Psychological Victory

INDOCHINA

The hard-pressed French commanders in Indo-China seemed confident, even buoyant. "We have succeeded grouping sufficient forces to take the' initiative," said a staff officer. "I have now begun the phase of reconquest," boasted a two-star general. "We are going in as liberators, not conquerors," said another general officer just before his operation got under way. And the front, such as it is, in IndoChina 's groping guerrilla war, looked suddenly as bright and hopeful as the generals. The French moved slowly north from Seno in the blistering jungle sun; they recaptured Thakhek (pop. 10,000) and knocked out the Communist corridor across southern Laos; they probed north for some 20 miles, and reported the Mekong Valley more or less clear. Then the French put commandos, paratroops and foreign legionnaires ashore at Tuyhoa (see map), thereby breaking into a rich, rice-bearing region that the Communists had occupied, unchallenged, since 1946.

The French attacks were all but unopposed, yet they were victories, and the Communists admitted it. "For the time being," said the Communist radio, "the enemy has scored . . ."

Napalm & Knives. The French called Tuyhoa the biggest offensive of the war. More than 20,000 French and Vietnamese troops were concentrated from other, more important sectors, and 18,000 Communists were expected to oppose them. Code name for the landing: Operation Atlahte.

As the first slash of dawn cut across the sullen grey sea, U.S.-supplied Grumman fighters tore into the coastline. They laid their napalm on a hill that overlooked the beach objective, worked the area with their machine guns. Then U.S.-supplied landing craft lurched towards shore. There was no resistance. The Communists, in the style of this uncanny war, had known for days where the French were landing, when they were coming, and how; they simply melted into the hills, taking the adult population of Tuyhoa with them. The small town was empty but for one suicide squad--eight men with three grenades apiece--and a handful of child spies.

Sharp fighting did break out, however, when the French combined this landing with an overland attack towards the new beachhead, from the general direction of Saigon. The objective: to winkle the Communists out of the.hills, back down to the French on the coast. The veteran French battalion from Korea moved expertly through the limestone hills, followed by a green, Vietnamese nationalist division, 10,000 strong. They surprised a Communist encampment and inflicted considerable losses. Loyal mountain tribesmen in loincloths attacked a Communist post with their coup coup knives and captured a Communist flag.

Looking Up. What lies behind this new French initiative in the south, when their strength might have been turned against the mounting Communist concentration to the north--at beleaguered Dienbienphu, for example, or the decisive Red River Delta? Answered TIME Correspondent John Mecklin from Tuyhoa: "

The French say, legitimately, that Operation Atlante is their first real offensive, the only time they have attacked on this scale of their own volition, and not as the result of an earlier Communist move. They say that Atlante demonstrates their growing strength. On the other hand, the cynics of Saigon believe that Paris wants a cheap victory, or that the French are trying to grab more territory before negotiating a ceasefire.

"The truth probably lies somewhere between the propagandists and the cynics. In a sense, the French are manufacturing headlines by attacking easy objectives, much as the Communists decided last year to invade Laos instead of attacking the Red River Delta. Yet this is a war where victory, however secondary, is vital psychologically both here and in France. The French command must heed this whether it likes it or not. And above all, let it be noted that the French are kicking the Communists around this year more than ever before. Operation Atlante is a tidy addition to the evidence that things are looking up."

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