Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:07:08.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

In Search of Grandeur: France and Vietnam 1940–1946

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Extract

Between 1940 and 1946, carastrophe befell France and the French Empire. In Europe, France collapsed before the German war machine and submitted to a humiliating treaty and to military occupation. Nor did Liberation and the triumph of de Gaulle's Free French Movement fully revive France's spirit. She had played a relatively small part in the Allied victory and in the conferences of the Powers that sought to restore the peace. The grandeur of France's past, her military tradition, and her civilization meant little in the world of 1946.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Hoffmann, Stanley, “Paradoxes of the French Political Community,” in In Search of France (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), p. 81;Google Scholar see also Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, “Changes in French Foreign Policy since 1945” in ibid., pp. 319, 341–42.

2 de Gaulle, Charles, Major Addresses, Statements and Press Conferences of General Charles de Gaulle, 05 19, 195801 31, 1964 (New York, 1964), p. 67.Google Scholar

3 New York Times, 03 19, 1927, p. 4.Google Scholar See also Thompson, Virginia, French Indo-China, (New York, 1942), p. 94Google Scholar and Devillers, Philippe, Histoire du Viêt-Nam de 1940 a 1952, 3rd ed. (Paris, 1952), p. 44.Google Scholar

4 Bernard, Paul, Le probléme èconomique indochinoise (Paris, 1934), pp. 402–03, 404.Google Scholar

5 Ibid.; pp. 406, 412.

6 Catroux, Georges, “Sur l'idée d'Empire,” Sciences politiques LIV (1939, p. 227.Google Scholar

7 Trinh quang Quy, paper presented for the Harvard Business school Trade Union Program, 1959, p. 2.Google Scholar I am grateful to Mr. Quy for giving me a copy of his paper, and for his comments and criticisms.

8 The figures on school enrollment are found in Devillers, Histoire du Viêt-Nam, p. 85.Google ScholarFall, Bernard, The two Viet-Nams: A political and Military Analysis (New York, 1963), pp. 3839, gives considerably higher figures: 525,000 (1940) and 960,000 (1944).Google Scholar

9 Decoux, Jean, A la barre de l'Indochine: histoire de mon gouvernement générale; 1940–1945 (Paris, 1949), pp. 367–68, 403.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., pp. 388–89.

11 Quoted in Schoenbrun, David, As France Goes (New York, 1957), pp. 214–15.Google Scholar

12 New York Times 12 7, 1943), p.13.Google Scholar See also de Gaulle, Charles, War Memoirs (vol.III): Salvation 1944–1946, tr. by Howard, Richard (New York, 1960), pp.187–88.Google Scholar

13 de Gaulle, Charles, War Memoirs (Vol. IV): Unity: 1942–1944; Documents, tr. by Murchie, Joyce and Erskine, Hamish (New York, 1959), pp. 249–50.Google Scholar

14 L'Année politique 1944–45 (Paris, 1946), pp.99100;Google ScholarLe Monde, 01 20, 1945), p. 1;Google Scholar02 1, 1945, p. 1.Google Scholar

15 De Gaulle, War Memoirs, III, 190;Google ScholarFall, , The Two Viet-Nams, pp. 4954.Google Scholar

16 de Gaulle, Charles, War memoirs (vol. V): Salvation, 1944–1946: Documents, tr. by Murchie, Joyceand Erskine, Hamish (New York, 1960), p. 219.Google Scholar

17 Fall, , The Two Viet-Nams, p. 66.Google Scholar

18 De Gaulle, , War Memoirs, V, 187–88.Google Scholar

19 New York Times, 03 24, 1945, p. 9;Google Scholar03 15, 1945, p. 15;Google Scholar03 28, 1945, p. 13;Google Scholar; de Gaulle, , War Memoirs, V, p. 219.Google Scholar

20 Devillers, , Histoire du Viêt-Nam p. 144;Google ScholarL'Esprit, 07 1, 1945,Google Scholar quoted in Devèze, Michel, La France d'Outre-Mer: de i'Empire colonial a i'Union française 1938–1947 (Paris, 1948), p.217;Google ScholarLe Monde, 03 27, 1945, p. 2.Google Scholar

21 De Gaulle, War Memoirs, III, p. 242.Google Scholar

22 Quoted in Devèze, , La France d'Outre-Mer, p. 223.Google Scholar

23 De Gaulle, War Memoirs, V, p. 382.Google Scholar

24 The text of the constitution of the Fourth Republic can be found in Williams, Philip, Politics in Post War France: Parties and the Constitution in the Fourth Republic (London, 1955), pp. 423–25.Google Scholar

25 Combat, 09 15–16, p. 1.Google Scholar

26 Combat, 10 19, 1946, p. 3;Google Scholar10 20–21, 1946, p. 1.Google Scholar

27 Sainteny, JeanHistoire d'un paix manqué: Indochine 1945–1947 (Paris, 1953), pp. 167–68, 170;Google Scholar; see also Devillers, , Histoire du Viêt-Nam, pp. 221–26.Google Scholar

28 Combat, 03 6, 1946, p. 3;Google Scholar08 10, 1946, p. 2.Google Scholar

29 Devillers, Histoire du Viêt-Nam, pp. 259, 268–69.Google Scholar

30 Sainteny, Histoire d'un paix manqué, p. 209.Google ScholarFor the text of the modus vivendi, see Devillers, Histoire du Viêt-Nam, pp. 309–10.Google Scholar

31 Sainteny, Histoire d'un paix manqué, p. 208;Google ScholarDevillers, , Histoire du Viêt-Nam, p. 337.Google Scholar. Cf. Fall, , The Two Viet-Nams, pp. 7576, which differs in some details.Google Scholar

32 De Gaulle, , Major Addresses, pp. 8687;Google Scholarde Gaulle, Charles, Speeches and Conferences, no. 250, 09. 1, 1966 (lithographed by Ambassade de France, Service de presse et d'information, New York), p. 3.Google Scholar

33 New York Times, 12 25, 1946, p. 12.Google Scholar