D’ARGENLIEU AND HIS COLLEAGUES NEEDED SOMETHING NEW AND dramatic, a game changer. Their hope of securing firm control of Cochin China as a means of forcing Ho Chi Minh’s regime to come to terms had plainly come to naught—an honest appraisal would have to conclude that the French position in Cochin China was slipping away, while in Tonkin, Ho’s administration retained a powerful grip on much of the populace.
