ABSTRACT
At the urging of American military leaders in July 1953, General Navarre prepared a new strategic plan calling for a vast augmentation in the size of the Vietnamese National Army and the deployment of nine additional battalions of French troops in Indochina. American leaders seriously debated whether or not the United States should bankroll the Navarre Plan. The United States continued to meet the escalating French requests for money and supplies needed to implement the Navarre Plan, and as a result American aid made up 78 percent of the French military budget in Indochina during fiscal 1954. Right after the conclusion of the Geneva Conference, American leaders set out to rebuild the economy of South Vietnam. American intelligence sources predicted in August 1954 that the Vietminh would easily win if free elections were held in Vietnam according to the schedule agreed on at Geneva.
