ABSTRACT
It is easy to argue that French rule in Indochina effectively came to an end in the summer of 1945. This did not appear to be the case, however, to the new breed of French officials sent out by General de Gaulle’s government to replace the people who had looked after the region up to 1945. During the war, in fact, de Gaulle had made the recovery of the French empire, and Indochina in particular, an important goal of his government in exile.
