Operation Léa was a French Union military operation between 7 October and 8 November 1947 during the First Indochina War. It is also known as the Việt Bắc Campaign (Chiến Dịch Việt Bắc) by the Viet Minh. It was an attempt by the French General Valluy to crush the Việt Minh. An airborne force would capture the Việt Minh leadership and three French columns would strike into the Việt Minh heartland. The parachute assault surprised the Việt Minh, nearly capturing Ho Chi Minh and General Giap, but it soon recovered and began ambushing the three French columns. The operation was soon called off and the French forces withdrew to the lowlands. It was a tactical success, inflicting severe casualties on the Việt Minh but was strategically inconclusive because it failed to capture the Việt Minh leadership or seriously cripple its military forces. Background After the outbreak of hostilities on 19 December 1946, the French Union forces had made significant progress by capturing the cities of Haiphong, Hanoi, Lạng Sơn, Cao Bằng and most of the western and southern regions of Tonkin, which was the stronghold of the Việt Minh movement. The reasons for the fast advance were the superior firepower, naval and air support of the French forces. The main force of the Việt Minh was nearly surrounded by the French in the eastern part of Tonkin. There remained only a greater gap between the towns of Cao Bằng in the north and Yên Bái in the south. During April 1947 Ho Chi Minh made a last attempt to achieve a ceasefire and to continue the independence negotiations with the French government from 1946. The French only demanded his surrender, because the position of the Vietnamese forces seemed to be desperate. On 26 April, Ho refused the French, offering: "In the French Union is no place for cowards. I would be one, if I would accept." During the spring and the summer, the French attacked the bases of the Việt Minh troops in Tonkin but could not bring them to battle; the Việt Minh returned when the French moved on. The French supreme command in Indochina under General Jean-Étienne Valluy realized that the tactic of minor assaults to locate the headquarters of the Việt Minh would not lead to an end of the war. From their intelligence department, they received some information that the location of the headquarters of the