Foreign News: Coexisting with Ho

Handsome Jean Sainteny, 47, looked like the very Frenchman to talk coexistence with Ho Chi Minh. Sainteny served before the Indo-China war as French Commissioner in Hanoi, and wrote a bitterly anti-U.S., pro-Ho book about it. He was subsequently wounded by an exploding Communist hand grenade, but this did not dim his ardor for Ho, whom he called “the Gandhi of Indo-China.”

Last October Sainteny set out for Hanoi with a 20-man mission and the blessings of Premier Pierre Mendès-France. Sainteny defined his objective as “preventing bridges being burned,” argued that the Vietnamese people of Hanoi must surely need French culture, and that French technical assistance might create a Tito out of Ho. More skeptical Westerners shook their heads. “Sainteny’s a nice fellow,” said one, “but he believes in fairies.”

Last week in Hanoi, Sainteny proudly unveiled something he called “an agreement,” but which Ho Chi Minh referred to as a “joint declaration between the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (a self-styled propaganda title) and a delegation of French economic experts.” French business firms could “retain present form,” it was proclaimed, but only subject to Ho’s “sovereignty and legislation.” French products could be “freely” sold, but Ho’s government orders “must be executed first.” French businessmen could “freely” send profits abroad, but the percentages and other such details would be worked out later “by common agreement.” Frenchmen themselves could only move in and out of the country “within the framework” of Ho’s Communist laws. Sainteny apparently thought that the deal would guarantee security to French businessmen who chose to stay in Hanoi, but the businessmen were not so naive. Few rose to the bait.