Franco-Vietnamese Provisional Convention
The Franco-Vietnamese Provisional Convention (French Convention préliminaire franco-vietnamienne , vietn. Hiệp định sơ bộ Pháp-Việt ) was an agreement signed on March 6, 1946 in Hanoi between France and the government of North Vietnam . The convention is also called the Hồ Sainteny Agreement after the signatories Jean Sainteny and Hồ Chí Minh , after the March 6th agreement or after the location of the Hanoi Convention . In it, France declared its readiness to recognize the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a free state of an "Indochina Federation" within the French Union . A referendum should decide on the reunification of Cochinchina with Tonking and Annam . In return, the Việt Minh allowed the French to station troops north of the 16th parallel. The Convention was followed a month later by the Dalat Conference and, in the summer, by the Fontainebleau Conference .
background
On September 2, 1945, the Vietnamese independence movement Việt Minh used the power vacuum after the capitulation of Japan to proclaim the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as part of the August Revolution . Internationally, however, the new state did not achieve recognition under international law. France tried to regain control of the country after a period of British-Chinese occupation . Fighting broke out and a war threatened, but neither France, which was in the process of reconstruction after its defeat in the world war, nor the Vietnamese, who were simultaneously exposed to Chinese influence, wanted to risk it.
As early as mid-September 1945, Hồ Chí Minh had contacted French envoys in Hanoi to negotiate the future of Indochina. On November 12th, he handed over a document with demands including immediate recognition of independence, economic and cultural autonomy, cessation of hostilities and a ban on French troop movements, which, however, were unacceptable conditions for the French. Finally, it came to a successful rapprochement. France's chief negotiator was Jean Sainteny, who had already been present at the declaration of independence and, by French standards, was relatively benevolent of the Vietnamese cause. In addition to Hồ Chí Minh, the nationalist Vũ Hồng Khanh was also involved on the Vietnamese side , as the Việt Minh had formed a unity government with the VNQDĐ under Chinese pressure.
Immediately before the signing, the Franco-Chinese Haiphong incident on the morning of the same day threatened to delay the conclusion of the contract.
content
The convention was signed by Hồ Chí Minh, Vũ Hồng Khanh and Jean Sainteny on March 6, 1946 at five o'clock in the afternoon in Hanoi and entered into force immediately. It comprised three central points:
- France recognized the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a free state with its own government, parliament, army and state finances as part of an "Indochinese Federation" and the French Union. The reunification of the three parts of Vietnam ( Annam , Cochinchina , Tonkin ) should be clarified through a referendum .
- The Việt Minh accepted the occupation of Tonkins and North Annams (Vietnam north of the 16th parallel) by French troops, who replaced the retreating national Chinese army of occupation. In an appendix, the number of soldiers was set at 15,000 and the period at five years.
- Immediate cessation of all hostilities
The future status of Vietnam should be clarified at a conference that will follow soon.
Reactions and consequences
The agreement aroused divided reactions on both sides. The Vietnamese celebrated the convention as the young republic's first international treaty with a foreign power, and it was also possible for the French to treat Vietnam as a unit for the first time since the beginning of the colonial era. However, the oppressive suzerainty also caused a lot of bitterness. Hồ defended his signature by stating that the agreement had ousted China from Vietnam and that French colonial rule was preferable to Chinese occupation: "It is better to smell French dung for a few years than to eat Chinese dung for a thousand years." Several Vietnamese newspapers compared Hồs signature of the convention with the signing of the unilateral peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918 by the Bolsheviks .
The agreement was also criticized in France. Although the convention was initially described as a model for other colonies, the agreement negotiated with the “Vietnamese Communists” made far too many concessions for the majority of French politicians and threatened to wrest Cochinchina, one of the most important colonies, from France. Admiral D'Argenlieu , High Commissioner for Indochina, expressed astonishment as to why his government had preferred negotiations to a military strike.
In March, a provisional Franco-Vietnamese government of its own was created in Cochinchina without any agreement, and the colony of Cochinchina as a “free state” was placed on an equal footing with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam under international law against pro-French Vietnamese politicians. The French quickly made it clear that they would still not tolerate the Việt Minh in Cochinchina. The interpretation of the term “free state” developed into a further point of contention - France defined the term much more narrowly and only wanted to grant a far lower degree of autonomy than expected from the Việt Minh.
Despite the breach of the treaty and the increasing violence, Hồ Chí Minh tried to continue the negotiations as planned. However, the negotiations in Dalat in April ended with no results; Even the conference set out in the Provisional Convention, which took place in Fontainebleau near Paris in the summer of the same year , did not lead to an agreement.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Neville: Britain in Vietnam: Prelude to disaster, 1945-46 , Routledge, 2007, p. 121
- ^ Peter Neville: Britain in Vietnam: Prelude to disaster, 1945-46 , Routledge, 2007, p. 119
- ^ Stein Tønnesson : Vietnam 1946: how the war began , University of California Press, 2010, p. 61
- ^ Peter Neville: Britain in Vietnam: Prelude to disaster, 1945–46 , Routledge, 2007, p. 135 and Annex 4
- ^ Quote translated from Ross Marlay, Clark D. Neher: Patriots and tyrants: ten Asian leaders , p. 103
- ^ Peter Neville: Britain in Vietnam: Prelude to disaster, 1945-46 , Routledge, 2007, p. 135 and p. 141
- ^ Peter Neville: Britain in Vietnam: Prelude to disaster, 1945-46 , Routledge, 2007, pp. 144/45