, Research Paper

Dien Bien Phu

1954 conflict changed Vietnam & # 8217 ; s history

It is seen by many military bookmans as one of the great conflicts of the twentieth century & # 8212 ; and a defining minute in the history of Southeast Asia. And yet the Battle of Dien Bien Phu receives seldom more than a ephemeral reference in most history texts.

After World War II, France was able to reinstall its colonial authorities in what was so known as Indochina. By 1946 a Vietnamese independency motion, led by communist Ho Chi Minh, was contending Gallic military personnels for control of northern Vietnam. The Viet Minh, as the insurrectionists were called, used guerilla tactics that the Gallic found hard to counter.

In late 1953, as both sides prepared for peace negotiations in the Indochina War, Gallic military commanding officers picked Dien Bien Phu, a small town in northwesterly Vietnam near the Laotian and Chinese boundary lines, as the topographic point to pick a battle with the Viet Minh.

& # 8220 ; It was an effort to interdict the enemy & # 8217 ; s rear country, to halt the flow of supplies and supports, to set up a redoubt in the enemy & # 8217 ; s rise up and interrupt his lines, & # 8221 ; says Douglas Johnson, research professor at the U.S. Army War College & # 8217 ; s Strategic Studies Institute. & # 8220 ; The enemy could so be lured into a killing land. There was decidedly some of that believing involved. & # 8221 ;

Hoping to pull Ho Chi Minh & # 8217 ; s guerrillas into a authoritative conflict, the Gallic began to construct up their fort at Dien Bien Phu. The fastness was located at the underside of a bowl-shaped river vale, approximately 10 stat mis long. Most Gallic military personnels and supplies entered Dien Bien Phu from the air & # 8212 ; either set downing at the garrison & # 8217 ; s flight strip or dropping in via parachute.

Dien Bien Phu & # 8217 ; s chief fort besides would be supported by a series of firebases & # 8212 ; strongpoints on nearby hills that could convey down fire on an aggressor. The strongpoints were given adult females & # 8217 ; s names, purportedly after the kept womans of the Gallic commanding officer, Gen. Christian de Castries. The Gallic assumed any assaults on their to a great extent fortified places would neglect or be broken up by their heavy weapon.

The size of the Gallic fort at Dien Bien Phu swelled to somewhere between 13,000 and 16,000 military personnels by March 1954. About 70 per centum of that force was made up of members of the Gallic Foreign Legion, soldiers from Gallic settlements in North Africa, and loyal Vietnamese.

Viet Minh guerillas and military personnels from the People & # 8217 ; s Army of Vietnam surrounded Dien Bien Phu during the buildup within the Gallic fort. Their assault on March 13 proved about instantly how vulnerable and flawed the Gallic defences were.

Dien Bien Phu & # 8217 ; s outlying firebases were overrun within yearss of the initial assault. And the chief portion of the fort was amazed to

happen itself coming under heavy, shriveling heavy weapon fire from the environing hills. In a major logistical effort, the Viet Minh had dragged tonss of heavy weapon pieces up steeply forested hillsides the Gallic had written off as unpassable.

The Gallic heavy weapon commanding officer, distraught at his inability to convey counterfire on the well-defended and well-camouflaged Viet Minh batteries, went into his dugout and killed himself.

The heavy Viet Minh barrage besides closed Dien Bien Phu & # 8217 ; s flight strip. Gallic efforts to resupply and reenforce the fort via parachute were frustrated & # 8212 ; as pilots trying to wing over the part found themselves confronting a bombardment from anti-aircraft guns. It was during the resupply attempt that two civilian pilots, James McGovern and Wallace Buford, became the first Americans killed in Vietnam combat.

The supply planes were forced to wing higher, and their parachute beads became less accurate. Much of what was intended for the Gallic forces & # 8212 ; including nutrient, ammo and, in one instance, indispensable intelligence information & # 8212 ; landed alternatively in Viet Minh district. Meanwhile, the Viet Minh steadily reduced the French-held country & # 8212 ; utilizing what their commanding officer, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, called & # 8220 ; a maneuver of combined nibbling and all-out attack. & # 8221 ;

Closed off from the outside universe, under changeless fire, and flooded by monsoon rains, conditions inside Dien Bien Phu became cold. Casualties piled up inside the fort & # 8217 ; s infirmary.

Dien Bien Phu fell to the Viet Minh on May 7. At least 2,200 members of the Gallic forces died during the besieging & # 8212 ; with 1000s more taken captive. Of the 50,000 or so Vietnamese who besieged the fort, there were about 23,000 casualties & # 8212 ; including an estimated 8,000 killed.

The autumn of Dien Bien Phu shocked France and brought an terminal to Gallic Indochina.

& # 8220 ; The really first memory I have of speaking foreign personal businesss with my male parent was when Dien Bien Phu fell, & # 8221 ; Anil Malhotra, a World Bank functionary from India, said in a recent interview. & # 8220 ; It was a beginning of great pride in the underdeveloped universe. A little Asiatic state had defeated a colonial power, convincingly. It changed history. & # 8221 ;

Following the Gallic backdown, Vietnam was officially divided into a communist North and non-communist South & # 8212 ; puting the phase for U.S. engagement.

In 1963, as Washington was intensifying its committedness in Vietnam, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev made a revealing comment to a U.S. functionary.

& # 8220 ; If you want to, travel in front and fight in the jungles of Vietnam, & # 8221 ; Khrushchev said. & # 8220 ; The Gallic fought at that place for seven old ages and still had to discontinue in the terminal. Possibly the Americans will be able to lodge it out for a small thirster, but finally they will hold to discontinue, too. & # 8221 ;