L’amiral d’Argenlieu en Indochine, une croisade contre le communisme ?

Abstract

The action of Admiral Georges Thierry d’ Argenlieu is frequently described in the hinge of the anchor and the cross. Born in 1889 in a very traditionalist catholic family, he was successively a naval officer, then a friar and priest in the mendicant order of the Carmelites ; he acquired a real political theology, which expressed itself in the radical opposition to Nazism as to Communism. In 1939 was called as a reserve Navy officer ; he rose to admiral rank in the Free French Naval Forces. He showed great qualities, but was inflexible and proud. After the defeat of Japan, d’Argenlieu was sent to French Indochina as High Commissioner to restore colonial rule, but there was a claim for independence by the Vietminh, a communist movement. D’Argenlieu had to negotiate with Ho Chi Minh, head of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. More and more obsessed by the communist risk he did not want to see the importance of the nationalist feeling for Vietnam. He tipped over to logic of Cold war.