Bảo Đại

Bảo Đại
Bảo Đại on throne in Thái Hòa Điện.
Emperor of Đại Nam and Empire of Vietnam
Reign	8 January 1926 – 25 August 1945
Predecessor	Khải Định
Successor	Ngô Đình Diệm (as president of the Republic of Vietnam)
1st Chief of State of Vietnam
Reign	14 June 1949 – 26 October 1955
Predecessor	Position established Nguyễn Văn Xuân (as Chief of the Provisional Central Government)
Successor	Ngô Đình Diệm
1st Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam
Reign	1 July 1949 – 21 January 1950
Predecessor	Position established
Successor	Nguyễn Phan Long
Supreme Advisor to the Government of the State of Vietnam Republic
Predecessor	Position established
Successor	Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Bảo Long
Reign	30 July 1997 – 28 July 2007
Born	Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (1913-10-22)22 October 1913 Doan-Trang-Vien Palace, Imperial City of Huế, Annam
Died	31 July 1997(1997-07-31) (aged 83) Val-de-Grâce, Paris, France
Burial	Passy Cemetery
Spouse	Nam Phương ​ (m. 1934⁠–⁠1963)​ Bùi Mộng Điệp Lê Thị Phi Ánh Christiane Bloch-Carcenac Monique Baudot ​ (m. 1972)​
Issue	See List Legitimate[1] Bảo Long (1936–2007) Phương Mai (1937–2021) Phương Liên (1938–) Phương Dung (1942–) Bảo Thăng (1943–2017) Unrecognized Phương Thảo (1946–) Phương Minh (1949–2012) Bảo Ân (1951–) Bảo Hoàng (1954–1955) Bảo Sơn (1957–1987) Phương Từ (1955) Patrick-Édouard Bloch-Carcenac (1958–)
Era dates Bảo Đại (1926–1945)
Chữ Hán	保大帝
House	Nguyễn Phúc
Father	Khải Định
Mother	Hoàng Thị Cúc
Signature

Bảo Đại (Vietnamese: [ɓa᷉ːw ɗâːjˀ], chữ Hán: 保大, lit. 'keeper of greatness', 22 October 1913 – 31 July 1997),^[2] born Nguyễn Phúc (Phước) Vĩnh Thụy (chữ Hán: 阮福永瑞), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam.^[3] From 1926 to 1945, he was de jure emperor of Annam and Tonkin, which were then protectorates in French Indochina, covering the present-day central and northern Vietnam. Bảo Đại ascended the throne in 1932. He was a member of the House of Nguyễn Phúc.

The Japanese ousted the Vichy French administration in March 1945 and ruled through Bảo Đại, who proclaimed the Empire of Vietnam. Following the surrender of Japan and the subsequent August Revolution, he was forced to abdicate in August 1945 by Ho Chi Minh-led insurgency force and briefly served as an advisor in its government.

Between 1946 and 1949, Bảo Đại left Vietnam to travel across and live in China, Hong Kong and Europe. During this time, he switched his support from Hồ's communist Việt Minh to anti-communist nationalist groups before signing a series of accords with the French Fourth Republic that established the State of Vietnam (as an associated state within the French Union) in opposition to Hồ's Democratic Republic.^[4] Cochinchina returned to Vietnam. He served as its Chief of State (國長, Quốc trưởng) between 1949 and 1955. In 1954, he lost his power to the communists in the North. In the South, towards the end of his term in office, Bảo Đại lost power to his Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm, who was supported by the United States, and was eventually ousted in a referendum in 1955. The State of Vietnam became the Republic of Vietnam.^[5] He later lived in exile in Paris, France, until his death in 1997.

Viewed as a "puppet ruler", Bảo Đại was criticized for being too closely associated with France and for his lavish lifestyle, including a months-long pleasure tour in Europe that earned him the sobriquet "night-club emperor". He is currently perceived negatively by both the current Vietnamese government and the anti-communist diaspora, but in moderation.^[6]

Bảo Đại was born on 22 October 1913 and given the name of Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy in the Palace of Doan-Trang-Vien, part of the compound of the Purple Forbidden City in Huế, the former capital of Vietnam. He was later given the name Nguyễn Vĩnh Thụy. His father was Emperor Khải Định of Annam. His mother was the emperor's second wife, Tu Cung, who was renamed 'Doan Huy' upon her marriage. She held various titles over the years that indicated her advancing rank as a favored consort until she eventually became Empress Dowager in 1933. Vietnam had been ruled from Huế by the Nguyễn dynasty since 1802. The French government, which took control of the region in the late 19th century, split Vietnam into three areas: the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin and the colony of Cochinchina. The Nguyễn dynasty was given nominal rule of Annam and Tonkin.^[7]

At the age of nine, Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy was sent to France to study at the Lycée Condorcet and, later, the Paris Institute of Political Studies. He became emperor on 8 January 1926, after his father's death, and took the era name Bảo Đại ("Protector of Grandeur" or "Keeper of Greatness").^[8][9] He did not yet ascend to the throne and returned to France to continue his studies.^[9]

• 
  Young crown prince Vĩnh Thụy.
• 
  Young emperor.
• 
  Emperor Bảo Đại.
• 
  Bao Dai in coronation date, 8/1/1926.

On 20 March 1934, age 20, at the imperial city of Huế, Bảo Đại married Marie-Thérèse Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan (died 15 September 1963, Chabrignac, France), a commoner from a wealthy Vietnamese Catholic family. After the wedding, she was given the title Empress Nam Phương.

The couple had five children, two sons and three daughters:

• Crown Prince Bảo Long (4 January 1936 – 28 July 2007)
• Princess Phương Mai (1 August 1937 – 16 January 2021)
• Princess Phương Liên (born 3 November 1938)
• Princess Phương Dung (born 5 February 1942)
• Prince Bảo Thăng (9 December 1943 – 15 March 2017).

Although Bảo Đại later had additional children with other women, these are the only ones listed in the clan genealogy.^[1]

• 
  Lady Mộng Điệp
• 
  Bao Dai and Lady Mộng Điệp

Nam Phương was granted the title of empress in 1945. By one count, Bảo Đại had relationships with eight women and fathered 13 children. Those named "Phương" are daughters, while those named "Bảo" are sons.^[10]

In 1940, during the second World War, coinciding with their ally Nazi Germany's invasion of France, Imperial Japan took over French Indochina. While they did not eject the French colonial administration, the occupation authorities directed policy from behind the scenes in a parallel of Vichy France. The Japanese promised not to interfere with the court at Huế, but in 1945, after ousting the French, coerced Bảo Đại into declaring Vietnamese independence from France as a member of Japan's "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" on 11 March 1945; the country became the Empire of Vietnam. A modern Western-style cabinet was formed for the first time in Vietnamese history (led by Trần Trọng Kim), and the new government intended to turn Vietnam into a constitutional monarchy but failed. On 14 August 1945, Vietnam regained Cochinchina. However, due to the tight control of the Japanese military during wartime, his Empire of Vietnam was a puppet state.

Bảo Đại appeared to believe that independence was an irreversible course. In August 1945, before being overthrown, he wrote to Charles de Gaulle, leader of France:

You have suffered too much during four deadly years, not to understand that the Vietnamese people, who have a history of twenty centuries and an often glorious past, no longer wish, no longer can support any foreign domination or foreign administration... You could understand even better if you were able to see what is happening here, if you were able to sense the desire for independence that has been smoldering in the bottom of all hearts and which no human force can any longer hold back. Even if you were to arrive to re-establish a French administration here, it would no longer be obeyed; each village would be a nest of resistance. every former friend an enemy, and your officials and colonials themselves would ask to depart from this unbreathable atmosphere.^[12]

The Japanese had a Vietnamese exile, Prince Cường Để, waiting to take power in case the new emperor's "elimination" was required. Japan de facto surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, and the Viet Minh (de facto ruled by communists) aimed to take power in a free Vietnam. Bảo Đại and his Prime Minister refused the Japanese request for assistance, supporting the peaceful transfer of power and national interests. They initially did know that the Viet Minh was a political alliance led by the communists. The Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh was able to persuade Bảo Đại to abdicate on 25 August 1945 due to the great prestige of this organization, handing power over to the Việt Minh – an event which greatly enhanced Hồ's legitimacy in the eyes of the Vietnamese people.^[13][14] Bảo Đại had great prestige with the Vietnamese people and was used by the Viet Minh to bolster its image. He was appointed the "supreme advisor" to Hồ's Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in Hanoi, which declared its independence on 2 September 1945. Then, he became a member of its parliament. After World War II, the French government under de Gaulle had previously made a deal with former emperor Duy Tan, a relative of his, to bring Duy Tan back to power in Vietnam. However, Duy Tan died in a plane crash in December 1945. In February 1946, the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (VNQDĐ) and its allies organized a demonstration demanding that Bao Dai replace Ho Chi Minh and form a coalition government led by him. Finally, under pressure from the Chinese army (which occupied Vietnam north of the 16th parallel to disarm the Japanese under Allied orders), a coalition government was formed the following month. However, Bao Dai remained as an advisor. Intailly no country recognized the DRV. The French having the British help had attacked the DRV since 23 September 1945 to restore its colonial rule in Vietnam, but with Allied recognition and a major democratic reform plan. France was later allowed to go to the North by China on 28 February 1946. Negotiations between France and the DRV, although taking place from March, were not smooth due to tough actions from both sides. In addition, there was a national repression against the nationalists and the Trotskyites by the communist Viet Minh from August 1945. On 19 December 1946, war between France and the Viet Minh (DRV) broke out.^[15][16][17]

• 
  Declaration of Empire of Vietnam in 1945
• 
  The National assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 2 March 1946, supreme advisor Vĩnh Thụy (Bảo Đại), sixth from right to left, next to President Ho Chi Minh (middle).
• 
  Bảo Đại (right) as the "supreme advisor" to the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam led by president Ho Chi Minh (left), September 1945
• 
  Members of national assembly of Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Bảo Đại (far right).

Bảo Đại spent a few months as "supreme advisor" to the DRV (Viet Minh's governement), during which period Vietnam descended into armed conflict between the communist Viet Minh and the French. He left this post in 1946 after communists de facto abandoned him in China: Hồ Chí Minh asked him to stay after he was sent to join the delegation of the DRV to visit China in Chongqing on 16 March. In Vietnam, after the Chinese army completely withdrew in June 1946, the coalition government immediately fell apart as the Viet Minh intensified its repression of the pro-Chinese nationalist factions in the North. Out of dissatisfaction, Nguyen Tuong Tam, a member of the VNQDĐ, left his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DRV while participating in the government delegation to France for negotiations. He was slandered by the Viet Minh for "embezzling public funds". On 15 September 1946, he decided to leave Chongqing for Hong Kong, where the French and Việt Minh both attempted unsuccessfully to solicit him for political support.^[18][19] In Hong Kong, Bao Dai met with Americans who supported Vietnam's national aspirations but opposed communism. General George Marshall, the US representative, brought the agreement with Bao Dai to President Harry S. Truman.^[20]

In late 1946, before war broke out between France and the communist Viet Minh, exiled leaders of the Việt Cách and the VNQDĐ in China (Nguyễn Hải Thần, Vũ Hồng Khanh, Nguyễn Tường Tam), went to Hong Kong to meet Bảo Đại and advise him to return to power. They were followed by a series of other Vietnamese nationalists. Before those three people met him, the Viet Minh had sent Hoang Minh Giam to Hong Kong to meet Bao Dai to ask him to be on guard against being invited by the French and the opposition. A coalition of Vietnamese anti-communist nationalists formed a political alliance on 17 February 1947 in Nanjing and was later quickly expanded (including future South Vietnamese leader Ngô Đình Diệm and members of political/religious groups such as the Cao Dai, Hòa Hảo, and VNQDĐ), declaring to support Bảo Đại. They, the National Union Front of Vietnam, supported democracy as well as an alliance with France to fight communist Viet Minh front and gain sovereignty for Vietnam in peace.^[21][22] After failing to persuade the Viet Minh to surrender in May 1947, the French High Commissioner in Indochina Émile Bollaert, appointed in March by a French left-wing cabinet supporting Vietnamese "independence", decided to implement the idea of the former right-wing High Commissioner d'Argenlieu to restore Bảo Đại to the throne. On 9 September 1947, Bao Dai held a conference of Vietnamese parties in Hong Kong to negotiate about the situation in Vietnam. The next day, Bollaert unofficially announced in Ha Dong that France had ended negotiations with the Viet Minh. Bao Dai initially did not want to lean towards either side, however he finally decided to represent nationalists to enter into negotiations with the French under the name "Emperor of Vietnam" on 18 September 1947. On 7 December 1947, Bảo Đại officially signed the first of the Ha Long Bay Accords with France. Despite ostensibly committing France to Vietnamese independence and unity, it was considered minimally binding and transferred no actual authority to Vietnam. The agreement was promptly criticized by National Union members, including Diệm. In a possible attempt to escape the resulting political tension, Bảo Đại travelled to Europe and commenced on a four-month pleasure tour which earned him the sobriquet "night club emperor". Under Bao Dai's approval, Cochinchina leader Nguyễn Văn Xuân established a provisional government representing Vietnam on 23 May 1948. After persistent efforts by the French, Bảo Đại was persuaded to return from Europe to continue to talk. He later signed as a supervisor another Ha Long Bay Preliminary Agreement between Xuân and Bollaert on 5 June 1948. Under the witness of representatives of three regions of Vietnam, the treaty stipulated that Vietnam was free to seek unification. However, this contained similarly weak promises for Vietnamese independence and had as little success as the first agreement. Bảo Đại once again travelled to Europe whilst warfare in Vietnam continued to escalate. The United States also supported the nationalists as an alternative political solution, especially on 17 January 1949, when the United States publicly supported Bảo Đại.^[19][4]

The determination of the nationalists led France to make a major concession in the negotiations that went through several French cabinets. After a joint commission of the two countries completed its work in February 1949, he finally signed the Élysée Accords (an official treaty) including three letters with the French President Vincent Auriol in Paris on 8 March 1949, which took effect on 14 June when Bảo Đại exchanged letters with French High Commissioner in Indochina Léon Pignon at Saigon City Hall and led to the establishment of the unified and "independent" State of Vietnam within the French Union with Bảo Đại being the Chief of State (國長, Quốc trưởng); the French also oversaw the creation of the Domain of the Crown with his decree on 14 April 1950 where he was still officially considered to be the Emperor, this territory existed until his Prime Minister Diệm dissloved it in March 1955. The Cochinchina question was settled on 4 June 1949 after the legal procedures under this agreement. Tonkin and Annam protectorates were reunited. These three parts became autonomous parts of the State of Vietnam when this agreement took effect. Before the agreement took effect, on 24 April 1949, he left France to return home. Bảo Đại believed that the French would strictly enforce the agreement due to the need for a political alternative to the DRV during the war. On 16 June 1949, the former Governor-General's Palace of Indochina in Hanoi was returned to the Government of Vietnam and converted into one of Bao Dai's villas. The treaty was ratified by the French National Assembly on 29 January 1950, and signed by the French President on 2 February. Because France had not yet returned the Governor-General's Palace in Saigon to Vietnam, Bao Dai decided to move to Da Lat to live and work. The new nation was initially unable to hold elections to form a parliament and constitution due to the war, while Bao Dai's throne was meant to be temporary until a referendum to decide whether the country would be a republic or still a monarchy. There was only a 45-member National Advisory Council appointed by him. From 1 July 1949 to 21 January 1950, he was also the Prime Minister before being replaced by Nguyễn Phan Long. On 2 July 1949, Vietnam chose Saigon as its capital instead of Hanoi, due to the unsecured security situation in Hanoi.^{[19][23][4][24]}

Nominally, the French army in Vietnam was the French Union army to protect Vietnam, an "independent" allied member of the French Union. Bảo Đại succeeded in reclaiming Cochinchina for Vietnam, but despite his efforts, he failed to gain complete independence for Vietnam. The State of Vietnam, despite having a high autonomy, was still only partially free from France in reality and the handover of power was gradual through further negotiations, with France initially and partly retaining effective control of national sovereignty. Bảo Đại himself stated in 1950: "What they call a Bảo Đại solution turned out to be just a French solution... the situation in Indochina is getting worse every day".^[19][4]

As Diệm and other hardcore nationalists were disappointed in the lack of autonomy and refused high government posts, Bảo Đại mainly filled his government with wealthy figures strongly connected to France. He then spent his own time in the resort towns of Da Lat, Nha Trang, and Buôn Ma Thuột, largely avoiding the process of governing. All this contributed to his reputation as a French puppet and a rise in popular support for the Việt Minh, whose armed insurgency against the French-backed regime was developing into a full-fledged civil war. Nonetheless, in 1950 he attended a series of conferences in Pau, France where he pressed the French for further independence. The French granted some minor concessions to the Vietnamese, which caused a mixed reaction on both sides.^[19][4]

In addition to the increasing unpopularity of the Bảo Đại government, the communist victory in China in late 1949 also led to a further revival of the fortunes of the Việt Minh. When Communist China and the Soviet Union recognized the communist DRV government in January 1950, the United States recognized the pro-French Bảo Đại government on 7 February. Diplomatic relations between the US and Vietnam were later established on 17 February 1950, when the Consulate General at Saigon was raised to Legation status with Edmund A. Gullion as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim. The new nation led by him was gradually coming of age with the help of France and the U.S., in which Bảo Đại's regime became increasingly integrated with the international community. The French war and Vietnamese independence increasingly fell into the orbit of the Cold War. American recognition and later the outbreak of the Korean War in June led to U.S. military aid and active support of the French war effort in Indochina, now seen as anti-communist rather than colonialist. From September 1951, the US provided direct economic aid to Vietnam. The United States Legation in Saigon was raised to Embassy status on 24 June 1952, when Ambassador Donald R. Heath received confirmation of his appointment from the United States Senate. This followed a joint announcement by the governments of the United States and Vietnam to this effect on 6 June 1952. In January 1953, his regime consolidated its democratic legitimacy by holding free municipal elections. In 1953, Bảo Đại responded to the communist program of land redistribution and rent reduction with a decree declaring that rents for land should not exceed 15 percent of the crop. The decree was unenforceable and rendered null by a failing neo-colonial government and, in any case, contained loopholes that could have been exploited by landlords. The war between the French neo-colonial forces and the Việt Minh with Chinese help started to go badly for the French, culminating in a major victory for the Việt Minh at Điện Biên Phủ.

France's hard-line right-wing government left power on 18 June 1954, and France's new Prime Minister, who was a centrist, was determined to end the war quickly. The Viet Minh was also under Chinese pressure. These led to the negotiating of a peace deal between the French and the Việt Minh on 21 July 1954, known as the Geneva Accords, which partitioned Vietnam at the 17th parallel. The north side was given to the communist DRV, with the State of Vietnam keeping the south. The French army withdrew to South Vietnam, but the communists secretly kept cadres there. Before the Geneva Accords, the State of Vietnam gained complete independence within the French Union on 4 June. Bảo Đại's delegation attended the negotiations but was unable to prevent the partition. Bảo Đại remained "Head of State" of South Vietnam, but moved to Paris and appointed Ngô Đình Diệm as his prime minister. South Vietnam was not yet fully independent in reality, but the United States supported Diệm, a man with an anti-colonial past, and gradually replaced French influence in South Vietnam to create an anti-communist independent bulwark in Southeast Asia. Diệm opposed the division of the country and later declared non-compliance with the Geneva Accords in July 1955 because his government had not signed them and because of doubts about the North's ability to guarantee free elections.^{[22][19][25][26][27][28]} Before that, on 30 January 1950, Bảo Đại ratified the treaties that South Vietnam had signed with France, Cambodia, and Laos on 29 and 30 December 1954, which dissolved French Indochina as a result of a conference of the four countries in Paris since August. France would continue the handover of power that year.^[29]

Before that, on 28 February 1952, French General François Jean Antonin Gonzalez de Linarès announced that while digging a military construction near Nghia Do, a suburb of Hanoi, the French army had found a 20-liter iron kerosene barrel, inside which was a golden seal and a broken sword. Ten days later, on 8 March 1952, exactly three years after the signing of the Elysee Agreement, at Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, French General François Jean Antonin Gonzalez de Linarès solemnly held a ceremony to return the seal and sword to Bảo Đại.^[30]

Massacres occurred during the First Indochina War (1946–1954), a period when Bảo Đại was nominally Chief of State of the State Republic of Vietnam.The Việt Minh, supported by Communist China and led by Hồ Chí Minh, sought to eliminate rival nationalist factions, especially Cao Đài, Hòa Hảo, and VNQDĐ, viewing them as threats to communist consolidation.

During Emperor Bảo Đại’s leadership of the State of Vietnam,

• The Việt Minh Insurgencies led by Hồ Chí Minh, intensified their campaign to consolidate communist control—often through violent purges, assassinations, and psychological warfare.
• Bảo Đại witnessed the erosion of civil order, especially in rural areas where Việt Minh insurgents executed landlords, religious leaders, and suspected collaborators.
• The Nam Bộ Massacre of 1947, for instance, saw hundreds of Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo followers killed by Việt Minh forces in southern Vietnam. These groups were seen as ideological threats to communist orthodoxy.
• In Vũng Tàu (1952) and Châu Đốc (1957), insurgents targeted civilians and local officials, instilling fear and undermining Bảo Đại’s authority

The Việt Minh’s tactics included nighttime raids, public executions, and propaganda campaigns. ^[32]

The “Bảo Đại Solution"^[19]— Framed by the French as a strategic solution, the initiative sought to position Bảo Đại as the leader of a non-communist State of Vietnam to counter Hồ Chí Minh’s insurgency. This diplomatic maneuver culminated in 1949 with the establishment of the State of Vietnam, where Bảo Đại assumed the role of Chief of State—a position that signaled nominal independence while maintaining formal ties to the French Union.^[33]

The State of Vietnam officially created its own military under Emperor Bảo Đại following the Élysée Accords of 1949.

In June 1954, Emperor Bảo Đại appointed Ngô Đình Diệm as Prime Minister. Bảo Đại’s decision was influenced by Diệm’s reputation for integrity and his connections with American policymakers, who saw him as a bulwark against communism.^[34]

Bảo Đại’s 1954 appointment of Ngô Đình Diệm as Prime Minister was a calculated response to escalating geopolitical tensions in Vietnam, driven by the imperative to counter communist insurgency. Drawing upon diplomatic correspondences and Diệm’s established ties to American officials, the decision reflected Bảo Đại’s intent to secure U.S. backing and confront the Việt Minh insurgency.^[35]

Now with a broad range of support and Bao Dai anointed a referendum committee (formed by Ngô Đình Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu) was able to call for a referendum to establish a republic with Diệm as president.^[19] The official results showed a tally of 98.9% in favor of a republic, with the number of popular votes for a republic.^[36]

Diệm was officially declared as the president of the new Republic of Vietnam on 26 October 1955, the First Republic. Exactly one year later, after a Constitutional Assembly election in March, South Vietnam promulgated a constitution and established a parliament to confirm its establishment over all of Vietnam and its republic, the First Republic.^[37][38]

In 1957, during his visit to the Alsace region, he met Christiane Bloch-Carcenac with whom he had an affair for several years. The relationship with Bloch-Carcenac resulted in the birth of his last child, Patrick-Édouard Bloch-Carcenac, who still lives in Alsace in France.^[39][40]

After moving to France, Bao Dai no longer controlled the economic system to benefit himself like before, as many businesses in Vietnam were confiscated by Ngo Dinh Diem. Being watched closely by the tax authorities, without the funding from the French government he had enjoyed, he had to gradually sell off his assets. Around the 1960s, Bao Dai's huge fortune gradually dwindled. Many magnificent castles, expensive airplanes, and luxury cars had to be transferred to other people's names and mortgaged to pay off huge debts. Bao Dai only received a small subsidy from President Giscard's government of 8,000 francs/month.

In the context of a civil war and proxy war happening in his country (Vietnam War), Bảo Đại issued a public statement from exile in 1972, appealing to the Vietnamese people for national reconciliation, stating, "The time has come to put an end to the fratricidal war and to recover at last peace and accord".^[2] At times, Bảo Đại maintained his residence in southern France, and in particular, in Monaco, where he sailed often on his private yacht, one of the largest in Monte Carlo's harbor. He still reportedly held great influence among local political figures in the Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên provinces of Huế. The communist government of North Vietnam sent representatives to France hoping that Bảo Đại would become a member of a coalition government which might reunite Vietnam, in the hope of attracting his supporters in the regions wherein he still held influence. North Vietnam was determined to unify the country under communism.

As a result of these meetings, Bảo Đại publicly spoke out against the presence of American troops in South Vietnam, and he criticized President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's anti-communist Second Republic in South Vietnam. He called for all political factions to create a free, neutral, peace-loving government which would resolve the tense situation that had taken form in the country. However, after the 1973 Paris Peace Accords and the American withdrawal, war continued, and finally the communists de facto took power in South Vietnam by force in April 1975, leading to the formal reunification of the country under a communist state the following year.^[41]

In 1982, Bảo Đại, his wife Monique, and other members of the former imperial family of Vietnam visited the United States. His agenda was to oversee and bless Buddhist and Caodaist religious ceremonies, in the California and Texas Vietnamese American communities, people who maintained an oppositional stance against the Vietnamese communist government. Bao Dai also took this opportunity to survey the opinions of Vietnamese communities living in the United States, who were strongly anti-communist and pro-democracy, about solutions for national reconciliation. On this visit, he became an honorary citizen of the city of Westminster in the United States.^[42]

In 1988, Bảo Đại was baptised in France as Roman Catholic.^[43][44][45]

In 1996, when French doctors operated on his eyes, many groups and political organizations came to congratulate him and invited him to attend as a leader. He waved his hand and said as if pleading: "S'il vous plaît, laissez-moi vivre et mourir en paix" ("Please let me live and die in peace").^[46]

Throughout Bảo Đại's life in both Vietnam and in France, he remained unpopular among the Vietnamese populace as he was considered a political puppet for the French colonialist regime, for lacking any form of political power, for his cooperation with the French and for his pro-French ideals. The former emperor clarified, however, that his reign was always a constant battle and a balance between preserving the monarchy and the integrity of the nation versus fealty to the French authorities. Ultimately, power devolved away from his person and into ideological camps and in the face of Diem's underestimated influences on factions within the empire.^[47]

Bảo Đại died at Val-de-Grâce, a military hospital in Paris, on 31 July 1997. He was interred in the Cimetière de Passy.

• Bảo Đại was portrayed by actor Huỳnh Anh Tuấn in the 2004 Vietnamese miniseries Ngọn nến Hoàng cung (A Candle in the Imperial Palace).^[48]
• On 13 May 2017, a watch owned by Bảo Đại, a unique Rolex ref. 6062 triple calendar moonphase watch made for him while he was working in Geneva, became one of the most expensive watches ever sold, selling for a then record price of US$5,060,427 at a Phillips auction in Geneva.^[49][50]

The last cash coin ever produced in the world bears the name of Bảo Đại in Chữ Hán. There are three types of this coin. Large cast piece with 10 văn inscription on the reverse, medium cast piece with no reverse inscription, and small struck piece. All were issued in 1933.

• 
  Bảo Đại Thông Bảo 10 văn
• 
  Bảo Đại Thông Bảo plain reverse
• 
  Struck Bảo Đại Thông Bảo

• In 1945 when the Japanese colonel in charge of the Hue garrison told Bảo Đại that he had (in line with the orders of the Allied commander) taken measures ensuring the security of the Imperial Palace and those within it against a possible Việt Minh coup, Bảo Đại dismissed the protection declaring "We do not wish a foreign army to spill the blood of our people."^[51]
• He explained his abdication in 1945 saying "We would prefer to be a citizen of an independent country rather than Emperor of an enslaved one."^[51]
• When, after World War II, France attempted to counter Ho Chi Minh's popularity and gain the support of the U.S. by creating an associated state with him, he said "What they call a Bảo Đại solution turns out to be just a French solution."^[52]
• In a rare public statement from France in 1972, Bảo Đại appealed to the people of Vietnam for national reconciliation, saying "The time has come to put an end to the fratricidal war and to recover at last peace and accord."^[53]

• Sovereign and Grand Master of the Imperial Order of the Dragon of Annam.
• Sovereign and Grand Master of the Imperial Order of Merit of Annam (revived and expanded as the National Order of Vietnam on 10 June 1955).

• Thailand: Knight of the Most Illustrious Order of the Royal House of Chakri (Kingdom of Thailand, 1939).
•  France: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honour (10 September 1932).
•  Cambodia: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia.
•  Laos: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol.
•  Belgium: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (1935).
•  Morocco: Knight Grand Cross of the Sharifian Order of Al-Alaoui (Kingdom of Morocco).
•  Johor: Member First Class of the Royal Family Order of Johor [DKI] (21 March 1933).

Symbols created and / or used during the reign of Bảo Đại
Symbol	Image	Description
Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty
8 imperial seals created for Emperor Bảo Đại.[54]		See Seals of the Nguyễn dynasty.
Personal standard of emperors Khải Định and Bảo Đại		Flag ratio: 2:3.
Personal coat of arms of Bảo Đại.		A sword per fess charged with the ramparts of the Purple Forbidden City in Huế, inscribed with two Traditional Chinese (Hán) characters (保大) and supported by a single dragon. Influences:
Bảo Đại Thông Bảo (保大通寶)		The last cash coins issued by a government in both Vietnam and the world.
Bảo Đại Bảo Giám (保大寳鑑)		A series of silver coins bearing his reign era.
Chief of State of Vietnam
Seal as the chief of state of Vietnam.		A seal with the inscriptions "Quốc-gia Việt-Nam", "Đức Bảo Đại Quốc-trưởng" written in Latin script and "保大國長" in seal script.
Personal standard		Flag ratio: 2:3. Influences:

• Anh, Nguyên Thê. (1985). "The Vietnamese Monarchy under French Colonial Rule 1884–1945". Modern Asian Studies. 19 (1): 147–162. doi:10.1017/S0026749X0001458X. JSTOR 312324.
• Chapuis, Oscar (2000). The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai. Greenwood.
• Chapman, Jessica M. (2006). "Staging democracy: South Vietnam's 1955 referendum to depose Bao Dai" (PDF). Diplomatic History. 30 (4): 671–703. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.2006.00573.x.
• Hammer, Ellen J. (1950). "The Bao Dai Experiment". Pacific Affairs. 23 (1): 46–58. doi:10.2307/2753754. JSTOR 2753754.
• Hess, Gary R. (1978). "The first American commitment in Indochina: The acceptance of the 'Bao Dai solution', 1950". Diplomatic History. 2 (4): 331–350. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.1978.tb00441.x. JSTOR 24910123.
• Lockhart, Bruce McFarland (1993). The End of the Vietnamese Monarchy. Lac Viet Series. Vol. 15. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for International and Area Studies. ISBN 9780938692508.
• Szalontai, Balázs (2018). "The 'Sole Legal Government of Vietnam': The Bao Dai Factor and Soviet Attitudes toward Vietnam, 1947–1950". Journal of Cold War Studies. 20 (3): 3–56. doi:10.1162/jcws_a_00813. JSTOR 26924494.

• Bảo Đại's memoirs have been published in French and in Vietnamese; the Vietnamese version appears considerably longer.
• Bảo Đại (1980). Le dragon d'Annam (in French). Paris: Plon. ISBN 9782259005210.
• Bảo Đại (1990). Con rong Viet Nam: hoi ky chanh tri 1913–1987 (in Vietnamese). Los Alamitos, CA: Nguyen Phuoc Toc (distributed by Xuan Thu Publishing). OCLC 22628825.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Emperor Bảo Đại.

• Newspaper clippings about Bảo Đại in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

• Web citation
• Images