Nguyen Van Thinh

In this Vietnamese name, the surname is Nguyễn. In accordance with Vietnamese custom, this person should be referred to by the given name, Thinh.

Nguyễn Văn Thinh (1888 – 10 November 1946, Saigon) was the first President of Cochinchina. Thinh was a French citizen and joined the Constitutionalist Party in 1926. He founded the Cochinchinese Democratic Party in 1937. He became chief of the provisional government on March 26, 1946, and provisional president on June 1. He felt a loss of face when the French negotiated with the Viet Minh, ignoring his government. "I am being compelled to play a farce," he said. He died, an apparent suicide while still in office, on November 10.

Nguyễn Văn Thinh
1st President of the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina
In office 1 June 1946 – 10 November 1946
Vice President	Nguyễn Văn Xuân
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Lê Văn Hoạch
Personal details
Born	1888 French Cochinchina
Died	10 November 1946 (aged 57–58) Saigon, French Cochinchina
Political party	Indochinese Democratic Party

Family and education

Dr. Nguyễn Văn Thinh was born in 1888, in an aristocratic family in the South of Vietnam.

He was the first valedictorian of the Indochina School of Medicine in 1907, and one of the first Vietnamese medical students who successfully passed the examination for Interne Doctors at the Hospital of Paris (Interne des Hôpitaux de Paris).

He worked at Pasteur Institute (Paris), where he finished his thesis.

Political life

Dr. Nguyễn Văn Thinh started his political career as a Constitutionalist by holding Phan Chu Trinh's funeral ceremony. Later, he founded the Democratic Party of Indochina in 1937. He was one of the founders of the Vietnamese Language Propagating Association and the chairman of the Association for Hunger.

Honors

• Legion of Honour

External links

• Saigon’s hidden presidential palace and forgotten president: the Republic of Cochinchina and Nguyễn Văn Thinh

References

• Biography at Rulers.org