(2 of 2)
Cogny knew precisely what he should do. "Maginot Lines and blockhouses are no use for victory" is his prime military tenet, and he reorganized 25% of his command into compact, hard-hitting mobile columns. In April 1952 he won the first sizeable victory of his 25-year career and knocked out 2,000 Communist regulars. Cogny next developed three basic theories for Indo-China: 1) clean the delta of Red guerrillas and achieve a firm rear area, 2) grant the Vietnamese more independence and win more popular support, 3) attack outward from the pacified delta towards the China border. Things seemed to be going well and his men started calling Cogny "General Speed."
Anguish at the Phone. But last year Cogny suffered his usual bad luck: Commanding General Navarre and/or the French government scattered Cogny's mobile reserves across Indo-China to make or break half a dozen headline offensives. In November 1953, against Cogny's most urgent warning, they ordered Dienbienphu held. Last month they would not even let him strike a blow to relieve Dienbienphu, for fear of disturbing the Geneva Conference. So Cogny, the big, 6-ft. Norman who dreamed of glory, had to wait in anguish at the GHQ end of the phone, while the last words came choking from the fortress.
After Dienbienphu the French chiefs of staff agreed that Cogny had been right, and they ordered him "important" reinforcements. But Cogny would now have to fight his delta battle on the unaccustomed defensive, with less than 50% of his accustomed strength and mobility, in a teetering theater already earmarked for surrender by some top Western diplomats at Geneva. Yet handsome, audacious René Cogny was still ready to tilt against the onrushing Communists and his stars. "We must be enterprising and aggressive," he told the Foreign Legionnaires in the delta last week. "We must be vigorous and young in action. We are going to win the Battle of the Delta." Then, reflecting perhaps how strangely his words rang through the Indo-China undergrowth, Cogny added: "Let someone else worry about the grand strategy. Let's keep up the fight. There's nothing wrong with us when we fight."