Etat des documents d'archives en langue française au Viet-nam

Abstract

Contribution to the study of Southeast Asian History: State of the Archival Materials in French in Viet-Nam. The National Archives of the Republic of Viet-Nam has repositories in Saigon and in Dalat. It has in its custody almost 11 the records of the Government of South Viet-Nam for the last two hundred years. These records commence from the year 1802 and continue right up to the present time. Most of them are in French while the remaining part is either in Chinese characters on in Vietnamese. The Dalat repository is the ultimate one of all non- qurrent records of the Imperial Archives of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). It is very regretful that during the years of revolution from March 1945 to the Geneva Conference in July 1954, because of the troubled situation prevailing throughout the country, a great part of them disappeared or perished. Neverthe- less, there are still important sources for recent history, especially for the history of the Nguyen Dynasty though only a part of the originals now remains.