Word: giap
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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General Paul Ely, French chief of staff, flew to Hanoi last week to determine whether he could save the rice-rich Red River Delta. He came upon a darkening battleground. Red General Giap's advance guards were streaming through Mocchau (see map), less than 80 miles from Hanoi; Giap's 90,000 irregulars inside the delta were taking Vietnamese company outposts at the tumble-down rate of five or six a week; and a special Red task force, some ten battalions strong, was pressing a tight, coordinated attack against the three French positions around Phuly, the logical start...
...happened that Route Coloniale 41 was Red General Giap's direct line of advance against Hanoi and the Red River Delta, but Huard apparently accepted the Red terms without question. That night the French army radio put out this note of appreciation: "The delegates of the French high command thank the delegates of the Viet people's army for their humanitarian concern." And the Communists seemed just as friendly next day when they helped load the first eleven wounded into a couple of French helicopters: "We hope you will remember what we have done for you. We hope...
...days last week, Red General Giap was able to move his infantry, his field artillery and his rocket-launchers down unobstructed roads toward the greatest single objective in all IndoChina: the teeming, rice-rich Red River Delta and its center, Hanoi...
...Giap clearly intended to keep the delta Frenchmen off balance while he rested his 40,000 regulars from their pummeling at Dienbienphu and redeployed them from the malarial jungles before the monsoon set in. Giap's likely next moves: first, break Route Coloniale 5 and isolate Hanoi ; second, storm Hanoi...
...victory is complete," said Giap's spokesman, via Peking radio. "The French garrison and its commander were captured. We wiped out 17 battalions. We shot down or damaged 57 planes. There were many enemies lying around on the ground." Peking radio later named both De Castries and Lalande as prisoners of war. Said Cogny, weeping: "Dienbienphu is a new name to emblazon on the streamers of France." Said Navarre, in a special Order of the Day to his remaining 230,000 French Union and 240,000 Vietnamese troops: "After 56 days of continuing combat, submerged by numbers, by odds...