Word: mekong
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Savannakhet is a handsome, quiet, palm-shaded town on the banks of the broad Mekong, on the border between south-central Laos and Siam. Nearby is the big Seno airfield, which can handle B-26 bombers and C-47 transports. Last week, while the B-26s roared out with bombs and napalm, the transports unloaded supplies. Gangs of French Union troops, stripped to the waist, toiled feverishly to build log bunkers and put out mines and barbed wire...
After last fortnight's quick thrust by the Communists east from the Vietnamese coast to the Mekong River, General Henri Navarre, the French commander in Indo-China, guessed that the Reds might turn south and attack Savannakhet and Seno. But last week Communist General Vo Nguyen Giap, who directed the Communist thrust to the Mekong, was biding his time. Meanwhile, various spokesmen pointed out that the military value of the enemy operation was almost nil. Secretary Dulles pooh-poohed it in Washington; so did the Ministry of the Associated States in Paris. The fact indeed was that headlines...
...wait for the French to send reinforcements from the decisive delta against him. At Thakhek, too, he could pose a threat to neutral but strongly anti-Communist Siam. The Siamese were taking no chances: they declared nine provinces an emergency zone and moved troops and artillery to the Mekong, directly opposite the Communist positions...
...always with Communist actions, Ho's offensive had deeper, political purposes. Theory No. 1: Ho is now trying to win the war in a series of offensives, of which the Mekong drive is the first. Theory No. 2: Ho knows he cannot win the war unless he crushes the delta; since he cannot do this, he is therefore trying to create a position of strength in Laos as a prelude to peace negotiations...
...settled militarily." But Ho is demanding that France 1) recognize his government and get out of Indo-China, 2) exclude Bao Dai's Vietnamese nationalists from the peace talks, 3) make the first formal move to sue for peace. All this, coupled with the challenge of the Mekong offensive, adds up to one inescapable conclusion: Ho's price is too high...