Nguyễn Văn Thinh (1888 – 10 November 1946, Saigon) was the first President of Cochinchina. Thinh was a French citizen and joined the Constitutionalist Party in 1926. He founded the Cochinchinese Democratic Party in 1937. He became chief of the provisional government on March 26, 1946, and provisional president on June 1. He felt a loss of face when the French negotiated with the

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...

, ignoring his government. "I am being compelled to play a farce," he said. He died, an apparent suicide while still in office, on November 10.

Family and education

Dr. Nguyễn Văn Thinh was born in 1888, in an aristocratic family in the South of Vietnam. He was the first valedictorian of the Indochina School of Medicine in 1907, and one of the first Vietnamese medical students who successfully passed the examination for Interne Doctors at the Hospital of Paris (Interne des Hôpitaux de Paris). He worked at

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines ...

(Paris), where he finished his thesis.

Political life

Dr. Nguyễn Văn Thinh started his political career as a Constitutionalist by holding Phan Chu Trinh's funeral ceremony. Later, he founded the Democratic Party of Indochina in 1937. He was one of the founders of the

Vietnamese Language Vietnamese ( vi, tiếng Việt, links=no) is an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language originating from Vietnam where it is the national language, national and official language. Vietnamese is spoken natively by over 70 million people, ...

Propagating Association and the chairman of the Association for Hunger.

Honors

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

External links

Saigon’s hidden presidential palace and forgotten president: the Republic of Cochinchina and Nguyễn Văn Thinh

References

at Rulers.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen Van Thinh Politicians who committed suicide 1946 deaths Suicides in Vietnam 1888 births