Abstract

How did France become embroiled in Vietnam, in the first of long wars of decolonization? And why did the French colonial administration, in late 1946, having negotiated with Ho Chi Minh for a year, adopt a warlike stance towards Ho's régime which ran counter to the liberal colonial doctrine of liberated France? Based on French archival sources, almost all of them previously unavailable to the English-speaking reader, the author assesses the policy that emerged from the 1944 Brazzaville conference; and the doomed attempt to apply that policy in Indo-China.

"... this is an important book ... If I have gone on so long, it is out of enthusiasm for the story Shipway has to tell and the skillful way he tells it. This book is extremely well written, and I found reading it almost effortless ... I recommend this book to anyone interested in the origins of what may one day be considered the second thirty-years war of our 'short' century."  · H-Net Reviews

"... an important contribution to understanding the tangled and tragic unfolding of the modern history of Indochina."  · Choice

"... in this absorbing study, Martin Shipway examines one of France's most catastrophic colonial miscalculations."  · Modern and Contemporary France

"... Well researched, clearly written and solidly argued, this study poses new questions, opens the possibility of larger comparisons ..."  · The Journal of Asian Studies

Martin Shipway teaches in the Department of French, Birkbeck College, University of London.