It could have been John Foster Dulles speaking. Though Moscow’s involvement in Indochina was minimal—especially compared to Washington’s—both the senator and the secretary of state were inclined in this early period to see the Soviet bear looming large and menacing behind the scenes, directing the struggle. Regarding the dire consequences of a defeat in Indochina, certainly, the two men were in full agreement, and in the months that followed, Mansfield held to that view.
