Revisions of empire: The French media and the Indochina War, 1946--1954

Events matter as they are seen to matter and they are seen as they are shown. This is especially true in the case of wars because most of the events connected to them often take place in extremely dangerous conditions or far from the public eye. In the case of the Indochina war, most of the fighting took place in Vietnam between December 1946 and July 1954. It pitted an expeditionary force under French command against a Vietnamese resistance movement led by Communists. The conduct and outcome of this war shaped France's and Vietnam's domestic and foreign policies for several years. The conflict was also the first important one covered by the French media since they were transformed in the reforming zeal of the Liberation; the audience and authority of the state-owned organizations created at this time magnified their role in informing the public. Their close relationship to the state, however, made them vulnerable to the government's pressure tactics. France's increasingly precarious situation in Indochina seriously tested their ability and willingness to inform the public: the lack of clear-cut military victories in favor of the French, the government's apparent lack of purpose and resolve, the shady political deals that often characterized France's dealings in Indochina, and the major public scandals connected to the conflict all contributed to their difficulties.;To understand what the French public was told about the Indochina war, the inner-workings and reporting of three major state-owned French media organizations, are studied: Actualites Francaises, Agence France-Presse, and Radiodiffusion Francaise. Sources used in this study include printed archival materials, press articles, and audio-visual documents.;In spite of their best efforts, the state-owned media reported this war only incompletely or even contradictorily; more often than not, they did not adequately inform the public about the meaning and the importance of the battle being waged in Vietnam. The more accurate coverage provided by such respected newspapers as Le Monde underline the failure of the media organizations owned by the state.