Jean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny, GCB, MC (2 February 1889-11 January 1952) was a French military commander in World War II (1939-1945) and the First Indochina War (1946-1954). In 1951, he was the High Commissioner, commander-in-chief in Indochina and commander-in-chief of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps, winning several battles against the Việt Minh. His only son was killed there, then illness forced him to return to Paris where he died of cancer in 1952. He was elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France posthumously in 1952 during his state funeral.
