[Center][B] The Tiger and the Elephant[/center][/b]

It was said by Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Viet Minh rebels, that the struggle between France and Vietnam was that of an Elephant and a Tiger. "If the tiger stands his ground, the elephant will crush him with its mass. But, if he conserves his mobility, he will finally vanquish the elephant, who bleeds from a multitude of cuts." This poetically described the Viet Minh's strategy and the hell it was for France. France sent more troops into Vietnam trying to master the Viet Minh, but the authority of the colonial government was rapidly eroding as the rebels exploded in numbers and were being equipped and supplied with more than they could use by Red China. This put the Vietnamese rebels in a position to challenge the authority of France in large parts of the country. Despite the best French efforts to hold their positions, the Viet Minh, knowing the country like the back of their hands, fought a remarkably effective guerilla campaign in the countryside and in a series of battles took command of Northern Vietnam, bar the Red River Delta, from the French army which blundered and blundered on as the PR campaign it started towards the Vietnamese bore no fruit at all - In fact, it even backfired as Viet Minh propaganda said that the French tried to buy the Vietnamese people like cheap whores but would keep them enslaved. With the Vietnamese people increasingly hostile to France and the Viet Minh taking large tracts of land the prospects of French rule were getting darker by the day.

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