In November 1951, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny was forced to leave Vietnam due to illness. In some respects, this was a turning point in the First Indochina War as de Lattre was considered a formidable foe by General Võ Nguyên Giáp of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN). French forces capitulated quickly after de Lattre left, immediately losing the Battle of Hòa Bình and finally the decisive battle at Điện Biên Phủ. General de Lattre later died of cancer at the Neuilly Military Hospital in Paris on 11 January 1952.
