More than many histories of the period have suggested, planners were divided about the proper American course of action.28 But just as in France, albeit for different reasons, the conservatives ultimately triumphed, in large measure because of senior officials’ growing tendency in early 1947 to see Indochina in the context of the deepening confrontation with the Soviet Union. “The Cold War,” as Walter Lippmann would christen this conflict that year, would continue to shape U.S. policy choices on Vietnam for the next quarter-century
