INDOCHINA: THE WORLD'S OLDEST WAR

Duration: Seven years, two months and three weeks to date.

Battleground: An area about the size of Texas forming the Associated States of Viet Nam (pop. 23 million), Laos (1,100,000 ) and Cambodia (3,700.000).

Contenders: Up to 500,000 anti-Communist troops (Frenchmen. Vietnamese, Thais. Laotians, Cambodians. Moroccans, Senegalese and foreign legionnaires from several nations, including thousands of Germans) v. about 360,000 Communist regulars and irregulars.

ROUND ONE, 1945-46 How It Began

In October 1945, the French returned to Indo-China, their "marvelous balcony on the Pacific." The Japanese had surrendered, the British and the Nationalist Chinese were in merely nominal occupation--by order of the Big Three at Potsdam--and would soon be gone. "My mission," proclaimed the new High Commissioner, "is to re-establish French sovereignty," and the French could see no wrong in that. In 80 years before World War II, they had invested $2 billion in Indo-China, 28% of it for such public works as 900 health institutions, 12,600 schools. The French reduced infant mortality by 50%; they built 13,800 miles of improved roads, railroads and canals; their irrigation projects brought 13 million more acres under cultivation. But the French were not wanted back. Frenchmen had made a lot of money out of Indo-China. and their administrators were often disliked. They had been discredited by the easy Japanese conquest. Like most South Asians, the Indo-Chinese simply wanted their independence. French General Jacques Leclerc had to fight to clear nationalist guerrillas from the capital, Saigon (pop. 1,000,000).

Who were these nationalists, who came from the jungles to take over all IndoChina when the Japanese surrendered? They represented all colors of the anti-white spectrum, but their dominant hue was Red. The Communist leader was a tuberculous agitator who learned his trade in Moscow. His name: Ho Chi Minh.

In March 1946, the French made a deal with Ho, who held the north firmly with Japanese arms and Nationalist China's support. They recognized Ho's government as a "free" state within the French Union, and Ho let the French army into his capital, Hanoi (pop. 237,000). The French invited Ho to Fontainebleau as a chief of state to work out details of the agreement. By November, Ho was back in Indo-China, offering to work "in loyal cooperation" with the French. But the French soon learned, as others have painfully since, that Communist "interpretations" always differed from theirs.

On Dec. 19, Ho ordered a surprise attack against the French garrison at Hanoi. His men blew up the power station, raided a hospital. France declared it would not yield to such violence, and the war was on. "The battle will be long and difficult," said Ho. All this got little attention in Washington, 13,000 air miles away. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had referred to French colonialism's "shocking record"; the U.S. now stipulated that U.S. economic aid to France must not be diverted to its colonial war.

ROUND TWO, 1946-49 The Local War

Through 1947 and 1948 the Indo-China war indeed seemed to be little more than another colonial war. In February 1947, the French drove the Communists away from Hanoi. In May, they demanded that Ho lay down his arms. In October, the French moved out from Hanoi towards the 500-mile China frontier. But they could not bring Ho to battle.

Belatedly, the French looked around for more reliable nationalist support. They finally picked on Bao Dai, 40, a fun-loving descendant of the ancient Annamite emperors, who had collaborated with the Japanese, and later with Ho Chi Minh. In 1948, the French asked Bao Dai to return to Indo-China as chief of state for Viet Nam. In March 1949, the French gave Bao Dai's state "independence within the framework of the French Union." In April, Bao Dai landed in Indo-China. "I risk my skin," said he, justifiably, for he got but little support. "COMMUNISM No--COLONIALISM NEVER" was the current slogan, and Bao Dai was widely held to be a French puppet. In time, some 200,000 Vietnamese came to join Bao Dai's army. But many more Vietnamese stayed away; they chose wait-and-seeism instead.

ROUND THREE, 1950-?

The International War

In December 1949, Red China's triumphant Mao Tse-tung reached the IndoChina border, and started ferrying up to 3,000 tons of supplies a month to Comrade Ho. In January 1950, Moscow and Peking recognized Ho Chi Minh's "Democratic Republic." In February 1950, the U.S. recognized Bao Dai's state, and 37 of its allies followed suit. In June 1950, the U.S. sent its first shipment of arms. When the Communists struck in Korea. President Truman sent military advisers to Saigon. The world issue was joined.

In October 1950, the Communists tore up a line of French forts along the China border, killed or captured 2,300 out of 3,000 French Union troops near Caobang, and shoved the remnants back to Hanoi. In disaster, the proud French back home rallied strong. France' sent in its best man, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. "From now'on," dynamic De Lattre told his men, "you will be led."

In January 1951, De Lattre blunted the Communist offensive at Vinnyen, 25 miles short of Hanoi. In April he stopped them at Dongtrieu. and in May, again, at the Day River. The high-riding French coined a new phrase: Esprit De Lattre. In November, the great soldier cried, "From now on, the initiative is mine," and launched France's biggest attack. But the Communists faded back into the jungles, and would not give battle.

In January 1952, De Lattre died of cancer. His successor, General Raoul Salan, was anxious to reduce casualties and so were his Cabinet superiors in Paris. Salan embalmed 140,000 men in 5,000,000 tons of concrete--some 10,000 forts, emplacements and bunkers up and down Indo-China. The Communists could not get at him. but neither could he get at the Communists. In May 1953, General Henri-Eugene Navarre took over. His plan: increase Bao Dai's army from 200,000 to 500,000 so it could watch the quiet areas while he, Navarre, went after the Communists with his striking force. "Victory is a woman," said Navarre. "She does not give herself except to those who know how to take her." But if Navarre knew how, the French Cabinet back home seemed very tired. "How do you think it feels." said one politician, "to fight alone for seven years in a war that is militarily hopeless, politically dead-end and economically ruinous." Bao Dai's special congress did not help French morale by voting, roundly, that it wanted no part of the French Union in its present form. And in July 1953, the U.N. negotiated a truce in Korea. Across France a great cry swelled: Finish la sale guerre by negotiation--like the clever Americans in Korea. That cry is loud now.

U.S. Involvement: The U.S. is now paying 70% of the war's financial cost. Since 1950 it has sent $500 million a year to Indo-China. Among the items: 360 military planes, 390 warships, 21,000 trucks and trailers, 1,400 tanks, halftracks and other combat vehicles, 175,000 rifles and machine guns. In September 1953, President Eisenhower stepped up this aid by $385 million. "We are not voting a giveaway program," the President said. "We are voting for the cheapest way we can prevent the occurrence of something that would be of a most terrible significance to the U.S.A." Secretary of State Dulles warned Red China that full-scale aggression south into Indo-China "could not occur without grave consequences, which might not be confined to Indo-China." In January 1954, the U.S. ordered some 250 Air Force technicians to duty in Indo-China.

The Cost: French expeditionary forces: 34,600 killed and missing (including 16,500 Frenchmen), 34,500 wounded. Indo-Chinese nationalists: 31,900 killed, 24,500 wounded. The Communists: 222,000 killed, 230,000 captured. More than 2,000,000 Indo-Chinese civilians are homeless.

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