Abstract

Indo-China: The French Must Choose

The decision to hold the three-power conference on Indo-China in Washington was taken, it has been learned, as the result of a secret communication from politician M. Pleven to the United States ambassador in Paris, France. French intelligence, M. Pleven said, had acquired a great deal of information showing that the Chinese Communists had aggressive intentions toward Indo-China. According to France-Soir, M. Pleven hoped through this communication both to speed up American deliveries to Indo-China and to alert Allied opinion in favor of organizing common defense in Southeast Asia. M. Pleven must have known what the debate on Indo-China was going to reveal, a practically universal conviction that France simply could not afford to continue the war on the present basis. In 1952 the war will cost between one-sixth and one-seventh of the entire budget.