Redress the History : the soldiers of French Union prisoners of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 to the present day ; Réparer l'histoire : les combattants de l'Union française prisonniers de la République démocratique du Vietnam de 1945 à nos jours
During the Indochina war (1945-1954), more than 20,000 French combatants, legionnaires and Africans, are listed "prisoners and missing". Prisoners of war (POW) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN) for the majority, they are subjected to a food and health regime that, if it is close to that of the Vietnamese, wreaks havoc in their ranks. But the terrible rhythm of the dead is not the only shock awaiting them in captivity, where they are forced to undergo a political education aimed at opening their eyes to the condition of the military proletariat they form, as well as to that of the Vietnamese people exploited by the French colonialism. Disorientated by these conditions of captivity, the POWs find their social and moral landmarks singularly put to the test. In order to survive, the POWs are forced to "play the game" of their jailers' propaganda, thereby violating their duty as soldiers. In each camp, captive micro-groups aggregate and disintegrate, causing important cleavages, still sensitive today, between them. This triple reading - here considered with nuance - thus forges, for decades to come, the conditions for the possibility of the former POWs of the DRVN becoming victims.But the experience is not as painful for all the POWs: when they come into contact with the Vietnamese, they also become subjects of an extraordinary international experience; some feel that they have even gained "a certain enriching vision" from this experience, at least they express their wish to understand the extraordinary experience they have just had. For officers in particular, this experience take the form of a first "duty to remember". Never again such defeats claim many Indochina veterans who fall into the "Algerian War", modeling "psychological action" suffered in captivity with the prospect of a French-style "counter-insurgency". "Never again!", claim many former POWs with the legitimacy of an empirical anti-communism, condemning, in France, the May 1968 movement, the "Union de la Gauche", or the massacres committed ...