Battle for Headlines

INDOCHINA

French Defense Minister Rene Pleven flew to Indo-China this week to see for himself how the war was going. He came upon a strange battleground. The French held the towns but could not sweep the jungles; the Communists held the jungles but could not storm the towns. Since neither the French nor the Communists seemed able to win the military decision with their present strength, both sides kept their armies busy looking for, or fending off, headline victories that might somehow influence the political decision in Paris, Washington or Berlin.

Last month Commanding General Henri Navarre put down several thousand men at the undefended Communist port of Tuyhoa. Among his principal objectives: to recover the headline initiative, revalorize the folks back home and convince the U.S. that his army was worth more aid. Two weeks ago, the Communists moved one division in three lightly equipped columns toward the royal Laotian capital of Luang Prabang (pop. 15,000). Presumably they could not hold the capital long with their extended supply lines. Their objective: to win headlines, increase the war weariness of the French Cabinet and public, and synchronize with the Big Four talks.

The French did not want to lose a capital, however unimportant. They flew in reinforcements, swept the outskirt junglebrush to clear their field of fire, and borrowed the royal elephants to haul wood for their entrenchments. The French believed they could hold Luang Prabang, but the Communists had already loped 100 miles toward the city from their start line--a headline that went round the world. Men died in these skirmishes, but the fact remains that Indo-China is not primarily a real-estate war. So far, Navarre has denied the Communists what they most want--the rice-rich delta around Hanoi.

The Communists won another headline far to the south, when green Vietnamese nationalist troops surrendered 40 roadblocks without a fight. "We are stronger than you are," the Communists told them. "We are going to attack. We will let you withdraw if you abandon your posts." The Vietnamese withdrew but did not join the Communists. Like many other Indo-Chinese, they chose attentisme, or wait-and-seeism. They would join, the side that won in the end.

The battle for the headlines was at once artificial and very real. The French were losing it at a time when both sides seek to gain bargaining power as a prelude to possible peace talks. The French can lose the war either by defeat (which has not happened) or by default (which may happen). To win the war requires stronger efforts (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS) and a sustained will.

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