Louis-Adolphe Bonard

Louis-Adolphe Bonard (born March 27, 1805, Cherbourg, Fr.—died March 31, 1867, Amiens) was a French admiral who served as the first official military governor of Cochinchina (the name given by Westerners to southern Vietnam).

Entering service in the French Navy in 1825, Bonard was promoted to lieutenant in 1835, captain in 1842, and was commissioned vice admiral in 1862. He was captured by Algerians after a shipwreck in 1830 and later helped quell an insurrection in Tahiti. He was put in command of French territory in Oceania in 1849. In 1853 he was named governor of French Guiana in South America.

On Nov. 29, 1861, Bonard was put in command of French forces in Cochinchina and charged with governing the French territories there. He captured the province of Bien Hoa that December, and Vinh Long province fell to him in March 1862. On June 5 he went to Saigon to negotiate a peace treaty with the representative of the court of Annam (central Vietnam). Under its terms Bonard secured for France the provinces of Gia Dinh, Dinh Tuong, and Bien Hoa as well as the island of Poulo Condore (modern Con Son). The Vietnamese emperor Tu Duc reluctantly signed the treaty in April 1863.

During his administration, Bonard established a military hospital in Saigon. He pursued a moderate course in the realm of colonial policy; his immediate concern was the relationship between the French administrators and the Vietnamese people. He hoped to govern Cochinchina indirectly, with the French ruling through the intermediary of native officials under the nominal direction of a few competent French officers; and toward this end he tried to reinstate Vietnamese mandarins, who had been removed from their posts. But the mandarins chose not to cooperate; their pride and hostility kept most of them from returning to their posts. Bonard set up schools to teach his officers the Vietnamese language. He also installed French in the curriculum of native schools, striving to bridge the communication gap between the French and the Vietnamese.

Bonard’s policies were unpopular with Frenchmen in Cochinchina, especially with the missionaries. He had to satisfy both the indigenous peoples and the French colonists, and whatever he did for one group was almost certain to annoy the other. His conciliatory attitude toward the mandarins was the subject of stringent criticism from the missionaries, who considered the mandarins the symbol of the indigenous culture, particularly of Confucianism and Buddhism, both obstacles to Christianity.

In 1862–63 the dissatisfied mandarins led the Vietnamese people in revolt; only with considerable difficulty was the insurrection put down. After the uprising had subsided and the peace treaty with Tu Duc had been secured, Bonard returned with the treaty to France on April 30, 1863. He had full intentions of resuming his position in Indochina, but poor health prevented his return. He was named prefect of Cherbourg early in 1867.