Word: indo
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FRANCE, where EDC was born, is now trying hard to disown it. The French cabinet demands an impossible price for ratification of EDC: that the Franco-German dispute over the Saar be settled in favor of France; that the U.S. bail France out of Indo-China; that Britain throw in with EDC as a counterbalance to the Germans; that "the integrity of the French Army" (but not of anybody else's) be written into EDC by means of nine protocols. A German diplomat, reflecting his booming country's self-confidence, scoffed: "Father Pleven expected a girl. It turned...
...French have a good way to describe a tired army. They say it needs revalorizing. Since his arrival in Indo-China three months ago, General Henri Navarre has been revalorizing the French Union army by converting it from static defense to fluid offense. For his showpiece of fluidity, Navarre chose to attack a 15-mile string of Communist-infested Annamese villages, called by the laconic Legionnaires "The Street Without Joy," because of their long and bitter record of resistance...
...High winds and storm clouds scattered his parachutists, rain delayed his infantry. By nightfall the villages were surrounded. But under cover of darkness the Viet Minh had filtered through the French lines, or disappeared into swampland hideouts. The battle pointed up the basic difficulty of valorizing the war in Indo-China: the Viet Minh are everywhere and nowhere; they wage war by sabotage, terror, propaganda and guerrilla action...
...first time since the death of Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny early in 1952, the French carried the Indo-China war to the enemy...
...fine opportunity, and the French made the most of it. Red General Vo Nguyen Giap had become overconfident, counting on French reluctance to leave the safety of their forts. He reckoned without France's offensive-minded new commander in Indo-China, General Henri Eugene Navarre. The attack at Langson cost the Reds two months' supplies, and gave notice that from now on Giap would have to think of his supply line before rampaging around the countryside...