Word: minh
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Last week the only thing that might be called progress by anybody occurred in a small, pink and gold room in one corner of the Palais des Nations. Without a word to the press, three mufti-clad Viet Minh officers and five French Union officers, also in civilian clothes, walked into the room at a prearranged time and sat down at two widely spaced tables. Their purpose was to map the areas controlled by the opposing forces, and settle areas for regroupment. Without benefit of chairman, they began a hesitant discussion of procedure. Though everybody understood French, the Viet Minh...
When the pencils do get to work, the Viet Minh would demand large areas that would be economically independent. Since the French control most of the valleys, this meant the French would have to trade rice-producing riverland for barren mountains. If the French had their way, the map would show the French positions as a series of closely grouped goose eggs...
...came to a stream. Some laughing Vietnamese soldiers in soaking-wet uniforms were displaying their new collection of Communist rifles and grenades. They held out hatfuls of Communist paper money that bore the portrait of Ho Chi Minh. "My men surprised a Viet Minh company, and we killed 15 of them," a Vietnamese battalion commander explained. "They say our morale is bad, but you should have seen it. My men dived into the river to get at the enemy...
Their obvious tactic was to stall until the Viet Minh could mount an offensive against the Red River Delta or drive westward into Laos. Whenever the West showed signs of impatience, they could throw another crumb on the table. If the West finally got disgusted and moved toward intervention, the Communists could always accept the half-loaf that France was all too willing to give them...
Last week the Communists threw a crumb. Viet Minh's Pham Van Dong* suggested an immediate cease-fire and a readjustment of the zones held by the two sides into large "economic areas." The U.S.'s Bedell Smith promptly declared that this would lead to a "dishonorable" peace. But Bidault seized the crumb, carried it off to Paris and a meeting with the Cabinet. He returned with orders to examine the proposal prayerfully and to suggest a modification: troops should stay in their present general positions, thus creating a smallpox pattern instead of large divisions, which would amount...