11/06/2024
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Strategy & Tactics Quarterly #28
First Indochina War
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..The Big Picture
The First Indochina War is commonly called a guerrilla conflict, but it was a multi-dimensional conflict. The French Union and Viet Minh military commands understood that the concentration of sufficient conventional forces would determine the war’s outcome to deliver a decisive blow to their adversaries. Each side had distinct military advantages, contributing to the conflict’s complexity.
Paralleling the military aspect was the strategy of revolutionary warfare. Revolutionary warfare involved a wide range of operations, including propaganda, subversion, and the building of alternative political systems. The goal of revolutionary warfare was to mass mobilize the populace and undermine the enemy’s support from abroad. The payoff would be destroying the enemy’s ability to conduct military operations and turning the balance of forces.
The conflict in Indochina had far-reaching effects on the French and the United States armed forces. For the French, the war had a radicalizing effect, as they adapted the lessons from Indochina to their ensuing campaigns to preserve their African empire. These lessons would also play a role in the 1961 Army coup, which attempted to overthrow the French government over a perceived betrayal in the Algerian counterinsurgency. Meanwhile, the United States noted the lessons from the Indochina conflict, applying them in their subsequent strategy during the Vietnam War. While some of these lessons proved successful, others were not, and their impact on the war’s outcome remains a topic of debate to this day.
Mailed 10/24/2024 to Subscribers. Allow 4-6 weeks for USPS delivery.
