There was candor here, but also a seeming unwillingness to face the obvious paradoxes. If the Communists had the motivation and the “sense of history” on their side, and the good guys didn’t, what did that say about the cause? And how could the French be induced to step up the war effort in order to hold Vietnam and at the same time commit to true independence for the Vietnamese? What would be the point of expanding their efforts to retain their colonial possession if they then had to give it up?
