 Between 1946 and 1947 he commanded an infantry division near Paris, then gained political experience in an appointment to the War Ministry as executive secretary to the Defence Minister and later to the staff of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.He was sent with de Lattre to French Indochina in 1950 and after the latter's departure commanded a division in Tonkin and a Groupe Mobile in the Red River Delta.Henri Navarre later offered him command of the Forces Terrestres du Nord Viêtnam (North Vietnam Ground Forces, or FTNV), and he oversaw the French efforts in the Delta until the end of the war.