Question & Answer

INDOCHINA

On two hours' notice, newsmen were called to Saigon's colonnaded Palais Norodom, the seat of French government in Indo-China. There one day last week, beneath whirring fans and a lacquer painting of junks, they were confronted by the two top Frenchmen in Asia: Commanding General Henri Eugene Navarre, and Maurice Dejean, the Commissioner General.

The meeting was convened, the Frenchmen said, so they could deny press reports that there was friction between them. That settled, General Navarre lost no time getting into a defense of his 1953-54 campaign. "We have not been surprised," said Navarre. "The situation is just what we expected ..." The Communists had not taken their current major objectives: the rice-rich Red River Delta around Hanoi, and the encircled French strongpoint at Dienbienphu. And their heavily headlined offensive against Luang Prabang, the royal Laotian capital, "may be considered blocked."

Would Navarre care to predict victory next year? The answer: No, but in 1955 "I am confident we shall be able to drive the enemy out of all the zones that are vital for the maintenance of his battle corps" (presumably meaning that the Communists will still be a guerrilla problem, as in Malaya, but confinable).

Was Red China increasing its supplies to the enemy? Answer: "Considerably."

What about U.S. help in training the Vietnamese national army? Answer: "It is absolutely unthinkable ... I could not but oppose . . ."

The questioners switched to the Commissioner General, who privately believes that the war must be won before negotiations. Dejean, apparently conscious of his duty towards his jittery superiors in Paris (see above), was radiant at the prospect of the Far East conference in Geneva. "I am convinced that if we can get China to cease giving aid to the Communists," beamed he, "a big step will have been taken on the road to peace." He did not suggest 1) how this might be done; 2) why Red China should comply--and no one was impolite enough to press him.

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