavy Privateer Bombers of Squadron 28F. Dur- receive, inhume, and memorialize many of these
ing the Indochina War, some 10,000 French Navy soldiers morts pour la France, as well as a select
men served mainly in Vietnam and by the end of number of civilians killed during the conflict.
the conflict in 1954 1,038 men had been killed or Officials ended up selecting the southern town of
were missing in action. Because the Democratic Fréjus because of its colonial past, having served

NEHRU 309

as the principle camp through which thousands of of a new Asian era. He even dreamed of creating
French troops had passed on their way to the colo- and leading an Asian Union. To this effect, he or-
nies since the 19th century. Fréjus was also home ganized the Inter-Asian Conference in New Delhi
to the Musée des troupes de la Marine. In 1993, in 1947 and another a few years later.
socialist President François Mitterand inaugurated
the National Necropolis at Fréjus. It is currently Of particular concern to him were Dutch and
home to the remains of 17,250 soldiers of diverse French attempts to restore their colonial control
nationalities of the former French Union. The over Indochina and Indonesia. In both cases,
remains of over 3,000 “unknown victims” rest Nehru expressed his sympathy for the Vietnamese
in the crypt inside the necropolis. The memorial and Indonesian nationalist movements. He was
belongs to the French state and is administered also distraught at the idea that the spread of the
by the state secretary to the Ministry of Defense Cold War into the region, especially with the
in charge of veteran’s affairs. The local chapter emergence of two Vietnams in January–February
of the veteran affairs in Marseille manages the 1950 and the outbreak of the Korean War a few
site. The final addition to the necropolis was the months later, would allow other non-Asian pow-
memorial wall, Mur du souvenir. Inscribed on it ers to interfere in what he felt should be a purely
are the names of the some 34,000 morts pour la Asian, postcolonial affair.
France whose bodies are not held in the necropo-
lis. This “wall of memory” was inspired by Maya Significantly, he took a much more active role
Lin’s Vietnam memorial in the United States. in support for the Indonesian war than he did for
See also ASSOCIATION NATIONALE DES the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV).
ANCIENS D’INDOCHINE ET DU SOUVENIR Despite the DRV’s plea for concrete Indian aid
INDOCHINOIS; ASSOCIATION NATIONALE against the French, Nehru would only concede
DES ANCIENS ET AMIS DE L’INDOCHINE ET “moral” support. He even made a point of allow-
DU SOUVENIR INDOCHINOIS; ASSOCIATION ing the French-backed Indochinese governments
NATIONALE DES ANCIENS PRISONNIERS to send delegates to the conferences he organized,
ET INTERNÉS D’INDOCHINE; ASSOCIATION thereby according them the same treatment as
NATIONALE DES COMBATTANTS DE DIEN the DRV. Part of the problem was that Nehru did
BIEN PHU; ASSOCIATION OF MOTHERS OF not want to undermine his negotiations with the
SOLDIERS; CEMETERIES; COMICS AND French over the return of Pondicherry. Part of the
WAR; EXPERIENCE OF WAR; MISSING IN problem was also the communist core running the
ACTION; MYTH OF WAR; REMAINS; WAR DRV, unlike the Indonesian Republicans fight-
MEMORIAL, DIEN BIEN PHU. ing the Dutch. Nowhere was this clearer than in
Nehru’s refusal to recognize diplomatically in
Nehru, jawaharlal (1889–1964). Indian 1950 either of the two Vietnams led by Ho Chi
statesman and supporter of a peaceful solution to Minh and Bao Dai. This allowed Nehru to renew
the Indochina War. Educated at Harrow School his calls for a peaceful settlement of the wars in
and at Trinity College, Cambridge, Nehru became Korea and in Indochina.
a lawyer in colonial India and worked in a co-
lonial high court. In 1918, he joined the Indian Indeed, during the Geneva Conference, Nehru
National Congress and, together with Mahatma agreed to play an increasingly important role in
Gandhi, transformed it into a major Indian inde- ensuring peace. During the conference, he met
pendence party. During the interwar period, he privately with Zhou Enlai at a crucial meeting in
met a number of Vietnamese leaders, including late June to support China’s move to neutralize
the constitutionalists Bui Quang Chieu and Duong non-communist Asia against the Americans in ex-
Van Giao. The British arrested and imprisoned change for a Chinese promise not to export com-
Nehru on numerous occasions for his nationalist munism outside their borders and to recognize the
activities. Following World War II, he negotiated royal governments of Laos and Cambodia. Nehru
India’s independence with the British and, after also agreed that India would be willing to join a
partition and creation of Pakistan, became India’s commission to control a cease-fire. Consequently,
first prime minister in 1947, a post he held until India joined Poland and Canada as the three
1964. As decolonization moved through the re- members of the International Commission for
gion, Nehru sought to position India at the center Supervision and Control in Vietnam. In part
because of the Indochinese question, Nehru inten-
sified his efforts with others in the region to carve
out a “non-aligned” course of action. In 1955, he

310 NER

co-organized with Indonesian President Sukarno as a respected ethnologist, publishing works on
the Bandung Conference. It was no accident that the Cham in central Vietnam.
this historic meeting occurred less than a year
after the signing of the Geneva Accords. On 17 NEUTRALIZATION OF INDOCHINA. To
October 1954, Nehru visited Hanoi for the first different degrees, the Chinese, Soviets, British,
time. See also BURMA; NEUTRALIZATION Indians, and the French were the biggest defend-
OF INDOCHINA. ers of the “neutralization” of Indochina during
the Geneva Conference of 1954. Since 1950,
Ner, Marcel. French educator in Indochina the leaders of India, Indonesia, and Burma
who became a vocal critic of the French war had refused to recognize diplomatically either of
in Vietnam. Graduated a certified educator in the two Vietnams led by Ho Chi Minh and Bao
philosophy (agrégé) in 1925, he began teaching Dai. All were wary of allying themselves in the
this subject in Indochina in August 1926 at the Cold War now making its way violently into the
Lycée Albert Sarraut. The future Vietnamese region via Korea and northern Vietnam. Chinese
General Vo Nguyen Giap was one of his pupils and Vietnamese communist talk of spreading
in the 1930s; the two remained in contact during revolution further into the region did little to reas-
the difficult times of 1945–1946. In the early sure Indians, Burmese, and Indonesians, nor did
1930s, Ner closely followed Vietnamese socio- American pressure on them to join with the West
political debates, published articles to this effect to “contain” communism.
in France-Indochine, and transmitted a political By 1953, however, Chinese strategists had
petition (cahier de voeux) written by Pham Quynh begun to revise their hostile attitude to these non-
and Pham Huy Luc to the colonial government in communist Asian states. The reluctance of the
1931. Like Pham Quynh and Pham Huy Luc, Ner latter to throw in their lot with the West held out
was also a Freemason. His research focused on the hope that the Chinese could tap into decolo-
upland peoples in Indochina and he thrived on his nization and anti-colonialism in order to improve
collaboration with scholars at the École fran- relations with these states, and thereby thwart
çaise d’Extrême-Orient in the 1930s, including American attempts to turn them against Beijing
Paul Mus. on anti-communist grounds. Chinese negotiators
During the Japanese coup de force of 9 March arriving in Geneva were particularly determined
1945, Ner escaped from Tam Dao with a dozen to reach an accord on Indochina that would pre-
of his students before they made their way to vent the United States from replacing the French
southern China and eventually back to France via and creating a Southeast Asian anti-communist
Calcutta in July 1945, thanks to the support of the security pact. Talk was in the air of just such a
French Ambassador to the Republic of China. grand strategy and of course the Chinese did not
Ner returned to Indochina in September 1945 need to be reminded of the importance of Japan,
and was named in October advisor par interim Taiwan and South Korea as beachheads in Ameri-
to the high commissioner on educational matters. can containment in the Far East.
Between April 1946 and August 1947, he served Just weeks before the opening of the Geneva
as director of Education in Indochina. He partici- conference, Zhou Enlai reached an agreement
pated in preparations for the Dalat Conference in with Jawaharlal Nehru over Tibet, allowing the
April 1946 and Ho Chi Minh’s trip to France for two Asian giants to normalize their relations for
negotiations at Fontainebleau a few months later. the first time and embrace the five principles of
Like Paul Mus, Ner understood that Vietnam- co-existence of Pansheela. At a crucial juncture
ese nationalism was an historical reality that in the Geneva negotiations, Zhou Enlai personally
could not be ignored and he ended up supporting travelled to New Delhi in late June 1954 to meet
Vietnamese claims to independence. His views Pandit Nehru, promising him that Beijing would
became more pronounced as the war dragged on. not export communism to the region and that
He participated in a special issue published by China’s Vietnamese allies would not try to make
Jean-Paul Sartre’s Les Temps Modernes (August all of Indochina communist. Zhou Enlai made
– September 1953) supporting Vietnamese inde- good on his pledge when he recognized the reality
pendence and critical of French colonial policies. of the royal governments in Cambodia and Laos.
He met with the DRV delegation in Geneva in Zhou Enlai made a similar trip to Burma before
mid-1954. During this time, he continued to work meeting with Ho Chi Minh at Liuzhou in early

NEW HERO 311

July 1954. During this important meeting, Zhou Vietnamese anti-colonialists opposing French
Enlai informed Ho Chi Minh that the Chinese sup- colonial domination at the turn of the 19th century
ported the emergence of Southeast Asian Nations recast ancient hero veneration in nationalist ways
of a “New Type”, referring to non-communist, by inventing a new pantheon of heroic nationalists
neutral countries such as India, Burma, and In- and martyrs to be emulated by young Vietnamese
donesia. Zhou also informed the Vietnamese that patriots. Vietnam’s first modern nationalist, Phan
the Chinese were scaling back their support for Boi Chau, was the main architect of this new
the Indochinese revolutionary ambitions of the generation of heroes.
Vietnamese communists in Laos and Cambodia. A
Vietnamese revolution, yes; an Indochinese one, While Vietnamese communists continued to
no, or at least not now. The Indians in particular promote new patriotic heroes as part of their own
insisted upon this concession as a sign of Sino- struggle to gain Vietnam’s national independence,
Vietnamese communist good intentions towards they went further by adding a new socialist man to
the region. The Vietnamese agreed. the heroic, emulative repertoire. This layer, how-
ever, drew its inspiration from Sino-Soviet com-
With the division of Vietnam into two provi- munist models that arrived in northern Vietnam in
sional states at Geneva in July 1954, the north and full force following the entry of the DRV into the
the south were prohibited from hosting foreign international communist bloc in early 1950. It was
military bases and from joining any type of mili- also linked to the decision taken by Vietnamese
tary alliance, nor could arms be increased beyond communists to begin transforming Vietnamese
those needed to replace outdated ones. While society in patently communist ways.
the Cambodian government reserved the right to
solicit outside military aid, it privately promised The creation of the “new hero” and the “new
not to allow the installation of foreign military (communist) man” was an instrument by which
bases on its territory. In Laos, the French were al- the Vietnamese communist party sought to take
lowed to maintain two bases and a limited number hold of, control, and remake Vietnamese society
of personnel, on the understanding that they too in truly revolutionary ways, as Benoit de Trég-
were agreed to keeping Laos neutral. lodé has shown. Under the close supervision of
the communist party, cadres carefully selected
The extent of Zhou Enlai’s success in neutral- heroes from among the peasants and soldiers who
izing Indochina and Southeast Asia against the were considered to represent the “new” men and
Americans is still open to debate. The Americans women. These exemplary people were to serve as
were certainly aware of what Zhou Enlai was try- models to follow in setting the foundation of the
ing to do and the American creation of the South new communist society. Whereas land reform
East Asia Treaty Organization can be seen to a was designed in part to begin the restructuring
large extent as a challenge to Zhou Enlai’s Asian of Vietnamese rural society, the dissemination
strategy of neutralization. In the end, such neu- of “new heros” throughout the DRV via massive
trality was extremely fragile and would be hard propaganda drives and emulation campaigns al-
to maintain as local, regional, and international lowed the party to align itself with the peasantry,
actors moved to sway Indochina or parts of it the workers, soldiers, women, and petty traders.
towards their camp, first in Laos, then in southern Bourgeois individuals, patriotic or not, were not
Vietnam. See also GENEVA ACCORDS; JOHN to be emulated. Hero worship was also a powerful
FOSTER DULLES; PLAN Z. tool by which the party began to inculcate a new
range of virtues and values openly identified with
NEW HERO. Refers to the “exemplary” men and communism and the wider international world of
women exalted by the communist leadership of the which the DRV was now a part.
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) during
the Indochina War. However, the Vietnamese com- In May 1952, the Vietnamese Worker’s Party
munist party’s “new hero” (anh hung moi) was officially began its revolutionary heroization proj-
not quite as revolutionary as we may think. For ect in earnest. Besides being patriotic, the “new
one, Vietnamese communists drew upon a long heroes” had to embody unflagging loyalty to the
tradition of hero worship and martyr veneration party. As Truong Chinh characterized the new hero
in Sino-Vietnamese political culture, one in which in 1952, “The hero has a strong class sentiment.
the state singled out men and women of virtue He knows how to distinguish the good from the
(dao duc) whom society should strive to emulate. bad, the friend from the enemy. He knows himself
and has a responsible outlook towards the leader-

312 NEW MAN

ship and the masses. It is not personal interest that to the highlands would be played out at Dien Bien
guides him in the war or in work production but Phu in 1953–1954.
rather the collective good”. While the Chinese
advisors working closely with the Vietnamese NGHIÊM KẾ TỔ. Prominent member of the
communist leadership certainly provided advice Vietnamese Nationalist Party (Viet Nam Quoc
and experiences, it was the Vietnamese leadership Dan Dang, VNQDD) who virulently opposed
that chose to undertake this “heroic” emulation the communist leadership of the Democratic
campaign. See also COLD WAR; CULTURE; Republic of Vietnam (DRV). Following the
HISTORY; INDOCTRINATION; LANGUAGE failed nationalist uprising at Yen Bay in 1930, he
OF WAR; MARTYRS; LOVE AND WAR; REC- took refuge in southern China where he joined
TIFICATION. the overseas branch of the VNQDD. Fluent in
Chinese, he returned to Vietnam with Chinese
NEW MAN. See NEW HERO; RECTIFICATION. occupying forces after World War II. Although
he served as under-secretary to the Ministry of
NEW VIETNAMESE. See NEW HERO; RECTI- Foreign Affairs (or possibly acting minister of
FICATION; VIET NAM MOI. Foreign Affairs) in the DRV between March and
November 1946, he remained an adamant op-
NGHĨA LỘ, BATTLE OF (29 September–10 ponent of the Indochinese Communist Party,
October 1951). Having suffered defeats in the many of whose leaders he had known since the
Red River Delta earlier in the year, the Vietnamese 1930s in southern China. He accompanied Bao
high command shifted its attention to the north- Dai to China in April 1946 and, after returning,
west highlands. On 29 September, the Demo- lost his position in the government. In October,
cratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) opened what Nghiem Ke To went underground in Hanoi, with
it called the Ly Thuong Kiet campaign by sending a Chinese passport. However, the French kept him
elements mainly from the 312th division against under surveillance and, shortly after the outbreak
the French position at Nghia Lo. The main goals of hostilities in Hanoi on 19 December 1946,
of this campaign were to destroy French attempts brought him in. Following his release, he returned
to strengthen the Tai Federation against the DRV, to southern China to lead the VNQDD, once again
to develop guerrilla operations in the area, and to from exile in southern China.
attack the French on more favorable terrain than
in the open delta. This battle was also designed NGHIÊM VĂN TRỊ (1907–1993). Vietnamese
to help open a corridor to central and southern non-communist politician and minister in the
Indochina running down the western, hilly and Associated State of Vietnam. Born in Nam Dinh
forested side of the delta. Using wave tactics and province, he left Vietnam in 1921 to pursue his
attacking by night, the Vietnamese overran the studies in France. In 1932, he graduated as an
rather small camp in early October and handed engineer from the École centrale des arts et
General Raoul Salan a defeat. Salan responded manufactures in Paris. In July of that year, he was
by ordering his men to regroup and reinforce also naturalized as a French citizen and married a
greatly the French post at Na San in order to stop French or Swiss national. In 1933, he completed
the Vietnamese march in the Tai territories and on his military service in Metz as a reserve captain in
to Laos. When the Vietnamese moved on Na San the artillery. He returned to Vietnam in December
in 1952, Salan confronted them with a full-blown 1933 and, between 1934 and 1945, worked in the
entrenched camp, supplied by air, and outfitted Indochinese railway service. Following the Japa-
with heavy artillery. Indeed, the defeat suffered at nese coup de force of 9 March 1945, he refused
Nghia Lo led Salan to develop his famous strategy to collaborate with the Japanese and asked to be
of entrenched camps, les hérissons. As Salan put treated the same as his fellow French compatriots.
it in the wake of his loss at Nghia Lo: “We have He received the French Croix de guerre at the end
absorbed the shock, the loss of the Nghia Lo sec- of World War II for his courage. He supported the
tor is a painful one. But it’s not a decisive one French return to Indochina and French colonial
[…] The game has only just begun”. Indeed, the policy. In November 1947, he began a political
Vietnamese victory at Nghia Lo would turn into career as the personal advisor to General Nguyen
a defeat for Vo Nguyen Giap at Na San. But the Van Xuan at the head of the French-created and
final match of this shift of the battle from the delta -backed Provisional Government of the Repub-

NGÔ ĐÌNH DIỆM 313

lic of Cochinchina. In November 1947, Nguyen Ngo Dinh Diem. Apprised secretly of the news,
Van Xuan sent him on a special mission to meet Diem fled to Saigon and took refuge in the offices
with Bao Dai in Hong Kong. In 1948, Nghiem Van of the Japanese General Staff until the Japanese
Tri served as an aide to Bao Dai. In June 1952, he coup de force of 9 March 1945. During the war,
became minister of Defense in the government of he secretly worked with Cao Dai leaders and
Nguyen Van Tam, but resigned from the post in dispatched an envoy to Cuong De concerning pos-
December of that year following differences with sible collaboration. However, when the Japanese
General Nguyen Van Hinh, chief of staff of the offered him the premiership after overthrowing
Vietnamese Army Forces. the French, Ngo Dinh Diem declined. He also
refused to support the newly born Democratic
NGHIÊM XUÂN YỂM (1913–2000). Minister Republic of Vietnam (DRV) following the Japa-
of Agriculture in the Democratic Republic of nese capitulation and local Viet Minh forces ar-
Vietnam (DRV). Born in Ha Dong province in rested him in mid-1945. However, Ho Chi Minh
northern Vietnam, he graduated with a degree personally ordered Ngo Dinh Diem to be released
in agronomy from the École supérieure de in light of his impeccable nationalist credentials.
l’agriculture et des forêts in Hanoi. In 1944, he Executing him would have alienated important
joined the Vietnamese Democratic Party (Dang parts of the fragile nationalist coalition Ho hoped
Dan Chu Viet Nam) and the Viet Minh shortly to turn against the French.
thereafter. Nghiem Xuan Yem took part in relief
efforts to help victims of the devastating famine Following the outbreak of war in late 1946,
of 1944–1945. Between 1947 and 1953, he served French authorities and Ngo Dinh Diem remained
as under-secretary for Agriculture in the DRV, in touch; however, Ngo Dinh Diem balked at
minister of Agriculture between 1953 and 1960, supporting the French revival of the Bao Dai
and member of the Executive Committee of the solution, unless the French granted Vietnam real
Central Committee of the Vietnamese Democratic independence. Following a brief stay in the St-
Party between 1950 and 1958. Paul Clinic in Hanoi, Ngo Dinh Diem moved into
the Redemptorist mission in northern Vietnam.
NGÔ ĐÌNH DIỆM, JEAN-BAPTISTE (1901– In 1947 and 1948, he made a number of trips to
1963). One of Vietnam’s best-known non-commun­ southern and central Vietnam, as well as to Hong
ist nationalist leaders. Born in Quang Binh prov- Kong where he visited Bao Dai. In May 1949,
ince in central Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem grew up Bao Dai asked him to form a government, but
in a patriotic and influential Catholic family. His Ngo Dinh Diem declined again on grounds that
father, Ngo Dinh Kha, was the mandarin former French concessions in the Accords of 8 March
minister of rituals in the court of Thanh Thai and 1949 remained insufficient. Diem insisted on
close confidant of Nguyen Huu Bai, an influential real and total independence. The French refused
mandarin in the service of King Khai Dinh and to budge. During this time, Ngo Dinh Diem con-
his son, Bao Dai. Ngo Dinh Diem started his tinued to travel around the country meeting na-
career as a provincial chief in central Vietnam. tionalists of all ideological colors, called upon the
When the French sidelined Nguyen Huu Bai in an international community to pressure the French to
imperial “reform” in 1933, his protégé Ngo Dinh give up their colonial obsession in Indochina, and
Diem was named minister of the Interior in an at- yet kept channels open to the French and the DRV
tempt to appease his mentor and lend nationalist in the hope that his attentisme could win him
legitimacy to Governor General Pierre Pasquier’s concessions by playing one side against the other.
attempt to energize the monarchy against internal
and external threats. This first Bao Dai Solution In early 1950, however, Ngo Dinh Diem real-
failed. Diem resigned with great fanfare a few ized that, with the arrival of the Cold War and the
months later, though he remained involved in Americans on the scene, he could no longer sit;
Catholic intrigues at the court. he had to act. In late June 1950, he formed a na-
When a number of Catholic priests in upper tionalist grouping called the Extremist Nationalist
central Vietnam and ranking mandarins began to Movement (Phong Trao Quoc Gia Qua Khich)
support a possible “Diem solution” as Vichy tried to struggle against Vietnamese communism. The
to hold on in Indochina, Admiral Jean Decoux DRV responded in kind to his shift in tack in July
had Bao Dai sign an “order of expulsion” against 1950 by condemning him to death in absentia.
In August 1950, Ngo Dinh Diem left for Japan
where he renewed contacts with Prince Cuong De