Phạm Quỳnh

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Phạm Quỳnh (* 1892 , † 1945 ) was a Vietnamese politician at the time of the Nguyễn dynasty in French Indochina in the first half of the twentieth century. He originally came from journalism and, as Prime Minister, became the central political figure in the Emperor's cabinet towards the end of World War II. He was basically Francophile and advocated a synthesis of Western and Confucian civilization within the framework of colonialism . He was murdered by the Viet Minh during the August Revolution .

Origin and career

Pham Quynh was the son of a village Confucian scholar in Hai Duong Province . Pham was trained at the colonial state's translation school and learned French and Chinese . He then completed his academic training at the École française d'Extrême-Orient in Hanoi . In 1913 he began working as a journalist in the Vietnamese-language newspaper Dong Duong Tap Chi ( Indochinese Revue ) under the editor Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh . In 1917 he founded his own press publication, Nam Phong ( South Wind ). This contained contributions in Vietnamese, Chinese and French. The main goal, however, was to promote Latinized Vietnamese writing . Pham Quynh received financial support from the colonial authorities for the publication of Nam Phong . In his press work he campaigned for an expansion of the education system for locals based on Western models and accompanied the development of modern Vietnamese-language literature.

Political career

During the 1920s he tried to found a Progressive Party of Vietnam together with politically persecuted nationalists . However, the attempt failed because of the ban by the colonial authorities.

From the 1930s onwards, Pham Quynh served as minister of education and several times as prime minister under the emperor Bảo Đại . He pursued the idea of ​​a beneficial combination for the Vietnamese people between the western culture of colonial power and the traditional Confucianism of Vietnam. He was a staunch monarchist and defender of the rule of the Nguyen dynasty. In traditionalist circles he was perceived as an upstart. During the Second World War he also took over the office of the Interior Ministry in 1942 and became the central political leader at the court of Bao Dai.

Within the political system of the imperial court, the later South Vietnamese head of state Ngo Dinh Diem was Pham Quynh's sharpest political competitor due to his pro-Western but anti-French stance, whom he replaced as Prime Minister in 1933.

assassination

After the Japanese takeover in Indochina in the spring of 1945, he was removed from his political offices because of his pro-French orientation. During the August Revolution he was arrested and murdered along with other politicians from the colonial era.

literature

  • Pierre Brocheux, Daniel Hémery: Indochina. An ambiguous colonization, 1858-1954. Berkeley 2009
  • Bruce L. Lockhart, William J. Duiker: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Oxford 2006
  • Christopher Goscha: Vietnam - A New History. New York 2016
  • Stein Tonnesson: The Vietnamese Revolution of 1945. 2nd edition, London 1993

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duiker, 2006 p. 305
  2. ↑ Brocheux, 2009 p. 220
  3. ↑ Brocheux, 2009 308
  4. ↑ Duiker, 2006, p. 305
  5. ↑ Tonnesson, 1993, pp. 96, 103-105, pp. 282-284
  6. ↑ Tonnesson p. 96
  7. ↑ Brocheux, 2009, p. 324
  8. ↑ Gosha, 2016, 189, 198, 207
personal data
SURNAME Phạm, Quỳnh
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Vietnamese pro-French politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1892
DATE OF DEATH 1945