Youth Mobilization in Vichy Indochina and its Legacies: 1940–1970 (review)

Reviewers of works on Indochina have tended to draw attention to academic 'neglect' of the field, and the paucity of studies in this area. Raffin's monograph seems to represent a trend in the opposite direction: it provides an in-depth study of a very specific area of the Franco-Indochinese encounter. This study of a very thin slice of the Vichy period in Indochina finds its nearest relative in Eric Jenning's Vichy in the Tropics, to which it provides a useful corollary. To a historian or researcher well-versed in the Franco-Indochinese encounter it may be that the conclusions herein provide few surprises. However, that should not detract from the fact that this is an original, if perhaps marginal, contribution to the field of study, and benefits from solid, well-deployed archival work. The author flags up her work as a study of patriotism and nationalism as transnational processes. Although this is a feature of the book, particularly in relation to the competing appeal of Thai, Japanese, Viet Minh and French propaganda of the period, essentially this is a loosely comparative study of colonial strategies: it discusses the ways in which different local religious beliefs and customs were adopted and adapted in the service of Vichy, and how disciplinary institutions such as the church and the army were marshalled to manage youth movements. As such, it might have been useful to highlight more prominently comparisons between Indochinese responses to pre-war metropolitan policies and those of the Vichy period. Of most interest is perhaps the discussion of the ways in which Vichy's authoritarian practices and antidemocratic legacy impinged upon the growth and tenor of local nationalisms, thereby inflecting the various post-independence trajectories of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. This book, whilst well-written and researched, may perhaps have limited appeal because of its very narrow focus on patriotic youth movements. Finally, a plea to reinstate quotations in their original French, even if only in footnotes.