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Hue or in the roadstead at Tourane was found unsafe because of the northeast monsoon. The ship then proceeded south and found secure anchorage at Vung Lam (Vung Chao), near Qui Nhon. Roberts spent a month attempting to gain an audience with the emperor at Hue, present a letter from President Andrew Jackson, and conduct negotiations. Encountering what were described as "insulting formalities," Roberts terminated the effort. Sailing in Peacock for Siam, Roberts concluded a treaty of commerce and amity with that country. It was the first treaty ever signed by the United States with an Asian nation.13

Soon thereafter, France deployed a naval squadron to the Far East. When Minh Mang closed all ports except Tourane to Western ships and pronounced the death penalty for foreign priests, French commanding officers were ordered to protect missionaries, but only if such actions could be carried out without exposing the French flag to possible insult and without resorting to hostilities. It was not long before the French Navy found itself at odds with the king of Annam. The first confrontation came in 1843 when Commandant Lévêque, the commanding officer of a French corvette, appeared at Tourane to obtain the release of five missionaries held captive at Hue."

Two years later the United States Navy had its first introduction to Tourane. This port would become well known in the United States Navy after the passage of another 120 years. The earlier occasion was a visit by the famous frigate Constitution which was in the Far East on a roundthe-world cruise. The commanding officer of Constitution was the controversial and colorful Captain John Percival, known in the service as "Mad Jack." Upon anchoring off Tourane in May 1845, Percival learned from a native Christian that a bishop apostolic, Monsignor Lefèbvre, was being held prisoner by the king. Putting ashore a landing force of fifty bluejackets and thirty Marines, the captain seized five hostages (among them three local officials) and three junks, and held them for almost a week. Whether Percival's tactics, which were later disavowed by the United States, helped to gain the release of the missionary is not clearly established. It is known that, subsequently, a French warship won custody of Lefèbvre and took him from the country. However, the bishop then secretly made

13 A full account is in Edmund Roberts, Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam and Muscat (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1837), pp. 6, 171-226, 313.

14

Steinberg, In Search of Southeast Asia, p. 128; Buttinger, Smaller Dragon, pp. 304–24; Hall, History of South-East Asia, p. 609.

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his way back to Hue, where he was again captured by the exasperated mandarins. King Thieu Tri chose not to carry out the death sentence. He deported the brave but reckless clergyman to Singapore.

15

In 1847 a French frigate and a corvette anchored in the same roadstead. This time the French discovered five Vietnamese corvettes which the king had built to oppose the intruders. The mandarins at Tourane refused to deliver a letter from the senior officer, Captain Lapierre, to the king seeking to negotiate better treatment for Catholics. Frustrated by his inability to communicate with the monarch, the captain decided on direct action and delivered several broadsides, which sank most of the corvettes and killed many Indochinese.1

16

In a sequel to the Constitution incident, the king sent a delegation to Joseph Balestier, the American Consul in Singapore, claiming the right to punish Captain Percival. Balestier notified Washington of the Vietnamese demand and of threats issued at the same time to retaliate against other Americans visiting Annam. Subsequently he was ordered late in 1849 by the State Department to proceed to Tourane on board the USS Plymouth. Balestier carried with him a note of apology for Percival's actions, but the delivery of this document to the king was impossible due to the familiar obstructions raised by minor Vietnamese officials. Balestier countered Vietnamese threats to punish American citizens visiting Vietnam by stating that, under such circumstances, the President would be "obliged to send a strong armed force" to Annam. Following these acrimonious exchanges, Balestier departed Vietnam early in 1850."

After Commodore Matthew C. Perry's famous expedition to Japan in 1853-1854, that officer's report included the prediction that America's expanding commercial interests would lead the United States to "extend the advantages of our national friendship and protection" to other countries

15 Benjamin F. Stevens, "Around the World in the United States Frigate Constitution in the Days of the Old or Wooden Ships," The United Service VII (May 1905), pp. 596–97; Allan Westcott, "Captain 'Mad Jack' Percival," United States Naval Institute Proceedings, LXI (Mar. 1935), p. 318; USS Constitution Daily Log, 14-16 May 1845; Captains letters received, May 1845, Record Group (RG) 45, National Archives and Records Service; Buttinger, Smaller Dragon, pp. 332-33, 391-92.

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17 Quoted in James W. Gould, "American Imperialism in Southeast Asia Before 1898," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, III (Sept. 1972), p. 308.

of the Far East, including "Cochin China." 18 Nevertheless, in the years that followed, American contacts with Vietnam were of a limited nature.

The Evolution of French Indochina

French naval power, at sea and on inland waters, would provide the key to the establishment of controls over Tonkin, Cochin China, Annam, and Cambodia. Naval operations during this period were in many respects indicative of actions that would be required in the Vietnam conflict which would follow World War II.

Napoléon III arranged for his envoy, Louis Charles de Montigny, to open negotiations for trading and religious rights. Arriving in Tourane on 23 January 1857 on board a small steamer, Montigny was highly offended when the king, now Tu Duc, refused to receive him as the emperor's personal representative. In retaliation, the envoy sent a strong warning to Hue that the king's continued maltreatment of Christians could only result in serious consequences. But threats of force by the French only generated more Vietnamese terrorism. It has been estimated that in the years between 1848 and 1860 approximately 25 Catholic missionaries, 300 Vietnamese priests, and 30,000 Vietnamese Christians were put to death.1

19

Faced with an impasse, Napoléon, on the advice of his ministers, decided on a policy which called for a permanent French presence in Indochina, preferably in the form of a protectorate. The decision meant that no longer would the role of naval forces be that of guarding scattered trading posts and missions. Instead, the navy assumed long-range responsibilities for the security of an overseas dominion, including the protection of the ocean routes to these newly won lands, and the control of coastal waters and rivers. To the extent that the navy remained capable of carrying out these tasks, the French colonization of Indochina proceeded apace.

20

In August 1858 the French Asiatic Squadron, comprising thirteen ships and 2,050 men, sailed to Tourane to occupy the post. Spanish authorities at

18

Quoted in Ronald Spector. "The American Image of Southeast Asia 1970-1865, A Preliminary Assessment," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, III (Sept. 1972), p. 304.

19 Teston and Percheron, L'Indochine Moderne, pp. 30-31; Buttinget, Smaller Dragon, p. 340; Steinberg, In Search of Southeast Asia. p. 128.

20

Buttinger, Smaller Dragon, pp. 342-45; Lancaster, Emancipation of French Indochina, pp.

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