Nguyễn Văn Thinh was the first President of Cochinchina. Thinh was a French citizen and joined the Constitutionalist Party in 1926. He founded the Cochinchinese Democratic Party in 1937. He became chief of the provisory government on March 26, 1946, and provisional president on June 1. He felt a loss of face when the French negotiated with the Vietminh, ignoring his government. "I am being compelled to play a farce," he said. He died, an apparent suicide while still in office, on November 10.