death_date birth_date signature reign father house death_place title image name caption other_titles predecessor succession birth_place issue successor mother article_title
30 july 1997 22 october 1913 personal standard of state chief bao dai.png 8 1949 -- 26 october 1955 january 1926 -- 25 august 1945 13 june khải Định nguyễn dynasty paris , france emperor of vietnam 保大皇帝 坐像.jpg bảo Đại bảo Đại '' 安南国王 `` king of annam '' -rrb- '' ` hoàng ` đế Đại nam '' ' -lrb- 大南皇帝 `` emperor of an the great south '' -rrb- , 1926 -- 45 '' nam ` quốc trưởng '' ' quốc vương '' ' -lrb- khải head of provisional government -rrb- Định position created nguyễn văn xuân -lrb- as emperor of vietnam chief of state of vietnam huế , french indochina bảo 1937 -rrb- phương liên -lrb- b. 1938 -rrb- phương dung long -lrb- b. 1942 -rrb- bảo thắng -lrb- b. 1943 -rrb- -lrb- phương thảo -lrb- b. 1946 -rrb- phương minh -lrb- 1949-2012 1936-2007 -rrb- bảo Ân -lrb- b. 1953 -rrb- bảo hoàng -lrb- -rrb- 1954-1955 -rrb- bảo sơn -lrb- 1957-1987 -rrb- phương từ patrick-edward phương bloch mai -lrb- b. ho republic of vietnam -rrb- bảo long -lrb- as heir-apparent -rrb- chi ngo dinh diem -lrb- as president of the republic of minh vietnam -rrb- -lrb- as president of the democratic hoang thi cuc bảo Đại

bảo Đại

`` in the vietnamese name below , '' nguyễn phúc `` is the surname . ''
bảo Đại -lrb- lit .
`` keeper of greatness '' , 22 october 1913 -- 30 july 1997 -rrb- , born nguyễn phúc vĩnh thụy , was the 13th and final emperor of the nguyễn dynasty , which was the last dynasty of vietnam .
from 1926 to 1945 , he was king of annam .
during this period , annam was a protectorate within french indochina , covering the central two-thirds of the present-day vietnam .
bảo Đại ascended the throne in 1932 .
the japanese ousted the vichy-french administration in march 1945 and then ruled through bảo Đại .
at this time , he renamed his country `` vietnam '' .
he abdicated in august 1945 when japan surrendered .
it has been widely held that vietminh or ho chi minh founded the independent democratic republic of vietnam by themselves .
however , the fact is , as stanley karnow in his classic book `` vietnam - a history '' has put it , `` nothing has reinforced the vietminh cause more than the mercurial bao dai 's decision to abdicate .
for his gesture conferred the `` mandate of heaven ' on ho , giving him the legitimacy that , in vietnamese eyes , had traditionally resided in the emperor . ''
further from 1949 until 1955 , bảo Đại was the chief of state of the state of vietnam -lrb- south vietnam -rrb- .
bảo Đại was criticized for being too closely associated with france and spending much of his time outside of vietnam .
prime minister ngô Đình diệm eventually ousted him in a fraudulent referendum vote in 1955 .
