Shaping public opinion in a time of colonial conflict: media allegations of the use of torture by the French army in the first Vietnam war

Abstract

This article is set against the broader background of editorial comment and eye-witness reportage in the French printed media on France's war of decolonisation in Indochina and Algeria between 1946 and 1962. It focuses on one particular aspect of this period, namely the allegations of misconduct by the French army during this conflict, which is also known as the First Vietnam War (1946 - 1954) as part of the Vietnamese liberation struggle against French colonial mastery. At the heart of this analysis lies the way in which the conflict was represented in three key journals in France at the time. The journals, 'Les Temps modernes', 'Temoignage Chretien' and 'Esprit', all still publishing, were vociferous in their criticism of the general conduct of the war, whilst 'Les Temps modernes' and 'Temoignage Chretien' laid particular emphasis on the use of repressive measures by members of the French Expeditionary Forces against the indigenous population of Vietnam, before 1950.