"Everything for the Army"

BATTLE OF INDOCHINA

Among the French B-26 pilots who bombed German supply lines from North Africa in World War II was a tall slender officer with an Oriental cast to his handsome features. Born in Indo-China, where his father was a high official, and educated in France, Captain Nguyen Van Hinh served France so well that by 1947 he was in command of an air group. In 1949, when the war against the Viet Minh Communists began to get hot, Nguyen Van Hinh's group was sent to Indo-China. Nguyen Van Hinh and his pilots took old Junkers 52 bombers on raids across the Tonkin Mountains. Soon Nguyen Van Hinh was a bigwig in the French Far East Air Command, a leading member of Chief of State Bao Dai's military cabinet, and something of a national hero. Last week 36-year-old Nguyen Van Hinh, now a brigadier general, was preparing to take command of Viet Nam's first native army.

The job is no sinecure. Nguyen Van Hinh's 120,000-man army, half regulars and half draftees, has only 560 lieutenants and sublieutenants, 76 majors and captains, four colonels. While Viet Nam officer schools, manned by nearly 4,000 French military instructors, are turning out more than 100 officer candidates every month, the army is still short on training, combat experience and equipment. There are enough U.S. Garands to equip two divisions; otherwise, except for some U.S. artillery and transport, the weapons are French and outdated. Nguyen Van Hinh's biggest problem: to get money to pay his soldiers and buy new equipment. In this department he has the solid support of his father, Nguyen Van Tarn, now Minister of Interior, sometimes called IndoChina's strong man, and of the Viet Nam government, which has pledged 40% of its budget to build an independent Viet Nam defense force. Says President Tran Van Huu: "Everything for the army now."

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