De Lattre, la conférence de Singapour et ses suites

Abstract

In may 1951, at Singapour there was an important conference between French and British representatives, with the American presence, about the equivalent situations in Indochina and Malasya in front of the Communists. General de Lattre, who was High Commissionner of the French Republic and Commander-in-Chief in Indochina, seems to compel himself in these discussions as the official representative of the French Government. He intended to extend the debate to the broad question of the security in South-East of Asia by the institution of a « strategie reserve » and he expected that Tonkin will be declared an « essentiel part of South-East Asia ». He will not succeed to obtain a resuit on these points, but the Singapour conference prepared his offensive of diplomatie persuasion in Washington in september of 1951 and in London, in october. The conference too can be seen as a new stake for the interpretation of the Indochinese conflict, not simply as a colonial war but as one of the sides of the confrontation between « Free World » and « Soviet Bloc ».