Word: indochina
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Backing Out. At the Four-Power Conference in Berlin last January, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles voiced a warning to Britain's Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and France's Foreign Minister Georges Bidault: if IndoChina were included on the agenda of the Geneva Conference, the Communists would inevitably try to improve their bargaining position by an all-out military attack. Eden and Bidault agreed that the Communists might do just that. But they argued that public opinion at home forced them to take the risk; the French thought that they could beat off the Red attack...
...doomed from the start because it was made in a vacuum of unreality. It ran contrary to the basic policy of Britain's major ally, the U.S. (although U.S. policy fluttered indecisively under the impact of Eden's rebuff). Its premise was that the situation in IndoChina was an old-fashioned military stalemate, and that it was possible to negotiate with the Communists, even though, in this case, it was negotiation from weakness. Eden talked of not "prejudicing" the negotiations by hasty action, while the more realistic Communists prejudiced the Geneva talks decisively by resolutely attacking Dienbienphu...
...INDOCHINA...
...Hanoi for two days, Ely inspected the wary defenses and conferred with IndoChina's Commanding General Henri Navarre and the northern-front commander, General Rene Cogny. During these days the generals outlined a new command strategy: 1) Concentrate! Cogny must pull back from isolated forts, must rally for modern battle at selected centers in the plains; 2) Reinforce! Cogny must have at least two fresh divisions, about 30,000 men, to prop up the delta's teetering 70,000-man garrison. Ely was also reportedly ready to recommend Navarre's recall. Said one French officer when...
...days last week, Red General Giap was able to move his infantry, his field artillery and his rocket-launchers down unobstructed roads toward the greatest single objective in all IndoChina: the teeming, rice-rich Red River Delta and its center, Hanoi...