Decrying the government’s inertia, Mendès France called the war an exercise in futility, one that moreover was exacting a huge cost in blood and treasure. “It is the entire conception of our action in Indochina that is false,” he declared from the rostrum in the Assembly, “for it is based on a military effort that is insufficient … to bring about a solution by force and on a policy that is incapable of assuring us the support of the people.”
