What swung the Truman administration in favor of the Élysée Accords was the possibility, distant though it might be, that Bao Dai really was a viable moderate nationalist alternative to Ho Chi Minh, and moreover that the risks of committing to him and to the French were smaller than the risks of doing nothing. Mao’s forces were pressing forward to victory in China, and global Communism seemed to be on the march. Something had to be done.
