Evening star., 1950-05-09
France, the West and Indo-Chino

Not the least OF the major problems being
tackled at current meetings of the Anglo-French-
American Foreign Ministers is the one having to
do with Frances exceedingly difficult and costly
effort to save Indo-China from being dragged
behind the Iron Curtain by Moscow-trained
Ho Chi Mini.
Ever since December, 1946, Ho and his for
midable guerrilla forces have been waging q
bitter and bloody war to win control Of the
whole of Indo- China. Not long ago. to give
added impetus to his drive, the Soviet Union-in
a move which France has described as IAN act
of very great gravity full diplomatic
recognition to his puppet Red republic" And
reports indicate that he is receiving steadily
increasing military aid from the neighboring
Chinese Communists that is certain to
make the French task more difficult than ever.
When Ho first launched his Kremlin- serving
war, Indo China was still colonial possession
of France. Since then, however, after much
hesitation and reluctance the French have Gre
ated native regime headed by former Emperor
Bao Dali Through this regime-which has
been criticized for not being Independent
enough-they have managed to maintain con-
troll of something like 40 per cent of the coun-
try's territory, an area embracing the bulk OF
the Indo- Chinese population. Their holding-on
effort, however, has cost them q great deal of
blood and treasure and now that the Russian
and Chinese Communists are behind Ho, 1t is
likely to cost them much more.
This cost-which has not been sufficiently
appreciated by non-French Westerners has
mounted to point where the Bidault govern
ment is spending about half its total defense
budget on its operations in Indo-C China The
money is being poured out to keep some 10000
troops in the feld-a big expeditionary force
made up of Frances best soldiers. Casualties
among them have been heavy, the annual losses
in the officers group alone equalling the number
of graduates being turned out each year by the
French national military academy
Because its commitment in Indo-China is
thus an extremely expensive one, France faces q
dilemma of sorts in simultaneously trying to
carry out its Western obligations as key member
of the North Atlantic Treaty. Hence, the French
are taking the position that since they cannot
be strong in both places at the same time, they
will have to have special aid in their struggle
against Ho if they are to play the defensive role
they are supposed to play in Europe. In other
words, they argue that unless they receive help
in the hot war in Asia, the drain on them there
will undermine their effectiveness in the cold
war in the West.
This is a sound argument, and Secretary
AcheSon, after conferring with Foreign Minister
Schuman in Paris, has responded to it by declar-
ing that American aid will be forthcoming with
out delay Under the special $75y000,000 fund
available for use in the general Far Eastern area,
a sum of $15,OO0,oO0 has been earmarked for
some time past for arms shipments to Indo-
China. But there is good reason to doubt that
this will be enough Ho and his guerrillas are
deeply entrenched and well equipped, and if
they are to be defeated, the United States,
together with Britain probably will have to help
France m larger scale than that already
provided for.
strategically, of course, 1ndo-China is of
vital Importance to the effort to hold back the
Red tide in Southeast Asia Should Ho win
control of it, then the way would be open for
further Communist advances to convert countries
like Thailand, Malaga, Burma and eventually
even India into satellites of the Kremlin. Quite
obviously, therefore, the French should be sup
ported to the greatest feasible extent