The Gecko and the Mosquitoes: A French Officer's Insights into the Early Phase of the 1930–31 Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets

Abstract

Abstract In letters home to his relatives, Lieutenant Martin Troyes (1905–1997) provides perhaps the only eyewitness accounts of the early part of the 1930–31 Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets written while the rebellion is occurring from the perspective of a soldier. The Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets were a Communist-led anti-colonial uprising mainly in Nghệ An and Hà Tĩnh provinces of north-central Vietnam, which began as localized protests against heavy taxation and for political representation but quickly evolved into widespread violence and destruction. Troyes's comments point to much wider-ranging violence than scholars have previously discussed and much broader internecine violence than historians have previously presented, especially between Catholic Vietnamese and Communist sympathizers.