Jean Decoux
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Jean Decoux (5 May 1884 – 21 October 1963) was a
French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in th ...
admiral who was the
Governor-General of French Indochina European (as well as Japanese and Chinese) colonial administrators had historically been responsible for the territory of French Indochina, an area equivalent to modern-day Vietnam, Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao Peo ...
from July 1940 to 9 March 1945, representing the
Vichy French Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its t ...
government.


Early life and naval career

Decoux was born in
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture ...
, one of three children of a family originally from
Upper Savoy Haute-Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè d'Amont'' or ''Hiôta-Savouè''; en, Upper Savoy) or '; it, Alta Savoia. is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its prefecture is An ...
. In 1901, at about 16, he entered the École navale. He was promoted to aspirant second class in 1903, to aspirant first class the following year, ship-of-the-line ensign (sub-lieutenant) in 1906, ship-of-the-line lieutenant (lieutenant) in 1913, corvette captain (lieutenant-commander) in 1920, frigate captain (commander) in 1923, ship-of-the-line captain in 1929 and rear admiral (one-star rear admiral) in 1935. He was appointed commander of the defence sector at Toulon in 1938 and promoted to vice-admiral (two-star rear admiral).


French Indochina

On 13 January 1939, Decoux was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces in the Far East by President Albert Lebrun. He assumed his new appointment, with the rank of squadron vice-admiral (vice admiral), on 12 May. When the French Navy submarine sank with the loss of all hands in the
South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
during a training exercise on 15 June 1939, he ordered the
light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
to put to sea to join the submarine in searching for her.u-boote.fr PHÉNIX (in French) Accessed 3 August 2022
/ref> On 16 June he embarked on ''L'Espoir'' to take personal command of the search, and ''Phénix''′s wreck was discovered on the sea bed later that day.Anonymous, "Toll of French Submarine Raised to 71 Dead; Saigon in Mourning," Associated Press, 17 June 1939, p. 1.
/ref> From 25 June 1940 he served as interim
Vichy French Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its t ...
Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
of
Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
, succeeding General
Georges Catroux Georges Albert Julien Catroux (29 January 1877 – 21 December 1969) was a French Army general and diplomat who served in both World War I and World War II, and served as Grand Chancellor of the Légion d'honneur from 1954 to 1969. Life Cat ...
. His functions were established on 29 August the same year. Like his predecessor, Decoux initially wished to continue the fight against the Axis powers, but he swore allegiance to Pétain's regime after realizing that his meager armed forces were no match for the Japanese. Decoux reportedly received demands from the Japanese in early August for permission to move troops through
Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled ''Tongkin'', ''Tonquin'' or ''Tongking'', is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain '' Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, inclu ...
(later
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
) in order to build air bases and block Allied supply routes to China. Decoux cabled his Vichy superiors for aid, but when no help was forthcoming, he signed a treaty on 20 September 1940 that opened
Haiphong Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong w ...
Harbour to the Japanese and gave them the right to station troops in the region. Decoux worked to improve relations between French colonists and the Vietnamese. He established a grand federal council containing twice as many Vietnamese members as Frenchmen and installed Vietnamese in civil-service positions with equal pay to that of French officials. The Indochinese Federal Council, which was composed only of Indochinese, and later the Grand Federal Council were the formal structures that Decoux felt he needed to build to develop the Indochinese federal consciousness simultaneously with the elevation of the elite. Rather than a legislative or executive body, the Federal Council in both its forms was a body consisting of non-elected indigenous elites. They gave their opinions to the Governor General to assist him in his decision-making and served as a forum to strengthen relations between these elites and the authorities. The GFC replaced the IFC in 1943 by introducing 23 French representatives (from the economy's principal sectors, making it, according to Decoux, more representative) and adding five local members, thereby ensuring that the Indochinese presence outnumbered the European. Decoux believed that would reverse the reluctance of the local population to accept the politics of collaboration. In addition, he apparently wished to show goodwill toward the Indochinese peoples after Roosevelt's public statement that maintaining French sovereignty in Indochina was not a principal objective of the United States. The French colonial authorities learnt of the policy through BBC broadcasts. Decoux's first wife, Suzanne Humbert, died in a traffic accident in 1944. She is buried in the Domaine de Marie Church convent in Da Lat. Decoux enforced the discriminatory Vichy laws against Gaullists and
Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
, as well as the
Vichy anti-Jewish legislation Anti-Jewish laws were enacted by the Vichy France government in 1940 and 1941 affecting metropolitan France and its overseas territories during World War II. These laws were, in fact, decrees of head of state Marshal Philippe Pétain, since Parlia ...
, but he decried the impact on the French colonial regime and society. One writer claims that Decoux remained unconcerned by the famine of 1945. Over one million Vietnamese died of starvation in the countryside and urban cities and the author asserts that the Decoux government did nothing to help the Vietnamese peasants, farmers, and poor, despite soliciting and courting the Vietnamese elite.Khanh, Huynh Kim "Vietnamese Communism, 1925–1945" Cornell University Press, 1986 However, archival records show that Allied bombardment of railways and the requisitioning of boats by the Japanese made it impossible to transport rice from Cochinchina to Tonkin. On 9 March 1945, the Japanese took direct control of the government and ousted Decoux, establishing the
Empire of Vietnam The Empire of Vietnam (; Literary Chinese and Contemporary Japanese: ; Modern Japanese: ja, ベトナム帝国, Betonamu Teikoku, label=none) was a short-lived puppet state of Imperial Japan governing the former French protectorates of An ...
. Arrested, Decoux was tried by Justice High Court and placed under house arrest. There, he was tortured for two days by former French Communist partisans and left for dead. Cared for in the Val de Grâce Military Hospital in Paris, he was declared innocent of all charges in 1949 and restored to his former rank and privileges. He later wrote the book ''À la barre de l'Indochine''. He died in Paris in 1963 and is buried in Annecy.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Decoux, Jean 1884 births 1963 deaths Military personnel from Bordeaux French Navy admirals French military leaders French people of World War II Governors-General of French Indochina French colonial governors and administrators French collaborators with Imperial Japan People of Vichy France