Jean Sainteny

Jean Sainteny or Jean Roger (29 May 1907, in Vésinet – 25 February 1978) was a French politician who was sent to Vietnam after the end of the Second World War in order to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces and to attempt to re-annex Vietnam into French Indochina.

He was captured by the Gestapo but succeeded in escaping and took part in organising the Normandy landings, passing to George Patton the information that allowed the Allies to reach Paris.

He traveled to Hanoi on 22 August 1945 with American OSS officers, Archimedes Patti and Carleton B.

In March 1946 he reached the Ho-Sainteny agreement with Ho, recognizing the Vietnamese government as a “free state” (état libre) in the French Union.

[1]: 33  The agreement became ineffective after the bombing of Haiphong ordered by the High Commissioner Thierry d'Argenlieu, and from then on Sainteny played only a minor role in French-Vietnamese relations.

President Ho Chi Minh received at the residence of the French Governor, General Leclerc , left, in the presence of the Commissioner of the Republic of Tonkin, Jean Sainteny, far right, March 18, 1946.