Word: indo
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...official and optimistic explanation of French ambitions in Indo-China is heard from men like Commissioner General Maurice Dejean: it is that the French have held successfully this year and can win militarily in two more years; by that time the Vietnamese will have an army good enough so that the French can pull their own troops out, and Viet Nam will have sovereignty almost comparable to that of British Commonwealth nations. At Geneva, this explanation continues, the French only want to find out China's terms for sealing off its border; the French have no intention of capitulating...
...with Roosevelt and Churchill; it recalls France's insistence on a special German occupation zone and its determination to be acknowledged as a world power-as one of the Big Three. Now that Germany is resurgent, that power and pride are endangered. If France were to withdraw from Indo-China, it would in effect contract itself to a nation with only an African empire, and even in Africa the nationalists would draw lessons from IndoChina's example. It is this pride that makes the French soldier a much-admired man out here, but this pride also gives...
...difficulty is that not all Frenchmen in Indo-China share Dejean's optimism about the outcome. Some give the impression of having thought out the relative benefits and harms of every degree of victory or defeat. Here is how many of them talk. Says a handsome officer with a good combat record: "Maybe the French did not do enough in time. But no longer can the French win militarily because French public opinion will not wait long enough for that. It would take until 1955 or 1956. If there is no solution at Geneva, French public opinion will want...
This attitude among men of good will is part of the scene of Indo-China. But it is the attitude of resignation, not of surrender. The soldiers fight on in this unnerving war knowing that the enemy may be all around them, and not sure that their friends are behind them. There remain, too, those Vietnamese nationalists who have chosen dangerously against Communism, and having chosen, deserve defending. So much remains to be done, but so much has already been done. And so much is lost if Indo-China is lost...
...five years of campaigning in Indo-China, Dienbienphu's Commanding Colonel Christian de Castries, 51, has fretted and shouted for more chances to fight. "Be patient, Christian," Commanding General Henri Navarre would advise him. "You're not the only one around here who wants to be a general." Then, last fall, Navarre picked swashbuckling Colonel de Castries over several generals for Dienbienphu, the most important field command in Indo-China. "Here is your chance," said Navarre...