The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1954-07-27
FIRING STOPS IN PART

FIRING STOPS in PART
Continued from Page One)
paths and in the rice fields MAY
take their toll for months.
No one could be certain that al
the thousands of Communist-leC
Vietminh guerrillas or all the ir
regulars loyal to the French-sup
ported Wet Nam government haC
received the stop-fighting word cl
would obey it.
Many observers believe it will
be a matter of only two to four
years before communism engulfs
all of Wet Nam and perhaps Laos
and Cambodia as well.
Elections In 1856
The cease-fire agreement pro
vides for internationally supervised
elections in July 1856 to unity Wet
Nam. The French commander ir
the North, Gen. Rene Cogny, said
recently he believed South Wet
Nam could be defended militarily
against the reds, but he only shrug.
ged when asked about the political
prospects. Many French civilian
officials here share Cogny'S doubts
of the future.
With the ceaSe-fire, Cogny turned
his effort to the mammoth task
of moving his thousands of French
and VietnameSe troops from their
Shrunken sector of the northern
delta to the southern holding left
to the Wet Nam government head
ed by ex-Emperor Bao Dai.
The Vietminh were expected to
take control rapidly of the territory
being evacuated.
Withdrawal Begins
The first phases of the military
withdrawal began with the armi.
stice hour. Companies began fail.
ing back to their battalion head
quarters areas in preparation fol
progressive withdrawal to the
port of Haiphong.
By Aug. II Cogny must have
soldiers and civilians being eva
cuated from north, west and south
of Hanoi massed in a 1O-mile zone
around the North Indochina cap
ital, once the official seat of
French power in the Far East.
They must be out of the Hanoi
area within 80 days from today.
The marchers to the sea must be
past Hal Duong, midway on the
route, 20 days after that. The eva
cuees have 800 days from today
to quit their Haiphong beachhead,
destined to be the last French foot
hold in North Wet Nam.
Not all the Vietnamese troops
will be moving south. The French
admitted yesterday that a number
of the native soldiers were pulling
out of their posts and disappear.
ing, presumably returning to their
homes in hopes the Vietminh would
forgive and forget.
Civilian Move Planned
French officials also pushed
plans to move hundreds Of thou.
sands of French and Vietnamese
civilians southwark, as many as
want to get away. They planned TO
begin a combined sea and air lift
tomorrow and predicted it would
be taking 5000 persons daily away
from Hanoi and Haiphong by mid
August.
1t was an hour of triumph for
Ho Chi Mimi and the Reds, an
hour of bitter defeat for the French
and the anti-Communist world.
Under the terms of the Geneva
agreement, Ho and his Vietminh
get control of almost 1000 square
miles of Wet Mans total 127. $50.
In that northern portion live be-
tween II and IL million people.
Each side had paid a heavy
price for the result. Though the
French officially put the total of
military casualties on both sides
at around $4,000, unofficial
sources figured them at close to
100000 dead, wounded or missing
Of these, $4,000 were French In.
ION Vietnamese troops. The Wet.
mimi dead and wounded were es-
timated at 900, 600.
There was no estimate of civilian
casualties.
In money and materials, the war
cost France and the United States
some 10 billion dollrs.
The ceasefire will be supervised
by a commission made up of India,
Poland and Canada, with India as
chairman. An official of the Indian
Foreign Ministry announced in
New Delhi today that his govern.
ment has invited the other two
commission members as well as
France, Wet Nam, Laos, Cambo-
dia and the Vietminh to meet at
an early date" in the Indian cap
ital to discuss arrange M n4e for