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(1) Phan Thanh Giản was one of the foremost mandarins of the Nguyễn court. He played a key role in negotiating the Treaty of Saigon with the French in 1862. The treaty had 12 clauses, the most important being :
Art. 2- Đại Nam (the country’s name then) allows French and Spanish missionaries to preach and the Vietnamese to practice the Christian faith freely.
Art. 3- Đại Nam cedes to France the three eastern provinces of Biên Hòa, Gia Định and Định Tường and the island of Poulo Condor (Côn Đảo).
Art. 8- Đại Nam agrees to pay France 4 million dollars worth of silver over 10 years as war reparation.
Art. 11- France will return Vĩnh Long Province to Đại Nam once the three eastern provinces have been pacified.
(2) Phan Thanh Giản was later recalled to Huế to get instructions to conduct an extraordinary embassy to Paris and negotiate the return of the eastern provinces. In Paris, after intense discussions, French Minister of the Navy and the Colonies Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat opposed the return of Cochinchina to Vietnam, and with the threat of resignation of the whole cabinet, forced Napoleon III to order the cancellation of the proposed agreement in June 1864. Thus the Saigon Treaty of 1862 remained in full effect.
Because of his main role in the negotiations, Phan Thanh Giản was blamed by the Vietnamese people and the Huế Court.