Prominent non-communist politician and military officer in the Associated State of Vietnam. Like his father Nguyen Van Tam, Hinh enjoyed French nationality. He completed his secondary studies at the Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat before traveling to France to study mathematics at the Lycée Saint Louis. In 1938, he graduated as a pilot from the French École de l’air and served in a bomber squadron in the French Air Force. During the fall of France in 1940, Nguyen Van Hinh received the Croix de guerre. He later joined Free French forces, commanding a bomber group based in Algeria. He participated in the French occupation of Germany. In 1947, he held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the French armed forces. In that year, he joined the French General Staff of the Air as Assistant to the Chief of the Signals Section. In 1948, he returned to Algeria to command an air group again.
In 1949, he returned to Vietnam with his squadron. In October 1949, he was named chief of operations (3ème bureau) in the French Far East Air Command (Commandement Air en Extrême-Orient). In May 1950, the new prime minister to Bao Dai, Tran Van Huu, appointed Nguyen Van Hinh’s father chief of the security forces. The prime minister also asked the son to help create the armed forces for the Associated State of Vietnam in 1949. Nguyen Van Hinh agreed and was detached from the French Air Command and appointed secretary general of the Ministry of National Defense in the Tran Van Huu government. In November 1950, Nguyen Van Hinh also assumed the duty of serving as chief of Bao Dai’s military cabinet. The new French commander-in-chief, general Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, was a mobilizing force in creating an effective Vietnamese national army and looked to Nguyen Van Hinh to play a leading role as one of the most experienced Vietnamese officers of the time. In 1951, Nguyen Van Hinh became a colonel. He was a firm believer in the need to create uniquely Vietnamese “commando battalions” to take the battle to the adversary. Bao Dai and the French supported him in this endeavor. In March 1952, Nguyen Van Hinh was promoted to brigadier general and became the first chief of staff of the Vietnamese national army. In February 1953, the Franco-Vietnamese High Command adopted his commando project. In that year, he visited the United States to observe training instruction and methods and pressed the Americans to help make up for the lag in French assistance.
As the war reached its climax at Dien Bien Phu in 1953–1954, Nguyen Van Hinh, as chief of staff, was directly involved in planning operation Atlante (along with Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Van Vy). Nguyen Van Hinh served as chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces of the Associated State of Vietnam until Ngo Dinh Diem fired him on 11 September 1954. Reluctant to take on Diem, Nguyen Van Hinh returned to France and rejoined the French Air Force. He served in the Algerian War at Colomb-Béchar before becoming deputy commandant in the French Air Force in May 1962 and deputy chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He retired from the French Air Force in late 1969. Two of his brothers were killed by Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s forces in 1945.