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Obituary: Bao Dai
Independent, The (London), Aug 5, 1997 by Judy Stowe
Annam was regarded as an exotic backwater in French Indo-China when Bao Dai, who has just died in Paris, ascended the imperial throne in Hue in 1925. Little could he have imagined at the time that within a few years, his country, together with the rest of Vietnam, was to become engulfed in a long series of wars. He was just a boy of 12 who had been summoned home from school in France to perform the many elaborate rites which accompanied the installation of an Emperor of Annam.
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On the advice of his French mentors, Bao Dai (the title, meaning "Keeper of Greatness", was given to him on his enthronement) then returned to Paris to complete his education. Apart from the usual academic subjects, he also learnt riding, tennis, how to drive a car and play poker. These pursuits were later to earn him the reputation of being a playboy monarch. Yet the life style to which the French had introduced him differed little from that of other fashionable young men of noble birth during the 1920s and 1930s. Indeed he was proud of being the first Emperor of the Nguyen dynasty which had ruled Annam since 1802, to have a modern upbringing instead of being constricted by the ancient rites imposed by the court mandarins.
In 1932, therefore, when at the age of 19 Bao Dai returned to his native Hue to assume his royal duties, he sought to introduce some changes to court procedure. Likewise he was eager to see some alleviation of French tutelage over his realm. These hopes proved to be largely in vain. The one small victory he did achieve was the right to choose his own wife rather than enter into an arranged marriage. His choice fell on a young Catholic girl from the south of Vietnam, then known as Cochin-China, who had been educated by French nuns. The fact that she was not Annamese and of royal birth caused shock and consternation in traditional circles. Nevertheless she was duly installed with full court ritual as the Empress Nam Phuong and during the course of the next few years gave birth to two sons and two daughters.
As for Bao Dai, since he could play little more than a ceremonial role in governing Annam, which was still subject to French domination, he devoted himself increasingly to enjoying his private life, which extended to long hunting expeditions in the mountains bordering on Laos and Cambodia. There at least he could escape from the burden of court ritual to a certain degree and, as he stated in his autobiography, Le Dragon d'Annam (1980), see something of his people rather than rows of backs bent in full prostration.
The outbreak of war in the Pacific in 1941 brought few changes to life in Annam. Unlike the rest of South East Asia where the Japanese brought an end to colonial rule and interned all Europeans, in Indo-China they concluded an agreement with the French to continue administering the territory on condition that Japan would be allowed to station some troops there. As the war progressed this Japanese presence attracted some Allied bombing raids but not in Annam where there were no targets of any significance. Bao Dai was therefore able to continue his life undisturbed until March 1945.
By then Paris had been liberated and the French in Indo-China realising that they were likely to be branded as traitors for having collaborated with the Japanese, began making preparations to welcome an Allied invasion force. This prompted the Japanese to stage a military coup to oust the French administration throughout Indo-China, including Annam.
Bao Dai was all the more astonished when on 10 March 1945, a Japanese diplomat paid an official call upon him at the imperial palace in Hue with an invitation for him to proclaim independence for the whole of Vietnam, albeit with a proviso that the country maintain good relations with Tokyo.
A royal edict to this effect was issued the following day. The Emperor then proceeded to invite prominent dignitaries from all over Vietnam to form its first independent government. But other Vietnamese had different ideas about the country's future.
In 1941, the Communist Party under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh and keeping its identity well concealed had launched a movement calling itself the Viet Minh, appealing to all Vietnamese to struggle for the liberation of their country from both Japanese and French domination. This movement was largely confined to the northern mountains bordering China until March 1945, when the French administration was ousted and its troops disarmed by the Japanese. Seizing this opportunity, Viet Minh guerrillas began moving south and spreading their network of contacts throughout the country.
These moves were scarcely under way when Japan suddenly announced its surrender to the Allied powers on 15 August. This prompted the Viet Minh to stage an uprising in Hanoi and send envoys to Hue to demand that the Emperor abdicate in favour of Ho Chi Minh as President of a new state called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In the circumstances, although he knew little about the Viet Minh, or for that matter, Ho Chi Minh, Bao Dai felt he had no option but to comply. Accordingly he issued a statement announcing his abdication on 25 August. It included his most famous words: "I would rather live as an ordinary citizen of an independent country than be Emperor of a nation of slaves."
