Comprendre la guerre et préparer l’avenir : l’exemple des Enseignements de la guerre d’Indochine

Abstract

In the wake of the Geneva agreements that consecrated the cessation of hostilities in Indochina, General Ely ordered the constitution of a document to study the various operations that took place between 1945 and 1954 and to draw the necessary lessons. The vast amount of documentation (Joint-Staff or individual reports) was collected, sorted, and analyzed and became the basis for Les enseignements de la guerre d’Indochine. An early effort to provide field experience “feedback” for the French army, the Ely Report, as it is also known, is a unique source of information in the understanding of the Indochinese war and the particular forms of fighting used in that theater.