General Leclerc was send to Vietnam by France in 1946 to check on the military situation there and report on what would be needed for a French victory. He is quoted as saying “It would take 500,000 men to do it and even then it couldn’t be done.”
This line highlights the futility of the war. But it makes no sense on a literal level.
I’m wondering if some nuances were lost in translation. Does anyone know what Leclerc said in the original French?
Leclerc was giving his opinion on the number of troops needed to force a military stalemate that would compel Ho Chi Minh to return to the negotiating table( this was in 1947 after an initial agreement had been scuttled in 1946 ). So it wasn’t as oblique as all that - he was saying that France really couldn’t outright win a war in Vietnam, but with enough troops you might be able to create the conditions for a settlement of some sort.