The New Revolution

Last March, France recognized the Indo-Chinese "free state" of Viet Nam (the provinces of Tonkin and Annam) within the French Union. But this was not enough. The Vietnamese wanted to incorporate the southern province of Cochin China, because, they said, its people were mainly Annamese. The French agreed to hold an election to ascertain the wishes of the Cochin Chinese. Meanwhile, separatist agitation in Cochin China must stop. The Vietnamese tartly replied that if the separatist case was not properly presented, the election would be unfair. Ho & Vo. Viet Nam is headed by Ho Chih-minh (He Who Enlightens), president of the Indo-Chinese Communist Party, who, with his little goat beard, looks something like a Mongoloid Trotsky (see cut). Even for a "coco" (as French politicians call the Stalinists), Ho has had a colorful history. Onetime photographer, cabin boy and socialist, he took the cure in Moscow, subsequently turned up (1924) at the Soviet Consulate in Boston, and later (1927) as an aide to Michael Borodin, who, during the Chinese Nationalist Revolution, was Russia's Grey Eminence advising the Kuomintang. Ho has a War Minister named Vo Nguyen-giap, who hates the French, because, he says, his wife perished in a French jail.

Ho and Vo have built up the Vietnamese army to about 100,000, outnumbering the French local force of 80,000. Viet Nam got some mortars and French 755 from the Japs, and has been manufacturing its own small arms. The Vietnamese have been trained by cooperative Japanese officers.

Last fortnight Ho and Vo sent conciliatory letters to several French officials, suggesting a renewal of negotiations. But while General Louis Morliere, the commander at Hanoi, was reading his letter, a bomb disabled the power plant. Simultaneously the French hospital was attacked, not only by Vietnamese from outside but by helpful comrades who had smuggled themselves in as patients. Said Ho: "The battle will be long and difficult."

Necessary Effort. The French garrison mopped up most of Hanoi and fought off heavy counterattacks, but found it hard to get out except by air. Other garrisons in Tonkin were besieged. The rebels shelled Haiphong on Tonkin's coast, and Hue on Annam's coast. The French fought with planes and tanks; the rebels answered with mines, boobytraps, snipers and ambushes. The rebels claimed that Germans in the French Foreign Legion were deserting; the French answered that Japs in the Vietnamese army were committing harakiri.

France's grey, portly Minister of Colonies Marius Moutet (close friend of Ho's when they were fellow socialists) left for Indo-China by air. So did hard-bitten General Jacques Leclerc, France's foremost armored forces expert, whom the Vietnamese bitterly hate. The cruiser Duquesne left Algiers with a division of paratroopers on board. At week's end there was talk of weakening rebel resistance and furtive peace feelers.

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