A MiSSiON OF VENGEANCE: ViCHY FRENCH iN iNDOCHiNA iN WORLD WAR ii

摘要

The first American killed in Vietnam was "Tiger" John T Donovan of the Third AVG Pursuit Squadron, who died on May 12, 1942 during a raid on the Japanese air base at Gia Lam near Hanoi.2 What is not as well known is that the Japanese in Vietnam were aided in their occupation of the French colony by a puppet government headed by French Vice Admiral Jean Decoux, a cold, haughty sailor consumed by an overbearing sense of prestige and rank.3 Decoux had been appointed to the post of governor general of Vietnam by the pro-Axis government of Marshal Philippe Pétain, located at Vichy, a spa in central France. Whenever his policies were questioned or criticized, he argued that some accommodation with the forces of the Rising Sun was necessary.5 The admiral's policy was known locally in Indochina as "pas des incidents" do nothing that would give the Japanese occupiers an excuse to overthrow his regime, disarm or smash the country's military forces, turn the government over to the Vietnamese native leaders while possibly imprisoning or massacring the 40,000 or so French residents, most of whom were women and children.6 Decoux's police forces and a paramilitary organization he created, the French Legion of War Veterans and Volunteers of the National Revolution, imposed Vichy's dictatorial policies on Vietnam and vigorously persecuted opponents of Decoux's regime.