Word: laniel
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Cautiously, Premier Joseph Laniel and Foreign Minister Georges Bidault tried to extract a policy out of the paradox of a war France could find no way to win yet dared not lose. The Geneva Conference was not far off. The National Assembly demanded to know how the government proposed to stand when the diplomats at Geneva discussed Indo-China...
...Such Conditions. Two days later Premier Laniel, trim and neat in a blue suit, with a white handkerchief peeping from his breast pocket, lumbered into the Assembly to take on the debaters. Why did the government not accept Indian Prime Minister Nehru's proposal for a ceasefire, to be followed by negotiations? the Socialists demanded. Was it because the Americans said not to? The U.S., added Socialist Daniel Mayer, is, after all, paying most of the bill...
From his seat, Laniel boomed: "No! No such political conditions have been imposed." He rose and went to the tribune. "We have studied this question with all attention possible," said he. "We consider as inacceptable all plans which, under the color of a 'cease-fire,' would begin by putting in peril our soldiers and our friends without . . . guarantees of ... a durable peace...
...Then Laniel ticked off France's conditions for an Indo-Chinese ceasefire: 1) evacuation of all Reds from the states of Laos and Cambodia; 2) creation of an agreed no man's land around the perimeter of the vital Red River Delta; 3) withdrawal of scattered Communist units in central Viet Nam into predesignated "standing zones" from which they could not move; 4) disarming or evacuation of Viet Minh rebels in south Viet Nam; 5) guarantees against "reinforcements"-presumably war supplies from Communist China...
...Fears & Hesitations. In France, the opponents of EDC and the damners-with-faint-praise are motivated by a weird variety of fears and hesitations. Some despise and distrust Germany, and that overrides everything else; some (including Premier Joseph Laniel, who has made a career these past seven months of political survival) think of EDC as a dose of unpleasant medicine, to be stalled off as long as possible; some think that French sovereignty and pride outweigh considerations of security; some want to toy with the alternatives, or get more concessions-notably, German concessions on the Saar and U.S.-British guarantees...