BATTLE OF INDO-CHINA: Tonkin Line

BATTLE OF INDOCHINA

When Communist rebellion erupted in Tonkin’s Red River delta four years ago, the French relied on a web of 900 funny little Beau Geste forts built of bricks, mud and logs. This winter, Chinese Comrade Mao Tse-tung gave Indo-Chinese Comrade Ho Chi Minh bazookas, mortars and artillery, which blasted many of the French forts to rubble. Only the dynamic leadership of newly arrived General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny and hastily shipped U.S. arms hurled Ho back.

Last week Tonkin’s uneasy quiet was broken by the urgent growl of American bulldozers and cement-mixers. De Lattre, in furious haste, was replacing the Beau Geste forts on his northern front with modern concrete bunkers. His main concern: protection of the vital 60-mile road and rail link between Hanoi and the supply port of Haiphong.

North of Haiphong, where French engineers and 5,000 Vietnamese laborers are pouring concrete day & night, seventy 400-ton bunkers have been built since De Lattre gave the order on Dec. 19. Twenty more bunkers are due for completion by March 1, another 100 by March 15.

One day last week, his five-star general’s cap spattered with fresh green bunker paint, De Lattre pep-talked his way down the line, inspecting, encouraging, urging. Said he: “Not all one would wish, gentlemen, but we must do what we can with our time. We have none to waste.”