ABSTRACT
One of the linchpins of French colonial policy in Indochina was the protected monarchy, whereby Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Lao rulers reigned over all or part of their ancestors' kingdoms under French authority. A study of French decolonization policy in Indochina during the period 1945-1954 recognizes two fundamental paradoxes. Paris had to acknowledge the reality that sooner or later Indochina would no longer be French that true decolonization began. The impact of the Vietnamese, created Lao revolutionary movement for most of the period Souphanouvong was probably less well known in Laos than either Phetsarath or the king and the crown prince. It is difficult to assess the influence of Sihanouk's crusade on the pace of decolonization in Cambodia. Despite the growing strength of revolutionary movements during the decolonization period, they did not pose the same threat to the legitimacy of the monarchies. In Vietnam, when colonialism fell, temporarily in 1945 to 1954, it dragged the monarchy with it.
