An exceptional account of the life of Jean Decoux, the great helmsman and sole master of the superb five-state vessel that was Indochina for five years.

Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces in the Far East in 1939, Governor General of Indochina in 1940, High Commissioner of France in the Pacific in 1941, and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1941, Jean Decoux was cut off from Metropolitan France in 1942 as a result of the intensification of the world conflict, and became the sole master aboard the superb five-state vessel that was Indochina. The work of this great helmsman - who was also its last Governor General - was brutally interrupted by the Japanese on March 9, 1945. Our French flag disappeared in a matter of hours. This would be the real start of the Indochina War until 1954, and of the Vietnam War until 1975. Admiral Jean DECOUX would never be replaced. Misunderstood by the Resistance and the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF), which wanted to reproduce at 10,000 km what had been achieved in France, while Japan was not occupying Indochina, the Admiral was sanctioned but rehabilitated in 1949. For our DECOUX family and for everyone, the Admiral is a model to be respected: patriotic, generous, a leader, loyal, a man of conviction and attached to true values. This is the course to follow for generations to come.
Jacques Decoux 
Foreword by Dominique Grandvuinet