Paul Mus

Paul Mus (1902 - 1969) was a French author and scholar. His studies focused on Vietnam and other Southeast Asian cultures.

He was born in Bourges to an academic family, and grew up in northern Vietnam (Tonkin). In 1907 his father opened the College de protectorate in Hanoi and he would graduate from the college some 12 years later.

At the outbreak of World War Two he was serving as a platoon commander leading a colonial unit in combat at Valvin and Sully-sur-Loire for which he would be awarded the Croix de Guerre. In 1942 he joined the Free French Forces in Africa. He trained with British commandos in Ceylon in 1944-1945 and then in January 1945 he was parachuted into Tonkin to rally French and Vietnamese to the Free French cause. He was in Hanoi on 9 March when the Japanese launched their overthrow of the Vichy French administration and he then escaped the city and walked 250 miles to join up with French colonial forces retreating into southern China.

On 2 September 1945, he was with General Philippe Leclerc on the USS Missouri to receive the Japanese surrender for France and subsequently served as his political adviser when France returned to Indochina and started the colonial reconquest.