Ho Chi Minh, Vu Hong Khanh and Jean Sainteny signed in Hanoi, on 6 March 1946, the Franco-Vietnamese preliminary convention. Sainteny signed as delegate of Admiral Thierry d'Argenlieu, High Commissioner. The contemporary Vietnamese text appeared in Cuu Quoc; Wikisource reprints it. MJP publishes a French teaching text. It is not registered in the UNTS.

Article 1: France recognises the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a free state, with its own government, parliament, army and finances, in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union, and undertakes to endorse a referendum on the union of the three ky. The MJP reprint omits parliament from this article; the Vietnamese text keeps it. The French Union as such is written into the constitution of 27 October 1946.

Article 2: Vietnam declares itself ready to receive the French army which, under international agreements (Chongqing, 28 February), relieves Chinese troops north of the 16th parallel. An annex sets the composition of the relief force, under French supreme command, with Vietnamese participation. This is not a deployment, garrison or prisoner-guarding handbook.

Article 3: the stipulations enter into force immediately after the exchange of signatures. The parties stop hostilities, keep troops in their then positions and open talks on diplomacy, the status of Indochina and French economic and cultural interests. The conference seat: Hanoi, Saigon or Paris.

Vu Hong Khanh also signed as VNQDD. d'Argenlieu criticised the text as too mild. The Dalat (April–May) and Fontainebleau (July–September) conferences failed, especially over Cochinchina. A modus vivendi with Marius Moutet is dated 14–15 September, another instrument.

Leclerc entered Hanoi on 18 March. The Indochina War began in Hanoi in December. The convention is a preliminary accord, not the definitive treaty. This is not a war or operational-decolonisation handbook.

Cover: the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, the former government-general palace, a civic building of the signing city, not the table. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Ho–Sainteny Agreement; Convention préliminaire (Digithèque MJP).