Two for One

BATTLE OF INDOCHINA

When Marshal Jean de Lattre de Tassigny died last January, it seemed that there was nobody to take his place. Who among French generals cut a figure half so dashing as the Lanvin-tailored De Lattre? Without De Lattre's dynamic leadership, what was going to happen to Indo-China? France's fears deepened when, in February, the Viet Minh Communists forced the French out of Hoa Binh, which Marshal de Lattre had so boldly taken. Since that low point, the military situation has steadied under the firm hand of De Lattre's sad-eyed friend and deputy, General Raoul Salan. Last week the French cabinet confirmed Salan as commander in chief of French forces in Indo-China.

There had been another side to De Lattre: he had speeded Viet Nam independence; he had given the Vietnamese confidence by showing them that the West (in the concrete form of U.S. weapons) was backing them against the Communists. The best France could do to make up for the loss of De Lattre's political talents was to increase the powers and scope of the cabinet minister responsible for Indo-China, and to shift that minister from Paris to Saigon.

"Fierce Advocate." In Minister Jean Letourneau, France has a well-oiled bearing, guaranteed not to run hot under pressure. Round, balding head, plump, round face exuding a brown cheroot beneath a small mustache, round eyes behind round tortoise-shell spectacles, 44-year-old Letourneau looks like the banker and businessman he was trained to be. He looks soft, but in fact is as smooth and hard as milled steel. During the German occupation he helped run clandestine resistance newspapers.

France's Communist L'Humanite last week called Letourneau "the fierce advocate of a fight to a finish in Viet Nam." As such, he is the best guarantee of the Pinay government's intention to yield neither to the Communists nor to parliamentary critics who want France to cut her $3,000,000-a-day losses in Indo-China and concentrate her military effort on defending the homeland and French North Africa.

Gains. In his command position last week, General Salan lashed into two Viet Minh Communist divisions which had deeply infiltrated the 365-mile rice-rich perimeter he holds around Hanoi. His staff claimed 7,324 losses among the enemy's regulars and the capture of 4,428 suspected guerrillas since March 1. In the political field there was a new Vietnamese united coalition government--something that De Lattre had laid plans for--pledged to raise a 120,000-man army against the Communists. In return, Viet Nam hopes to achieve a truly independent place within the French Union, similar to that enjoyed by dominions within the British Commonwealth.

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