Father of France

Chapter 147 Land Reform and Army Building Plans

“Mr. Li, we meet again.” Koman smiled and opened his arms, putting on a show of Franco-Vietnamese friendship, and waited for Li Wenhua to sit down before saying, “I have something good to discuss with you.”

Once Levenhua was seated, Coman revealed to him his idea of ​​forming an Axis coalition and including the Pyeongcheon faction in it.

Now that Yang Wenming's faction has been purged, the Pingchuan faction, although it has lost some members, still has more than 3,000 members under Li Wenhua's control.

This gang can't keep oppressing the good and kind. If they want to walk the right path in the future, they must accumulate practical experience. Maybe they will have the opportunity to learn from the Fengtian clique and become legitimate in the future.

Clearly, this military operation to support Indonesia was an opportunity to accumulate experience. Together with the European colonial forces of Britain, France, and the Netherlands, it would be easier to achieve the transformation from a bandit gang to a capable warlord. The Pingchuan faction had just been hit hard by the old imperialist powers, and its co-founders had been imprisoned. Faced with this environment, Li Wenhua chose to follow his heart.

"For the French Empire." Li Wenhua readily agreed, but also because he had no other choice.

“I believe that in the future, Mr. Le’s supporters will no longer be a group of bandits, but a regular armed force that can truly defend Saigon.” Coman grinned, showing his big teeth. “Only in this way will Mr. Le be invincible. You know, the Cao Dai sect and a group of royalists in Hue did not receive this treatment.”

By piecing together the scraps that France had, Corman was able to muster an armed force of about 10,000 men, including a regiment of the Foreign Legion, a battalion of the French Expeditionary Force, and 2,000 members of the Hirakawa faction who were redeeming themselves through meritorious service. He also planned to select two regiments from among the Japanese prisoners of war. Thus, an intervention force of 12,000 men was formed.

Although the number of French troops transferred was small, it raised a question for France, which had just returned to French Indochina: should France really establish a proxy army?

Koman didn't need to concern himself with matters concerning French Indochina, but he had come in person for the sake of porcelain, Suzhou embroidery, and the timber shortage in the overseas provinces. It would be dereliction of duty for him not to care.

Vietnamese Catholics comprise about 7 to 8 percent of Vietnam's approximately 30 million population, certainly less than 10 percent. The population exceeds two million, a legacy of French colonial rule.

During the later Vietnam War, Ngo Dinh Diem, the former Minister of Personnel of the Kingdom of Vietnam who overthrew Emperor Bao Dai, used Catholics as his base to build his own army, end Emperor Bao Dai's reign, and become the ruler of South Vietnam. Among the fleeting leaders of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem was actually quite capable.

Although the US tacitly acknowledged that Ngo Dinh Diem had died an unnatural death, the US soon discovered that the Ngo Dinh Diem family had become the ceiling for their search for proxies in Vietnam. The people they later supported were not as good as Ngo Dinh Diem and did much more abstract things than he did.

So where is Ngo Dinh Diem now? Of course, he is in Paris, the capital of the colonial power.

It is still too early for France to shift its support to Bau Dai and use a feudal dynasty to counter the Viet Minh.

Using armed Catholics to fight the Viet Minh was obviously still not going to work, but Coman thought it could improve the stability of South Vietnam, reduce the need to draw on France, and reduce the investment in the final period. Once this goal was achieved, he could hand it over to the United States to start the second round.

Why would they need Ngo Dinh Diem to recruit Catholics and build a puppet army? That's exactly what Koman did in Syria; the previous batch of First Army soldiers have already immigrated to their new homes and started new lives.

Following the example, Coman immediately produced a precedent for military building and took it to the Governor's Office for General Dassanio to review.

The plan was to establish a military force with the core mission of protecting the Catholic community, supporting French Indochina, and confronting the Viet Minh in the north. Its motto was "For God, For the Fatherland."

The aim was to serve as an auxiliary force to the French army, focusing on local defense, counter-guerrilla warfare, intelligence gathering, and winning over the hearts and minds of the people.

Its core value lies in using its firm ideology and close community ties to accomplish tasks that the French army could not effectively carry out.

This would make it a highly efficient, loyal, and disciplined fighting force, which could help the French army resist the Viet Minh's southward offensive.

Corman suggested establishing a general headquarters at the governor's palace, directly responsible to the governor and the French military commander, and also setting up a liaison office with the French military advisory group to ensure logistical and tactical coordination.

Commanders were Catholics with service experience, and chaplains held significant influence at all levels of command, responsible for morale and moral guidance.

The initial framework involves establishing regular field battalions, local militia companies, and special operations teams. The regular field battalions will serve as the main mobile force, conducting joint operations, clearing operations, and area support. Standard light infantry organization will be adopted, but priority will be given to equipping them with communication equipment.

Local militia companies are formed based on parishes or Catholic villages, responsible for the defense of their localities. Familiar with the local terrain and customs, they form the first line of defense against infiltration. As a supplement to regular field battalions, they can be deployed immediately should the regular field battalions suffer significant losses. Special operations teams are small elite units composed of the most loyal and capable soldiers, tasked with long-range reconnaissance, target designation, and capture operations.

The recruitment targets were prioritized Catholic refugees in the north who were being suppressed and Catholic residents in the south. Initially, they could be selected from among the current Catholic soldiers in French Indochina.

The training focuses on light weapons use, small unit tactics, patrols, ambushes, counter-ambushes, engineering demolition, and medical first aid.

Strengthen the concept of "fighting for survival," highlight the threat of atheism to religious beliefs, and cultivate a strong sense of team identity and mission.

In Catholic settlements, the concept of strategic villages is established, transforming Catholic villages into impregnable fortresses.

In order to strengthen the fighting spirit of Catholics, Corman, as a modernist Christian, was absolutely not opposed to some of the methods used by atheistic countries, such as land reform.

Even Emperor MacArthur, the five-star emperor, could do this in Japan. He carried out some superficial land reforms in French Indochina, a region with a Catholic population, and no one could criticize him.

This plan to build an army based on Catholics appeared before Dachanliu a few days later, along with General Leclerc, the French commander-in-chief, who was also summoned to the governor's palace.

In fact, the two did not have a good relationship. Although they were both supporters of de Gaulle, their relationship was not just due to their different military branches. Simply put, Dachanliu believed that the Viet Minh could be eliminated by force, while Leclerc believed that it was completely impossible.

The two men had completely different views on Coman's plan to build an army based on Catholicism. Dachanliu believed that with the precedent of the First Army Group, this plan would definitely succeed and would absolutely give France the dominant position in French Indochina.

General Leclerc, the French commander-in-chief, believed that this would only stabilize the situation in southern French Indochina, and the actual effect would depend on how the war unfolded.

"The First Army is a force tested by the World Wars, and it has made immortal contributions to the Free French movement," Dachanliu said to General Leclerc. "It was a successful approach, as we have all seen."

“We cannot just look at the establishment of the First Army Group. In fact, Syria is now going through the independence process, and the Maronites are now immigrating.”

General Leclerc earnestly advised Dachanliu, "In Syria, we only faced a few million Arabs, and we still had to end our rule there. But in French Indochina, we face 30 million enemies. France only has 40 million citizens. We cannot solve the problem of French Indochina by force alone."

Koeman mentally gave General Leclerc a thumbs up, noting that not only France was unable to resolve the issue of French Indochina by force, but the United States was also unable to do so later.

Dachanliu firmly supported the Catholic armed plan, saying, "You know, if we compromise, this will be the beginning of France's downfall, and most soldiers will absolutely not agree to it."

In fact, Koeman wanted to say that he absolutely agreed, but at this point, it didn't really matter whether he, as a mere captain, agreed or not.

But clearly the discussion of this plan was not over yet. Dassanio had reservations about the supporting measures for armed Catholics, which was actually land reform. He said, "If it is promoted through military means, the contradictions may be intensified before the land reform is completed."

"Catholics make up less than one-tenth of Vietnam's population, and it's certainly not possible to divide them by force. It can be done through redemption."

Comand explained the land reform plan in detail: "The French General Headquarters will act as guarantor to oversee the sale of land. First, the land will be bought from the landlords to prevent them from interfering. Then, the peasants will buy the land from the Governor-General of French Indochina. For those peasants who cannot afford to buy land, installment payments can be arranged. In fact, the wealthy Chinese on the embankment gave us a sum of money, which, when converted to francs, was less than one hundred million."

No matter how wealthy the Chinese on the embankment were, they could not compare with the French government. The provisional government of de Gaulle had just approved 20 billion francs for urban construction for the Maronite immigrants, and that was not enough. Corman also had to come to French Indochina to solve the timber shortage problem.

However, this 100 million can be seen as a gesture; if Da Shangliu needs it now, he can take out a portion of it.

“I believe that if the news of land reform is reported, the left-wing government in Paris will be very supportive, and it can be linked with sending troops to Indonesia and this military buildup plan.” Corman sincerely suggested to the two highest-ranking people in French Indochina, “Doesn’t the Viet Minh also have voices advocating for land reform? Let’s do it first and see what they do.”

This comprehensive report on French Indochina was quickly sent from Saigon halfway around the world to the left-wing government in Paris.

(End of this chapter)