Street Without Joy

INDOCHINA

The French have a good way to describe a tired army. They say it needs revalorizing. Since his arrival in Indo-China three months ago, General Henri Navarre has been revalorizing the French Union army by converting it from static defense to fluid offense. For his showpiece of fluidity, Navarre chose to attack a 15-mile string of Communist-infested Annamese villages, called by the laconic Legionnaires "The Street Without Joy," because of their long and bitter record of resistance.

Navarre attacked by sea, land and air in the face of immense physical odds. High winds and storm clouds scattered his parachutists, rain delayed his infantry. By nightfall the villages were surrounded. But under cover of darkness the Viet Minh had filtered through the French lines, or disappeared into swampland hideouts. The battle pointed up the basic difficulty of valorizing the war in Indo-China: the Viet Minh are everywhere and nowhere; they wage war by sabotage, terror, propaganda and guerrilla action.

The truce in Korea increased the French government's hankering for a settlement in Indo-China. Said Premier Laniel last week: "France is now the only great nation at war, pursuing ... a battle in contempt of her own interests." In Paris, three alternatives are being examined by the Laniel cabinet: 1) continuing with the Navarre plan of fluid attack in the hope of finally wiping out the main resistance; 2) building up the native Vietnamese army to a point where it can take over the country's defense; 3) opening direct negotiations with Viet Minh Leader Ho Chi Minh, if he can be found.

The first alternative is acceptable only if the U.S. puts up the money, and indications are that the U.S. may not. The second alternative, favored by Chief of State Bao Dai, now in Paris, will require time and a generous assignment of French officers to train the Vietnamese soldiers--something the French, whose officer cadres are already much depleted, are reluctant to do. The third alternative is vigorously opposed by non-Communist Indo-Chinese, who fear that Red flags will be flying in Hanoi and Saigon within hours of a political armistice. The non-Communist Indo-Chinese have their own plan: complete independence within the French Union. Without that, truce talk for them is premature and cowardly.

It was not Indo-China, but Paris, that needed revalorizing.

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