De Gaulle And The Vietnam War (1961-1968)

The French role in the Vietnam War is an important aspect of Gaullism in the Southeast Asia. The general de Gaulle’s real goal is to reestablish French privileges in Vietnam, although he declared that the French government would respect the reunification and the independence of the Vietnam, and also respect the vast freedom of choice of Vietnamese over the question about their own future destiny. In order to achieve this aim, the general de Gaulle proposed the Neutralization of Indochina, a political solution, which could decrease the Chinese and American influence in this area, to terminate the Vietnam War. But this plan fell through in1965. From1965to1968, the general de Gaulle adjusted his policy. The France tried to improve the cooperation with the North Vietnam in the political and economic field, and establish the relationship with the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Viet Cong) in order to influence the foreign policy of Hanoi. This time, the general succeeded. The French made the Vietnamese change their mind. Because the general de Gaulle conducted the foreign affairs individualistically, therefore, the France became the only country which could contact all the relevant countries in this war, whether Western or East. In this sense, this story is a real "Cold War International History."We will divide this story in two parts. In the first part,1961-1965, we will attempt to analyze how the general de Gaulle proposed the Neutralization of Indochina, the relevancy between this plan and the normalizing Sino-France relation, the international reactions to this plan. In the second part,1965-1968, we will discuss how the general de Gaulle abandoned the Neutralization of Indochina and put emphasis on the improvement of the cooperation between Hanoi and Paris in their political and economic fields. Finally, in1967, how the French persuaded the Vietnamese to open a new way to a resumption of political talks.Before those two parts, we will introduce the background of this story and review the current study situation about this subject. We also want to present what kind of documents which we have used in order to support some referential experience in this field of study.