Bao Dai

Bao Dai born in Hue, (1913 -1997 ), under French colonial rule of Indochina, was Emperor of Annam (1932-1945), and head of state of French Indochina until replaced by Ngo Dinh Diem after the Geneva Accords. During the Second World War, he worked with the Vichy French and the Japanese, abdicated in 1945, acted as a political advisor to Ho Chi Minh in 1949, and returned as head of state under French Union control. After appointing Diem the Prime Minister, he left Vietnam in 1955.

1948
Bao Dai participated in discussions about a provisional government, in which he might be an acceptable, if not ideal, head of state. The new government, established with Bao Dai as chief of state, was viewed critically by nationalists as well as communists. Most prominent nationalists, including Ngo Dinh Diem, refused positions in the government. Many went into voluntary exile.

1949
Under French sponsorship in July, Bao Dai was named to head a provisional government, creating Vietnam from the Indochinese regions of Tonkin (north), Annam (central) and Cochinchina (south). Bao Dai said of it, "it is not a Bao Dai solution...but just a French solution." Among the many problems were that the non-Communist groups had too many conflicting ties, such as the VNQDD with the Chinese Kuomintang; the Constitutionalists, Cao Dai, Hoa Hao, and Binh Xuyen with France; the Dai Viet with Japan. Given this factionalism, the Viet Minh, accurately or not, enjoyed support as an uniquely Vietnamese faction.