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[[File:Paul_Mus_(1902-1969),_expert_historian_on_Indochina,_Buddhism.jpg|thumb|right|Paul Mus (1902–1969)]]
'''Paul Mus''' (1902–1969) was a French writer and scholar. His studies focused on [[Vietnam]] and other [[Southeast Asia]]n cultures.{{sfn|Paul Mus, Yale website}}<!--<ref>{{Cite web|title=Paul Mus {{!}} Council On Southeast Asia Studies at Yale|url=https://cseas.yale.edu/Mus|access-date=2021-11-21|website=cseas.yale.edu}}</ref>-->

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.{{sfn|Logevall|2012|p=190}}<!--<ref name=Logevall>{{cite book|last=Logevall|first=Fredrik|title=Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the making of America's Vietnam|publisher=Random House|year=2012|isbn=978-0-375-75647-4}}</ref>{{rp|190}}-->

Mus was a member of [[The French School of the Far East]] ({{langx|fr|École Française d'Extrême-Orient}}, EFEO) since 1927, and "returned to Hanoi in 1927 as a secretary and librarian with the Research Institute of [[The French School of the Far East]] until 1940."{{sfn|Paul Mus, Yale website}}

At the outbreak of World War II 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]].{{sfn|Logevall|2012|p=190}}<!--<ref name=Logevall/>{{rp|190}}--> In 1942 he joined the [[Free French Forces]] in Africa. He trained with British commandos in [[Sri Lanka|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 coup d'état in French Indochina|Japanese overthrew]] the [[Vichy France|Vichy French]] administration and he then escaped the city and walked {{convert|250|mi}} to join up with French colonial forces retreating into southern China.{{sfn|Logevall|2012|pp=190-1}}<!--<ref name=Logevall/>{{rp|190–1}}-->

[[File:Vietnam National Museum of History, Hanoi, Vietnam.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Vietnam National Museum of History, Hanoi, Vietnam.  During the colonial period, the building housed [[The French School of the Far East]], where Paul Mus worked for thirteen years, from 1927 to 1940.]]
On September 2, 1945, he was with [[Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque|General Philippe Leclerc]] on the {{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}} to receive the [[Surrender of Japan]]{{sfn|Japan surrendered}} for France and subsequently served as his political advisor when France returned to Indochina and started the colonial reconquest.{{efn|"Avec le [[Commandant]] P. Mus, conseiller politique de Leclerc, il [ [[Jacques Massu]] ] obtient la reddition des Caodaistes (8 novembre). (With Maj. P. Mus, political advisor for Leclerc, he [ [[Jacques Massu]] ] obtained the surrender of the [[Caodaism|Caodaists]] (8 November.)"{{sfn|Devillers|1952|p=164}} }}<!--<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Japanese surrender on board the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1303405|access-date=2021-11-21|website=National Museum of American History|language=en}}</ref>-->

In 1947, Mus became the political advisor to [[Émile Bollaert]], the new French High Commissioner of Indochina. On 10 May 1947 Bollaert dispatched Mus to make contact with [[Ho Chi Minh]] and after walking {{convert|40|mi}} through Viet Minh held territory he arrived at Ho's headquarters on May 12, 1947. Mus had been authorised to offer Ho a ceasefire on three conditions: 1. the Viet Minh were to lay down their weapons, 2. French troops were to be allowed to circulate freely in areas held by them and 3. all [[French Foreign Legion]] deserters held by the Viet Minh were to be returned to French control. Ho refused the offer commenting "''In the French Union there is no place for cowards, if I accepted these conditions I would be one''."{{sfn|Logevall|2012|p=190-2}}<!--<ref name=Logevall/>{{rp|191–2}}-->

<!--
[[Ho Chi Minh]] said, recounted Paul Mus:{{sfn|NYT obituary}}
{{Quote frame |quote=<span style="font-size:110%">{{resize|120%|{{font color|blue|❝}}}} I have no army, no diplomacy, no finances, no industry, no public works. All I have is hatred, and I will not disarm it until I feel I can trust you [the French].{{resize|120%|{{font color|blue|❞}}}}</span> |author=<span style="font-size:103%">[[Ho Chi Minh]] |source=according to Paul Mus, the ''New York Times'' 1969 obituary{{sfn|NYT obituary}}</span>}}

On what [[Ho Chi Minh]] said above, Paul Mus later wrote, "History has shown that he {{bracket|[[Ho Chi Minh]]}} was wrong or premature when he did disarm [his hatred against the French colonialists]."{{sfn|NYT obituary}}
-->
Mus first met [[Ho Chi Minh]] in 1945 and recounted in his interview for the 1968 documentary film ''[[In the Year of the Pig]]'' that:{{efn|In the ''New York Times'' obituary,{{sfn|NYT Paul Mus obituary}} according to Paul Mus, [[Ho Chi Minh]] said: "I have no army, no diplomacy, no finances, no industry, no public works. All I have is hatred, and I will not disarm it until I feel I can trust you [the French]." }}
{{Quote frame |quote=<span style="font-size:110%">{{resize|120%|{{font color|blue|❝}}}} [[Ho Chi Minh]] said {{bracket|in 1945}}, 'I have no army.' That's not true now {{bracket|in 1968}}.  'I have no army.'  1945.  'I have no finance.  I have no diplomacy.  I have no public instruction.  I have just hatred and I will not disarm it until you give me confidence in you [the French colonialists].'  Now this is the thing on which I would insist because it's still alive in his memory, as in mine. For every time [[Ho Chi Minh]] has trusted us, we betrayed him.{{resize|120%|{{font color|blue|❞}}}}</span> |author=<span style="font-size:103%">Paul Mus |source=1968 documentary ''[[In the Year of the Pig]],'' at the {{plain link|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pibqRPi8Bo&t=13m56s|name=Youtube video time 13:56}}. </span> }}
<!--
[[Ho Chi Minh]] said{{sfn|NYT Paul Mus obituary}} then:{{efn |name=Paul Mus interview|In his interview in the 1968 documentary ''[[In the Year of the Pig]],'' at the {{plain link|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pibqRPi8Bo&t=13m56s|name=Youtube video time 13:56}}, Paul Mus recounted: "[[Ho Chi Minh]] said {{bracket|in 1945}}, 'I have no army.' That's not true now {{bracket|in 1968}}.  'I have no army.'  1945.  'I have no finance.  I have no diplomacy.  I have no public instruction.  I have just hatred and I will not disarm it until you give me confidence in you.'  Now this is the thing on which I would insist because it's still alive in his memory, as in mine. For every time [[Ho Chi Minh]] has trusted us, we betrayed him."}}
{{Quote frame |quote=<span style="font-size:110%">{{resize|120%|{{font color|blue|❝}}}} I have no army, no diplomacy, no finances, no industry, no public works. All I have is hatred, and I will not disarm it until I feel I can trust you [the French].{{resize|120%|{{font color|blue|❞}}}}</span> |author=<span style="font-size:103%">[[Ho Chi Minh]] |source=according to [[Paul Mus]], the ''New York Times'' 1969 obituary{{sfn|NYT Paul Mus obituary}}</span>}}

Mus added "For every time [[Ho Chi Minh]] has trusted us, we betrayed him."{{efn|name=Paul Mus interview}}
-->

He later served as a professor at both the [[Collège de France]] and [[Yale University]].{{efn|"In 1949, the head of the Colonial Academy in Paris, Paul Mus,
dropped a bombshell when he published a series of articles condemning the
army’s use of torture and calling for French negotiations with Ho Chi Minh.
He lost his job and ended up in Yale, where he helped get Southeast Asian
studies off the ground and influenced the antiwar movement in the United
States.".{{sfn|Goscha|2016|loc=Chapter 12, Section "Cultural revolution..."}} }} He wrote widely on [[Buddhism]] and [[comparative linguistics]]. He was deeply affected by the death of his son Émile Mus in 1961 during the [[Algerian War]].{{sfn|Chandler|2009}}<!--<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chandler|first=David|date=2009|title=Paul Mus (1902–1969): A Biographical Sketch|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/vs.2009.4.1.149|journal=Journal of Vietnamese Studies|volume=4|issue=1|pages=149–191|doi=10.1525/vs.2009.4.1.149|issn=1559-372X}}</ref>-->
<!--He was interviewed in the 1968 documentary film ''[[In the Year of the Pig]]''.{{efn |name=Paul Mus interview}}-->

Mus is survived by a daughter, Laurence Émilie Rimer (née Mus); his son-in-law, [[J. Thomas Rimer]], is also a scholar of Asia, specializing in Japanese literature and drama.{{sfn|Chandler|2009}}<!--<ref>Chandler, David. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130201011215/http://www.yale.edu/seas/Paul%20Mus_1902-69.pdf "Paul Mus (1902–1969): A Biographical Sketch"]. ''Journal of Vietnamese Studies'', '''4''' (1): 149–191. Retrieved February 7, 2013.</ref>-->

== Notes ==
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==Citations==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
{{refbegin}}
<!-- * {{Cite web|title=Paul Mus {{!}} Council On Southeast Asia Studies at Yale|url=https://cseas.yale.edu/Mus|access-date=2021-11-21 |website=cseas.yale.edu |ref={{harvid|Paul Mus, Yale website}} }} -->

* {{citation |title=Paul Mus {{vbar}} Council On Southeast Asia Studies at Yale |url=https://cseas.yale.edu/Mus |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203190137/https://cseas.yale.edu/Mus |archive-date=3 December 2023 |access-date=2021-11-21 |ref={{harvid|Paul Mus, Yale website}}}}.
* {{citation |title=Dr. Paul Mus dies; a Yale professor. Southeast Asia authority also taught in France |journal=New York Times |date=16 August 1969 |ref={{harvid|NYT Paul Mus obituary}}}}.
* {{Cite web|title=The Japanese surrender on board the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1303405|access-date=2021-11-21|website=National Museum of American History|language=en |ref={{harvid|Japan surrendered}} }}
* {{Cite journal|last=Chandler|first=David|date=2009|title=Paul Mus (1902–1969): A Biographical Sketch|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/vs.2009.4.1.149|journal=Journal of Vietnamese Studies|volume=4|issue=1|pages=149–191|doi=10.1525/vs.2009.4.1.149|jstor=10.1525/vs.2009.4.1.149 |issn=1559-372X|url-access=subscription}}. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130201011215/http://www.yale.edu/seas/Paul%20Mus_1902-69.pdf Internet archived on 2013.02.01].
* {{citation |last=Devillers |first=Philippe |year=1952 |title=Histoire du Viêt-Nam de 1940 à 1952 |publisher=Seuil, Paris.}} See also [https://indomemoires.hypotheses.org/21651 Philippe Devillers (1920–2016), un secret nommé Viêt-Nam, Mémoires d'Indochine], [https://web.archive.org/web/20220629093316/https://indomemoires.hypotheses.org/21651 Internet archived 2022.06.29].
* {{citation |last=Goscha |first=Christopher |year=2016 |title=Vietnam: A New History |publisher=Basic Books, New York}}.
* {{cite book|last=Logevall|first=Fredrik|title=Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the making of America's Vietnam|publisher=Random House|year=2012|isbn=978-0-375-75647-4}}. Winner of the [https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/fredrik-logevall 2013 Pulitzer Prize in History]: "''For a distinguished and appropriately documented book on the history of the United States, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).''  A balanced, deeply researched history of how, as French colonial rule faltered, a succession of American leaders moved step by step down a road toward full-blown war"  • Winner of the [https://sah.columbia.edu/content/prizes/francis-parkman-prize/2013-fredrik-logevall-embers-war-fall-empire-and-making 2013 Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians] • Winner of the [https://americanlibraryinparis.org/fredrik-logevall-reflects-on-vietnam-different-dreams-same-footsteps/ 2013 American Library in Paris Book Award] • Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations [https://www.cfr.org/past-winners-arthur-ross-book-award 2013 Gold Medal] [https://www.cfr.org/arthur-ross-book-award Arthur Ross Book Award] • Finalist for the [https://www.cundillprize.com/winners/2013 2013 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature].
<!--* {{citation |last=Logevall |first=Fredrik |year=2012 |title=Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the making of America's Vietnam |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-375-75647-4}}-->

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mus, Paul}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:French sociologists]]
[[Category:Linguists from France]]
[[Category:Historical linguists]]
[[Category:French Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:French male writers]]
[[Category:Vietnamologists]]
[[Category:20th-century linguists]]
[[Category:20th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:Free French military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:French people of colonial Vietnam]]