Monsoon Mystery

BATTLE OF INDOCHINA

The summer monsoon broke over leafy Luang Prabang in a deluge. Huddled in steaming rubber capes, the French Union troops waited for the expected Viet Minh Communist attack. It did not come. The valleys beneath the great frowning mountains ran rivers of mud, but no Communist soldier waded them, nor was there one to be seen anywhere. Laotians, worshiping in the temple of the celebrated Golden Buddha, had predicted that the Communists would never capture the sacred city of Luang Prabang. Had their predictions proved true?

The French sought more material explanations for the sudden vanishing of the Viet Minh. The reason might be military: in their rapid, 150-mile run through Laos, the Communists may have overtaxed their strength and their supply system, and were thus in no shape to tackle fresh French reinforcements flown in from Hanoi. Another possible explanation was political: that Moscow and Peking had misjudged world interest in the long-planned invasion of Laos. The world's outcry was jeopardizing the Reds' peace offensive, therefore they belatedly called off the attack and withdrew until a more propitious time.

New Leader. Whatever the explanation for the withdrawal, one thing was certain: it was no victory for the French. For a loss of a few hundred men, the Communists had gained control of a piece of land almost the size of New England. In Paris, criticism of the government's conduct of the war was harsh. Leading French administrators, e.g., Saar Ambassador Gilbert Grandyal, were shying away from service in the crumbling Associated States. But last week Premier Rene Mayer nonetheless found a new and promising commander in chief for Indo-China: General Henri Eugene Navarre, oldtime cavalryman and armored-force officer.

While lacking the dash of the late Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny, General Navarre has an advantage over old-line French officers: he was a Resistance fighter and has himself practiced underground tactics.

Thin, elegant Henri Navarre, 55, was born at Villefranche-de-Rouergue in southwestern France and educated at SaintCyr, won a cavalry commission on the battlefield in World War I. A specialist in intelligence work, he was chief of the

German section of the French army's G-2 at the outbreak of World War II. After the fall of France, he joined General Weygand in North Africa, but soon returned to France and went underground. By 1943 he was running the intelligence service of the "French Army Resistance Organization." When the U.S. forces landed in southern France, Navarre joined them, fought in the liberation of France, later led a regiment of mounted Spahis in De Lattre's Rhin et Danube army. He was seven times cited for bravery, wears the Croix de Guerre and Resistance Medal with rosette. Since then he has commanded a French armored division and been deputy commander in chief of the French occupation forces in Germany. His most recent job: chief of staff to Marshal Juin at NATO headquarters. Navarre's younger brother, Jacques, recently made a lieutenant colonel, is a battalion commander in Indo-China.

Citadels & Quagmires. The De Lattre strategy in Indo-China was to hold the main food areas--the Mekong and Red River deltas--and to establish citadels through the rest of the country which could be quickly reinforced by air. There are signs that this strategy is failing. If General Navarre is able to establish a more fluid system of warfare, the Communists may not be left to choose their own time for attacking such vital points as Luang Prabang, may even be pursued into the monsoon quagmires.

At week's end Paris announced that the Indo-China piaster would be devalued from 17 francs to the piaster down to a more realistic 10 francs, to put an end to the black-marketing which is making many French rich in Indo-China at a cost of $250 million yearly to France. In IndoChina the devaluation set off cries of anguish, panic buying and hoarding.

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