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Bao Dai
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B?o Ð?i (Hán t?: , Nguy?n Phúc Vinh Th?y 22 October 1913 – 30 July 1997) was the 13th and last ruler of the Nguy?n Dynasty. He served as Emperor of Vietnam from 1926 until 1945 and as head of state of the State of Vietnam from 1949 until 1955. Like most of the monarchs of Vietnamese Nguy?n Dynasty, his role was limited as "King of Annam", including Central Vietnam (Annam) and North Vietnam (Tonkin), by the French Protectorate.
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B?o Ð?i (Hán t?: , Nguy?n Phúc Vinh Th?y 22 October 1913 – 30 July 1997) was the 13th and last ruler of the Nguy?n Dynasty. He served as Emperor of Vietnam from 1926 until 1945 and as head of state of the State of Vietnam from 1949 until 1955. Like most of the monarchs of Vietnamese Nguy?n Dynasty, his role was limited as "King of Annam", including Central Vietnam (Annam) and North Vietnam (Tonkin), by the French Protectorate. However, the public and these monarchs referred to themselves as "Hoàng d? Vi?t Nam" (English: Emperor of Vietnam), or "Hoàng d? Ð?i Nam" (English: Emperor of the Great South), or "Hoàng d? Nam tri?u" (English: Emperor of the Southern Imperial Court, implying Chinese feudal dynasties as "Northern Imperial Court").
Early life
B?o Ð?i was born Prince Nguy?n Phúc Vinh Th?y in the Palace of Doan-Trang-Vien, part of the compound of the Purple Forbidden City in Hu?, at that time the capital of Vietnam by tradition. He later was given the name Nguy?n Vinh Th?y. His father was King Kh?i Ð?nh of Annam. His mother was the king's second wife, Tu Cung, who was renamed Doan Huy upon her 1913 marriage. She held various titles over the years that indicated her advancing rank as a favored consort until she eventually became Empress Dowager in 1933, with style of Her Imperial Majesty being added in 1945.
From 1802, the country -- which was known variously as Vietnam and Annam, depending on who controlled it -- had been a Chinese tributary state ruled by emperors. That title had been diminished to king, however, by the French government, which took control of the region in the late 19th century and split it into three areas: the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin and the colony of Cochinchina. The Nguy?n Dynasty was given nominal rule of Annam.
At the age of nine, Prince Nguy?n Phúc Vinh Th?y was sent to France to be educated at the lycée Condorcet and, later, the Paris Institute of Political Studies. In 1926, at age 13, he became king following his father's death and took the name B?o Ð?i. He did not ascend to the throne due to his age and returned to France to continue his studies. He was subject to control by the French of his government, Annam at that time being part of the Union of French Indochina. Throughout the 20th century, B?o Ð?i was widely perceived to be a puppet ruler for French colonial interests.
Marriages
On 20 March, 1934, at the imperial city of Hu?, B?o Ð?i married Marie-Thérèse Nguy?n H?u Th? Lan (a.k.a Mariette, 1914–1963), a commoner from a wealthy Vietnamese Catholic family. She was renamed Nam Phuong, or "Southern Beauty". The couple had five children: Crown Prince B?o Long (born on 4 January 1936), Princess Phuong Mai (born on 1 August 1937), Princess Phuong Liên (born on 3 November 1938), Princess Phuong Dung (born on 5 February 1942), and Prince B?o Th?ng (born on 9 December 1943). She was granted the title of empress in 1945.
B?o Ð?i had four other wives, three of whom he wed during his marriage to Nam Phuong:
- Phu Anh, a cousin, whom he married circa 1935, and by whom he had one daughter, Princess Claire Phuong Tao (b. prior to 1936)
- Hoang, a Chinese woman, whom he married in 1946
- Bui Mong Diep, whom he married in 1955 and by whom he had two children, Princess Phuong Minh (b. 1949) and Prince B?o An (b. 1953)
- Monique Baudot, a French citizen whom he married in 1972 and who was styled "Imperial Princess" and renamed Vinh Th?y. She became known as Empress Thai Phuong after her husband's death in 1997.
One of his concubines was a dancer from Hanoi, Ly Le Hang.
Independence and abdication
In 1940, during the second World War, coinciding with their ally Germany's invasion of France, the Japanese invaded French Indochina. While they did not eject the French colonial administration, the occupation authorities directed policy from behind the scenes in a parallel of Vichy France.
The Japanese promised not to interfere with the court at Hu?, but in 1945 coerced B?o Ð?i into declaring Vietnamese independence from France as a member of Japan's "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere"; the country then became the Empire of Vietnam. The Japanese had a Vietnamese pretender, Prince Cu?ng Ð?, waiting to take power in case the new emperor's "elimination" was required. Japan surrendered to the Allies in August of 1945, and the Vi?t Minh under the leadership of H? Chí Minh aimed to take power in a free Vietnam. Due to his recent Japanese associations, H? was able to persuade B?o Ð?i to abdicate on 25 August, 1945, handing power over to the Vi?t Minh — an event which greatly enhanced H?'s legitimacy in the eyes of the Vietnamese people. B?o Ð?i was appointed "supreme advisor" to the new government in Hanoi, which asserted its independence on 2 September.
As Vietnam descended into armed conflict — rival Vietnamese factions clashing with each other and also with the remaining French — B?o Ð?i left Vietnam after a year in his "advisory" role, living in both Hong Kong and China. The French persuaded him to return in 1949 to serve in a figurehead capacity for the new post-war order envisioned by the former colonial powers and under the auspices of the newly established set of international institutions, known as the United Nations, but as "Head of State" (Quoc Truong), not as "Emperor" (Hoàng Ð?). He soon returned to France, however, and showed little interest in the affairs of his mother country when his own personal interests were not directly involved. But the war between the French colonial forces and the Vi?t Minh continued, ending in 1954 shortly after a major victory for the Vi?t Minh at the Battle of Ði?n Biên Ph?.
The United States, nervous about H? Chí Minh's communism, became strongly opposed to the idea of a Vietnam run by H? after his government of the northern region of traditional Vietnam, called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, in 1950 gained diplomatic recognition from the Soviet Union and newly victorious Chinese government of Chairman Mao. In the south of traditional Vietnam in that same year, France formed a rival Vietnamese government under B?o Ð?i in Saigon which was recognized by the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations.
The 1954 peace deal between the French and the Vi?t Minh, known as the Geneva Accords, involved a Chinese-inspired, supposedly temporary partition of the country into "Northern" and "Southern" Vietnamese administrations. B?o Ð?i moved to Paris, France, but remained "Head of State" of South Vietnam, appointing the Roman Catholic nationalist, Ngô Ðình Di?m, as his Prime Minister.
However, in 1955, Di?m used a referendum to remove B?o Ð?i and form a republic, taking control of the South himself, while managing to win U.S. government support. The referendum was widely regarded as fraudulent, showing an alleged ninety-eight percent in favour of Di?m. B?o Ð?i abdicated once again and remained in exile for the remainder of his life in Paris, France.
Life in exile
In 1972, Bao Dai issued a public statement from exile, appealing to the Vietnamese people for national reconciliation, stating "The time has come to put an end to the fratricidal war and to recover at last peace and accord".
Bao Dai still held great influence among local political figures in the Qu?ng Tr? and Th?a Thiên-Hu? provinces and also in the city of Hu?, the former imperial capital of Vietnam. The Communist government of North Vietnam sent representatives to France hoping that B?o Ð?i would become a member of a coalition government which might reunite Vietnam, in the hope of attracting his supporters in the regions wherein he still held influence.
As a result of these meetings, B?o Ð?i publicly spoke out against the presence of American troops on the territory of South Vietnam, and he also criticized President Nguy?n Van Thi?u's regime in South Vietnam. He called for all political factions to create a free, neutral, peace-loving government which would resolve the tense situation that had taken form in the country.
In 1982, B?o Ð?i, his wife, Vinh Th?y, and other members of the former imperial family of Vietnam visited the United States. His agenda was to oversee and bless Buddhist and Caodaiist religious ceremonies, in the Californian and Texan Vietnamese-American communities.
While in the United States, Emperor B?o Ð?i gauged opinion among the exiled Vietnamese-American community, hoping to find a route towards national reconciliation.
B?o Ð?i died in a military hospital in Paris, France in 1997. He was interred in the Cimetière de Passy.
After his death, his eldest son Crown Prince Bao Long inherited the position of head of the Nguy?n Dynasty.
Portrayal on film
Emperor B?o Ð?i was portrayed by the actor Huynh Anh Tuan in the 2004 Vietnamese miniseries "Ngon Nen Hoang Cung" ("A Candle in the Royal Palace").
Coins with B?o Ð?i name
The last cash coin ever produced in the world bears the name of B?o Ð?i in Chinese characters.
Quotes
- In 1945 when the Japanese colonel in charge of the Hue garrison told Bao Dai that he had (in line with the orders of the Allied commander) taken measures ensuring the security of the Imperial Palace and those within it against a possible Vi?t Minh coup, Bao Dai dismissed the protection declaring "I do not wish a foreign army to spill the blood of my people."
- He explained his abdication in 1945 saying "I would prefer to be a citizen of an independent country rather than Emperor of an enslaved one."
- When, after WWII, France attempted to counter Ho Chi Minh's popularity and gain the support of the US by creating a puppet government with him, he said "What they call a B?o Ð?i solution turns out to be just a French solution."
- In a rare public statement from France in 1972, B?o Ð?i appealed to the people of Vietnam for national reconciliation. Saying "The time has come to put an end to the fratricidal war and to recover at last peace and accord."
External links
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- Dec. 2, 1982 at San Martin, California
- (in French)
- from USA TODAY
- at Find-A-Grave
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