State of Vietnam
The State of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Quốc gia Việt Nam; Chữ Hán: 國家越南; French: État du Viêt-Nam) was a governmental entity in Southeast Asia that existed from 1949 until 1955, first as a member of the French Union and later as a country (from 22 July 1954 to 26 October 1955). The state claimed authority over all of Vietnam during the First Indochina War, although large parts of its territory were controlled by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
This article is about the French Indochinese state. For the present-day state, see Vietnam. For other states, see Vietnam (disambiguation).The state was created in 1949 by France as part of the French Union[3] and was internationally recognised in 1950. Former Emperor Bảo Đại became Chief of State. After the 1954 Geneva Agreements, the State of Vietnam abandoned its sovereignty over the northern part of the country, which was controlled by the Việt Minh. Ngô Đình Diệm was appointed prime minister the same year and—after having ousted Bảo Đại in 1955—became president of the Republic of Vietnam.
History
Unification of Vietnam (1947–48)
Since the August Revolution, the Việt Minh had seized all of the territories of Vietnam. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was established by the Việt Minh on September 2, 1945 (the same day Japan signed surrender documents with the United States).
By February 1947, following the pacification of Tonkin (Northern Vietnam), the Tonkinese capital, Hanoi, and the main traffic axis returned to French control. The Việt Minh partisans were forced to retreat into the jungle and prepared to pursue the war using guerrilla warfare.
In order to reduce Việt Minh leader Hồ Chí Minh’s influence over the Vietnamese population, the French authorities in Indochina supported the return to power of Bảo Đại (the last emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty), by establishing puppet states, including the State of Vietnam. Bao Dai had voluntarily abdicated[4] on August 25, 1945, after the fall of the short-lived Empire of Vietnam, a puppet state of the Empire of Japan.
On June 5, 1948, the Halong Bay Agreements (Accords de la baie d’Along) allowed the creation of a unified Vietnamese government replacing the governments of Tonkin (North Vietnam) and Annam (Middle Vietnam) associated to France within the French Union and the Indochinese Federation then including the neighboring Kingdom of Laos and Kingdom of Cambodia. Cochinchina (South Vietnam), however, had a different status, both as a colony and as an autonomous republic, and its reunification with the rest of Vietnam had to be approved by its local assembly, and then by the French National Assembly. During the transitional period, a Provisional Central Government of Vietnam was proclaimed: Nguyễn Văn Xuân, until then head of the Provisional Government of South Vietnam (as Cochinchina had been known since 1947) became its president, while Bảo Đại waited for a complete reunification to take office.
However, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam had declared the independence of Vietnam and had control of almost all of Vietnam's territory since September 2, 1945.[5] Besides that, the DRV had also hosted the 1946 Vietnamese National Assembly election with the participation of 89% of Vietnamese voters (north and south). The Democratic Republic of Vietnam had officially become the constitutional representatives of Vietnam in 1946.
Since the Halong Bay Agreements resulted in many aspects—excluding the referendum—in the enforcement of the March 6, 1946, Indochinese Independence Convention signed by Communist Hồ Chí Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam and High Commissioner of France in Indochina Admiral Thierry d'Argenlieu, representative of Félix Gouin's Provisional French Republic led by the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), some regarded the State of Vietnam as a puppet state of the French Fourth Republic.
Politics
Provisional Central Government of Vietnam (1948–49)
On May 27, 1948, Nguyễn Văn Xuân, then President of the Republic of Cochinchina, became President of the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam (Thủ tướng lâm thời) following the merging of the government of Cochin China and Vietnam in what is sometimes referred as "Pre-Vietnam".
State of Vietnam (1949–55)
On June 14, 1949, Bảo Đại was appointed Chief of State (Quốc trưởng) of the State of Vietnam; he was concurrently Prime Minister for a short while (Kiêm nhiệm Thủ tướng).
On October 26, 1955, the Republic of Vietnam was established and Ngô Đình Diệm became the first President of the Republic.
