The Crucial Year: Indochina 1946

Abstract

The general situation in France concerning the colonial problem immediately after the end of the second world war (1945-1946), was far from being well-defined. The men in power in the capital, as well as French public opinion at large, appeared somewhat uncommitted on the issue. Everything remained for a while in a state of flux. Because of the upheaval generated by five years of war and foreign occupation, because new men were in power and new institutions were required, there was much to be done in terms of change and adaptation to new circumstances. But while a fresh outlook on colonial problems was urgently needed, and indeed for a time was possible, both the new political elite, and behind it public opinion, missed an opportunity that was not to recur. They were all prisoners of the French 'colonial myth',' to which the postwar circumstances added new justifications, further reinforcing old attitudes that were widely shared and seldom questioned throughout the French political spectrum. In the case of the political elite, ideas and attitudes were, furthermore, coloured by party affiliation, party interests and rivalries, and the necessities of domestic politics. In this respect, 1946 was to be a crucial year, during which the fate of both the French Empire, and ultimately that of the Fourth Republic itself were sealed the two being closely connected, a fact not perceived at the time. During that fateful year, when the main colonial problem was Indochina, whatever flexibility in attitude existed toward that problem progressively disappeared. The outcome was the Indochina war. This progressive change of attitude on the part of all protagonists was due to the conjunction of a series of circumstances and events that reacted upon each other.