Charles de Gaulle was almost certain that major war was in the offing. On 18 March he told members of the French cabinet that the effort to prevent major fighting in Vietnam had failed. The war, the general declared, “will last a long, long, long time.” The following month, he offered a more precise estimate: unless Washington stopped the war immediately, he told his ministers, the fighting would go on for ten years and would completely dishonor the United States.
