French “yellowing” (jaunissement) of their war effort in Indochina after 1945-46
From: Hue-Tam Tai <huetamtai@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2023 8:41 AM
To: passelin@sdsu.edu; biggsbiggs@gmail.com
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu; jmsilverman5@comcast.net
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Help: It's Not "Jaunissement," It's ....
I wonder about the policy of De-frenchization. Jaunissement would apply only if the upper echelons of the military became staffed with Vietnamese officers since colonial troops were mostly Vietnamese --and badly treated as the Thai Nguyen uprising in 1917 and the Yen Bay rising in 1930 attested. So jaunissement needs some clarification.
Hue-Tam Ho Tai
Harard University emerita
From: Pierre Asselin <passelin@sdsu.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2023 7:18 AM
To: David Biggs <biggsbiggs@gmail.com>
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu; Jerry Mark Silverman <jmsilverman5@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Help: It's Not "Jaunissement," It's ....
Dear All:
I can't thank you enough for these great responses. "Outsourcing" is a good way to frame all this, and I'm likely to use that term.
Fundamentally, the French are pursuing through these initiatives (using local, colonial, and non-colonial foreign fighters) the de-Francisation (de-Frenchization) of hostilities, much as the Americans undertook Vietnamization as a means of effecting the de-Americanization of that war. It turns out that francisation is a word; I just found that out. However, it's typically used in reference to language and culture by people in Quebec (a remarkable, good, smart, noble people, in case you didn't know). I'm also tempted to go with "de-Frenchization," though it does sound a little strange.
FYI, Frank Proschan has my eternal respect. He suggested off-list that I use the term "Wagnerification"!
By the way, the book I'm working on is the second edition of Vietnam's American War. If you have not shared with me already your own suggestions for improving it, please don't hesitate to do so-off list. The new version will accentuate the civil war dimensions of the conflict as well as non/anti-communist agency in it. Nu-Anh Tran, Sean Fear, and Jay Veith have opened my eyes to important realities about the latter, which I largely ignored in the first edition. I intend to atone for that in the new version of the book.
Thank you again. You are the best!
Pierre
Pierre Asselin
Professor of History - Dwight E. Stanford Chair in US Foreign Relations
San Diego State University
History Department
From: David Biggs <biggsbiggs@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2023 6:28 PM
To: Hue-Tam Tai <huetamtai@gmail.com>
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu; Jerry Mark Silverman <jmsilverman5@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Help: It's Not "Jaunissement," It's ....
Hi All:
I don't like the term "jaunissement" even in scare quotes, for the obvious racism but also because it obscures multilple French policies and debates about the roles of Vietnamese and local soldiers in French forces and especially in local Vietnamese military organizations. Going back to about 1925 under I think the Varenne govt, the French head of the Troops Indochinois was arguing the case in Paris for a kind of "jaunissement" that meant giving more control and leadership positions in the TI -- officer commissions -- to Vietnamese (and metis) individuals. There were several Vietnamese aviators who returned to Indochina after WW1 and held
promise to lead development of a localized air corps. They were colonial celebrities and possibly influenced this League of Nations-era idea -- a postwar new order.
Even as early as 1925 and esp in the 1930s, senior French military officers were advocating for promoting their local comrades in arms, and some went as far as recognizing that in time, if promoted, the same individuals might lead a future, independent Indochina or VN. If one mines the military records they will see there were diverse opinions -- maybe that is French military culture???
Many military officers in the Viet Minh came out of the colonial military, as did officers in the various "associated" forces.
So that j-discourse is really different from 1949-53 or various American initiatives known more as Vietnamization but begun with USOM in 1950 and mostly
identified with Nixon post 1969.
David
From: Hue-Tam Tai <huetamtai@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2023 5:50 PM
To: Erik Harms <elharms@gmail.com>; Jerry Mark Silverman <jmsilverman5@comcast.net>
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Help: It's Not "Jaunissement," It's ....
hI, Erik and friends,
I did think of outsourcing to refer to troops from African colonies and European legionnaires. It is anachronistic but definitely captures the essence of the practice.
When I was doing research at rue Oudinot, I received great assitance from the surly Vietnamese in charge of the photocopying machine. He owed his position to his veteran status, having served in Chad.
So, Africans and others to Indochina and Indochinese to Africa.
The Brits sent Gurkhas to Hong Kong.
Hue-Tam Ho Tai
Harvard University emerita
From: Erik Harms <elharms@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2023 3:59 PM
To: Jerry Mark Silverman <jmsilverman5@comcast.net>
Cc: VSG <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Help: It's Not "Jaunissement," It's ....
For more contemporary conflicts, the term "outsourcing" (eg, outsourcing war, outsourcing violence, outsourcing military) is sometimes used to refer to everything from private military companies to mercenaries. Of course, it may be anachronistic to read the term backwards into history, but it strikes me as potentially useful here at least as an analogy (if not more) and avoids any focus on derogatory ethnonyms while still highlighting the issue at hand. And certainly one could easily argue that colonial formations and outsourcing are likely connected in more ways than one.
best wishes,
Erik
From: Jerry Mark Silverman <jmsilverman5@comcast.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2023 1:31 PM
To: Pierre Asselin <passelin@sdsu.edu>; VSG <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Help: It's Not "Jaunissement," It's ....
Pierre --
Question. Are you asking for a word or phrase to substitute for (1) jaunissement only, or to do so for the (2) African colonial troops only, or (3) #2 combined with the legionnaires, (4) or all three?
If only the African colonial troops, maybe "Forces Coloniales Françaises Africaines" (I know = 4, not 2, words, sorry). Karl Hack (with Tobias Rettig) states: "...defining colonial forces is that they are raised from within territories that qualify as 'colonial'...; or they are raised from non-metropolitan populations for the purpose of dominating overseas territories.... Colonial forces are not necessarily 'indigenous', however, either to the country of recruitment or to the country of posting." That seems to fit #2 above.
Citation: Karl Hack with Tobias Rettig, Chapter 1, Imperial systems of power, colonial forces and the making of modern Southeast Asia," in Tovias Rettog and Karl Hack (eds.), Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia (New York, NY: Routledge, 2000), p. 4 between p.3-38 of 354 pages (my count including blanks). I'll be including that label in my own draft book ms that I work on every day; but doubt we will overlap too much since Mine starts in 1427 thru mid-next year (2024).
Best, Jerry
Jerry Mark Silverman
World Bank (ret.)
Independent Researcher
From: GROSSHEIM MARTIN <mgrossheim@snu.ac.kr>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2023 11:28 AM
To: Pierre Asselin <passelin@sdsu.edu>; vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Help: It's Not "Jaunissement," It's ....
Dear comrade Pierre,
I am not aware of any word that captures this process, but the former legionnaires etc. who joined the Việt Minh are called "(những) người Việt Nam mới" in Vietnamese. Maybe that helps.....
An interesting documentary on VTV4 tells the story (though not the whole story) of three famous crossovers from France, Germany and Greece: Georges Boudarel, Erwin Borchers (Chiến sĩ) and Kostas Sarantidis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjcE-P6B6nU&ab_channel=VTV4
That's just my two đồng :-),
Best,
Martin
MARTIN GROSSHEIM
Department of Asian History / Associate Professor, Vietnamese History
Fellow at the Wilson Center, Washington, DC (09/2022-08/2023)
Email mgrossheim@snu.ac.kr
From: Pierre Asselin <passelin@sdsu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2023 9:58 AM
To: VSG <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] Help: It's Not "Jaunissement," It's ....
Cherished Comrades:
We know the French pursued the “yellowing” (jaunissement, by their own [terrible] official account) of their war effort in Indochina after 1945-46. But we also know they used West and North Africans as well as legionnaires, many of whom were of German, Dutch, and East European descent. What would be a good, sensible and sensitive word or two to capture this process? I'm trying to come up with an appropriate sub-heading for a section addressing these matters in a book. Seeing as most of you on this list are smarter than I am, I thought I'd reach out because I've been pondering this for over two hours and keep coming empty.
Muchos Mahalos,
Pierre
Pierre Asselin
Professor of History - Dwight E. Stanford Chair in US Foreign Relations
San Diego State University