Everything about B O I totally explained
Bảo Đại (
Hán tự:,
22 October 1913 –
30 July 1997) was the 13th and last ruler of the
Nguyễn Dynasty. He served as king of
Annam from 1926 until 1945 and as emperor of
Vietnam from 1945 until 1949.
Early life
Bảo Đại was born
Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy in the Palace of Doan-Trang-Vien, part of the compound of the
Purple Forbidden City in
Huế, at that time the
capital of Vietnam by
tradition. He later was given the name Nguyễn Vĩnh Thụy. His
father was King
Khải Định 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.
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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
Nguyễn Dynasty was given nominal rule of Annam.
At the age of nine, Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy was sent to
France to be
educated at the
lycée Condorcet and, later, the
Paris Institute of Political Studies. In 1926, he became king following his father's death and took the name
Bảo Đại. He didn't 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, Bảo Đại was widely perceived to be a
puppet ruler for French
colonial interests.
Marriages
On
20 March,
1934, at the imperial city of Huế, Bảo Đại married Marie-Thérèse Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan (a.k.a Mariette, 1914–1963), a commoner from a wealthy Vietnamese Catholic family. She was renamed
Nam Phương, or "Southern Beauty". The couple had five
children:
Crown Prince Bảo Long (born on
4 January 1936), Princess
Phương Mai (born on
1 August 1937), Princess
Phương Lien (born on
3 November 1938), Princess
Phương Dung (born on
5 February 1942), and Prince
Bảo Thang (born on
9 December 1943). She was granted the title of empress in 1945.
Bảo Đại had four other
wives, three of whom he wed during his marriage to Nam Phương:
- Phu Anh, a cousin, whom he married circa 1935, and by whom he'd one daughter, Princess Claire Phương 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'd two children, Princess Phương Minh (b. 1949) and Prince Bảo An (b. 1953)
- Monique Baudot, a French citizen whom he married in 1972 and who was styled "Imperial Princess" and renamed Vĩnh Thụy. She became known as Empress Thai Phương after her husband's death in 1997.
One of his concubines was a dancer from Hanoi, Ly Le Hang.
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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 didn't 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 Huế, but in 1945 coerced Bảo Đại 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
Cường Để, waiting to take power in case the new emperor's "elimination" was required. Japan surrendered to the
Allies in August of 1945, and the
Việt Minh under the leadership of
Hồ Chí Minh aimed to take power in a free Vietnam. Due to his recent Japanese
associations, Hồ was able to persuade Bảo Đại to
abdicate on
25 August,
1945, handing power over to the Việt Minh — an event which greatly enhanced Hồ's
legitimacy in the eyes of the Vietnamese people. Bảo Đại 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 — Bảo Đại 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 Đế). 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 Việt Minh continued, ending in 1954 shortly after a major victory for the Việt Minh at the
Battle of Điện Biên Phủ.
The
United States, nervous about Hồ Chí Minh's
communism, became strongly opposed to the idea of a Vietnam run by Hồ 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 Bảo Đại 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 Việt Minh, known as the
Geneva Accords, involved a Chinese-inspired, supposedly temporary
partition of the country into "Northern" and "Southern" Vietnamese administrations. Bảo Đại moved to
Paris, France, but remained "Head of State" of
South Vietnam, appointing the
Roman Catholic nationalist,
Ngô Đình Diệm, as his
Prime Minister.
However, in 1955, Diệm used a
referendum to remove Bảo Đại 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 Diệm. Bảo Đại 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
Quảng Trị and
Thừa Thiên-Huế provinces and also in the city of Huế, the former imperial capital of Vietnam. The Communist government of
North Vietnam sent representatives to France hoping that Bảo Đại 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, Bảo Đại publicly spoke out against the presence of
American troops on the territory of South Vietnam, and he also criticized President
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu'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, Bảo Đại, his wife, Vĩnh Thụy, 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 Bảo Đại gauged
opinion among the exiled Vietnamese-American community, hoping to find a route towards national reconciliation.
Bảo Đại 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 Nguyễn Dynasty.
Portrayal on film
Emperor Bảo Đại was portrayed by the actor
Huynh Anh Tuan in the 2004 Vietnamese miniseries "Ngon Nen Hoang Cung" ("A Candle in the Royal Palace").
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Coins with Bảo Đại name
The last
cash coin ever produced in the world bears the name of
Bảo Đại in
Chữ Nôm.
Quotes
In 1945 when the Japanese colonel in charge of the Hue garrison told Bao Dai that he'd (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 Việt Minh coup, Bao Dai dismissed the protection declaring "I don't 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."
In a rare public statement from France in 1972, Bảo Đại 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."Further Information
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