Nguyễn Văn Hinh (20 September 1915 – 26 June 2004) was the chief of staff of the

Vietnamese National Army The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army ( vi, Quân đội Quốc gia Việt Nam, lit=Army of the State of Vietnam, french: Armée Nationale Vietnamienne, lit=Vietnamese National Army) was the State of Vietnam's military force create ...

and the first Vietnamese officer in the French Armed Forces to be promoted to the rank of general. Educated in the French style, he served in the ''

Armée de l'air The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Arm ...

'' and ''

Troupes coloniales The ''Troupes coloniales'' ("Colonial Troops") or ''Armée coloniale'' ("Colonial Army"), commonly called ''La Coloniale'', were the military forces of the French colonial empire from 1900 until 1961. From 1822 to 1900 these troops were de ...

'' before accepting a role in the army of the new State of Vietnam within the

French Union The French Union () was a political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial empire system, colloquially known as the " French Empire" (). It was the formal end of the "indigenous" () status of French subj ...

. Hinh is somewhat of an oddity in the 20th century military history of Vietnam as he attained the rank of lieutenant general in two separate countries, not unlike his

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

ese counterpart Nguyễn Sơn who served as a major general in both the People's Army of Vietnam and the People's Liberation Army of China.

Biography

Nguyễn Văn Hinh was born on 20 September 1915 in

Vũng Tàu Vũng Tàu (''Hanoi accent:'' , ''Saigon accent:'' ) is the largest city of Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province in southern Vietnam. The city area is , consists of 13 urban wards and one commune of Long Sơn Islet. Vũng Tàu was the capital of the p ...

, Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province as the son of

Nguyễn Văn Tâm Nguyễn Văn Tâm (16 October 1895 – 23 November 1990) served as Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, a political entity created by the French in an attempt to regain control of the country. He held that office from June 1952 to Decembe ...

, a schoolteacher and aspiring functionary in

French Cochinchina French Cochinchina (sometimes spelled ''Cochin-China''; french: Cochinchine française; vi, Xứ thuộc địa Nam Kỳ, Hán tự: ) was a colony of French Indochina, encompassing the whole region of Lower Cochinchina or Southern Vietnam fr ...

. Their family name was originally Trương before becoming

Nguyễn Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元）is a different word and surname. By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this su ...

. After his primary education and at his father's insistence, Hinh moved to France in 1932 to advance his studies, attending the prestigious ''

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...

'' in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Early career

In 1936, he enlisted in the French Air Force and was sent to the ''

École de l'Air École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

'' in Salon-de-Provence for training. Hinh graduated as pilot and flight engineer in 1937 and was assigned to a bomber squadron in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

, achieving the rank of second lieutenant. With the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of France in 1940, he participated in operations against invading Germans in the northeastern part of the country and Italians in the Alps. Though the French government eventually capitulated, Hinh was awarded the '' Croix de Guerre'' for his contribution to the war effort. Following the establishment of a collaborationist regime under

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of Worl ...

Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of ...

, Hinh was transferred to West Africa, serving in French Sudan and Senegal. Upon the conclusion of Operation Torch in November 1942, he joined Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces as a first lieutenant. Hinh worked as an air force instructor in Marrakesh until April 1944, when he was reassigned to the European theater in charge of a bomber squadron. At the end of the war, he was admitted to the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

and awarded the American

Air Medal The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Criteria The Air Medal was establish ...

for his service. For a year after the war, Hinh remained in occupied Germany. Promoted to the rank of major in 1948, he was sent to lead a transport wing in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

, where he would meet his future wife; the daughter of a local ''

Pied-noir The ''Pieds-Noirs'' (; ; ''Pied-Noir''), are the people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French rule from 1830 to 1962; the vast majority of whom departed for mainland France as soon as Alger ...

''.

Vietnamese National Army

Nguyễn Văn Hinh was appointed the

Chief of Staff by Emperor

Bảo Đại Bảo Đại (, vi-hantu, , lit. "keeper of greatness", 22 October 191331 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was em ...

Opposition to Ngô Đình Diệm and exile

Hinh was replaced by General Lê Văn Tỵ as appointed joint general chief of staff.Nguyễn Công Luận Nationalist in the Viet Nam Wars 2012 "General Lê Văn Tỵ was appointed joint general chief of staff, replacing General Nguyễn Văn Hinh. The remnants of the French supporters lost their foothold in the nationalist army. "

Later life

Hinh returned to France in November 1954, re-entering the air force with his former rank of lieutenant colonel. For his service in Vietnam, he was admitted to the

National Order of Vietnam The National Order of Vietnam ( vi, Bảo Quốc Huân Chương) was a combined military-civilian decoration of South Vietnam and was considered the highest honor that could be bestowed upon an individual by the Republic of Vietnam government. ...

and awarded the Vietnam Gallantry Cross. As a senior colonel, Hinh was appointed to the flight test centre in Brétigny-sur-Orge in 1956, followed by an assignment to the missile test centre in

Biscarrosse Biscarrosse (; oc, Biscarròssa) is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It is located southwest of Bordeaux, and inland from the seaside resort of Biscarrosse-Plage on the Atlantic coast. Near Bis ...

. In 1960, he received command of the airbase at Colomb-Béchar in support of the Algerian War effort. Having avoided involvement in the 1961 Generals' putsch, Hinh was promoted to the rank of brigadier general the following year and appointed deputy chief of defence. In 1965, he was promoted to divisional general and assigned to the Central Directorate of Matériel of the Air Force, overseeing the introduction of new nuclear strike capabilities. As is customary for French military personnel reaching the age of 55, Hinh was scrapped from the flight roster in 1970 and entered the reserves upon his retirement in 1975. After the

1975 Spring Offensive The 1975 spring offensive ( vi, chiến dịch mùa Xuân 1975), officially known as the general offensive and uprising of spring 1975 ( vi, Tổng tiến công và nổi dậy mùa Xuân 1975) was the final North Vietnamese campaign in the Vie ...

and the fall of South Vietnam, he devoted the following years to helping his former VNA subordinates escape the country and find refuge in France. Hinh died on 26 June 2004, aged 88, a few years after his admission to the National Order of Merit.

References