Today's episode is the third in our series about the Indochina Wars. Here we will look at the campaigns of 1951. In response to the successful Viet Minh (Vietnamese Communist) offensive of 1950, the French send in their best general, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. It was only during the eleven months when de Lattre was in command (December 1950 - November 1951) that the French felt they had a good chance of winning.


Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. The Americans called him "D.D.T.," and the French called him Roi Jean (King John).


This map shows a close-up of the Red River delta, in northern Vietnam, 1951. The orange dots mark spots where the Viet Minh made unsuccessful invasions of the delta. Another invasion, which isn't marked, took place at Vinh Yen, northwest of Hanoi. To stop these incursions, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny built a massive defensive barrier, shown by the red line. This barrier was called the "De Lattre Line"; it kept Hanoi, Haiphong and the delta in French hands for the rest of the First Indochina War, but it also tied down more than half of the French army in Vietnam, because they were needed to man the line. Source: Globalsecurity.org

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