Word: minh
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Huks in Luzon. Three days after the Truman decision, the first U.S. planes arrived in Indo-China and were delivered to the French. With renewed assurances of U.S. aid, the anti-Communist forces in Indo-China now had an opportunity of taking the offensive against the Red-led Viet Minh rebels...
Another disappointment has been Bao Dai's effort to enlist capable ministers and lower-echelon administrators. Partly this is because so many Vietnamese are fence-sitters or fear the terror of Viet Minh agents. Partly it is a consequence of French failure, in the past and at present, to train enough natives to take over the government. Bao Dai seems to be counting on U.S. pressure to loosen up the French in this respect...
Field of Decision. Though Ho Chi Minh's forces (70,000 regulars with equipment as good as the French, plus 70,000 well-trained guerrillas and an unknown number of poorly equipped village militia) have been pushed back from such centers as Hanoi in northern Viet Nam, French officers report that "the situation steadily grows no better...
French Commander in Chief Marcel Carpentier aims to sweep Ho Chi Minh's men from the lower, heavily populated Mekong and Red River valleys. These are the best rice-producing areas and consequently the best source of rebel supply. By airlift and truck convoy, the French maintain a line of forts at the Chinese border, where aid could flow...
...forest and swamp terrain well suited for guerrilla tactics. By day the French control about half the countryside; and if they want to, they can penetrate where they will, though ambush takes its toll. At night, however, the French draw into their forts and garrisoned centers. Then Ho Chi Minh's men steal forth, terrorize peasants, collect taxes (two-fifths of a farmer's rice harvest), and run the countryside almost everywhere...