This manpower shortage left the general with limited options, and his predicament worsened in March 1947, when an additional division of French colonial troops had to be diverted en route to Indochina to quell an insurgency in Madagascar. Yet there could be no question of turning back, not in his mind or that of other senior French officials. “It is impossible to negotiate with those people,” Overseas Minister Marius Moutet declared of the Viet Minh during a visit to Saigon in January.
