...the Americans were French agents. We got conned into that one big-time. Ho had great respect for the US (he had lived there for a while, as I recall) and the N Vietnamese constitution, or perhaps declaration of independence--I don't remember which--is modeled on ours. We could have wound up with a Communist ally against China in that part of the world if we had played our cards right.

The real irony was that the great strategic value of natural rubber (the reason the French were so interested in Indochina) soon became a moot point when synthetic substitutes became widely available.

The only bright spot in all of this is that Eisenhower had the good sense to refuse French requests for tactical nukes to bail out their beleaguered garrison at Dien Bien Phu, a battle where the Vietnamese eventually routed the French. Ike also refused to help the Brits and French out in Suez, too, a fact which the Arab world has never bothered to thank us properly for, btw.

Incidentally, those of us who so enjoy poking fun at the French for their alleged cowardice in battle might well profit from study of that engagement. They were annihilated, but they put up one hell of a fight against incredible odds.

Their failure was not with their skill or their courage, but with their leadership. They thought they could come to grips with an elusive enemy by occupying an indefensible but strategic point deep in his territory and challenging him to come out and fight.