Mr Moise is quite right; most of Giap's troops were not in the Tonkin
Delta but in Laos. I only used the two deltas as a general--and
sloppy--way of distinguishing the troops in Northern Indochina and those
in the South. As far as the two Deltas--Tonkin and Mekong, North and South
respectively, are concerned--according to Gen. Gras, HISTOIRE DE LA GUERRE
D'INDOCHINE, the number of troops was about twice as many in the North
than in the South. My point was that *most* of Giap's units were in the
northern region of Indochina and far fewer in the future Republic of
Vietnam. Those in the South were defeated while under the command of
Nguyen Binh. For his failure Giap had him assassinated. Subsequent
operations by Giap's forces against the French, in what came to be the
Republic of Vietnam after the Geneva Cease-fire, were run with troops
recruited, for the most part, in what became the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam after Geneva. In other words, North Vietnam was Giap's reservoir
of recruits. These men were Northerners by birth, or, in Moise's term,
"ethnicity." They were trained for the most part in China.

Because China was the Vietminh army's vital rear, the war was for the most
part carried out in Northern Vietnam and Laos. Operations further South,
as occured towards the end of the war, required, therefore, the transport
of men and supplies from the North because there was very little of both
available in the South.

I don't see the relevance of Moise's logic regarding building forces to my
point. If you are going to use large units in operations you move them to
the front from the rear, you don't create them at the front, especially if
the front is under enemy control.

Giap moved Northern forces--since that's what he had--to attack the French
in Central Vietnam. I'm not talking about guerrilla units, I'm reffering
to large, organized assault units. When these are "regrouped" to the North
after the cease-fire, they are still, to use Moise's term, "ethnic
Northerners."

Is Moise claiming that the troops regrouped to North Vietnam after the
Geneva Cease-fire were "indigenous Southerners"? If so, what is his
evidence for that?

These questions are not intended to be rhetorical.

Lastly, when I refer to "French sources," I refer to a synthesis of my
reading of many secondary works and primary documents.

Daniel E. Teodoru

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