1952 Forces Terrestres d'Extreme Orient City Plan or Map of Hanoi, Vietnam

This is a 1952 Force terrestres d'Extême-Orient city plan or map of Hanoi, Vietnam. Published near the end of the First Indochina War (1946 - 1954), the map details a city that had been at war since 1940. Streets bear French names and are labeled in French, although a handful bear Vietnamese names and are labeled as such. Intriguingly, the lakes all have Vietnamese names. The train station is marked by diagonal hatching, along with the library, military hospital, the Institut Pasteur, and several other unlabeled buildings. The citadel, in the northern part of the city and the heart of the French colonial administration, appears in the upper part of the map and is highlighted in yellow manuscript. Lines consisting of dots and dashes traces the city's electrical tramway system.

Manuscript Notations

Yellow, red, and blue manuscript notations appear throughout much of the city. Yellow marks important buildings, such as the citadel and the military hospital, while the red highlights what appear to be major thoroughfares. Blue arrows indicate the direction of a trip through the city and appear to end at the citadel. We have been unable to pinpoint any specific event that these arrows must refer to, it is possible that this map details the visit of an important dignitary. The map was published by the Service Cartographique des forces terrestres d'Extrême-Orient (or the cartographic service of the ground forces in the Far East) and dated August 13, 1952. Both the specific date and the map's printer suggests that it was created for a specific event and likely for security purposes.

The French Far East Expeditionary Corps

The French Far East Expecitionary Corps (Corps Expéditionnaire Français en Extrême-Orient, also known as the Force terrestres d'Extême-Orient) was a French colonial expeditionary force. Originally organized beginning in June 1945, it was promoted as an all-volunteer force that would help liberate French Indochina from the Japanese. However, the corps had not left France when the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945. Nonetheless, the corps left France under the command of celebrated French General Philippe Leclerc, and, with the help of the Americans and the British, finally began arriving in Indochina in September 1945. The bulk of the French force did not arrive until October. Not long after, the French Indochina War ignited, and raged until 1954, when the French signed the Geneva Accords granting independence to Vietnam.

Publication History and Census

This map was created and published by the French Force terrestres d'Extême-Orient and dated August 13, 1952. This is the only known surviving example.