French Indochina from Conquest to Commemoration

IN 1924 THE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDOCHINA, Martial Merlin, proclaimed that French Indochina "is increasingly active, its influence grows, and its role as a Second Metropole, an outpost of France in Asia [...] grows stronger." This "Pearl of Empire," as French Indochina was known, occupied an important place in the colonial imaginary. With its lush tropical landscapes, its temples, and its opium, it served as the exotic setting for novels by Pierre Loti, André Malraux, and Marguerite Duras. Like the rest of the French empire it was also the focus of modernization projects, often under the guise of the humanitarian ideals of the civilizing mission. As another governor general, Paul Doumer, wrote in 1905, "The new Indo-China can attain a level of prosperity and glory that the ancestors of our colonial subjects would never even have dared to dream of." In fact this "new Indochina" had only formally come into being eighteen years earlier in 1887. The consolidation of French control over the territories had been a slow process: French forces had first arrived in southern Vietnam in 1858 and Laos was not incorporated until 1893. The federation of French Indochina lasted until 1945, when the region erupted into a full-scale war of independence that would evolve into a hot spot of the Cold War. The war came to an end in 1954 with the stunning defeat of French Union forces at Dien Bien Phu. The Geneva Accords confirmed the independence of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (divided at the 17th parallel), all of which would face further domestic upheaval, civil war, and foreign intervention in subsequent decades. France too would continue to face turmoil as decolonization gained momentum; barely three months after the Geneva Accords, the French would be embroiled in a second colonial war, this time in Algeria.

This chapter provides an overview of French Indochina from the first French forays into the region to the conclusion of the Indochina War, for those readers who are less familiar with these events. This is followed by a chronological overview of the evolution of the remembrance of the war, which will provide a framework in which to situate the thematically oriented chapters of this study.

COLONIAL CONQUEST TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR

In September 1858 French troops landed in Da Nang (known as Tourane to the French), ostensibly to protect Catholic missionaries and Vietnamese converts from persecution. In reality this intervention was guided as much by Napoleon III's desire to reassert French power on the global stage as it was by any desire to protect Catholics abroad. This was not the first French or European involvement in Southeast Asia: French and Portuguese missionaries had established themselves in the region since the early seventeenth century. Despite this long history of Catholic involvement in Southeast Asia, Catholicism in Vietnam has often erroneously been identified as a product of the French colonial period. Above and beyond the missionary connection, the French strengthened their relationship with the Vietnamese through the 1787 Treaty of Versailles, according to which Louis XVI promised support to the beleaguered Nguyen Phuc Anh, who would later rule a unified Dai Viet as Gia Long (1802–20) in exchange for trade rights and a concession over Da Nang. Diplomatic relations evolved little over the next half century, although the missionary presence remained strong.

The French "protection" that arrived in central Vietnam in the fall of 1858 was quickly transformed into a force of outright conquest, beginning with the southernmost tip of the country. By 1862, following intense combat, Emperor Tu Duc was forced to cede three provinces to the French, which became the colony of Cochinchina. This was followed by the establishment of a protectorate over Cambodia (1863); successive campaigns, which met with varying degrees of resistance, resulted in the expansion of French control throughout much of the peninsula. A brief war with China in 1884–85 resulted in the Chinese recognition of French protectorates over Annam and Tonkin. Finally in 1887 the Indochinese Union was formally established. Territorial expansion was essentially completed with the consolidation of control of Laos in 1893 following the Franco-Siamese war, although French and Siamese authorities continued to quarrel over borderlands. Despite the common reference to Indochina as a single entity, union, or federation, it was anything but that; rather, it was characterized by a patchwork of governing statutes ranging from formal colonies and protectorates to mixed regimes. A French governor general oversaw the administration of the union, and a resident superior was in charge of each region, with a lieutenant governor presiding over Cochinchina. The administration was rounded out by French civil servants and a significant number of indigenous subordinates.

In their foundational study of colonial Indochina, Pierre Brocheux and Daniel Hémery characterize the French colonization as decidedly "ambiguous"; that is, it was pursued with a mix of nominally good intentions and exploitative agendas. French colonial society in Indochina, much like that in other European colonies, was characterized by entrenched inequalities and abuses. The so-called civilizing mission deemed necessary for improving the "backward" and "stagnant" Asian societies dictated the introduction of Western theories and infrastructure in the spheres of politics, economy, medicine, industry, and education, among others. Proponents of imperialism lauded the building of schools, hospitals, and roads. The conviction that France brought progress to Indochina and to the rest of its colonies has been sustained long past the era of decolonization, and defenders of the colonial project have tended to emphasize these same areas.

It is true that French modernization projects contributed to an increase in production output, led to decreased infant mortality rates in some urban areas, and expanded the number of public schools. Most scholars acknowledge, however, that these developments were rooted in a system that was at best fundamentally unequal and at worst brutally exploitative. From quotidian harassment and mistreatment, to the harsh working conditions on plantations and in mines, to heavy prison sentences in the infamous Poulo Condore prison — sometimes for minor infractions — many French colonial subjects were relegated to second-class status. As Tran Tu Binh wrote of his experience on the Phu...