Elephant vs. Tiger/Flea

The War against the French in Indochina 1946-1954

Phases of the War

• Phase 1 – Already begun against Japanese in 1944 – Propaganda teams touring villages

• Phase 2 – (1949)Assassination of French officials, attacks against isolated military outposts, ambushing of military convoys – French abandoned outposts – Vietminh in control of the countryside

• Phase 3 – (1953-1954) – Vietminh able to attack large French army units – able to seek decisive battle at Dien Bien Phu to end the war – French agree to withdraw.

What is Guerrilla Warfare ?

“The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy halts, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats we pursue.”

Mao Zedong, Jan.1930

"The flea bites, hops, and bites again, nimbly avoiding the foot that would crush him. He does not seek to kill his enemy at a blow, but to bleed him and feed on him, to plague and bedevil him... All this requires time. Still more time is required to breed more fleas... the military enemy suffers the dog's disadvantages: too much to defend; too small and agile an enemy to come to grips with.“

Robert Taber

“The peasants are the sea; we are the fish. The sea is our habitat.”

"without the constant and active support of the peasants... failure is inevitable."

Mao Zedong

• Guerrilla is Spanish for ‘Little War’• Vietminh took main ideas from Mao Zedong • Main idea: To Gain support from peasants living in rural areas

– did this by educating them to see that landlords were oppressing them – redistributed land from landlords to very poor peasants

• Take advantage of terrain, small mobile force – ‘Hit and Run tactics’ – ambush small units and then withdraw to avoid large casualties – worked in ‘cells’ of 3-10 soldiers

• Do not go into combat unless sure of winning and outnumbering the enemy – avoid direct confrontation

• Fast moving – attack small patrols and badly guarded government outposts

• Engage enemy in long drawn out war and gradually wear them down

The French

• France traumatised and demoralised nation after WW2 – no coordinate policy on how to deal with war in Indochina

• Financial cost of war eventually became too much to bear

• As war contiued fewer and fewer people became interested in fighting it – key reason for defeat was that public became tired of the war

• Critics of the war called it ‘Sale Guerre’ or the ‘Dirty War’

The French Army - Problems

• French army not really in control – control of territory almost impossible

• Effect of the climate on French troops exhausting – high desertion rate amongst French troops

• French Army – roadbound – geared to fight war in Europe and not in Asia – limited to where primitive road network could take them

• Roads not useable in wet season and very vulnerable to sabotage

• ‘Small post theory’ – dot landscapes with small posts/forts to give illusion they had control

The French Army – More Problems• French found negotiating terrain very difficult – rice

paddies were ‘glue traps’ in which troops became easy targets

• Only French advantage was in firepower and airpower – use of aircraft with napalm, tanks and heavy artillery

• If wounded soldiers had possibility of first class medical care

• French received huge amounts of American aid – virtually dependent on American aid

• Could not work out how to counter guerrilla warfare

The Vietminh

• Vietminh HQ was safely located in the mountainous and secure territory of the Viet Bac

• Vietminh collected rice levy from peasants and taxes in towns to support themselves financially

• Used villages as hideouts and peasants as guides and porters – also used terror to get what they wanted

• They had basic small arms factories in which they converted old French ammunition and made grenades and mortar shells

The Vietminh• After 1949 had ammunition, medicine and food

flowing from China – which had become communist under Mao Zedong

• Continued to use armed propaganda teams to build support amongst the villages

• Used villages for concealment and defence• People’s Army soldier or ‘Bo Doi’ fed and equipped

only to basic level – unpaid got only basic medical care• Regular Soldiers, Guerrilla fighters, Unarmed peasants