NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
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28. Prospects for Wresting the Military Initiative from the Viet Minh: General Navarre's plan of action calls for "retaking the initiative immediately through the carrying out, beginning this summer, of local offensives and by pushing to the utmost commando and guerrilla actions" and "to take the offensive in the north beginning September 15, in order to forestall the enemy attack". These planned operations, previously discussed (and covered in greater detail in Annexes "E" and "H"), together with guerrilla action and the pacification program, should assure the wresting and retaining of the military initiative from the Viet Minh. The timing of the major fall offensive is particularly important. Last dry season's campaign was scheduled to begin about 1 November 1952. The Viet Minh campaign against the Thai country, followed by their Laotian campaign, was initiated on 10 October 1952. Thereafter, the French merely reacted to Viet Minh attacks, thus precluding the initiating of French planned dry-season operations.
29. Guerrilla Warfare: General Navarre has a strong memory of the French Resistance movement in WW II, in which he was active, and told me that he intended to expand guerrilla activities as one of his immediate means of retaking the initiative. At the present time, French-Associated States guerrilla operations are loosely organised at command levels and utilize minor tribal groups in Laos and in Northern and Central Vietnam. They form a thin defensive harrassment line on the outer perimeter of Viet Minh influence in the mountains, French estimates of their strength vary from 3,000 to 20,000.
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