"QDurham" a écrit dans le message de
...
As for France "blackmailing" HST. Let's note that NATO was formed in
1949 and the French didn't withdraw until after Dien Bien Phu in
1954!!!

Exactly. Truman provided transport for the French to re-enter "French
Indo
China" in about '45 -- before NATO was firmed up.

And he did much more than that afterwards. The US help to the French war
effort in Indochina was *tremendous*. Delivering vehicles, planes,
ammunitions, etc, along with direct financing, the US supported around 80%
of the cost of the war in 1953-54.



I have no idea how the French got OUT after Dien Bien Phu but any form of
transport (no matter how humble) was, I'm sure, highly welcome.


Many of the poor guys entrenched in DBP didn't get out.... The US provided a
ship-hospital to take care of the wounded and of those who survived the
Vietminh camps, along with a few medevac flights to Travis AFB via Japan,
Hawai and San Francisco. As for the rest of the troops, don't forget that
the evacuation of Indochina was part of an agreement signed in Geneva and
that the French troops were not pushed back to the sea. They left in order
using the same ships, French and others, they used to get there; it was
nothing like Saigon in '75.

ArVa