Plenty of Bite?

In Paris last week, cabinet ministers and generals of the Supreme War Council decided to end their bureaucratic haggling and fight Ho Chi Minh's Communists on the basis of full-scale war. France would send to Indo-China: 1) 50,000 more troops, 2) more tanks & guns, 3) warships. An appeal would be made to the U.S. to speed up military-aid airplanes. At the same time, General Marcel Alessandri, 65-year-old infantryman, was relieved as commander of the Tonkin area and replaced by General Pierre Georges Boyer de la Tour du Moulin, 63, who has an intimate knowledge of Indo-China and a reputation for energy and aggressiveness. Say his colleagues: "Il a beaucoup de mordant" (He has plenty of bite).

Recent cabinet meetings on the Indo-China crisis have been one long duel between Minister for the Associated States Jean Letourneau and Defense Minister Jules Moch. Letourneau is responsible for Indo-China, but he has lacked power to prosecute the war. Privately he is reported to have complained: "Whenever I need a uniform button I have to apply to Jules Moch for it. Whenever I need an additional franc I have to beg [Finance Minister] Maurice Petsche for it."

Last week Letourneau was firm. If he was to continue to handle the Indo-Chinese affair he wanted power to 1) dispose the armed forces in Indo-China as needed to fight the war, and 2) dispense the budget voted for Indo-China without consulting Petsche. Finance Minister Petsche gave in, but Moch put up a two-day fight. At week's end Letourneau appeared to have won. A laconic communique said that Letourneau "will be in charge of all the necessary measures" to carry through the government's Indo-China policy.

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