Henri Navarre (31 July 1898-26 September 1983) was a French Army general who was in command of the French expeditionary force in French Indochina from 1953 to 1954, the last years of the First Indochina War. In 1954, his decisive defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu ended the war.
Biography[]
Henri Navarre was born in Villefranchede-Rouergue, France in 1898, and he rose to the rank of Lieutenant in the French Army during World War I and served as an intelligence officer during World War II. In 1942, he joined the French Resistance after the Vichy government recalled him for anti-German activities, and he commanded an armored regiment during the Liberation of France. In 1945, he was promoted to Brigadier-General and stationed in Germany, and, in 1952, he was promoted to Lieutenant-General. In May 1953, he replaced Raoul Salan as commander of the forces in French Indochina, and he assured the French government that victory was clear and imminent. However, his army was decisively defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, and he was replaced on 3 June 1954 by Paul Ely. He retired from the army in 1956, and he blamed the defeat in Vietnam on the political system and advised for the military to seize power from the French Fourth Republic. He died in 1983.