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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (12145)	8/26/1998 4:43:00 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Have to check the musty old book file to crosscheck on the Ho biography. A couple of points that immediately stand out: << the Japanese had imprisoned or killed the French>> Bit deceptive, that. When the Japanese invaded Indochina, the French regime aligned itself with the pro-Nazi Vichy government, and collaborated very profitably with the Japanese. In 1944 (I can check the date), with the Japanese retreating in the Pacific and the Nazis being driven out of France, the colonial government withdrew its support from the Vichy side (I believe they call this "Gallic elan") and began plotting an uprising against the Japanese. The plotting was inept, and the Kempetai rounded up the plotters and most French troops and imprisoned them. The French were in prison at the time of the Japanese surrender, but not because they had effectively resisted the Japanese. Few, if any, were killed. <<In 1945 Ho Chi Minh took 24 year old OSS officer Archimedes Patti around Hanoi with him for public appearances.>> A clear attempt to discredit. Patti was the sole US representative in Hanoi, and as such attended a number of public functions, including Ho's declaration of Independence. He also maintained close contact with the French, Japanese, Chinese, and a number of local groups - the lists are pretty dizzying. The book goes into considerable detail on the efforts of the mission - not just Patti - to remain neutral. Patti was not the only American to deal closely with Ho and his group. An OSS team parachuted into Ho's HQ late in the war to train two guerilla teams, which they led in several combat actions. This was considered a high priority - field commanders had no knowledge of the bomb, and were desperate to tie down the Japanese forces in Indochina, cut rail links, and in general make it difficult to pull those forces back to defend the mainland. The Viet Minh were chosen because every attempt to arm and train French "resistance fighters" ended with the weapons being stashed for future use against any "Annamites" with uppity notions. There is an interesting parallel here with China, where American field commanders made several overtures seeking to cooperate with Mao against the Japanese - not because they were commie sympathizers, but because the Japanese needed to be fought, and Chiang's forces had neither the will nor the ability to do it. Patti goes into considerable analysis on why he (and the other members of the mission) thought Ho would be amenable to a deal. First, the observation that the Russians would be in no position to assist was absolutely accurate. Patti's belief was that refusal to allow a French re-entry (Roosevelt, among others, was quite adamant in his belief that the US should do everything in its power to prevent the reinstatement of colonial powers, so Patti was hardly in a vacuum), combined with a well-planned aid program, would convince Ho to remain strategically neutral in the post-war alignment. I think he was right. I choose to believe Patti, rather than others, for a number of reasons. One is the incredible wealth of detail in his book, which indicates a level of knowledge far greater than that of many other writers on the subject. Second, he was there on the spot, at that time. Third, I've lived in Asia long enough to know when somebody is talking, or writing, bullshit. I think the man knew what he was talking about. On the point of age, it's worth noting that he was a full colonel at 24, with a string of field promotions for exceedingly difficult - and successful - undercover actions in occupied Greece and Yugoslavia. Young he was. Stupid or naive, I would doubt it. In those days, people (particularly people in comfy chairs in DC) believed that all communists were and would always be allied with each other, that no communist government would ever voluntarily relinquish power, and that no communist government would ever move away from communism. We know now that all of these assumptuions were wrong. If we'd figured it out a little earlier we could have saved an incredible amount of trouble, not only for ourselves. Steve