Department of Defense Files
Memorandum by the Chief of Staff, United States Army (Collins) to the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Visits to Yugoslavia and Other MDAP Countries1
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d. indo-china
21. After an excellent briefing by General de Lattre’s headquarters in Saigon, we flew to Hanoi. The next day we flew over a large part of the defensive perimeter in the River Rouge delta. This amounted to a detailed aerial reconnaissance of the series of organized strong [Page 545] points being constructed around the perimeter. I was greatly impressed with what I saw.
22. General de Lattre has carefully analyzed the terrain and is basing his defense of the vital delta area on checking any Communist assault by means of organized positions, and then following up with strong counterattacks by mobile forces.
23. Great and effective use is being made of airborne battalions in the gradual process of eliminating Vietnam guerrilla forces within the delta area. Heretofore, guerrillas when attacked have melted away into the hills. Now General de Lattre employs parachute battalions to cut off their lines of retreat. This is proving to be very effective.
24. Unless the Chinese Communists, perhaps under the guise of volunteers, enter Indo-China, the French and Vietnam forces should be able to hold Indo-China indefinitely.
25. From what I saw of the Vietnam troops, I believe the French are making genuine progress in building up the native forces. However, it will be some years before the Vietnamese will be competent to defend themselves.
26. No visitor to Indo-China can fail to be impressed with the fact that this is largely a General de Lattre show. His personality, drive, and energy, and his undoubted integrity dominate every aspect of the operations, both political and military, in Indo-China. If anything should happen to him, there could well be a collapse in Indo-China.
27. There appears to be no possibility of removing any sizable number of French forces now in Indo-China. It is well-known that a large part of the finest regular forces of France are now employed there. It would appear advisable, if this is politically practicable, for us to put pressure on the French Government to modify the laws which prohibit the sending of compulsory service men to Indo-China in order that some of the Regulars could be released to aid in building up the French NATO forces.
28. My final impression is that as long as de Lattre is in Indo-China, we should continue to extend military and economic aid in order to check the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia.
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- Gen. J. Lawton Collins, Chief of Staff, United States Army, visited various Mutual Defense Assistance Program recipient countries in Europe and Asia during the month of October 1951. He was in Vietnam from October 21 to October 23.↩