Provisional Central Government of Vietnam
| Provisional Central Government of Vietnam | ||||||||||||||
| Gouvernement central provisoire du Viêt Nam Chính phủ Trung ương lâm thời Việt Nam |
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| Constituent territory of French Indochina | ||||||||||||||
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| Capital | Saigon | |||||||||||||
| Languages | Vietnamese | |||||||||||||
| Religion |
Roman Catholicism Buddhism Confucianism Taoism Paganism |
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| Government | Provisional government | |||||||||||||
| Head of Government | ||||||||||||||
| • | 1948-1949 | Nguyễn Văn Xuân | ||||||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | |||||||||||||
| • | Proclamation | 27 May 1948 | ||||||||||||
| • | Reunification with Cochinchina | 4 June 1949 | ||||||||||||
| • | State of Vietnam proclaimed | July 2, 1949 | ||||||||||||
| Currency | piastre | |||||||||||||
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The Provisional Central Government of Vietnam was an entity proclaimed in Vietnam during the First Indochina War. It was created as a transitional government replacing the protectorates of Tonkin (North Vietnam) and Annam (Middle Vietnam), until Cochinchina (South Vietnam) could be reunited with the rest of the country.
On June 5, 1948, the Halong Bay Agreements (Accords de la baie d’Along) allowed the creation of a unified Vietnamese government replacing the Tonkin (North Vietnam), Annam (Middle Vietnam) associated to France within the French Union and the Indochinese Federation then including the neighboring Kingdom of Laos and Kingdom of Cambodia.
However, while the participants had agreed on the reunification of Cochinchina (South Vietnam) with Tonkin and Annam, it had a different status from the other two territories and retained a separate administration. Former Emperor Bảo Đại, whom the French wanted to bring back to power as a political alternative to Ho Chi Minh, insisted that all Vietnam should be reunited before he took office as "chief of State". General Nguyễn Văn Xuân, until then head of the Cochinchinese government, signed the agreements on Bảo Đại's behalf and became head of the newly formed Provisional Central Government ; he was replaced by Trần Văn Hữu as president of the Cochinchinese administration. Although Vietnam was not yet reunited, and far from being autonomous, the French had agreed for the first time to include the word "independence" in the agreements.
During the only year of its existence, the Provisional Central Government had very limited means, and was denounced by the communist Viet Minh as a puppet state. The Xuân government was able to create several administrative units in North and Middle Vietnam, but it was entirely dependent on the French as it had no army, no police forces and - being, unlike the government of Cochinchina, unable to collect taxes - no financial resources. As the Indochina war raged on, the Provisional Central Government was regarded as near-impotent. Moreover, the French administration was still in place in Tonkin and Annam and was often reluctant to relinquinsh power to the new Vietnamese administration.
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