~ 720th MP Battalion Reunion Association History Project ~
Bao Dai
The Last Emperor Of Vietnam
 1913 - 1997

Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty

     His nickname was Vinh-Thuy, and he was born at Hue in 1913. He was the 13th emperor since Gia-Long (1802-1819), the founder of the Nguyen Dynasty, which ruled the Vietnamese people during the 19th and first half of the 20th century (1802-1945). Bao-Dai was the son of Khai-Dinh and succeeded to his father's throne in 1925.
Nguyen Dynasty Flag 1920-1945
     Bao Dai had served as Emperor in the French colonial regime and under the Vichy French government during WWII during the Japanese occupation.

Following the Japanese coup in 1945, he served the same role for the Japanese, renouncing the French and proclaiming Vietnam independent and a part of Japan's Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.

In August, 1945 the Viet Minh, believing the Japanese were finished, attempted to seize power and demanded the Emperor's abdication. This he gave at the court in Hue on August 25, 1945.

He later went to Hanoi where Ho Chi Minh declared Bao Dai (center in photo) "supreme advisor" to the government.

     The abdication in favor of the Viet Minh helped to establish legitimacy for Ho Chi Minh in the eyes of the Vietnamese.

It soon became clear, however, that the communists had no intention of sharing any power with the former emperor. And with France attempting to reassert its colonial claim to northern and central Vietnam by force, Bao Dai left for exile in Hong Kong and China.

In 1949 he was coaxed home by the French, who saw him as a possible alternative to Ho Chi Minh, whose guerrillas were then at war with the French colonial army. Bao Dai returned to Vietnam with the titles of premier and, again, emperor. His government was recognized by the United States and Britain in 1950, but it never won widespread popular support.

On October 23, 1955, more than a year after the French defeat at Dien-Bien-Phu (on May 7, 1954) Bao-Dai was over thrown by a referendum and his Prime Minister Ngo-Dinh-Diem declared South Vietnam a Republic on October 26, 1955. Diem became its first president.
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