First Indochina War

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First Indochina War
Part of the Indochina Wars of the Cold War

Date
Location
Result

December 19, 1946 August 1, 1954

(7 years, 7 months, 1 week and 6 days)
French Indochina, mainly North Vietnam
State of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia gain official independence
Geneva Conference occurs
Evacuation of the French from Indochina
Vietnam is partitioned between North (controlled by the Vietminh)
and South (controlled by the State of Vietnam)

Territorial
changes

Provisional division of Vietnam

A French Foreign Legion unit patrols in a communist controlled area.

Belligerents
French Union

France (19451954)

French Indochina (19461953)

State of Vietnam (19491954)

Cambodia
(19531954)

Laos
(19491954)

Supported by
United States[1] (19501954)
Republic of China

Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Pathet Lao[2]
Khmer Issarak[3]
Supported by:[4]
Soviet Union[5]
People's Republic of China[5](19491954)

Commanders and leaders

French Expeditionary Corps

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque (19451946)

Jean-tienne Valluy (19461948)

Roger Blaizot (19481949)

Marcel Carpentier (19491950)

Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (19501951)

Raoul Salan (19521953)

Henri Navarre (19531954)

Vietnamese National Army

Nguyen Van Hinh (19501954)

Ho Chi Minh,
Vo Nguyen Giap
Souphanouvong

Strength
French Union: 190,000
Local Auxiliary: 55,000
State of Vietnam: 150,000[6]
Total: ~400,000
125,000 Regulars,
75,000 Regional,
250,000 Popular Forces/Irregulars[7]
Total: 450,000

Casualties and losses

French Union:
75,581 dead,
64,127 wounded,
40,000 captured
State of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia:
18,714 dead[8][9]
Total: ~90,000+ dead
Vietminh:
175,000500,000 dead[9][10]
3

125,000300,000 civilians killed[9][11][12]

Traditionally, the First Indochina War (also known as the French Indochina War, AntiFrench War, Franco-Vietnamese War, Franco-Vietminh War, Indochinese War, Dirty War
in France, and Anti-French Resistance War in contemporary Vietnam) is said to have begun in
French Indochina on 19 December 1946 and to have lasted until 1 August 1954. Fighting
between French forces and their Vit Minh opponents in the South dates from September 1945.
The conflict pitted a range of actors, including the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary
Corps, led by France and supported by Emperor Bo i's Vietnamese National Army against
the Vit Minh, led by H Ch Minh and V Nguyn Gip. Most of the fighting took place in
Tonkin in Northern Vietnam, although the conflict engulfed the entire country and also extended
into the neighboring French Indochina protectorates of Laos and Cambodia.
Following the reoccupation of Indochina by the French following the end of World War II, the
area having fallen to the Japanese, the Vit Minh launched a rebellion against the French
authority governing the colonies of French Indochina. The first few years of the war involved a
low-level rural insurgency against French authority. However, after the Chinese communists
reached the Northern border of Vietnam in 1949, the conflict turned into a conventional war
between two armies equipped with modern weapons supplied by the United States and the Soviet
Union.[13]
French Union forces included colonial troops from the whole former empire (Moroccan,
Algerian, Tunisian, Laotian, Cambodian, and Vietnamese ethnic minorities), French professional
troops and units of the French Foreign Legion. The use of metropolitan recruits was forbidden by
the governments to prevent the war from becoming even more unpopular at home. It was called
the "dirty war" (la sale guerre) by supporters of the Left intellectuals in France (including Sartre)
during the Henri Martin Affair in 1950.[14][15]
While the strategy of pushing the Vit Minh into attacking a well defended base in a remote part
of the country at the end of their logistical trail was validated at the Battle of Na San, the lack of
construction materials (especially concrete), tanks (because of lack of road access and difficulty
in the jungle terrain), and air cover precluded an effective defense, culminating in a decisive
French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
After the war, the Geneva Conference on July 21, 1954, made a provisional division of Vietnam
at the 17th parallel, with control of the north given to the Vit Minh as the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam under H Ch Minh, and the south becoming the State of Vietnam under Emperor
Bo i, in order to prevent H Ch Minh from gaining control of the entire country.[16] A year
later, Bo i would be deposed by his prime minister, Ng nh Dim, creating the Republic of
4

Vietnam. Diem's refusal to enter into negotiations with North Vietnam about holding nationwide
elections in 1956, as had been stipulated by the Geneva Conference, would eventually lead to
war breaking out again in South Vietnam in 1959 the Second Indochina War.

Background
Further information: Vietnam Expedition, French-Thai War, Second French Indochina
Campaign, Empire of Vietnam, August Revolution, Vietnamese Famine of 1945, Proclamation of
Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, French Far East Expeditionary
Corps, and War in Vietnam (19451946)
Vietnam was absorbed into French Indochina in stages between 1858 and 1887 with European
influence and education. Nationalism grew until World War II provided a break in French
control. Early Vietnamese resistance centered on the intellectual Phan Bi Chu. Chau looked to
Japan, which had modernized and was one of the few Asian nations to resist European
colonization. With Prince Cng , Chu started two organizations in Japan, the Duy Tn Hi
(Modernistic Association) and Vietnam Cong Hien Hoi.
Due to French pressure, Japan deported Phan Bi Chu to China. Witnessing Sun Yat-sen's 1911
nationalist revolution, Chau was inspired to commence the Vit Nam Quang Phc Hi movement
in Guangzhou. From 1914 to 1917, he was imprisoned by Yuan Shi Kai's counterrevolutionary
government. In 1925, he was captured by French agents in Shanghai and spirited to Vietnam.
Due to his popularity, Chu was spared from execution and placed under house arrest until his
death in 1940.
In September 1940, shortly after Phan Bi Chu's death, Japan launched the First French
Indochina Campaign and invaded French Indochina, mirroring their ally Germany's conquest of
metropolitan France. Keeping the French colonial administration, the Japanese ruled from behind
the scenes in a parallel of Vichy France. As far as Vietnamese nationalists were concerned, this
was a double-puppet government. Emperor Bo i collaborated with the Japanese, just as he
had with the French, ensuring his lifestyle could continue.
From October 1940 to May 1941, during the French-Thai War, the Vichy French in Indochina
were involved with defending their colony in a border conflict which saw the forces of Thailand
invade, while the Japanese sat on the sidelines. Thai military successes were limited to the
Cambodian border area, and in January 1941 Vichy France's modern naval forces soundly
defeated the inferior Thai naval forces in the Battle of Koh Chang. The war ended in May, with
the French agreeing to minor territorial revisions which restored formerly Thai areas to Thailand.
In March 1945, Japan launched the Second French Indochina Campaign and ousted the Vichy
French and formally installed Emperor Bo i in the short-lived Empire of Vietnam.

Japanese forces surrender (August 1945)

In August 1945, when Japanese forces surrendered in Vietnam, they allowed the Vit Minh and
other nationalist groups to take over public buildings and weapons without resistance, which
5

began the August Revolution. After their defeat the Japanese Army gave weapons to the
Vietnamese. In order to further help the nationalists, the Japanese kept Vichy French officials and
military officers imprisoned for a month after the surrender. The Vit Minh had recruited more
than 600 Japanese soldiers and given them roles to train or command Vietnamese soldiers.[17][18]
H Ch Minh claimed in a speech in September 1945 that due to a combination of ruthless
Japanese exploitation and poor weather, a famine occurred in which approximately 2 million
Vietnamese died. The Vit Minh arranged a relief effort in the north and won wide support there
as a result.
American President Franklin D. Roosevelt and General Joseph Stilwell privately made it
adamantly clear that the French were not to reacquire French Indochina (modern day Vietnam,
Cambodia and Laos) after the war was over. Roosevelt offered Chiang Kai-shek to place all of
Indochina under Chinese rule. Chiang Kai-shek supposedly replied: "Under no circumstances!".
[19]

After the war, 200,000 Chinese troops sent by Chiang Kai-shek under General Lu Han entered
Indochina north of the 16th parallel to accept the surrender of Japanese occupying forces. They
remained there until 1946.[20] The Chinese used the VNQDD, the Vietnamese branch of the
Chinese Kuomintang, to increase their influence in Indochina and put pressure on their
opponents.[21] Chiang Kai-shek threatened the French with war in response to manoeuvering by
the French and Ho Chi Minh against each other, forcing them to come to a peace agreement, and
in February 1946 he also forced the French to surrender all of their concessions in China and
renounce their extraterritorial privileges in exchange for withdrawing from northern Indochina
and allowing French troops to reoccupy the region starting in March 1946.[22][23][24][25]
H Ch Minh was able to persuade Emperor Bo i to abdicate on August 25, 1945. Bo i
was appointed "supreme advisor" to the new Vietminh-led government in Hanoi, which asserted
independence on September 2. Deliberately borrowing from the Declaration of Independence of
the United States of America, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed on September 2: "We hold the truth that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."[26]
With the fall of the short lived Japanese colony of the Empire of Vietnam, the Provisional
Government of the French Republic wanted to restore its colonial rule in French Indochina as the
final step of the Liberation of France. An armistice was signed between Japan and the United
States on August 20. CEFEO Expeditionary Corps leader General Leclerc signed the armistice
with Japan on board the USS Missouri on behalf of France, on September 2.
On September 13, a Franco-British task force landed in Java, main island of the Dutch East
Indies (for which independence was being sought by Sukarno), and Saigon, capital of
Cochinchina (southern part of French Indochina), both being occupied by the Japanese and ruled
by Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi, Commander-in-Chief of Japan's Southern Expeditionary
Army Group based in Saigon.[27] Allied troops in Saigon were an airborne detachment, two
British companies of the 20th Hindi Division and the French 5th Colonial Infantry Regiment,

with British General Sir Douglas Gracey as supreme commander. The latter proclaimed martial
law on September 21. The following night the Franco-British troops took control of Saigon.[28]
Almost immediately afterward, the Chinese Government, as agreed to at the Potsdam
Conference, occupied French Indochina as far south as the 16th parallel in order to supervise the
disarming and repatriation of the Japanese Army. This effectively ended H Ch Minh's nominal
government in Hanoi.
General Leclerc arrived in Saigon on October 9, with him was French Colonel Massu's March
Group (Groupement de marche). Leclerc's primary objectives were to restore public order in
south Vietnam and to militarize Tonkin (north Vietnam). Secondary objectives were to wait for
French backup in view to take back Chinese occupied Hanoi, then to negotiate with the Viet
Minh officials.[28]

Timeline
Campaign of 1946
Fighting broke out in Haiphong after a conflict of interest in import duty at the port between the
Viet Minh government and the French.[29] On November 23, 1946 the French fleet began a naval
bombardment of the city that killed over 6,000 Vietnamese civilians in one afternoon according
to one source[30] or over 2,000 according to another.[31] The Vit Minh quickly agreed to a ceasefire and left the cities.
There was never any intention among the Vietnamese to give up, as General Vo Nguyen Giap
soon brought up 30,000 men to attack the city. Although the French were outnumbered, their
superior weaponry and naval support made any Vit Minh attack impossible. In December,
hostilities also broke out in Hanoi between the Vit Minh and the French, and H Ch Minh was
forced to evacuate the capital in favor of remote mountain areas. Guerrilla warfare ensued, with
the French controlling most of the country except far-flung areas.

Campaign of 1947
In 1947, General V Nguyn Gip retreated his command to Tn Tro deep in the hills of Tuyen
Quang province. The French sent military expeditions to attack his bases, but Gip refused to
meet them head-on in battle. Wherever the French troops went, the Vit Minh disappeared. Late
in the year the French launched Operation Lea to take out the Vit Minh communications center
at Bac Kan. They failed to capture H Ch Minh and his key lieutenants as intended, but 9,000
Vit Minh soldiers were killed during the campaign which was a major blow for the insurgency.
[citation needed]

Campaign of 1948
In 1948, France started looking for means of opposing the Vit Minh politically, with an
alternative government in Saigon. They began negotiations with the former Vietnamese emperor
7

Bo i to lead an "autonomous" government within the French Union of nations, the State of
Vietnam. Two years before, the French had refused H's proposal of a similar status, albeit with
some restrictions on French power and the latter's eventual withdrawal from Vietnam.
However, they were willing to give it to Bo i as he had freely collaborated with French rule
of Vietnam in the past and was in no position to seriously negotiate or impose demands (Bo i
had no military of his own, but soon he would have one).

Campaign of 1949
In 1949, France officially recognized the "independence" of the State of Vietnam as an
associated state within the French Union under Bo i. However, France still controlled all
foreign relations and every defense issue as Vietnam was only nominally an independent state
within the French Union . The Vit Minh quickly denounced the government and stated that they
wanted "real independence, not Bo i independence". Later on, as a concession to this new
government and a way to increase their numbers, France agreed to the formation of the
Vietnamese National Army to be commanded by Vietnamese officers.
These troops were used mostly to garrison quiet sectors so French forces would be available for
combat. Private Cao Dai, Hoa Hao and the Binh Xuyen gangster armies were used in the same
way. The Vietnamese Communists in return obtained outside support in 1949 when Chairman
Mao Zedong succeeded in taking control of China by defeating the Kuomintang, thus gaining a
major political ally and supply area just across the border. In the same year, the French also
granted independence (within the framework of the French Union) to the other two nations in
Indochina, the Kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia.
The United States recognized the South Vietnamese state, but many other nations viewed it as
simply a French puppet regime and would not deal with it at all[citation needed]. The United States
began to give military aid to France in the form of weaponry and military observers. By then
with almost unlimited Chinese military supplies entering Vietnam, General Gip re-organized his
local irregular forces into five full conventional infantry divisions, the 304th, 308th, 312th, 316th
and the 320th. The war began to intensify when Gip went on the offensive, attacking isolated
French bases along the Chinese border.

Campaign of 1950

A map of dissident activities in Indochina in 1950.

In February 1950, Gip seized the vulnerable 150-strong French garrison at Lai Khe in Tonkin
just south of the border with China. Then, on May 25, he attacked the garrison of Cao Bang
manned by 4,000 French-controlled Vietnamese troops, but his forces were repulsed.[citation needed]
Gip launched his second offense again against Cao Bang as well as Dong Khe on September 15.
Dong Khe fell on September 18, and Cao Bang finally fell on October 3.
Lang Son, with its 4,000-strong French Foreign Legion garrison, was attacked immediately after.
The retreating French on Route 4, together with the relief force coming from That Khe, were
9

attacked all the way by ambushing Vit Minh forces. The French air-dropped a paratroop
battalion south of Dong Khe to act as diversion only to see it surrounded and destroyed. On
October 17, Lang Son, after a week of intense fighting, finally fell.
By the time the remains of the garrisons reached the safety of the Red River Delta, 4,800 French
troops had been killed, captured or missing in action and 2,000 wounded out of a total garrison
force of over 10,000. Also lost were 13 artillery pieces, 125 mortars, 450 trucks, 940 machine
guns, 1,200 submachine guns and 8,000 rifles destroyed or captured during the fighting. China
and the Soviet Union recognized H Ch Minh as the legitimate ruler of Vietnam and sent him
more and more supplies and material aid. The year 1950 also marked the first time that napalm
was ever used in Vietnam (this type of weapon was supplied by the U.S. for the use of the French
Aeronovale at the time).
The military situation improved for France when their new commander, General Jean Marie de
Lattre de Tassigny, built a fortified line from Hanoi to the Gulf of Tonkin, across the Red River
Delta, to hold the Vit Minh in place and use his troops to smash them against this barricade,
which became known as the "De Lattre Line". This led to a period of success for the French.

Campaign of 1951
General Trinh Minh The.
On January 13, 1951, Giap moved the 308th and 312th Divisions, made up of over 20,000 men,
to attack Vinh Yen, 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Hanoi which was manned by the 6,000 strong
9th Foreign Legion Brigade. The Vit Minh entered a trap. Caught for the first time in the open
and actually forced to fight the French head-on, without the ability to quickly hide and retreat,
they were mown down by concentrated French artillery and machine gun fire. By January 16,
Giap was forced to withdraw, having lost over 6,000 killed, 8,000 wounded and 500 captured.
[citation needed]
The Battle of Vinh Yen had been a catastrophe.
On March 23, Giap tried again, launching an attack against Mao Khe, 20 miles (32 km) north of
Haiphong. The 316th Division, composed of 11,000 men, with the partly rebuilt 308th and 312th
Divisions in reserve, went forward and were beaten in bitter hand-to-hand fighting against
French troops. Giap, having lost over 3,000 dead and wounded by March 28, withdrew.
Giap launched yet another attack on May 29 with the 304th Division at Phu Ly, the 308th
Division at Ninh Binh, and the main attack delivered by the 320th Division at Phat Diem south
of Hanoi. The attacks fared no better and the three divisions lost heavily. Taking advantage of
this, de Lattre mounted his counter offensive against the demoralized Vit Minh, driving them
back into the jungle and eliminating the enemy pockets in the Red River Delta by June 18
costing the Vit Minh over 10,000 killed.[citation needed]
Every effort by Vo Nguyen Giap to break the line failed and every attack he made was answered
by a French counter-attack that destroyed his forces. Vit Minh casualties rose alarmingly during
this period, leading some to question the leadership of the Communist government, even within
10

the party. However, any benefit this may have reaped for France was negated by the increasing
domestic opposition to the war in France.
On July 31, French General Charles Chanson was assassinated during a kamikaze attentat at Sa
c in South Vietnam that was blamed on the Vit Minh although it was argued in some quarters
that Cao Dai nationalist Trinh Minh The could have been involved in its planning.
On November 14, 1951, the French seized Ha Bnh, 25 miles (40 km) west of the De Lattre
line, by a parachute drop and expanded their perimeter.

Campaign of 1952
French foreign airborne 1st BEP firing with a FM 24/29 during an ambush (1952).
Vit Minh launched attacks on Ha Binh forcing the French to withdraw back to their main
positions on the De Lattre line by February 22, 1952. Each side lost nearly 5,000 men in this
campaign and it showed that the war was far from over. In January, General de Lattre fell ill from
cancer and had to return to France for treatment. He died there shortly thereafter and was
replaced by General Raoul Salan as the overall commander of French forces in Indochina.
Throughout the war theater, the Vit Minh cut French supply lines and began to seriously wear
down the resolve of the French forces. There were continued raids, skirmishes and guerrilla
attacks, but through most of the rest of the year each side withdrew to prepare itself for larger
operations. Starting on October 2, the Battle of Na San saw the first use of the French
commanders "hedgehog" tactics consisting in setting up a well defended outpost to get the Vit
Minh out of the jungle and force it to fight a conventional battle instead of ambushes. At first this
strategy was successful for the French Union but it ended with a fiasco in 1954.
On October 17, 1952, Gip launched attacks against the French garrisons along Nghia Lo,
northwest of Hanoi, and overran much of the Black River valley, except for the airfield of Na
San where a strong French garrison entrenched. Gip by now had control over most of Tonkin
beyond the De Lattre line. Raoul Salan, seeing the situation as critical, launched Operation
Lorraine along the Clear river to force Gip to relieve pressure on the Nghia Lo outposts.
On October 29, 1952, in the largest operation in Indochina to date, 30,000 French Union soldiers
moved out from the De Lattre line to attack the Vit Minh supply dumps at Phu Yen. Salan took
Phu Tho on November 5, and Phu Doan on November 9 by a parachute drop, and finally Phu
Yen on November 13. Gip at first did not react to the French offensive. He planned to wait until
their supply lines were over extended and then cut them off from the Red River Delta.
Salan correctly guessed what the Vit Minh were up to and cancelled the operation on November
14, beginning to withdraw back to the de Lattre line. The only major fighting during the
operation came during the withdrawal, when the Vit Minh ambushed the French column at
Chan Muong on November 17. The road was cleared after a bayonet charge by the Indochinese
March Battalion and the withdrawal could continue. The French lost around 1,200 men during
11

the whole operation, most of them during the Chan Muong ambush. Though the operation was
partially successful, it proved that although the French could strike out at any target outside the
De Lattre line, it failed to divert the Vit Minh offensive or seriously damage its logistical
network.

Campaign of 1953
A Bearcat of the Aronavale drops napalm on Vit Minh Division 320th's artillery during
Operation Mouette (November 1953).
On April 9, 1953, Gip, after having failed repeatedly in direct attacks on French positions in
Vietnam, changed strategy and began to pressure the French by invading Laos, surrounding and
defeating several French outposts such as Muong Khoua. The only real change came in May
when General Navarre replaced General Salan as supreme commander in Indochina. He reported
to the government "...that there was no possibility of winning the war in Indo-China" saying that
the best the French could hope for was a stalemate.
Navarre, in response to the Vit Minh attacking Laos, concluded that "hedgehog" centers of
defense were the best plan. Looking at a map of the area, Navarre chose the small town of in
Bin Ph, located about 10 miles (16 km) north of the Lao border and 175 miles (282 km) west
of Hanoi as a target to block the Vit Minh from invading Laos. in Bin Ph had a number of
advantages; it was on a Vit Minh supply route into Laos on the Nam Yum River, it had an old
airstrip for supply and it was situated in the T'ai hills where the T'ai tribesmen, still loyal to the
French, operated.
Operation Castor was launched on November 20, 1953 with 1,800 men of the French 1st and 2nd
Airborne Battalions dropping into the valley of in Bin Ph and sweeping aside the local Vit
Minh garrison. The paratroopers gained control of a heart-shaped valley 12 miles (19 km) long
and eight miles (13 km) wide surrounded by heavily wooded hills. Encountering little
opposition, the French and T'ai units operating from Lai Chu to the north patrolled the hills.
The operation was a tactical success for the French. However, Gip, seeing the weakness of the
French position, started moving most of his forces from the De Lattre line to in Bin Ph. By
mid-December, most of the French and T'ai patrols in the hills around the town were wiped out
by Vit Minh ambushes.[citation needed] The fight for control of this position would be the longest and
hardest battle for the French Far East Expeditionary Corps and would be remembered by the
veterans as "57 Days of Hell".

Campaign of 1954
Franco-Vietnamese medics treating a wounded Vit Minh POW at Hung Yen (1954).
By 1954, despite official propaganda presenting the war as a "crusade against communism",[32][33]
the war in Indochina was still growing unpopular with the French public. The political stagnation
12

of the Fourth Republic meant that France was unable to extract itself from the conflict. The
United States initially sought to remain neutral, viewing the conflict as chiefly a decolonization
war.
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu occurred in 1954 between Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap
supported by China and the Soviet Union and the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary
Corps supported by Indochinese allies. The battle was fought near the village of Dien Bien Phu
in northern Vietnam and became the last major battle between the French and the Vietnamese in
the First Indochina War.
The battle began on March 13 when preemptive Vit Minh attack surprised the French with
heavy artillery. Their supply lines interrupted, the French position became untenable, particularly
when the advent of the monsoon season made dropping supplies and reinforcements by
parachute difficult. With defeat imminent, the French sought to hold on until the opening of the
Geneva peace meeting on April 26. The last French offensive took place on May 4, but it was
ineffective. The Vit Minh then began to hammer the outpost with newly supplied Russian
Katyusha rockets along with all the other inventions and implements now being turned against
the French.[citation needed].
The final fall took two days, May 6 and 7, during which the French fought on but were
eventually overrun by a huge frontal assault. General Cogny based in Hanoi ordered General de
Castries, who was commanding the outpost to cease fire at 5:30 pm and to destroy all material
(weapons, transmissions, etc.) to deny their use to the enemy. A formal order was given to not
use the white flag so that it would not be considered to be a surrender but a ceasefire. Much of
the fighting ended on May 7; however, a ceasefire was not respected on Isabelle, the isolated
southern position, where the battle lasted until May 8 1:00 am.[34]
At least 2,200 members of the 20,000-strong French forces died, and another 1,729 were
reported missing after the battle. Of the 50,000 or so Vietnamese soldiers thought to be involved,
there were an estimated 4,800 to 8,000 killed and another 9,00015,000 wounded.[citation needed] The
prisoners taken at Dien Bien Phu were the greatest number the Vit Minh had ever captured: onethird of the total captured during the entire war.
One month after Dien Bien Phu, the composite Groupe Mobile 100 (GM100) of the French
Union forces evacuated the An Khe outpost and was ambushed by a larger Vit Minh force at the
Battle of Mang Yang Pass from June 24 to July 17. On the same time, Giap launched some
offensives against the delta but they all failed[citation needed]. The Vit Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu
heavily influenced the outcome of the 1954 Geneva accords that took place on July 21. In August
Operation Passage to Freedom began, consisting of the evacuation of Catholic and loyalist
Vietnamese civilians from communist North Vietnamese persecution.

Geneva Conference and Partition

Further information: Geneva Conference (1954) and Partition of Vietnam

13

The 1954 Geneva Conference.

Negotiations between France and the Vit Minh started in Geneva in April 1954 at the Geneva
Conference, during which time the French Union and the Vit Minh were fighting a battle at
Dien Bien Phu. In France, Pierre Mends-France, opponent of the war since 1950, had been
invested as Prime Minister on June 17, 1954, on a promise to put an end to the war, reaching a
ceasefire in four months:
"Today it seems we can be reunited in a will for peace that may express the aspirations of our
country.... Since already several years, a compromise peace, a peace negotiated with the
opponent seemed to me commanded by the facts, while it commanded, in return, to put back in
order our finances, the recovery of our economy and its expansion. Because this war placed on
our country an unbearable burden. And here appears today a new and formidable threat: if the
Indochina conflict is not resolved and settled very fast it is the risk of war, of international
war and maybe atomic, that we must foresee. It is because I wanted a better peace that I wanted
it earlier, when we had more assets. But even now there is some renouncings or abandons that
the situation does not comprise. France does not have to accept and will not accept settlement
which would be incompatible with its more vital interests [applauding on certain seats of the
Assembly on the left and at the extreme right]. France will remain present in Far-Orient. Neither
14

our allies, nor our opponents must conserve the least doubt on the signification of our
determination. A negotiation has been engaged in Geneva.... I have longly studied the report....
consulted the most qualified military and diplomatic experts. My conviction that a pacific
settlement of the conflict is possible has been confirmed. A "cease-fire" must henceforth
intervene quickly. The government which I will form will fix itself and will fix to its
opponents a delay of 4 weeks to reach it. We are today on 17th of June. I will present myself
before you before the 20th of July... If no satisfying solution has been reached at this date, you
will be freed from the contract which would have tied us together, and my government will give
its dismissal to Mr. the President of the Republic."[35]
The Geneva Conference on July 21, 1954, recognized the 17th parallel as a "provisional military
demarcation line" temporarily dividing the country into two zones, Communist North Vietnam
and pro-Western South Vietnam.
Students demonstration in Saigon, July 1964, observing the tenth anniversary of the July 1954
Geneva Agreements.
The Geneva Accords promised elections in 1956 to determine a national government for a united
Vietnam. However, the United States and the State of Vietnam refused to sign the document.
From his home in France, Emperor Bo i appointed Ng nh Dim as Prime Minister of
South Vietnam. With American support, in 1955 Dim used a referendum to remove the former
Emperor and declare himself the president of the Republic of Vietnam.
When the elections were prevented from happening by the Americans and the South, Vit Minh
cadres who stayed behind in South Vietnam were activated and started to fight the government.
North Vietnam also invaded and occupied portions of Laos to assist in supplying the guerilla
fighting National Liberation Front in South Vietnam. The war gradually escalated into the
Second Indochina War, more commonly known as the Vietnam War in the West and the
American War in Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh
Main article: Ho Chi Minh
In 1923, H Ch Minh moved to Guangzhou, China. From 192526, he organized the 'Youth
Education Classes' and occasionally gave lectures at the famous Whampoa Military Academy on
the revolutionary movement in Indochina. He stayed there in Hong Kong as a representative of
the Communist International organization. In June 1931, he was arrested and incarcerated by
British police until his release in 1933. He then made his way back to the Soviet Union, where he
spent several years recovering from tuberculosis. In 1938, he returned to China and served as an
adviser with the Chinese Communist armed forces.

Vo Nguyen Giap and Ho Chi Minh (1942).

15

In 1941, Ho Chi Minh, seeing communist revolution as the

path to freedom, returned to Vietnam and formed the Vit Nam
c Lp ng Minh Hi (League for the Independent of
Vietnam), better known as the Vit Minh. He spent many years
in Moscow and participated in the International Comintern. At
the direction of Moscow, he combined the various Vietnamese
communist groups into the Indochinese Communist Party in
Hong Kong in 1930. H Ch Minh created the Viet Minh as an
umbrella organization for all the nationalist resistance
movements, de-emphasizing his communist social
revolutionary background.
Late in the war, the Japanese created a nominally independent
government of Vietnam under the overall leadership of Bo
i. Around the same time, the Japanese arrested and
imprisoned most of the French officials and military officers
left in the country. After the French army and other officials
were freed from Japanese prisons in Vietnam, they began reasserting their authority over parts of
the country. At the same time, the French government began negotiations with both the Vit
Minh and the Chinese for a return of the French army to Vietnam north of the 16th parallel.
The Vit Minh were willing to accept French rule to end Chinese occupation. H Ch Minh and
others had fears of the Chinese, based on China's historic domination and occupation of Vietnam.
The French negotiated a deal with the Chinese where pre-war French concessions in Chinese
ports such as Shanghai were traded for Chinese cooperation in Vietnam. The French landed a
military force at Haiphong in early 1946. Negotiations then took place about the future for
Vietnam as a state within the French Union. These talks eventually failed and the Vit Minh fled
into the countryside to wage guerrilla war. In 1946, Vietnam created its first constitution.

16

Telegram from H Ch Minh to U.S. President Harry S. Truman requesting support for
independence (Hanoi, February 28, 1946).
17

The British had supported the French in fighting the Viet Minh, armed militias from the religious
Cao Dai and Hoa Hao sects and the Binh Xuyen organized crime groups which were all
individually seeking power in the country. In 1948, as part of a post-colonial solution, the French
re-installed Bo i as head of state of Vietnam under the French Union. The Viet Minh were
militarily ineffective in the first few years of the war and could do little more than harass the
French in remote areas of Indochina.
In 1949, the war changed with the triumph of the communists in China on Vietnam's northern
border. China was able to give almost unlimited support in terms of weapons and supplies to the
Vit Minh which transformed itself into a conventional army. After World War II, the United
States and the USSR entered into the Cold War. The Korean War broke out in 1950 between
communist North Korea (DPRK) supported by China and the Soviet Union, and South Korea
(ROK) supported by the United States and its allies in the UN.
The Cold War was now turning 'hot' in East Asia, and the American government feared
communist domination of the entire region would have deep implications for American interests.
The US became strongly opposed to the government of H Ch Minh, in part, because it was
supported and supplied by China. H's government gained recognition from China and the
Soviet Union by January 1950 in response to Western support for the State of Vietnam that the
French had proposed as an associate state within the French Union. In the French-controlled
areas of Vietnam, in the same year, the government of Bo i gained recognition by the United
States and the United Kingdom.

French domestic situation

The 1946 Constitution creating the Fourth Republic (19461958) made France a Parliamentary
republic. Because of the political context, it could find stability only by an alliance between the
three dominant parties: the Christian Democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP), the
French Communist Party (PCF) and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International
(SFIO). Known as tripartisme, this alliance briefly lasted until the May 1947 crisis, with the
expulsion from Paul Ramadier's SFIO government of the PCF ministers, marking the official
start of the Cold War in France. This had the effect of weakening the regime, with the two most
significant movements of this period, Communism and Gaullism, in opposition.
Unlikely alliances had to be made between left and right-wing parties in order to form a
government invested by the National Assembly, which resulted in strong parliamentary
unstability. Hence, France had fourteen prime ministers in succession between the creation of the
Fourth Republic in 1947 and the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The rapid turnover of
governments (there were 17 different governments during the war) left France unable to
prosecute the war with any consistent policy according to veteran General Ren de Bir
(Lieutenant at Dien Bien Phu).[36]
France was increasingly unable to afford the costly conflict in Indochina and, by 1954, the
United States was paying 80% of France's war effort which was $3,000,000 per day in 1952.[37][38]

18

A strong anti-war movement came into existence in France driven mostly by the then powerful
French Communist Party (outpowering the socialists) and its young militant associations, major
trade unions like the General Confederation of Labour as well as notable leftist intellectuals.[15][39]
The first occurrence was probably at the National Assembly on March 21, 1947 when the
communist deputees refused to back the military credits for Indochina. The following year a
pacifist event was organized, the "1st Worldwide Congress of Peace Partisans" (1er Congrs
Mondial des Partisans de la Paix, the World Peace Council's predecessor) which took place from
March 25 to March 28, 1948 in Paris, with the French communist Nobel laureate atomic
physicist Frdric Joliot-Curie as president. Later on April 28, 1950, Joliot-Curie would be
dismissed from the military and civilian Atomic Energy Commission for political reasons.[40]
Young communist militants (UJRF) were also accused of sabotage actions like the famous Henri
Martin Affair and the case of Raymonde Dien who was jailed one year for having blocked an
ammunition train, with the help of other militants, in order to prevent the supply of French forces
in Indochina in February 1950.[15][36] Similar actions against trains occurred in Roanne,
Charleville, Marseille, and Paris. Even ammunition sabotage by PCF agents have been reported,
such as grenades exploding in the hands of legionaries.[36] These actions became such a cause for
concern by 1950 that the French Assembly voted a law against sabotage from March 2 to 8. At
this session tension was so high between politicians that fighting ensued in the assembly
following communist deputees speeches against the Indochinese policy.[40] This month saw the
French navy mariner and communist militant Henri Martin arrested by military police and jailed
for five years for sabotage and propaganda operations in Toulon's arsenal. On May 5 communist
Ministers were dismissed from the government, marking the end of Tripartism.[40] A few months
later on November 11, 1950, the French Communist Party leader Maurice Thorez went to
Moscow.
Some military officers involved in the Revers Report scandal (Rapport Revers) like General
Salan were very pessimistic about the way the war was being conducted,[41] with multiple
political-military scandals all happening during the war, starting with the Generals' Affair
(Affaire des Gnraux) from September 1949 to November 1950.
As a result, General Revers was dismissed in December 1949 and socialist Defense Ministry
Jules Moch (SFIO) was brought on court by the National Assembly on November 28, 1950.
Emerging media[clarification needed] played their role.[clarification needed] The scandal started the commercial
success of the first French news magazine L'Express created in 1953.[42]
The third scandal was a financial-political scandal, concerning military corruption, money and
arms trading involving both the French Union army and the Viet Minh, known as the Piastres
Affair.
The war ended in 1954 but its sequel started in French Algeria where the French Communist
Party played an even stronger role by supplying the National Liberation Front (FLN) rebels with
intelligence documents and financial aids. They were called "the suitcase carriers" (les porteurs
de valises).
In the French news, the Indochina War was presented as a direct continuation of the Korean War
where France had fought as a UN French battalion then incorporated in a U.S. unit, which was
19

later involved in the terrible Battle of Mang Yang Pass of June and July 1954.[32] In an interview
taped in May 2004, General Marcel Bigeard (6th BPC) argues that "one of the deepest mistakes
done by the French during the war was the propaganda telling you are fighting for Freedom, you
are fighting against Communism",[33] hence the sacrifice of volunteers during the climactic battle
of Dien Bien Phu. In the latest days of the siege, 652 non-paratrooper soldiers from all army
corps from cavalry to infantry to artillery dropped for the first and last time of their life to
support their comrades. The Cold War excuse was later used by General Maurice Challe through
his famous "Do you want Mers El Kbir & Algiers to become Soviet bases as soon as
tomorrow?", during the Generals' putsch (Algerian War) of 1961, with limited effect though.[43]
The same propaganda existed in the United States with local newsreels using French news
footage, probably supplied by the army's cinematographic service. Occurring during the Red
Scare years, propaganda was necessary both to justify financial aid and at the same time to
promote the American effort in the ongoing Korean War.[37][44] A few hours after the French
Union defeat at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954, United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
made an official speech depicting the "tragic event" and "its defense for fifty seven days and
nights will remain in History as one of the most heroic of all time." Later on, he denounced
Chinese aid to the Vit Minh, explained that the United States could not act openly because of
international pressure, and concluded with the call to "all concerned nations" concerning the
necessity of "a collective defense" against "the communist aggression".[45]

War crimes & re-education camps

This section requires expansion. (May 2007)

The Boudarel Affair. Georges Boudarel was a French communist militant who used
brainwashing and torture against French Union POWs in Vit Minh reeducation camps.[46]
The French national association of POWs brought Boudarel to court for a war crime
charge. Most of the French Union prisoners died in the Vit Minh camps and many
POWs from the Vietnamese National Army were missing.

Passage to Freedom was a Franco-American operation to evacuate refugees. Loyal

Indochinese evacuated to metropolitan France were kept in detention camps.[47]

In 1957, the French Chief of Staff with Raoul Salan would use the POWs experience with
the Viet Minh reeducation camps to create two "Instruction Center for Pacification and
Counter-Insurgency" (Centre d'Instruction la Pacification et la Contre-Gurilla aka
CIPCG) and train thousands of officers during the Algerian War.

Other countries' involvement

This section requires expansion. (June 2007)
Further information: French Union
By 1946, France headed the French Union. As successive governments had forbidden the
sending of metropolitan troops, the French Far East Expeditionary Corps (CEFEO) was created
20

in March 1945. The Union gathered combatants from almost all French territories made of
colonies, protectorates and associated states (Madagascar, Senegal, Tunisia, etc.) to fight in
French Indochina, which was then occupied by the Japanese. About 325,000 of the 500,000
French troops were Indochinese, almost all of whom were used in conventional units.[48]
The Afrique Occidentale Franaise (AOF) was a federation of African colonies. Senegalese and
other African troops were sent to fight in Indochina. Some African alumni were trained in the
Infantry Instruction Center no.2 (Centre d'Instruction de l'Infanterie no.2) located in southern
Vietnam. Senegalese of the Colonial Artillery fought at the siege of Dien Bien Phu. As a French
colony (later a full province), French Algeria sent local troops to Indochina including several
RTA (Rgiment de Tirailleurs Algriens) light infantry battalions. Morocco was a French
protectorate and sent troops to support the French effort in Indochina. Moroccan troops were part
of light infantry RTMs (Rgiment de Tirailleurs Marocains) for "Moroccan Sharpshooters
Regiment".
As a French protectorate, Bizerte, Tunisia, was a major French base. Tunisian troops, mostly
RTT (Rgiment de Tirailleurs Tunisiens), were sent to Indochina. Part of French Indochina, then
part of the French Union and later an associated state, Laos fought the communists along with
French forces. The role played by Laotian troops in the conflict was depicted by veteran Pierre
Schoendoerffer's famous 317th Platoon released in 1964.[49] The French Indochina state of
Cambodia played a significant role during the Indochina War through its infantrymen and
paratroopers.[citation needed]
While Bo i's State of Vietnam (formerly Annam, Tonkin, Cochinchine) had the Vietnamese
National Army supporting the French forces, some minorities were trained and organized as
regular battalions (mostly infantry tirailleurs) that fought with French forces against the Vit
Minh. The Tai Battalion 2 (BT2, 2e Bataillon Thai) is famous for its desertion during the siege of
Dien Bien Phu. Propaganda leaflets written in Tai and French sent by the Vit Minh were found
in the deserted positions and trenches. Such deserters were called the Nam Yum rats by Bigeard
during the siege, as they hid close to the Nam Yum river during the day and searched at night for
supply drops.[50] Another allied minority was the Muong people (Mng). The 1st Muong
Battalion (1er Bataillon Muong) was awarded the Croix de guerre des thtres d'oprations
extrieures after the victorious battle of Vinh Yen in 1951.[51] In the 1950s, the French established
secret commando groups based on loyal montagnard ethnic minorities referred as "partisans" or
"maquisards", called the Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aroports (Composite Airborne
Commando Group or GCMA), later renamed Groupement Mixte d'Intervention (GMI, or Mixed
Intervention Group), directed by the SDECE counter-intelligence service. The SDECE's "Service
Action" GCMA used both commando and guerrilla techniques and operated in intelligence and
secret missions from 1950 to 1955.[52][53] Declassified information about the GCMA include the
name of its commander, famous Colonel Roger Trinquier, and a mission on April 30, 1954, when
Jedburgh veteran Captain Sassi led the Mo partisans of the GCMA Malo-Servan in Operation
Condor during the siege of Dien Bien Phu.[54] In 1951, Adjutant-Chief Vandenberghe from the
6th Colonial Infantry Regiment (6e RIC) created the "Commando Vanden" (aka "Black Tigers",
aka "North Vietnam Commando #24") based in Nam Dinh. Recruits were volunteers from the
Th people, Nung people and Miao people. This commando unit wore Vit Minh black uniforms
to confuse the enemy and used techniques of the experienced Bo doi (B i, regular army) and
21

Du Kich (guerrilla unit). Vit Minh prisoners were recruited in POW camps. The commando was
awarded the Croix de guerre des TOE with palm in July 1951, however Vandenberghe was
betrayed by a Vit Minh recruit, commander Nguien Tinh Khoi (308th Division's 56th
Regiment), who assassinated him (and his Vietnamese fiancee) with external help on the night of
January 5, 1952.[55][56][57] Coolies and POWs known as PIM (Prisonniers Interns Militaires
which is basically the same as POW) were civilians used by the army as logistical support
personnel. During the battle of Dien Bien Phu, coolies were in charge of burying the corpses
the first days only, after they were abandoned hence a terrible smell according to veterans and
they had the dangerous job of gathering supply packets delivered in drop zones while the Vit
Minh artillery was firing hard to destroy the crates. The Vit Minh also used thousands of coolies
to carry the Chu-Luc (regional units) supplies and ammunition during assaults. The PIM were
civilian males old enough to join Bo i's army. They were captured in enemy controlled
villages, and those who refused to join the State of Vietnam's army were considered prisoners or
used as coolies to support a given regiment.[58]

China supplied the Viet Minh with hundreds of Soviet-built GAZ-51 trucks in the 1950s.
One point that neither the Americans nor the French seemed to grasp, was the concept of
sanctuary. As long as the revolutionaries who are fighting a guerilla war have a sanctuary, in
which they can hide out, recoup after losses, and store supplies, it is almost impossible for any
foreign enemy to ever destroy them.[citation needed] In the early 1950s, southern China was used as a
sanctuary by Vit Minh guerrillas. Several hit and run ambushes were successfully operated
against French Union convoys along the neighboring Route Coloniale 4 (RC 4) which was a
major supply way in Tonkin (northern Vietnam). One of the most famous attack of this kind was
the battle of Cao Bang. China supplied the Vit Minh guerrillas with food (thousands of tons of
rice), money, medics, arms, ammunitions, artillery (24 guns were used at Dien Bien Phu) and
other military equipment including a large part of material captured from Chiang Kai-shek's
National Revolutionary Army during the Chinese Civil War. Evidences of the Chinese secret aid
were found in caves during Operation Hirondelle in July 1953.[59][60] 2,000 Chinese and Soviet
Union military advisors trained the Vit Minh guerrilla to turn it into a full range army.[36] On top
of this China sent two artillery battalions at the siege of Dien Bien Phu on May 6, 1954. One
operated 12 x 6 Katyusha rockets[61] China and the Soviet Union were the first nations to
recognize North Vietnam.
The Soviet Union was the other ally of the Vit Minh supplying GAZ trucks, truck engines, fuel,
tires, arms (thousands of Skoda light machine guns), all kind of ammunitions, anti-aircraft guns
(4 x 37 mm type) and cigarettes. During Operation Hirondelle, the French Union paratroopers
captured and destroyed tons of Soviet supply in the Ky Lua area.[59][62] According to General
Giap, the Viet Minh used 400 GAZ-51 soviet-built trucks at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Using
highly effective camouflage, the French Union reconnaissance planes were not able to notice
them. On May 6, 1954 during the siege, Katyusha were successfully used against the outpost.
Together with China, the Soviet Union sent 2,000 military advisors to train the Viet Minh and
turn it into a fully organized army.[36] The Soviet Union and China were the first nations to
recognize Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnam.
22

Mutual Defense Assistance Act (19501954)

Anti-communist Vietnamese refugees moving from a French LSM landing ship to the USS
Montague during Operation Passage to Freedom in 1954.
At the beginning of the war, the U.S. was neutral in the conflict because of opposition to
imperialism, because the Vit Minh had recently been their allies, and because most of its
attention was focused on Europe where Winston Churchill argued an Iron Curtain had fallen.
Then the U.S. government gradually began supporting the French in their war effort, primarily
through Mutual Defense Assistance Act, as a means of stabilizing the French Fourth Republic in
which the French Communist Party was a significant political force. A dramatic shift occurred in
American policy after the victory of Mao Zedong's Communist Party of China in the Chinese
Civil War. By 1949, however, the United States became concerned about the spread of
communism in Asia, particularly following the end of the Chinese Civil War, and began to
strongly support the French as the two countries were bound by the Cold War Mutual Defense
Programme.[63]
After the MochMarshall meeting of September 23, 1950, in Washington, the United States
started to support the French Union effort politically, logistically and financially. Officially, US
involvement did not include use of armed force. However, recently it has been discovered that
undercover (CAT) -or not- US Air Force pilots flew to support the French during Operation
Castor in November 1953. Two US pilots were killed in action during the siege of Dien Bien Phu
the following year. These facts were declassified and made public more than 50 years after the
events, in 2005 during the Lgion d'honneur award ceremony by the French ambassador in
Washington.[64]
In May 1950, after the capture of Hainan island by Chinese Communist forces, U.S. President
Harry S. Truman began covertly authorizing direct financial assistance to the French, and on
June 27, 1950, after the outbreak of the Korean War, announced publicly that the U.S. was doing
so. It was feared in Washington that if Ho were to win the war, with his ties to the Soviet Union,
he would establish a puppet state with Moscow with the Soviets ultimately controlling
Vietnamese affairs. The prospect of a communist dominated Southeast Asia was enough to spur
the U.S. to support France, so that the spread of Soviet-allied communism could be contained.
On June 30, 1950, the first U.S. supplies for Indochina were delivered. In September, Truman
sent the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to Indochina to assist the French. Later, in
1954, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower explained the escalation risk, introducing what he
referred to as the "domino principle", which eventually became the concept of Domino theory.
During the Korean War, the conflict in Vietnam was also seen as part of a broader proxy war
with China and the USSR in Asia.

US Navy assistance (19511954)

23

Bois Belleau (aka USS Belleau Wood) transferred to France in 1953.

The USS Windham Bay delivered Grumman F8F Bearcat fighter aircraft to Saigon on January
26, 1951.[65]
On March 2 of that year, the United States Navy transferred the USS Agenor (ARL-3) (LST 490)
to the French navy in Indochina in accordance with the MAAG-led MAP. Renamed RFS Vulcain
(A-656), she was used in Operation Hirondelle in 1953. The USS Sitkoh Bay carrier delivered
Grumman F8F Bearcat aircraft to Saigon on March 26, 1951. During September 1953, the
USS Belleau Wood (renamed Bois Belleau) was lent to France and sent to French Indochina to
replace the Arromanches. She was used to support delta defenders in the Halong Bay operation
in May 1954. In August, she joined the Franco-American evacuation operation called "Passage to
Freedom".
The same month, the United States delivered additional aircraft, again using the USS Windham
Bay.[66] On April 18, 1954, during the siege of Dien Bien Phu, the USS Saipan delivered 25
Korean War AU-1 Corsair aircraft for use by the French Aeronavale in supporting the besieged
garrison.

US Air Force assistance (19521954)

A 1952 F4U-7 Corsair of the 14.F flotilla who fought at Dien Bien Phu.
A total of 94 F4U-7s were built for the Aeronavale in 1952, with the last of the batch, the final
Corsair built, rolled out in December 1952. The F4U-7s were actually purchased by the U.S.
Navy and passed on to the Aeronavale through the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP).
They were supplemented by 25 ex-U.S.MC AU-1s (previously used in the Korean War) and
moved from Yokosuka, Japan to Tourane Air Base (Da Nang), Vietnam in April 1952. US Air
Force assistance followed in November 1953 when the French commander in Indochina, General
Henri Navarre, asked General Chester E. McCarty, commander of the Combat Cargo Division,
for 12 Fairchild C-119 for Operation Castor at Dien Bien Phu. The USAF also provided C-124
Globemasters to transport French paratroop reinforcements to Indochina.
On March 3, 1954, twelve C-119s of the 483rd Troop Carrier Wing ("Packet Rats") based at
Ashiya, Japan, were painted with France's insignia and loaned to France with 24 CIA pilots for
short term use. Maintenance was carried out by the US Air Force and airlift operations were
commanded by McCarty.[64]

Central Intelligence Agency covert operations (1954)

France-marked USAF C-119 flown by CIA pilots over Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

24

Twenty four Central Intelligence Agency (Civil Air Transport) pilots supplied the French Union
garrison during the siege of Dien Bien Phu by airlifting paratroopers, ammunition, artillery
pieces, tons of barbed wire, medics and other military material. With the reducing Drop zone
areas, night operations and anti-aircraft artillery assaults, many of the "packets" fell into Vit
Minh hands. The 37 CIA pilots completed 682 airdrops under anti-aircraft fire between March 13
and May 6. Two CAT pilots, Wallace Bufford and James B. McGovern, Jr. were killed in action
when their Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was shot down on May 6, 1954 .[64] On February 25,
2005, the French ambassador to the United States, Jean-David Levitte, awarded the seven
remaining CIA pilots with the Lgion d'honneur.[64]

Operation Passage to Freedom (1954)

Main article: Operation Passage to Freedom
In August 1954, in support to the French navy and the merchant navy, the U.S. Navy launched
Operation Passage to Freedom and sent hundreds of ships, including USS Montague, in order to
evacuate non-communist especially Catholic Vietnamese refugees from North Vietnam
following the July 20, 1954 armistice and partition of Vietnam. Around 450,000 Vietnamese
civilians were transported from North to South during this period, with around one tenth of that
number moving in the opposite direction.

Popular culture
French Indochina medal, law of August 1, 1953.
Although a kind of taboo in France, "the dirty war" has been featured in various films, books and
songs. Since its declasification in the 2000s (decade), television documentaries have been
released using new perspectives about the U.S. covert involvement and open critics about the
French propaganda used during wartime.
Famous Communist propagandist Roman Karmen was in charge of the media exploitation of the
battle of Dien Bien Phu. In his documentary, Vietnam (, 1955), he staged the famous
scene with the raising of the Viet Minh flag over de Castries' bunker which is similar to the one
he staged over the Berlin Reichstag roof during World War II (, 1945) and the "S" shaped
POW column marching after the battle, where he used the same optical technique he
experimented before when he staged the German prisoners after the Siege of Leningrad
( , 1942) and the Battle of Moscow ( ,
1942).[67][68]
Hollywood made a film about Dien Bien Phu in 1955, Jump Into Hell, directed by David Butler
and scripted by Irving Wallace, before his fame as a bestselling novelist. Hollywood also made
several films about the war, Robert Florey's Rogues' Regiment (1948). Samuel Fuller's China
Gate (1957). and James Clavell's Five Gates to Hell (1959).

25

The first French movie about the war, Shock Patrol (Patrouille de Choc) aka Patrol Without
Hope (Patrouille Sans Espoir) by Claude Bernard-Aubert, came out in 1956. The French censor
cut some violent scenes and made the director change the end of his movie which was seen as
"too pessismistic".[69] Lo Joannon's film Fort du Fou (Fort of the Mad) /Outpost in Indochina
was released in 1963. Another film was The 317th Platoon (La 317me Section) was released in
1964, it was directed by Indochina War (and siege of Dien Bien Phu) veteran Pierre
Schoendoerffer. Schoendoerffer has since become a media specialist about the Indochina War
and has focused his production on realistic war movies. He was cameraman for the army
("Cinematographic Service of the Armies", SCA) during his duty time, moreover as he had
covered the Vietnam War he released The Anderson Platoon, which won the Academy Award for
Documentary Feature.
Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American takes place during this war.
A Vietnamese software developer made a videogame called 7554 after the date of Battle of Dien
Bien Phu to commemorate the First Indochina War from the Vietnamese point of view.

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Date

Location

Result

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

13 March 7 May 1954
(1 month, 3 weeks and 3 days)
212313N
103056ECoordinates:
212313N 103056E
Vicinity of Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam
Decisive Viet Minh victory
Belligerents

French Union

France

State of
Vietnam

Viet Minh
Undeclared
Soviet Union[1]
Chinese military
advisors[2]

26

Undeclared
Lao Hmong
partisans
United States

Commanders and leaders

Christian de

Vo Nguyen Giap

Castries (POW)
Pierre

Wei Guoqing
(advisor)

Langlais (POW)

Strength
As of March 13:
10,800[3]
37 pilots[4]

As of March 13:
48,000 combat
personnel
15,000 logistical support
personnel[5]

Casualties and losses

[6]

1,571 -2,293 dead

5,195 6,650[7] wounded
1,729 missing[8]
Vietnamese figures
11,721 captured (of which 4,020 dead
6,000 wounded)[9]
9,118 wounded
8,290 POW dead after
792 missing[11]
battle[10]
American casualties
2 dead (James B.
McGovern and Wallace
A. Buford) declassified in
2004

French estimates
23,000[12]

[4]

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (French: Bataille de Din Bin Phu; Vietnamese: Chin dch in
Bin Ph) was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French
Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist
revolutionaries. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a
comprehensive French defeat that influenced negotiations over the future of Indochina at
Geneva. Military historian Martin Windrow wrote that Dien Bien Phu was "the first time that a
non-European colonial independence movement had evolved through all the stages from
27

guerrilla bands to a conventionally organized and equipped army able to defeat a modern
Western occupier in pitched battle."[13]
As a result of blunders in French decision-making, the French began an operation to support the
soldiers at Dien Bien Phu, deep in the hills of northwestern Vietnam. Its purpose was to cut off
Viet Minh supply lines into the neighboring Kingdom of Laos, a French ally, and tactically draw
the Viet Minh into a major confrontation that would cripple them. The Viet Minh, however,
under General Vo Nguyen Giap, surrounded and besieged the French, who were unaware of the
Viet Minh's possession of heavy artillery (including anti-aircraft guns) and their ability to move
these weapons through difficult terrain, up the reverse slopes of the mountains surrounding the
French positions, dig tunnels through the mountain, and position the artillery pieces overlooking
the French encampment. This positioning of the artillery made it impervious to counter battery
fire. When the Viet Minh opened fire, the one-armed French artillery commander accepted
responsibility for his failure and committed suicide with a hand grenade. The Viet Minh occupied
the highlands around Dien Bien Phu and bombarded French positions. Tenacious fighting on the
ground ensued, reminiscent of the trench warfare of World War I. The French repeatedly repulsed
Viet Minh assaults on their positions. Supplies and reinforcements were delivered by air, though
as the French positions were overrun, the French perimeter contracted, and the anti-aircraft fire
took its toll, fewer and fewer of those supplies reached them. The garrison was overrun after a
two-month siege and most French forces surrendered. A few escaped to Laos. The French
government resigned and the new Prime Minister, the left of centre Pierre Mends France,
supported French withdrawal from Indochina.
The war ended shortly after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the signing of the 1954 Geneva
Accords. France agreed to withdraw its forces from all its colonies in French Indochina, while
stipulating that Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, with control of the
north given to the Viet Minh as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh, and the
south becoming the State of Vietnam under Emperor Bao Dai, preventing Ho Chi Minh from
gaining control of the entire country.[14] The failure of North and South to enter into negotiations
about holding nationwide elections in 1956, as had been stipulated by the Geneva Conference,
would eventually lead to War in Vietnam (19591963) and escalation to the full participation of
American combat troops following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964.

Background
Military situation
By 1953, the First Indochina War was not going well for France. A succession of commanders
Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, Jean-tienne Valluy, Roger Blaizot, Marcel Carpentier, Jean
de Lattre de Tassigny, and Raoul Salan had proven incapable of suppressing the Viet Minh
insurrection. During their 195253 campaign, the Viet Minh had overrun vast swathes of Laos, a
French ally and Vietnam's western neighbor, advancing as far as Luang Prabang and the Plain of
Jars. The French were unable to slow the Viet Minh advance, and the Viet Minh fell back only
after outrunning their always-tenuous supply lines. In 1953, the French had begun to strengthen
their defenses in the Hanoi delta region to prepare for a series of offensives against Viet Minh
staging areas in northwest Vietnam. They had set up fortified towns and outposts in the area,
28

including Lai Chau near the Chinese border to the north,[15] Na San to the west of Hanoi,[16] and
the Plain of Jars in northern Laos.[17]
In May 1953, French Premier Ren Mayer appointed Henri Navarre, a trusted colleague, to take
command of French Union Forces in Indochina. Mayer had given Navarre a single orderto
create military conditions that would lead to an "honorable political solution".[18] According to
military scholar Phillip Davidson,
On arrival, Navarre was shocked by what he found. There had been no long-range plan since de
Lattre's departure. Everything was conducted on a day-to-day, reactive basis. Combat operations
were undertaken only in response to enemy moves or threats. There was no comprehensive plan
to develop the organization and build up the equipment of the Expeditionary force. Finally,
Navarre, the intellectual, the cold and professional soldier, was shocked by the "school's out"
attitude of Salan and his senior commanders and staff officers. They were going home, not as
victors or heroes, but then, not as clear losers either. To them the important thing was that they
were getting out of Indochina with their reputations frayed, but intact. They gave little thought
to, or concern for, the problems of their successors.[18]

Na San and the hedgehog concept

For more details on this topic, see Battle of Na San.
Simultaneously, Navarre had been searching for a way to stop the Viet Minh threat to Laos.
Colonel Louis Berteil, commander of Mobile Group 7 and Navarre's main planner,[19] formulated
the hrisson ("hedgehog") concept. The French army would establish a fortified airhead by airlifting soldiers adjacent to a key Viet Minh supply line to Laos.[20] This would effectively cut off
Viet Minh soldiers fighting in Laos and force them to withdraw. "It was an attempt to interdict
the enemy's rear area, to stop the flow of supplies and reinforcements, to establish a redoubt in
the enemy's rear and disrupt his lines".[21]
The hedgehog concept was based on French experiences at the Battle of Na San. In late
November and early December 1952, Giap attacked the French outpost at Na San, which was
essentially an "air-land base", a fortified camp supplied only by air.[22] Giap's forces were beaten
back repeatedly with very heavy losses. The French hoped that by repeating the strategy on a
much larger scale, they would be able to lure Giap into committing the bulk of his forces in a
massed assault. This would enable superior French artillery, armor, and air support to decimate
the exposed Viet Minh forces. The experience at Na San convinced Navarre of the viability of
the fortified airhead concept.
French staff officers disastrously failed to treat seriously several crucial differences between
Dien Bien Phu and Na San. At Na San, the French commanded most of the high ground with
overwhelming artillery support.[23] At Dien Bien Phu, however, the Viet Minh controlled much of
the high ground around the valley, their artillery far exceeded French expectations and they
outnumbered the French four-to-one.[3]

29

Giap compared Dien Bien Phu to a "rice bowl", where his troops occupied the edge and the
French the bottom. Second, Giap made a mistake in Na San by committing his forces into
reckless frontal attacks before being fully prepared. At Dien Bien Phu, Giap would spend months
meticulously stockpiling ammunition and emplacing heavy artillery and anti-aircraft guns before
making his move. Teams of Viet Minh volunteers were sent into the French camp to scout the
disposition of the French artillery. Wooden artillery pieces were built as decoys and the real guns
were rotated every few salvos to confuse French counterbattery fire. As a result, when the battle
finally began, the Viet Minh knew exactly where the French artillery were, while the French
were not even aware of how many guns Giap possessed. Third, the aerial resupply lines at Na
San were never severed, despite Viet Minh anti-aircraft fire. At Dien Bien Phu, Giap amassed
anti-aircraft batteries that quickly shut down the runway and made it extremely difficult and
costly for the French to bring in reinforcements.

Prelude
Lead up to Castor
In June, Major General Ren Cogny, commander of the Tonkin Delta, proposed Dien Bien Phu,
which had an old airstrip built by the Japanese during World War II, as a "mooring point".[24] In
another misunderstanding, Cogny had envisioned a lightly defended point from which to launch
raids; however, to Navarre, this meant a heavily fortified base capable of withstanding a siege.
Navarre selected Dien Bien Phu for the location of Berteil's "hedgehog" operation. When
presented with the plan, every major subordinate officer protested: Colonel Jean-Louis Nicot
(commander of the French Air transport fleet), Cogny, and generals Jean Gilles and Jean
Dechaux (the ground and air commanders for Operation Castor, the initial airborne assault on
Dien Bien Phu). Cogny pointed out, presciently, that "we are running the risk of a new Na San
under worse conditions".[25] Navarre rejected the criticisms of his proposal and concluded a
November 17 conference by declaring that the operation would commence three days later, on 20
November 1953.[26][27]
Navarre decided to go ahead with the operation, despite operational difficulties which would
later become painfully obvious (but at the time may have been less apparent)[28] because he had
been repeatedly assured by his intelligence officers that the operation had very little risk of
involvement by a strong enemy force.[29] Navarre had previously considered three other ways to
defend Laos: mobile warfare, which was impossible given the terrain in Vietnam; a static defense
line stretching to Laos, which was not executable given the number of troops at Navarre's
disposal; or placing troops in the Laotian provincial capitals and supplying them by air, which
was unworkable due to the distance from Hanoi to Luang Prabang and Vientiane.[30] Thus, the
only option left to Navarre was the hedgehog, which he characterized as "a mediocre
solution."[31] In a twist of fate, the French National Defense Committee ultimately agreed that
Navarre's responsibility did not include defending Laos. However, their decision (which was
drawn up on 13 November) was not delivered to him until 4 December, two weeks after the Dien
Bien Phu operation began.[32]

Establishment of the airhead

30

For more details on Dien Bien Phu order of battle, see Operation Castor.
Col. Christian de Castries, French commander at Dien Bien Phu.
Operations at Dien Bien Phu began at 10:35 on the morning of 20 November 1953. In Operation
Castor, the French dropped or flew 9,000 troops into the area over three days. They were landed
at three drop zones: "Natasha" (northwest), "Octavie" (southwest), and "Simone" (southeast) of
Dien Bien Phu.[33] The Viet Minh elite 148th Independent Infantry Regiment, headquartered at
Dien Bien Phu, reacted "instantly and effectively"; three of their four battalions, however, were
absent that day.[34] Initial operations proceeded well for the French. By the end of November, six
parachute battalions had been landed and the French were consolidating their positions.
It was at this time that Giap began his counter-moves. He had expected an attack, but could not
foresee when or where it would occur. Giap realized that, if pressed, the French would abandon
Lai Chau Province and fight a pitched battle at Dien Bien Phu.[35] On 24 November, Giap ordered
the 148th Infantry Regiment and the 316th division to attack Lai Chau, while the 308th, 312th,
and 351st divisions assault Dien Bien Phu from Vit Bc.[35]
Starting in December, the French, under the command of Colonel Christian de Castries, began
transforming their anchoring point into a fortress by setting up seven positions, each allegedly
named after a former mistress of de Castries, although the allegation is probably unfounded, as
the names simply begin with the first eight letters of the alphabet. The fortified headquarters was
centrally located, with positions "Huguette" to the west, "Claudine" to the south, and
"Dominique" to the northeast.[36]
Other positions were "Anne-Marie" to the northwest, "Beatrice" to the northeast, "Gabrielle" to
the north and "Isabelle" four miles (6 km) to the south, covering the reserve airstrip. The choice
of de Castries as the on-scene commander at Dien Bien Phu was, in retrospect, a bad one.
Navarre had picked de Castries, a cavalryman in the 18th century tradition,[37] because Navarre
envisioned Dien Bien Phu as a mobile battle. In reality, Dien Bien Phu required someone adept at
World War I-style trench warfare, something for which de Castries was not suited.[36]
The arrival of the 316th Viet Minh division prompted Cogny to order the evacuation of the Lai
Chau garrison to Dien Bien Phu, exactly as Giap had anticipated. En route, they were virtually
annihilated by the Viet Minh. "Of the 2,100 men who left Lai Chau on 9 December, only 185
made it to Dien Bien Phu on 22 December. The rest had been killed, captured or deserted".[38]
The Viet Minh troops now converged on Dien Bien Phu.

31

The French deployed several U.S.

made M24 Chaffee light tanks.
The French had committed 10,800
troops, with more reinforcements
totaling nearly 16,000 men, to the
defense of a monsoon-affected
valley surrounded by heavily
wooded hills that had not been
secured. Artillery as well as ten
M24 Chaffee light tanks and
numerous aircraft were committed
to the garrison. The garrison
comprised French regular troops
(notably elite paratroop units plus
artillery), Foreign Legionnaires,
Algerian and Moroccan tirailleurs, and locally recruited Indochinese infantry. All told, the Viet
Minh had moved 50,000 regular troops into the hills surrounding the valley, totaling five
divisions including the 351st Heavy Division, which was made up entirely of heavy artillery.[5]
Artillery and AA (anti-aircraft) guns, which outnumbered the French artillery by about four to
one,[5] were moved into camouflaged positions overlooking the valley. The French came under
sporadic Viet Minh artillery fire for the first time on 31 January 1954, and French patrols
encountered the Viet Minh in all directions. The battle had been joined, and the French were now
surrounded.[citation needed]

Battle
Beatrice

32

33

The French disposition at Dien Bien Phu, as of March 1954. The French took up positions on a
series of fortified hills. The southernmost, Isabelle, was dangerously isolated. The Viet Minh
positioned their five divisions (the 304th, 308th, 312th, 316th, and 351st) in the surrounding
areas to the north and east. From these areas, the Viet Minh had a clear line of sight on the
French fortifications and were able to accurately rain down artillery on the French positions.
The Viet Minh assault began in earnest on 13 March 1954 with an attack on outpost "Beatrice".
Viet Minh artillery opened a fierce bombardment of the fortification and French command was
disrupted at 6:15 pm when a shell hit the French command post, killing Legionnaire commander
Major Paul Pegot and his entire staff. A few minutes later, Colonel Jules Gaucher, commander of
the entire northern sector, was killed by Viet Minh artillery. The Viet Minh 312th division then
launched a massive infantry assault, using sappers to defeat French obstacles. French resistance
at Beatrice collapsed shortly after midnight following a fierce battle. Roughly 500 French
legionnaires were killed. French estimated Viet Minh losses totalled 600 dead and 1,200
wounded.[39] The French launched a counter-attack against "Beatrice" the following morning, but
it was quickly beaten back by Viet Minh artillery. Despite their losses, the victory at "Beatrice"
'galvanized the morale' of the Viet Minh troops.[39]
Much to French disbelief, the Viet Minh had employed direct artillery fire, in which each gun
crew does its own artillery spotting (as opposed to indirect fire, in which guns are massed farther
away from the target, out of direct line of sight, and rely on a forward artillery spotter). Indirect
artillery, generally held as being far superior to direct fire, requires experienced, well-trained
crews and good communications, which the Viet Minh lacked.[40] Navarre wrote that "Under the
influence of Chinese advisers, the Viet Minh commanders had used processes quite different from
the classic methods. The artillery had been dug in by single pieces ... They were installed in
shell-proof dugouts, and fire point-blank from portholes ... This way of using artillery and AA
guns was possible only with the expansive ant holes at the disposal of the Vietminh and was to
make shambles of all the estimates of our own artillerymen."[41] The French artillery commander,
Colonel Charles Piroth, distraught at his inability to bring counterfire on the well-camouflaged
Viet Minh batteries, went into his dugout and committed suicide with a hand grenade.[42] He was
buried there in secret to prevent loss of morale among the French troops.

Gabrielle
Following a four-hour cease fire on the morning of 14 March, Viet Minh artillery resumed
pounding French positions. The air strip, already closed since 16:00 the day before due to a light
bombardment, was now put permanently out of commission.[43] Any further French supplies
would have to be delivered by parachute.[44] That night, the Viet Minh launched an attack on
"Gabrielle", held by an elite Algerian battalion. The attack began with a concentrated artillery
barrage at 5:00 pm. Two regiments from the crack 308th division attacked starting at 8:00 pm. At
4:00 am the following morning, an artillery shell hit the battalion headquarters, severely
wounding the battalion commander and most of his staff.[44]
De Castries ordered a counterattack to relieve "Gabrielle". However, Colonel Pierre Langlais, in
forming the counterattack, chose to rely on the 5th Vietnamese Parachute battalion, which had
jumped in the day before and was exhausted.[45] Although some elements of the counterattack
34

reached "Gabrielle", most were paralyzed by Viet Minh artillery and took heavy losses. At 0800
the next day, the Algerian battalion fell back, abandoning "Gabrielle" to the Viet Minh. The
French lost around 1,000 men defending Gabrielle, and the Viet Minh between 1,000 and 2,000
attacking the strongpoint.[45]

Anne-Marie
"Anne-Marie" was defended by Tai troops, members of a Vietnamese ethnic minority loyal to the
French. For weeks, Giap had distributed subversive propaganda leaflets, telling the Tais that this
was not their fight. The fall of "Beatrice" and "Gabrielle" had severely demoralized them. On the
morning of 17 March, under the cover of fog, the bulk of the Tais left or defected. The French
and the few remaining Tais on "Anne-Marie" were then forced to withdraw.[46]

Lull
17 March through 30 March saw a lull in fighting. The Viet Minh further tightened the noose
around the French central area (formed by the strongpoints "Huguette", "Dominique",
"Claudine", and "Eliane"), effectively cutting off Isabelle and its 1,809 personnel.[47] During this
lull, the French suffered from a serious crisis of command. "It had become painfully evident to
the senior officers within the encircled garrisonand even to Cogny at Hanoithat de Castries
was incompetent to conduct the defense of Dien Bien Phu. Even more critical, after the fall of
the northern outposts, he isolated himself in his bunker so that he had, in effect, relinquished his
command authority".[48] On 17 March, Cogny attempted to fly into Dien Bien Phu to take
command, but his plane was driven off by anti-aircraft fire. Cogny considered parachuting into
the encircled garrison, but his staff talked him out of it.[48]
De Castries' seclusion in his bunker, combined with his superiors' inability to replace him,
created a leadership vacuum within the French command. On 24 March, an event took place
which would later become a matter of historical debate. Historian Bernard Fall records, based on
Langlais' memoirs, that Colonel Langlais and his fellow paratroop commanders, all fully armed,
confronted de Castries in his bunker on 24 March. They told him he would retain the appearance
of command, but that Langlais would exercise it.[49] De Castries is said by Fall to have accepted
the arrangement without protest, although he did exercise some command functions thereafter.
Phillip Davidson stated that the "truth would seem to be that Langlais did take over effective
command of Dien Bien Phu, and that Castries became 'commander emeritus' who transmitted
messages to Hanoi and offered advise about matters in Dien Bien Phu".[50] Jules Roy, however,
makes no mention of this event, and Martin Windrow argues that the "paratrooper putsch" is
unlikely to have happened. Both historians record that Langlais and Marcel Bigeard were known
to be on good relations with their commanding officer.[51]
The French aerial resupply took heavy losses from Viet Minh machine guns near the landing
strip. On 27 March, Hanoi air transport commander Nicot ordered that all supply deliveries be
made from 6,500 feet (2,000 m) or higher; losses were expected to remain heavy.[52] De Castries
ordered an attack against the Viet Minh machine guns two miles (3 km) west of Dien Bien Phu.
Remarkably, the attack was a complete success, with 350 Viet Minh soldiers killed and seventeen
AA machine guns destroyed (French est), while the French lost 20 killed and 97 wounded.[53]
35

30 March 5 April assaults

Further information: Operation Condor (1954)

The central French positions at Dien Bien Phu in late March 1954. The positions in Eliane saw
some of the most intense combat of the entire battle.
The next phase of the battle saw more massed Viet Minh assaults against French positions in the
central Dien Bien Phu at "Eliane" and "Dominique" in particular. Those two areas were held
by five understrength battalions, composed of a mixture of Frenchmen, Legionnaires,
Vietnamese, Africans, and Tais.[54] Giap planned to use the tactics from the "Beatrice" and
"Gabrielle" skirmishes.
At 19:00 on 30 March, the Viet Minh 312th division captured "Dominique 1 and 2", making
"Dominique 3" the final outpost between the Viet Minh and the French general headquarters, as
well as outflanking all positions east of the river.[55] At this point, the French 4th colonial artillery
regiment entered the fight, setting its 105 mm howitzers to zero elevation and firing directly on
the Viet Minh attackers, blasting huge holes in their ranks. Another group of French, near the
airfield, opened fire on the Viet Minh with anti-aircraft machine guns, forcing the Viet Minh to
retreat.[55]

36

The Viet Minh were more successful in their simultaneous attacks elsewhere. The 316th division
captured "Eliane 1" from its Moroccan defenders, and half of "Eliane 2" by midnight.[56] On the
other side of Dien Bien Phu, the 308th attacked "Huguette 7", and nearly succeeded in breaking
through, but a French sergeant took charge of the defenders and sealed the breach.[56]
Just after midnight on 31 March, the French launched a fierce counterattack against "Eliane 2",
and recaptured half of it. Langlais ordered another counterattack the following afternoon against
"Dominique 2" and "Eliane 1", using virtually "everybody left in the garrison who could be
trusted to fight".[56] The counterattacks allowed the French to retake "Dominique 2" and Eliane 1,
but the Viet Minh launched their own renewed assault. The French, who were exhausted and
without reserves, fell back from both positions late in the afternoon.[57] Reinforcements were sent
north from "Isabelle", but were attacked en route and fell back to "Isabelle".
Shortly after dark on 31 March, Langlais told Major Marcel Bigeard, who was leading the
defense at "Eliane", to fall back across the river. Bigeard refused, saying "As long as I have one
man alive I won't let go of 'Eliane 4'. Otherwise, Dien Bien Phu is done for."[58] The night of the
31st, the 316th division attacked "Eliane 2". Just as it appeared the French were about to be
overrun, a few French tanks arrived, and helped push the Viet Minh back. Smaller attacks on
"Eliane 4" were also pushed back. The Viet Minh briefly captured "Huguette 7", only to be
pushed back by a French counterattack at dawn on 1 April.[59]
Fighting continued in this manner over the next several nights. The Viet Minh repeatedly
attacked "Eliane 2", only to be beaten back. Repeated attempts to reinforce the French garrison
by parachute drops were made, but had to be carried out by lone planes at irregular times to
avoid excessive casualties from Viet Minh anti-aircraft fire. Some reinforcements did arrive, but
not enough to replace French casualties.[59]

Trench warfare.
On 5 April, after a long night of battle, French fighter-bombers and artillery inflicted particularly
devastating losses on one Viet Minh regiment which was caught on open ground. At that point,
Giap decided to change tactics. Although Giap still had the same objective to overrun French
defenses east of the river he decided to employ entrenchment and sapping to try to achieve it.
[60]

April 10 saw the French attempt to retake "Eliane 1", lost eleven days earlier. The loss posed a
significant threat to "Eliane 4", and the French wanted to eliminate that threat. The dawn attack,
which Bigeard devised, was preceded by a short, massive artillery barrage, followed by small
unit infiltration attacks, followed by mopping-up operations. "Eliane 1" changed hands several
times that day, but by the next morning the French had control of the strongpoint. The Viet Minh
attempted to retake it on the evening of 12 April, but were pushed back.[61]
At this point, the morale of the Viet Minh soldiers was greatly lowered due to the massive
casualties they had received. During the stalemate, the French intercepted enemy radio messages
which told of whole units refusing orders to attack, and Communist prisoners said that they were
told to advance or be shot by the officers and noncommissioned officers behind them.[62] Worse
37

still, the Viet Minh lacked advanced medical care, with one stating that "Nothing strikes at
combat morale like the knowledge that if wounded, the soldier will go uncared for".[63] To avert
the crisis of mutiny, Giap called in fresh reinforcements from Laos.
During the fighting at "Eliane 1", on the other side of camp, the Viet Minh entrenchments had
almost entirely surrounded "Huguette 1 and 6". On 11 April, the garrison of "Huguette 1"
attacked, and was joined by artillery from the garrison of "Claudine". The goal was to resupply
"Huguette 6" with water and ammunition. The attacks were repeated on the nights of the 14/15
and 16/17 of April. While they did succeed in getting some supplies through, the French suffered
heavy casualties, which convinced Langlais to abandon "Huguette 6". Following a failed attempt
to link up, on 18 April, the defenders at "Huguette 6" made a daring break out, but only a few
managed to make it to French lines.[64][65] The Viet Minh repeated the isolation and probing
attacks against Huguette 1, and overran the fort on the morning of 22 April. With the fall of
"Huguette 1", the Viet Minh took control of more than 90% of the airfield, making accurate
parachute drops impossible.[66] This caused the landing zone to become perilously small, and
effectively choked off much needed supplies.[67] A French attack against "Huguette 1" later that
day was repulsed.

Isabelle
"Isabelle" saw only light action until 30 March, when the Viet Minh succeeded in isolating it and
beating back the attempt to send reinforcements north. Following a massive artillery barrage on
30 March, the Viet Minh began employing the same trench warfare tactics that they were using
against the central camp. By the end of April, "Isabelle" had exhausted its water supply and was
nearly out of ammunition.[68]

Final attacks

Viet Minh troops plant their flag over a captured French position.

38

The Viet Minh launched a massed assault against the exhausted defenders on the night of 1 May,
overrunning "Eliane 1", "Dominique 3", and "Huguette 5", although the French managed to beat
back attacks on "Eliane 2". On 6 May, the Viet Minh launched another massed attack against
"Eliane 2". The attack included, for the first time, Katyusha rockets.[39] The French artillery used
an innovation, firing with a "TOT" (Time On Target) attack, so artillery rounds fired from
different positions would strike on target at the same time.[69] This barrage defeated the first
assault wave. A few hours later that night, the Viet Minh detonated a mine shaft, blowing "Eliane
2" up. The Viet Minh attacked again, and within a few hours had overrun the defenders.[70]
On 7 May, Giap ordered an all-out attack against the remaining French units with over 25,000
Viet Minh against fewer than 3,000 garrison troops. At 17:00, de Castries radioed French
headquarters in Hanoi and talked with Cogny.
De Castries: "The Viets are everywhere. The situation is very grave. The combat is confused and
goes on all about. I feel the end is approaching, but we will fight to the finish."
Cogny: "Of course you will fight to the end. It is out of the question to run up the white flag after
your heroic resistance."[37]
By nightfall, all French central positions had been captured. The last radio transmission from the
French headquarters reported that enemy troops were directly outside the headquarters bunker
and that all the positions had been overrun. The radio operator in his last words stated: "The
enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!" That night the garrison
made a breakout attempt, in the Camarn tradition. While some of the main body managed to
break out, none succeeded in escaping the valley. However at "Isabelle", a similar attempt later
the same night saw about 70 troops, out of 1,700 men in the garrison, escape to Laos.[71]

Aftermath
Prisoners
On 8 May, the Viet Minh counted 11,721 prisoners, of whom 4,436 were wounded.[72] This was
the greatest number the Viet Minh had ever captured: one-third of the total captured during the
entire war. The prisoners were divided into groups. Able-bodied soldiers were force-marched
over 250 miles (400 km) to prison camps to the north and east,[73] where they were intermingled
with Viet Minh soldiers to discourage French bombing runs.[74] Hundreds died of disease along
the way. The wounded were given basic first aid until the Red Cross arrived, removed 858, and
provided better aid to the remainder. Those wounded who were not evacuated by the Red Cross
were sent into detention.[75]
Of 10,863 survivors held as prisoners, only 3,290 were officially repatriated four months later;[72]
however, the losses figure may include the 3,013 prisoners of Vietnamese origin whose eventual
fate is unknown.[76]

Political ramifications

39

The garrison constituted roughly a tenth of the total French Union manpower in Indochina.[77]
The defeat seriously weakened the position and prestige of the French as previously planned
negotiations over the future of Indochina began.
The Geneva Conference opened on 8 May 1954,[78] the day after the surrender of the garrison. Ho
Chi Minh entered the conference on the opening day with the news of his troops' victory in the
headlines. The resulting agreement temporarily partitioned Vietnam into two zones: the North
was administered by the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam while the South was
administered by the French-supported State of Vietnam. The last units of the French Union
forces withdrew from Indochina in 1956. This partition was supposed to be temporary, and the
two zones were meant to be reunited through national elections in 1956. After the French
withdrawal, the United States supported the southern government, under Emperor Bao Dai and
Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem, which opposed the Geneva agreement, and which claimed that
Ho Chi Minh's forces from the North had been killing Northern patriots[clarification needed] and
terrorizing people both north and south. The North was supported by both the People's Republic
of China (PRC) and the Soviet Union (USSR). This arrangement proved tenuous and would
escalate into the Vietnam War (Second Indochina War), eventually bringing 500,000 American
troops into South Vietnam.
France's defeat in Indochina, coupled with the German destruction of her armies just 14 years
earlier, seriously damaged its prestige elsewhere in its colonial empire, as well as with its NATO
allies, most importantly, the United States. Within her empire, the defeat in Indochina served to
spur independence movements in other colonies, notably the North African territories from
which many of the troops who fought at Dien Bien Phu had been recruited. In 1954, six months
after the battle at Dien Bien Phu ended, the Algerian War started, and by 1956 both Moroccan
and Tunisian protectorates had gained independence. A French board of inquiry, the Catroux
Commission, would later investigate the defeat. The battle was depicted in Dien Bien Phu, a
1992 docudrama film with several autobiographical parts in conjunction with the
Vietnamese army by Dien Bien Phu veteran and French director Pierre Schoendoerffer.

American participation
Further information: Operation Vulture
According to the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, the United States provided the French with
material aid during the battle aircraft (supplied by the USS Saipan), weapons, mechanics, 24
CIA/CAT pilots, and U.S. Air Force maintenance crews.[79] The United States, however,
intentionally avoided overt direct intervention. In February 1954, following the French
occupation of Dien Bien Phu but prior to the battle, Democratic senator Michael Mansfield asked
United States Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson whether the United States would send
naval or air units if the French were subjected to greater pressure there, but Wilson replied that
"for the moment there is no justification for raising United States aid above its present level".
President Dwight D. Eisenhower also stated, "Nobody is more opposed to intervention than I
am".[79] On 31 March, following the fall of "Beatrice", "Gabrielle", and "Anne-Marie", a panel of
U.S. Senators and House Representatives questioned the American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, Admiral Arthur W. Radford, about the possibility of American involvement. Radford
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concluded it was too late for the U.S. Air Force to save the French garrison. A proposal for direct
intervention was unanimously voted down by the panel, which "concluded that intervention was
a positive act of war".[80]
The United States did covertly participate in the battle. Following a request for help from Henri
Navarre, Radford provided two squadrons of B-26 Invader bomber aircraft to support the French.
Subsequently, 37 American transport pilots flew 682 sorties over the course of the battle.[81]
Earlier, in order to succeed the pre-Dien Bien Phu Operation Castor of November 1953, General
Chester McCarty made available 12 additional C-119 Flying Boxcars flown by French crews.[81]
Two of the American pilots, James McGovern, Jr. and Wallace Buford were killed in action
during the siege of Dien Bien Phu.[82] On 25 February 2005, the seven still living American pilots
were awarded the French Legion of Honor by Jean-David Levitte, the French ambassador to the
United States.[81] The role that the American pilots played in this battle had remained little known
until 2004. The "American historian Erik Kirsinger researched the case for more than a year to
establish the facts."[83][84] French author Jules Roy suggests Admiral Radford discussed with the
French the possibility of using nuclear weapons in support of the French garrison.[85] Moreover,
John Foster Dulles reportedly mentioned the possibility of lending atomic bombs to the French
for use at Dien Bien Phu,[86] and a similar source claims then British Foreign Secretary Sir
Anthony Eden was aware of the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons in that region.[87]

Khe Sanh
Main article: Battle of Khe Sanh
In January 1968, during the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army (still under Giap's
command) made an apparent attempt to repeat their success at Dien Bien Phu, by a siege and
artillery bombardment on the U.S. Marine Corps infantry and artillery base at Khe Sanh, South
Vietnam. Historians are divided on whether this was a genuine attempt to force the surrender of
that Marine base, or else a diversion from the rest of the Tt Offensive, or an example of the
North Vietnamese Army keeping its options open. At Khe Sanh, a number of factors were
significantly different from Dien Bien Phu. Khe Sanh was much closer to an American supply
base (45 km/28 mi) compared to a French one at Dien Bien Phu (200 km/120 mi).[88]
At Khe Sanh, the U.S. Marines held the high ground, and their artillery forced the North
Vietnamese to use their own artillery from a much greater distance. By contrast, at Dien Bien
Phu, the French artillery (six 105 mm batteries and one battery of four 155 mm howitzers and
mortars[89]) were only sporadically effective;[90] Khe Sanh received 18,000 tons in aerial
resupplies during the 77-day battle, whereas during 167 days that the French forces at Dien Bien
Phu held out, they received only 4,000 tons.[90] By the end of the battle of Khe Sanh, U.S. Air
Force planes had flown 9,691 tactical sorties and dropped 14,223 tons of munitions on targets
within the Khe Sanh area. U.S. Marine Corps planes had flown 7,098 missions and dropped
17,015 tons of munitions. U.S. Navy planes, many of which had been redirected from the
Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam, flew 5,337 sorties and
dropped 7,941 tons of ordnance on the enemy.

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Women at Dien Bien Phu

Many of the flights operated by the French Air force to evacuate casualties had female flight
nurses on board. A total of 15 women served on flights to Dien Bien Phu. One, Genevive de
Galard, was stranded there when her plane was destroyed by shellfire while being repaired on the
airfield. She remained on the ground providing medical services in the field hospital until the
surrender. She was later referred to as the "Angel of Dien Bien Phu". However, historians
disagree regarding this moniker, with Martin Windrow maintaining that Galard was referred to
by this name by the garrison itself, but Michael Kenney and Bernard Fall maintaining it was
added by outside press agencies.[91]
The French forces came to Dien Bien Phu accompanied by two bordels mobiles de campagne,
("mobile field brothels"), served by Algerian and Vietnamese women.[92] When the siege ended,
the Viet Minh sent the surviving Vietnamese women for "re-education".[93]

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