Georges Thierry d\' Argenlieu

The Admiral Georges Thierry d' Argenlieu , born the August 7th 1889 with Brest (France) and dead the September 7th 1964 with Brest, is a sailor, resistant monk and French.

Childhood, formation and beginning of career

Georges Thierry d' Argenlieu was born in Brest, on August 7th, 1889, wire of the general inspector of the Marine Olivier Thierry d' Argenlieu, of an established Picardy family with Argenlieu, close to Avrechy, in Oise.
In 1906, it enters to the Naval college.
It takes part in the countryside of Morocco and receives there the Légion of honor.

First World War

In 1915, it requires its admission in the Third-Order of the carmel at the time of a stopover of Malta.
In 1917, it is promoted lieutenant.
It resigns in 1920

Monk

It returns in the Ordre of Carmel in 1920
on September 15th, 1921, pronounces its first wishes as a Louis of the Trinity.
It is ordered priest in Lille in 1925.
it is named higher provincial of Paris in 1935

Second world war

In 1939, it is mobilized in the Navy as lieutenant commander. At the time of the defense of the arsenal of Cherbourg in June 1940, it is made prisoner, but escapes three days later and joined the general de Gaulle with London. July 1st, 1940 it took part in an interview with de Gaulle during whom the Vice-amiral Muselier proposed the Cross of Lorraine like symbol of the free France. With Felix Swept and three other people it will be among the very first companions decorated with the Ordre of the Release, on January 29th, 1941. He becomes about it the first chancellor, the same day.

He becomes in 1941, member of the Conseil of Defense of the Empire then French National committee. In August 1941, it is named High-Commissioner of France for the Pacific with the civil and military full powerss. Returned in London in 1943, it is named chief of the free French Naval forces in Great Britain. It is named vice-admiral in December 1944.

The beginning of the war of Indo-China

August 16th, 1945, the de Gaulle general appoints it Haut-commissaire of France and commander-in-chief for Indo-China with for mission of restoring the order and French sovereignty in the territories of the Indochinese Union; and, once released Indo-China of the Japanese and Chinese occupation and Laotian and Kampuchean provinces annexed by Siam recovered, to set up a federation of the people of the peninsula.

September 6th, 1945, the admiral d' Argenlieu leaves for Saigon and arrives there on October 31st; he finds the Leclerc general there present since October 5th. The two men will not get along and their conflict will lead at the beginning of the general Leclerc in June 1946. They do not have the same position on the appropriateness and the nature of the negotiations with Ho Chi Minh.

In the north of Vietnam, a provisional government constituted itself, chaired by Ho Chi Minh and who started serious discussions with a French representative, Jean Sainteny. March 6th, 1946, an agreement is signed by which France recognizes the Republic of Vietnam like a free State having its government, its Parliament, its army and its finances , agreement which will be qualified in deprived by Argenlieu of Indochinese Munich . March 18th, Leclerc arrives at Hanoï with elements of its 2nd dB, accommodated triumphantly by the French but ravelling in the empty streets of the district annamite. The comment precise: Crowd is sparse and the Indochineses are absent .

D' Argenlieu does not accept really the agreements Ho-Sainteny of March 6th, 1946. Its discussions with Ho Chi Minh, on March 24th, 1946, on board the Emile Bertin, out of bay of Along, in the presence of Sainteny and Pignon, do not bring closer the points of view and are the occasion of an violent incident with Leclerc. The admiral convenes Raoul Salan and, trembling of anger, asks him to recall Leclerc to the reason . In opposition to the agreements of March 6th, 1946, he proclaims a Republic of Cochinchine on June 1st, 1946, whereas Ho Chi Minh left for France accompanied by Raoul Salan.

He is promoted vice-admiral of squadron in March 1946 and admiral three months later.

At this point in time the bombardment of Haiphong intervenes. A witness, Henri Martin, then young sailor combatant FFI and volunteer to fight the Japanese, comments on: It is there that the war starts, by the will of Argenlieu to pass to the reconquest, to seize this port, essence in the economic activity, as the charts of the time of colonialism show it. The agreement of March 6th spoke well about independent finances, but, precisely, the essential resources of the Vietnamese government were in this port and the French troops claimed to continue to control the marketing activity of it .

It is in connection with a customs control that the first fixing took place on November 19th, 1946. Shots were exchanged between two patrols, a Frenchwoman and a Vietnamese, then in the city to transform itself into generalized battle. The shooting degenerates and fact 24 dead. Among them the commander Carmoin who advanced with a white flag towards the Vietnameses of the jonque one.

The incident of jonque Chinese is exploited at once by the partisans of a reconquest of the old colony. Their leader is the admiral Thierry d' Argenlieu. A cease-fire intervened together with a French ultimatum, requiring the evacuation of the city by the troops Vietnameses.

Henri Martin tells: At 10 a.m. on November 23rd, 1946, the naval guns opened fire. The cruiser Emile Bertin since the mouth of the Red river but us, with the Roe-deer, we were on the river, in the city. We exhausted our stock of five hundred shells, and supplied, we still drew five hundreds from them. The admiral Battet estimated the number of the victims downtown at six thousand, but it possible that there was of it more when one knows that the bombardment related especially to the district annamite, at the tight houses… .

The military objective is temporarily achieved, but the attempts to build new structures run up against the political will of the government of Ho Chi Minh. December 19th, 1946, the Vietnamese soldier-Minh attacks by surprised Hanoï and it is the beginning of a war which will last eight years.

Leclerc, returned on mission on December 28th, becomes aware of the gravity of the situation. He writes in his report/ratio which if one does not want to know a situation like that of the Guerre of Spanish independence under Napoleon i or of the Expédition of Mexico under Napoleon III, it is necessary to solve the political problem.

The admiral d' Argenlieu is maintained at his station under the governments Gouin, Bidault, Blum. But its action is discussed and the Ramadier government replaces it on March 5th, 1947 by Emile Bollaert, also Compagnon of the Release.

Decorations

Large Cross of the Legion of honor
Companion of the Release - decree of January 29th, 1941
Military decoration
Military Cross 1939-1945 with 3 palms
Military Cross of the TOE with palm
Medal of Resistance with rivet washer
Medal of wounded the
Medal of the rescue
Medal of Morocco
Belgian Military Cross with palm
Commander about Léopold (Belgium)
Commander about Bath (GB)

Anecdote

Its name is a Contrepèterie referring to the great number of its decorations: “Hold place of silverware” for Thierry d' Argenlieu!
In the Navy, it was called the “naval Carmelite friar”.

References

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