Phases of the Moon

BATTLE OF INDOCHINA

Paris heard last week that the Communists planned a full-scale attack on Tonkin's Red River delta at the next full moon. Premier Rene Pleven called General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, one of France's best soldiers, and asked him to take on the tough job of defending Indo-China. Said De Lattre: "I accept because it is my duty."

He planned to fly immediately to Indo-China, wield both political and military authority, which had been divided between High Commissioner Pignon and General Marcel Carpentier. A trim, tough disciplinarian, described by his colleagues as electrique, De Lattre has been chief of Western European land forces under the Brussels five-power defense union, soon to be superseded by the broader North Atlantic twelve-power pact.

Indo-China waited tensely for the next Communist move. If Red-backed Ho Chi Minh attacks with his Viet Minh army, De Lattre may throw him back, but if the Chinese pour in, as they have in Korea, the slim French forces will have to pull out. Last week the foreign colony which gathers at Hanoi's Metropole Hotel rustled with rumors. Some said that the Chinese were already advancing from Langson, others that there was a deal on with the Viet Minh. The Metropole's atmosphere was one of anxious, noisy gaiety. Foreign newsmen met with free-lancing pilots who were making small fortunes flying people out of the threatened area.

Outside the Hotel Metropole in the Rue Paul Bert people were quieter as they studied the news from Korea on the Agence de Presse bulletin board. Little Vietnamese men stood wooden-faced in their sharp suits and pearl grey fedoras, their Parker 51s and antimagnetic, shockproof Swiss wrist watches. They were observing the West's humbling with a terrified, frozen-faced satisfaction; their Western watches are the fancy kind which tell the days of the month, the phases of the moon. As everybody in Hanoi knows, the next full moon occurs Dec. 24.

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