The French general Jacques Philippe Leclerc (1902-1947) commanded the division which liberated Paris in 1944. He warned against the French attempt to regain control of Indochina.

Jacques Philippe Leclerc, Resistance name of Philippe Marie de Hauteclocque, was born into an aristocratic family on Nov. 22, 1902, at Belloy-Saint-Léonard. Graduating from St-Cyr in 1924, he made a brilliant reputation in Morocco during the struggle against the nationalist Riffi. Rising quickly through the ranks, he was a general staff officer when World War II began. Captured twice by the Germans in May-June 1940, he escaped both times and in July joined Charles De Gaulle in London.

Sent to rally French Equatorial Africa to De Gaulle, Leclerc, after a 39-day march over more than 1,500 miles, joined his ragtag army to that of Gen. B. L. Montgomery at Tripoli on Jan. 25, 1943. The Tunisian and Tripolitanian campaigns concluded, he participated in the cross-channel Normandy invasion on...