by Pierre Grosser, Historian, history professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, Sciences Po.
Prince Bửu Lộc was born on 22 August 1914 in Hué. That made him just a few months younger than his cousin, Emperor Bảo Đại, who was the last monarch of Vietnam. His great-grandfather was the eleventh son of Emperor Minh Mạng, the second emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty who reigned from 1820 to 1841. Minh Mạng is famous for having resisted the ambitions of Siam to the west and for having long been hostile to Occidental appeals, and particularly those of France, the United States, and Catholics. That great-grandfather, Nguyễn Phúc Miên Trinh, was a great poet; he also became a regent after the death of Emperor Tự Đức in1883.
Bửu Lộc attended secondary school at Lycée Albert Sarraut, founded in 1919 in Hanoi. He then enrolled at the Ecole Supérieure de droit, a law school that opened in Hanoi in 1931. The University of which it was a part, founded in 1906, was the first of its kind in the French Empire. At the time, professors from Metropolitan France considered the law students there to have an equivalent academic level. Bửu Lộc came to France to earn a PhD in Economic and Political Sciences at the University of Montpellier. He presented and, in 1941, published his thesis on L’usure chez les paysans au Viet Nam (“Usury among peasants in Vietnam”). He then enrolled at the Paris bar association.
After WWII, Bửu Lộc returned to Vietnam and began his political career. In the 1920s and 1930s, the French had their hopes staked in Bảo Đại, the heir to the Nguyễn dynasty who had received a French education. After declaring the independence of Vietnam on 2 September 1945, Hồ Chí Minh also sought to obtain the cooperation of Bảo Đại. However, Bảo Đại retired from political life and left for China. Meanwhile, the First Indochina War began in the autumn of 1946 following the failure of negotiations between France and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam – governed by Hồ Chí Minh – and French military efforts to reconquer Indochina.
Bửu Lộc met Bảo Đại in Hong Kong. He became one of his close advisors. He received letters from Vietnam asking for Bảo Đại to get involved in the country’s matters. More importantly, he was oneof the arbitrators of long negotiations with the French, who wished to entrust the emperor again and create a Vietnamese state in order to bring him to power. Bửu Lộc was director of the cabinet of Bảo Đại from October 1948 to the end of 1950. As such, he directed the negotiations which led to the Franco-Vietnamese agreements of Hạ Long Bay on 8 March 1949. Thus the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was established. While Bửu Lộc convinced France to do what it had refused to do for Hồ Chí Minh in 1946 – particularly to unite Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina in a single state -, that new state became a member of the French Union created by the constitution of the French Fourth Republic; it was also part of the Indochinese Federation. Bửu Lộc was in charge of establishing the first institutions of that state, but it was not truly independent. He did successfully reassert Vietnamese sovereignty over the Paracel Islands(Hoàng Sa) as early as April 1949.
In 1950, Bửu Lộc came to France to follow through on the National Assembly’s ratification of agreements and then become the diplomatic representative of the State of Vietnam. On 17 September 1952, he presented his letters of credence as the High Commissioner of Vietnam in France, accredited by the President of the French Republic who was also the President of the French Union. He therefore became a part of the diplomatic corps in Paris without being a true ambassador. One month later, Bửu Lộc was elected a non-resident member of the French Academy of Colonial Sciences.
Bửu Lộc frequented the French political personnel in charge of the governmental policies about Indochine in the successive French governments, endeavouring for his country to gain full independence. Indeed, he became increasingly critical of the attitude of France and therefore was suspected to have sought to negotiate with Hồ Chí Minh.
Bửu Lộc was sent to organise a Congress in Vietnam in 1953; but its radicalism – particularly on issues of diplomatic and military sovereignty – worried the French. Nguyễn Văn Tâm, the head of the Vietnamese government, resigned on December 17th. The emperor asked Bửu Lộc to form a new government, the third for the young State of Vietnam. It was a difficult process: its composition was only announced on 11 January 1954, a few days before the inauguration of the new president of the French Republic, René Coty, who was much less invested in imperial issues than his predecessor, Vincent Auriol. For the first time, Vietnam was being led by a man who was trusted by the emperor, and the government was composed of specialists and academics.
The six months that Bửu Lộc spent at the head of the Vietnamese government were the most difficult time for the young State. Its context was the long battle of Điện Biên Phủ (from March 13th to May 7th), which concluded with a French humiliation that could have been the prelude to a general offensive by the troops of the Democratic Republic. Moreover, the Geneva Conference addressing Indochina began on May 8th. This context thwarted Bửu Lộc’s efforts to consolidate the State – particularly by incorporating the armed forces of the politicalreligious sects of the south which had shown a great deal of reticence – and to finally achieve the country’s complete independence in negotiations with France. The process dragged on, though Bửu Lộc hoped to expedite it in order to begin the international discussions about Indochina in the best possible conditions.
The French, uncertain about the outcome of the war and their presence in Indochina, began to stall as soon as Franco-Vietnamese discussions opened on March 8th. The civil and military authorities in French Indochina criticized the emperor (who left for France on April 10th, never to return to Vietnam) as well as the government, and particularly Bửu Lộc, considered ineffective and ungrateful for not mentioning the French Union in speeches. Bửu Lộc finally obtained, in extremis, a treaty that brought Vietnam closer to full independence on 10 June 1954. However, apart from making a few promises, France hardly showed concern for the State during its negotiations in Geneva, despite the fact that it remained a member of the French Union.
On 16 June 1954, between the resignation of the Laniel government and the investiture of Pierre Mendès France – who concluded the Geneva Accords on July 21st -, the emperor appointed as head of government Ngô Đình Diệm, a man who led the crusade for independence in a more determined way and had the support of the United States. Certain French figures were favourable to the militant leader at that juncture.
Bửu Lộc came back to Paris on April 30th, mainly to manage the Franco-Vietnamese and Geneva negotiations. He briefly returned to Vietnam for the ceremonial transfer of authority to his successor on July 7th. He resumed his work as a high commissioner in France. The French turned a critical eye on Diệm, devising potential replacement plans. Bửu Lộc’s name often came up, either as a figure that could enter the Diệm government, participate in a substitution combination, or become the delegate who could restore the emperor’s authority in South Vietnam. Indeed, Bảo Đại remained in France, particularly favouring Cannes. In the springtime of 1955, a crisis broke out, and the French supported the forces that could finally take down Diệm. Bửu Lộc traveled to Đà Lạt in the hopes of performing a mediation, but Diệm triumphed, supported by the Americans. A referendum made it possible to transform South Vietnam into a Republic, putting an end to the role of Bảo Đại. The missions of Vietnam in France and of France in Vietnam became embassies. Therefore, from the end of 1955, Bửu Lộc no longer officially represented his country, but he remained in France and married there in 1958. In 1963, he attended the funeral for the spouse of the emperor, who lived in Corrèze. Prince Bửu Lộc died on 27 February 1990, seven years before the death of his cousin Bảo Đại.
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