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"Stand Up Like Men." In Indo-China, De Lattre has practiced the dynamic defense he preached for Europe. Not only has he transformed a whipped, dispirited French army into a resurgent, confident fighting force, he has also shaken up the leaders and the people of Viet Nam.* From their chief of state, Emperor Bao Dai, down to the peasant masses, the
Vietnamese were pretty skeptical onlookers in the French struggle against Ho Chi Minh; they doubted whether that struggle had much to do with their own freedom. The Communist record in China and Korea shook their doubts, but still it seemed to them that the French cause in Indo-China was, at best, the lesser of two evils; proud Viet Nam nationalism could not forget the arrogant French colonialism of the past. Some of the bitterest criticism of France came from the native intelligentsia who spoke the purest French. Many joined Ho Chi Minh's camp. Many more played the game the French called attentisme—fence-sitting—waiting to see which side would win.
De Lattre boldly attacked this Vietnamese doubt. He won over the distrustful Bao Dai and other leaders with his intense assurances that the old colonialism was dead. He exhorted village elders: "Attentisme, the double game, treason, are at an end . . . You are at war, and in war to compromise is treason . . ." He told the nation's youth: "Stand up like men . . . If you are Communists, join the Viet Minh . . . But if you are patriots, fight for your country, because this war is your war . . ."
Despite De Lattre's political progress, U.S. observers in Indo-China estimate that, in free elections, half the Indo-Chinese would still vote for Ho rather than French-supported Bao.
Victory by '52? In July, impelled by De Lattre's drive, the Viet Nam government decreed total mobilization. All men between 20 and 45 were subject to military draft. The machinery to train a national army was already in operation. De Lattre proposed to use the 60,000 Vietnamese who have been fighting in the French army, as a seasoned nucleus. He set up schools for Viet Nam officers (good Vietnamese officers are rare). By year's end, he hopes the Viet Nam army will be 120,000 strong; how good it will be is another question.
De Lattre runs his war in Indo-China in his usual grand manner. When not at the front, at his headquarters in Hanoi or Saigon, the routine is about the same. He sits at a huge, black-lacquered desk in Saigon's Norodom Palace; a map of the front stands behind him, and a grandfather clock ticks away. He stays up till 3 or 4 a.m. reading field reports, then issues his orders for the next day and turns in. He is up again at 10 or 11, after receiving advisers while still in bed. He is a meticulous dresser (his clothes come from Lanvin in Paris), and he has been known to fire a stenographer with the remark: "You don't know how to dress, Miss, and your hair is dirty." Says one newsman who has seen him at work in Indo-China: "Around him all women must be beautiful, all men handsome and intelligent, all motorcars sleek and fast, all public appearances impressive."