Embers of War (123 page)

30
Chace,
Acheson
, 267.

31
Herring,
America’s Longest War
, 25; William J. Duiker,
U.S. Containment Policy and the Conflict in Indochina
(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994), 96–97.

32
Washington Post
, April 4, 1950.

33
Seymour Topping,
Journey Between Two Chinas
(New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 111.

34
“The Cold War’s Center,”
New Republic
, April 24, 1950.

35
Quoted in Christopher E. Goscha, “The ‘Two Vietnams’ and the Advent of the Cold War: 1950 and Asian Shifts in the International System,” in Goscha and Ostermann,
Connecting Histories
, 214–15.

36
Chen Jian,
Mao’s China
, 124–25.

37
Saigon to FO, April 8, 1950, FO 371/83648, TNA.

38
Norman Sherry,
The Life of Graham Greene
, vol. 2:
1939–1955
(New York: Viking, 1995), 361.

39
Alexander Werth,
France 1940–1955
(New York: Henry Holt, 1956), 455; Martin Windrow,
The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam
(Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, 2004), 107.

40
Yves Gras,
Histoire de la guerre d’Indochine
(Paris: Plon, 1979), 275–79.

CHAPTER 10:
Attack on the RC4

  
1
Edgar O’Ballance,
The Indo-China War, 1945–1954
(London: Faber & Faber, 1964), 110; Lucien Bodard,
The Quicksand War: Prelude to Vietnam
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1967), 253; and Dang Van Viet,
Highway 4: The Border Campaign (1947–1950)
(Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1990), 120–23. For a firsthand French account of the border campaign of 1950, see Charles-Henry de Pirey,
La Route Morte: RC4–1950
(Paris: Indo Éditions, 2002). See also Serge Desbois,
Le rendez-vous manqué: Des colonnes Charton et Le Page, Indochine–RC4–1950
(Paris: Indo Éditions, 2003); and Erwan Bergot,
La bataille de Dong Khê: La tragédie de la R.C. 4: Indochine 1950
(Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1987).

  
2
Ronald H. Spector,
Advice and Support: The Early Years of the U.S. Army in Vietnam, 1941–1960
(Washington, D.C.: Center for Military History, 1985), 124; George W. Allen,
None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam
(Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001), 37–38.

  
3
O’Ballance,
Indo-China War
, 113.

  
4
Bodard,
Quicksand War
, 261–62.

  
5
Chen Jian,
Mao’s China and the Cold War
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 125.

  
6
Chen Jian,
Mao’s China
, 126; Bodard,
Quicksand War
, 245. See also Greg Lockhart,
Nation in Arms: The Origins of the People’s Army of Vietnam
(Wellington, N.Z.: Allen & Unwin, 1989), 225–26.

  
7
Yves Gras,
Histoire de la guerre d’Indochine
(Paris: Plon, 1979), 317; Lockhart,
Nation in Arms
, 229.

  
8
Douglas Porch,
The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force
(New York: HarperCollins, 1991), 521; O’Ballance,
Indo-China War
, 113.

  
9
Joint Intelligence Committee Report, March 15, 1950, CAB 158/9; November 1, 1950, CAB 158/11, TNA.

10
Phillip B. Davidson,
Vietnam at War: The History, 1946–1975
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 71–72. Lucien Bodard makes much of these French successes in the first half of 1950. See his
Quicksand War
, 188–220. Nguyen Binh, criticized by some DRV officials for his tactics, was recalled to the north for consultations and training. While crossing northeastern Cambodia in 1951, he was killed by French forces under Jacques Hogard. His remains were returned to Vietnam in 2000.

11
Vo Nguyen Giap,
Memoirs of War: The Road to Dien Bien Phu
(Hanoi: Gioi, 2004), 38–56; Porch,
French Foreign Legion
, 521.

12
Lucien Bodard,
La guerre d’Indochine
(Paris: Gallimard, 1965), 3:96–377; Gras,
Histoire de la guerre d’Indochine
, 323–54; Le Page quoted in Bodard,
Quicksand War
, 278.

13
Porch,
French Foreign Legion
, 523; Cecil B. Currey,
Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam’s Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap
(Dulles, Va.: Potomac, 2005), 169.

14
Quoted in Bodard,
Quicksand War
, 282.

15
Legionnaire quoted in Porch,
French Foreign Legion
, 523; Marc Dem,
Mourir pour Cao Bang
(Paris: Éditions Albin Michel, 1978).

16
Giap,
Road to Dien Bien Phu
, 82–84.

17
Desbois,
Le rendez-vous manqué
, 110–15; Porch,
French Foreign Legion
, 524–25.

18
Dang Van Viet,
Highway 4
, 151.

19
See the documents in FO 959/45, TNA; Bodard,
Quicksand War
, 291–92. For the recollections of the two French principals, see Pierre Charton,
RC 4, Indochine 1950: La tragédie de l’évacuation de Cao Bang
(Paris: S.P.L., 1975); and Marcel Le Page,
Cao-Bang: La tragique épopée de la colunne Le Page
(Paris: Nouvelles éditions latines, 1981).

20
Bernard Fall,
Street Without Joy: Indochina at War 1946–1954
(Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1961), 33; Giap,
Road to Dien Bien Phu
, 108.

21
Hanoi to FO, November 15, 1950, FO 959/48, TNA.

22
Christopher E. Goscha, “Soigner la guerre moi,” unpublished paper in the author’s possession. I’m grateful to Chris Goscha for allowing me to cite this material.

23
O’Ballance,
Indo-China War
, 116.

24
See, e.g., Giap,
Road to Dien Bien Phu
, 53, 59. Chen Geng, for his part, in his diary referred to Giap as “slippery and not very upright and honest” and expressed surprise that the Vietnamese were not always accepting of his critiques. Qiang Zhai,
China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 64.

25
“Report on Thai Binh operation,” November 24, 1950, FO 959/48, TNA.

26
Vo Nguyen Giap acknowledges the food problem in his valuable
Road to Dien Bien Phu
, 4.

27
Martin Thomas, “French Imperial Reconstruction and the Development of the Indochina War,” in Mark Atwood Lawrence and Fredrik Logevall, eds.,
The First Vietnam War: Colonial Conflict and Cold War Crisis
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007), 147–51.

28
Pierre Mendès France,
Oeuvres complètes
, vol. 2:
Une politique de l’économie 1943–1954
(Paris: Gallimard, 1985), 297–307; Eric Roussel,
Pierre Mendès France
(Paris: Gallimard, 2007), 196–97. On the broader economic impact of the war in France in this period, see Hugues Tertrais,
La piastre et le fusil: Le coût de la guerre d’Indochine 1945–1954
(Paris: Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France, 2002), 90–102.

29
Spector,
Advice and Support
, 131–34.

30
Not all French analysts were sanguine, however. Outgoing high commissioner Léon Pignon anticipated much later Franco-American friction by accusing U.S. officials of playing a “double game”: To the French they lamented the lack of Vietnamese unity, while to Vietnamese they said the French were to blame. Kathryn C. Statler,
Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007), 32.

31
Ibid., 25–28; Spector,
Advice and Support
, 123.

32
Spector,
Advice and Support
, 127; “Monthly Report,” November 28, 1950, FO 959/57, TNA.

33
Lloyd C. Gardner,
Approaching Vietnam: From World War II Through Dienbienphu
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1989), 104.

34
Ngo Van Chieu,
Journal d’un combattant Viêt-minh
(Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1955), 128–29, 140–41, quoted in Lockhart,
Nation in Arms
, 237.

CHAPTER 11
:
King Jean

  
1
Quoted in Guy Salisbury-Jones,
So Full a Glory: A Biography of Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1954), 247.

  
2
Ibid.

  
3
Anthony Clayton,
Three Marshals of France: Leadership After Trauma
(London: Brassey’s, 1992), 149. Several of Bernard’s letters home are printed in a posthumously published collection of documents, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny,
La ferveur et le sacrifice: Indochine 1951
, ed. Jean-Luc Barré (Paris: Plon, 1988), 47–50.

  
4
Lucien Bodard,
The Quicksand War: Prelude to Vietnam
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1967), 351.

  
5
Time
, September 24, 1951; Clayton,
Three Marshals of France
, 22–34.

  
6
NYT
, August 26, 1951;
Time
, September 24, 1951.

  
7
Quoted in Salisbury-Jones,
So Full a Glory
, 246. Salisbury-Jones is highly laudatory, as is Pierre Darcourt,
De Lattre au Viet-Nam: Une année de victoires
(Paris: La table ronde, 1965). For de Lattre’s own posthumously published views, see de Lattre,
La ferveur et le sacrifice
.

  
8
Robert Shaplen,
The Lost Revolution: The U.S. in Vietnam, 1946–1966
(New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 80;
NYT
, August 26, 1951.

  
9
Gullion quoted in Norman Sherry,
The Life of Graham Greene
, vol. 2:
1939–1955
(New York: Viking, 1995), 361. See also Bernard Destremau,
Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
(Paris: Flammarion, 1999), 504–8.

10
Time
, September 24, 1951; Salisbury-Jones,
So Full a Glory
, 248.

11
Time
, September 24, 1951.

12
Rapport a Jean Letourneau, ministre des états associés, January 1, 1951, printed in de Lattre,
La ferveur et le sacrifice
, 91–96; Clayton,
Three Marshals of France
, 150–51.

13
See Hugues Tertrais,
La piastre et le fusil: Le coût de la guerre d’Indochine 1945–1954
(Paris: Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France, 2002), 103–8.

14
Clayton,
Three Marshals of France
, 151.

15
The name comes from naphthenic and palmitic acids, two chemicals used in the manufacturing process. When a napalm canister hits a target, it explodes, sucking up the available oxygen and engulfing the target area in flames and thick smoke. De Lattre first used napalm in a skirmish near Tien Yen on December 22. The important effects of de Lattre’s wide use of napalm are emphasized by Luu Doan Huynh, interview by author, Hanoi, January 2003.

16
Quoted in
Le Monde
, December 5, 1952.

17
William J. Duiker,
The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam
(Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1996), 154–55.

18
Bernard Fall,
Street Without Joy: Indochina at War 1946–1954
(Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1961), 37–38.

19
Ngo Van Chieu,
Journal d’un combattant Viet-Minh
(Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1954), as quoted in Bernard Fall,
Street Without Joy
, 39. See also lettre au Colonel Vanuxem, January 16, 1951, printed in de Lattre,
La ferveur et le sacrifice
, 107–8.

20
NYT
, January 24,1951; Saigon to FO, January 23, 1951, FO 959/107, TNA.

21
Fall,
Street Without Joy
, 41–43; Ronald H. Spector,
Advice and Support: The Early Years of the U.S. Army in Vietnam, 1941–1960
(Washington, D.C.: Center for Military History, 1985), 137; Darcourt,
De Lattre au Viet-nam
, 88–103. For Giap’s view of these events, see his
Memoirs of War: The Road to Dien Bien Phu
(Hanoi: Gioi, 2004), 170–97.