Marshall Jean De Lattre De Tassigny

[Guest SassinidAzatan]

When most people especially Americans and British think of the Indochina War, they alway picture France losing every battle due to incompetent generals.

 

However those who actually study the war in detail know that the French were actually winning the war under the command of the legendary Marshall Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. He was such skilled as a general he was often called by other American generals and the popular American media during his time in command as the French MacArthur.Here is a brief summary from DienBienPhu.Org(with some additions of my own to the article).

 

 

February 2, 1889, the story of the man who was born on this date at Mouilleron-en Pareds will be intertwined with that of France. At the opening of the war in 1914 he was a lieutenant in the cavalry. He opted for the infantry and chose a regiment from the Vend?e region. He was in combat everywhere. Wounded five times, cited three times. 1927: first in his class at the War College and soon France?s youngest colonel. He established a social service in his regiment. 1939, the youngest general. 1940, he saved the honor of France by defeating the Germans at Rethel. As soon as the armistice was signed he was thinking of revenge. Jean de Lattre is the only one to resist the Germans when they invaded the Southern Zone. He was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He escaped in September, 1943 and on October 17 flew to Algeria where he took command of what was to become the First Army. A brilliant military leader, de Lattre won a number of battles against the German forces in WW2, even defeating Rommel's forces in one battle.He captured the island of Elba and landed in Provence on August 15, 1944. What followed was a legendary scyphate: the liberation of 25 departments, victory at Colmar, crossing of the Rhine and victory as far as the Danube. On the 8th of May, 1945, Jean de Lattre signed at Berlin, in the name of France, the surrender of Germany. In 1949 he was the first commander in chief of the Armies in Western Europe in fact became chief of staff of the NATO land forces in Europe.

 

In 1950, he was named France?s High Commissioner in Indo-china and Commander-in -chief in the Far East. When he was assigned to Indochina, the French forces were pessimistic and felt the war was hopeless. With his charisma and audacious personality, he literally raised French morale and stopped a VietMinh offensive from taking Hanoi that would have succeeded if someone as capable as de Lattre wasn't in command at the time. He won 3 major victories with so little casualties while killing thousands of VietMinh. In the first battle he commanded in Indochina, the Battle of Vinh Yen, de Lattre lost only 56 dead while the Vietnamese lost thousands and thousands of troops dead from this battle!His victories were so damaging and unbelievable that many within the Vietminh were doubting the communist cause and considering deserting!

 

His presence alone made the France feel that victory is attainable and that she was going to win the Indochina War but his only son, Bernard, was killed on May 30, 1951, at the head of his Vietnamese troops in the Battle of of the Day River. Jean de Lattre died of cancer on January 11, 1952. The President of the Republic placed the Marshal?s baton on his casket at the Arc de Triomphe. Having "earned his country?s gratitude" Jean de Lattre is buried in Vend?e next to his son, Bernard. Their epitaph reads simply "Died for France"

 

 

It is unfortunate he died during the war. The Indochina War would have turned out differently had he lived.I truly believe that had General De Lattre lived, lived he would have gone onto achieve something that could (at least to the French people) be spun as a victory or something as close to it as was going to be possible.

 

Sources:

WWW.DienBienPhu.org

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...1696-3,00.html

Edited February 25, 2011 by SassinidAzatan

[Guest ParatrooperLirelou]

Recently after reviewing counterinsurgency in Indochina and Vietnam and the period of Marshall De Lattre's command in Indochina, I have come up with one conclusion:

 

The Indochina War and its successor, the Vietnam War COULD NOT HAVE BEEN WON by COIN!If anything, only military force could have won either wars, not winning hearts and mind.

 

All this really reinforces my belief that the French would have won in Indochina had Marshall de Lattre lived.