Dien Bien Phu
by Krysta CardinaleThe Battle of Dien Bien Phu started on March 13, 1954 and ended May 7th. The battle was fought in the Dien Bien Phu area of Vietnam between the French and Vietnam revolutionaries called the Viet Minh (part of the People’s Army of Vietnam). This was the final battle of the First Indochina War and proved to be a devastating loss for the French.
Background
The French Foreign Legion was unlike any other 20th Century military force in the world. An Army of Mercenaries whose sense of honor transcended national boundaries. These were the orphans of the French Republic and a spearhead of the Republic’s armed response to the Vietnam uprising. Few military units pride themselves on battles that were ultimately lost, but for the men of the French Foreign Legion pride and honor were more important than victory and defeat. A perfect example would be at the battle Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
France was losing the war for Indochina. Since the defeat of Japan in 1945, French troops and Colonial Administrators attempted to reassert control of France’s Asian Empire. It proved to be a costly and futile exercise. For 8 years, France attempted to subdue the stubborn coalition of Communist guerillas and Vietnamese Nationalists who vowed to expel all foreigners from their country. This was no war to win the hearts and minds of the people; it was a brutal war of attrition, a war perfectly suited for the Legion. In total, nearly 30,000 Legionnaires deployed, it was an army that was expected to squash the Asian rebel.
Operations at Dien Bien Phu really began on November 20, 1953. About 9,000 French troops were dropped off in the area within a three day period. This mission called Operation Castor positioned the French to the northwest, southwest, and southeast around Dien Bien Phu. The Viet Minh had an infantry headquarters at Dien Bien Phu, and Commander General Võ Nguyên Giáp could do little in counter reaction because he had three of four battalions absent at that time. The French took full advantage of this opportunity and had six parachute battalions dropped in and positioned by the end of November.
Giáp sensed an attack was coming, but did not know when and where so he decided to make maneuvers to push the French where he wanted to battle. He wanted to fight in Dien Bien Phu and knew if he pressed the French that this could be possible. The French did just that and while en route they were heavily assaulted by the Viet Minh forces. Of 2,100 men who made the trek on December 9th only 185 of them made it on December 22nd. By now the French had about 10,200 troops in the Dien Bien Phu valley and reinforcements totally over 16,000 men. They were surrounded by heavily wooded forests that had not been scouted and secured. The Viet Minh moved 50,000 troops to the areas surrounding the French. On January 31, 1954 the Viet Minh began sporadic artillery fire, and the French realized that they were completely closed in.
The Siege of Dien Bien Phu
The motto of the French Foreign Legion was “Legio Patria Nostra,” translated to “The Legion is my Father.” The men’s loyalty was to each other and to their officers for whom they would march and die for. And in Vietnam they died by the thousands. In spite of their courage, the Legion’s climatic battle for Southeast Asia was at the Dien Bien Phu. It was also an example of how not to wage war.
In November of 1953, France had foolishly deployed the majority of its forces into a vast base and totally surrounded by a forest. The hills surrounding them were held by the Viet Minh troops. All winter long the enemy forces went undetected as the French commanders were preoccupied with minor ground skirmishes. The Viet Minh covered the hills with hundreds of canons and tons of warheads carried on their backs in steep slopes. To deliver devastating blows, tens of thousands of men infiltrated the hillside placing the French base under constant rifle fire. From the very beginning the French completely lacked sufficient manpower and equipment to more than hold on, yes the siege of Dien Bien Phu dragged on from March to May of 1954.
The climatic struggle at the battle Dien Bien Phu entered is second month with French airborne reinforcements. These reinforcements were shuttled to the beleaguered garrison base where paratroopers dropped to a fate that was completely unbalanced. They hit the ground and immediately went into action with machine gun and mortar fire. The Legionnaires never surrendered. No evacuation was possible and they were outnumbered four to one. The men fought until there was no ammunition and no more bodies to reinforce them from the skies above. On May 8, 1954 the battle of Dien Bien Phu falls in favor of the overpowering Viet Minh, and over 8,000 Legionnaires were dead. As the Dien Bien Phu battle falls in favor of these Vietnamese Revolutionaries it brought the end of the French war and the beginning of America’s conflict in Vietnam.
Consequences of the Battle
The Viet Minh Army captured over 11,000 prisoners. This was the largest number the Viet Minh had ever captured and equaled one third of all the prisoners caught in the war. Those prisoners that were able to walk had to march about 250 miles to prison camps in the north and the east. Hundreds of these men died from disease during this march. At these prison camps the men were often starved and beat and many of them died. Only 3,000 prisoners were alive to be released in 1958. The wounded prisoners numbered about 4,500 men and were only given basic medical treatment.
The Viet Minh victory directly created the 1954 Geneva Accords. This divided Vietnam into two separate entities, the North and the South. The separation was also supposed to be temporary until 1956 when the two halves would reunite. This created the United States involvement in Vietnam as it supported the Southern Vietnamese government and sought to crush the Communist north.
