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After the end of World War II, a new trend emerged in France, leaning towards the study of modern Vietnamese history, with several notable works such as History of Vietnam from 1940 to 1952 (L'histoire du Vietnam de 1940 a 1952, 1952) by Philippe Devillers, Contribution to the understanding of the Vietnamese nation (Contribution a l'histoire de la nation vietnamienne, 1955) by Jean Chesneaux, and Vietnam, history and civilization (Le Vietnam, histoire et civilisation, 1955) by Professor Le Thanh Khoi who lived in France.
Responding to RFI Vietnamese, Professor Trinh Van Thao, who once taught at the University of Provence, remarked that this period marked a time of strong development for Vietnamese studies in France, with names such as Jean Chesneaux, Pierre Brocheux, Daniel Hemery, or Georges Boudarel.
"These three are students of a history professor, specializing in Oriental studies, at the Sorbonne, that is Professor Jean Chesneaux. He played the role of an intermediary between two generations. Previously, the ranks of those writing modern Vietnamese history were very few. Those who wrote with the aim of welcoming colonialism were even fewer. Only starting from Paul Mus with Chesneaux did two talents begin to bloom to oppose colonialism.
Mr. Paul Mus was one of the first directors of the Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient (EFEO). He had a very fundamental training, he was strict but what he analyzed about Vietnam in the book Vietnam: Sociologie d'une guerre (tentative translation: Vietnam: Sociology of a war, 1952), shows clearly that he was a person with a deep insight rather than focusing on incidents or historical events. He analyzed the cultural and historical reasons why there was a revolution in Vietnam, starting from 1952.
After Paul Mus paved the way, Mr. Chesneaux was the second person to begin that work. Mr. Chesneaux had the advantage of specializing in modern Chinese and modern Vietnamese history, so Chesneaux wrote a book that I consider very important during that period, titled Contribution to the understanding of Vietnamese history".
Still according to Professor Trinh Van Thao, it was Chesneaux who trained three excellent "disciples," considered to mark the golden age of Vietnamese studies in France, in order of age being Georges Boudarel, Daniel Hemery, and Pierre Brocheux. Later, all three historians headed the research group on modern Vietnamese history at the newly established Paris 7 – Diderot University.
"Boudarel, in the past, went to collaborate within the framework of a training program. He went to Vietnam when he had just obtained his bachelor's degree in Vietnamese studies and taught at Chasseloup-Laubat school. He taught for a few months and then joined the resistance from the south to the north, so he knew the historical figures of Vietnam well. Back in France, thanks to Boudarel, many later historians drew experience and knew more about the historical figures of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
The second person was Hemery, who specialized in Fourth International figures. He followed and analyzed very meticulously and accurately the La Lutte (The Struggle) movement in Vietnam, starting from 1933 until 1937-1938 when it broke up. That was a transitional historical time, with the almost unique experience of cooperation between Third and Fourth International Communists. The spiritual father of the newspaper La Lutte was Mr. Nguyen An Ninh, a radical leader.
That was the first time a modern historian studied a modern phenomenon with sufficient documents. Therefore, he wrote an excellent book on the La Lutte movement.
Brocheux was a bit older than Hemery. Mr. Brocheux taught history at the French high school Chasseloup-Laubat. Among the three, I think Daniel Hemery was the most excellent, in terms of academic qualifications, he held a master's degree and had very deep insight, equivalent to Paul Mus"..
After historian Jean Chesneaux withdrew, the three students continued to combine research on modern Vietnamese history with the "spectacular" result of the Brocheux and Hemery duo being the book Indochine: Une colonisation ambigue (tentative translation: Indochina, an ambiguous colonization), which is considered to mark a whole generation of researchers. In addition, there are also two professors Nguyen The Anh and Charles Fourniau in the scientific research environment in France.
"Professor Nguyen The Anh has a lot of prestige, although he was a high-ranking official of the southern regime, he had guarantees in terms of science. Nguyen The Anh was a very well-educated person, held a master's degree, and then did an excellent thesis on Vietnamese bibliography. Now people still consider him the most reliable person. Another person oriented entirely towards the French Communist Party is Mr. Charles Fourniau.
There were five people in total in the scientific environment in France who had great influence. Because at that time, specialists on Vietnam were very few, and young intellectuals here were "hooked" on Vietnam. Their political experience was Vietnam, so what these men wrote about Vietnam influenced them greatly. Vietnam was the only country that confronted the US empire and defeated France without being crushed, so they admired them very much"..
France had 70 doctoral theses on Vietnam within 20 years
In nearly two decades (1991-2008), at least 70 doctoral theses specializing on Vietnam (or on colonial Indochina) were defended in France, including 16 theses defended at Paris 7 – Diderot University (according to the scientific journal Mousson, issue 13-14 (2009) dedicated to Vietnam: History and contemporary perspectives (Vietnam: Histoire et perspectives contemporaines).
Research and teaching on Vietnam continue to be deployed at several universities like Paris 1 Sorbonne-Pantheon, in the South, notably the University of Provence (Aix-Marseille I), University of Lyon 2, as well as in many regions across France: Montpellier III, Nantes, Reims, Toulouse II, Perpignan, Littoral… universities.
According to Professor Trinh Van Thao's assessment, researchers on Vietnam in France today are very excellent, but they still lack experience with the historical events that the previous generation experienced.
"Because those historians had experience. They understood the matter from the inside out. As for those of the younger generation later like David Mas or Philippe Papin, they also understood the events but understood from the outside in. Therefore, they played the role of both historian and actor.
Only a few young people in France, like Andrew Hardy, as I mentioned, have no personal experience. They study Vietnam as a scientific object. As for the Hemery, Brocheux class, they played a pioneering role to denounce the countries that crushed Vietnam with bombs and bullets"..
Regarding Vietnamese doctoral students in France, Professor Trinh Van Thao remarked:
"The misery is that the next generation is poor. Poor, because, in fact, we keep waiting for cadres and historians from Vietnam to be sent over, they still have the will to go further. But the misery is that our historians are too poor, especially under the northern communist regime. Vietnamese history only started from 1925 when Uncle Ho founded the Revolutionary Youth Comrades Association. Before that, they knew nothing: the Nguyen Dynasty period they did not know, the French colonial period they did not know, no need to know, only knew the later period. Consequently, students who come here, who are good at language are "lost" in history. As for those with historical knowledge, history is distorted"..
Still according to Professor Trinh Van Thao, it is necessary to form a team of young cadres who are enthusiastic, believe in history and believe in science so that Vietnamese studies can develop. The future generation of Vietnamese historians "needs to be retrained or sent abroad, to encounter schools of thought, thanks to which they can progress".
Another note is the need to carefully select French professors to guide doctoral theses because some lack knowledge of Vietnamese history: "They are very kind, very lovely, they are ready to help Vietnamese students so that the Vietnamese history branch can progress, but we must have a combination of many criteria, the most basic of which is the historical science standard".
The final point that Vietnamese doctoral students in France have not yet achieved is to firmly grasp the language to be able to delve into issues, read books, and research documents carefully.
http://vi.rfi.fr/viet-nam/20170626-su-phat-trien-cua-nganh-viet-nam-hoc-tai-phap
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