words

"Imagine all that is terrible and it will still be less than reality...The word 'Vietnam' will be erased from history."
        French official to Emperor Hiep Hoa on what would happen if he refused to sign a treaty beneficial to France.

"If Your Majesty ever has cause to be dissatisfied with my handling of our country's affairs, you have but to speak the word and I will step down."
        Ngo Dinh Diem to Emperor Bao Dai upon becoming Prime Minister of South Vietnam. One year later he organized a rigged election to overthrow the monarchy.

"Never has an era seen such sadness, never a year more anguish. Above me, I fear the edicts of heaven. Below, the tribulations of the people trouble my days and nights. Deep in my heart, I tremble and blush, finding neither words nor actions to help my subjects...Evil must be suppressed and goodness sought. The wise must offer their counsel, the strong their force, the rich their wealth, and all those with skill should devote them to the needs of the army and the kingdom. Let us, together, mend our errors and rebuild...Alas! the centuries are fraught with pain, and man is burdened by fear and woe. Thus we express our feelings, that they may be known to the world. Imperial writ. Respect this."
       Emperor Tu Duc in a published statement following the French occupation of
        all of Cochinchina

"The sky is still there. So are the earth and the dynasty. We wish long life to the Emperor."
        Tran Cao Van and Thai Phien as they were led to their execution for rebelling
        against the French protectorate

"The money that you find in the coffer is intended to help the king to govern the country but it does not belong to me in any way especially to a political prisoner."
       Emperor Duy Tan after being arrested for organizing a rebellion against the
        French when their Resident Superior offered him government funds

"I am eager to learn and hope to serve France among my compatriots,"
        Ho Chi Minh, 1911

"You would understand better if you could see what is happening here, if you could feel this yearning for independence that is in everyone's heart, and which no human force can any longer restrain. Should you reestablish a French administration here, it will not be obeyed. Every village will be a nest of resistance, each former collaborator an enemy, and your officials and colonists will themselves seek to leave this atmoshpere, which will choke them."
       Emperor Bao Dai to French General Charles de Gaulle

"You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and I will win."
        Ho Chi Minh before the Franco-Vietminh War

"I would prefer to be a citizen of an independent country rather than Emperor of an enslaved one."
       Emperor Bao Dai explaining his abdication in 1945

"Ho Chi Minh is about to capitulate. We are going to beat him."
        French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault in 1954

"What they call a Bao Dai solution turns out to be just a French solution."
        Emperor Bao Dai after France's failure to grant full independence

"Whether the French like it or not, independence is coming to Indochina. Why, therefore, do we tie ourselves to the tail of their battered kite?"
        U.S. State Department expert Raymond B. Fosdick

"A sacred respect is due the person of the sovereign...He is the mediator between the people and heaven"
        Ngo Dinh Diem who later deposed the Emperor and assumed the Presidency

"the American people should be getting ready to accept, if they haven't already, the prospect that the whole Vietnam effort may be doomed."
        Wall Street Journal editorial, 1963

"If your government had given me a thousandth of the sum it spent to depose me, I could have won that war."
       Emperor Bao Dai to Hilaire du Berrier in 1965