The weak link in all this was of course France, for if the French should falter in their commitment to the war, then America might well have to send in its own troops to rescue Southeast Asia—a prospect Eisenhower strongly opposed. So Eisenhower placed his bets, and his nation’s prestige, on the outcome of a war fought in tropical jungles by a beleaguered French colonial expeditionary force against a well-armed and ideologically motivated national liberation army. It was a colossal gamble. And for once Eisenhower’s usual luck at games of chance failed him.
