Operation LEA

Abstract

During the Indochina War, the general image established of the northern communist guerrilla forces was mainly about their successful ambushes and raids after which they withdrew to their safe havens close to the Chinese border out of the reach of their enemy. This concept of safe havens support the theory of guerrilla warfare: to keep up fighting the irregular forces need a remote territory and its population to support them, otherwise they do not stand a chance against the usually well-equipped and superior regular forces. Before 1950, the French army was a clearly superior force, which used its might to crush the opposition in a traditional colonial way of warfare. The general image is false, since in the first part of the war the French launched multiple operations into the Vieth Minh safe haven, and Operation LEA is one of the largest scales of those, and the best example of combined arms warfare during the Indochina War.