Battle of Dien Bien Phu

Battle of Dien Bien Phu, November 20, 1953-May 7, 1954

Table of Contents:Further Readings

Decisive campaign in Indochina

Principal Personages

Eugène Navarre, General, Commander-in-chief French Union forces

René Cogny, Major General, subordinate commander in northern Vietnam

Christian Marie Ferdinand de la Croix de Castries, Brigadier General, Commander of Dien Bien Phu

Minh, Vietnamese Communist guerrilla leader, President of Vietnam

Vo Nguyen Giap, General, Commander of Viet Minh victors

Summary of Event

After World War II, France returned its army to Indochina to reestablish colonial interests there. With the defeat of the Japanese, a power vacuum had developed. Various nationalist groups tried to assume power but they were systematically defeated or absorbed by the well-organized Communist Parties of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

The return of powerful French forces signaled the beginning of a bloody contest for political control and economic hegemony over Indochina. Guerrilla warfare, terror, and subversion plunged the region into a long, costly, and frustrating conflict.

Ho Chi Minh, the dedicated and capable Communist insurgent leader of the powerful Viet Minh force, who proclaimed himself President of Vietnam in 1945, directed opposition to the French army. The struggle was indecisive. Viet Minh forces harrassed the French with their hit-and-run tactics. The French responded in kind as they sought to maneuver the illusive Viet Minh into a set battle so that they could decisively defeat them in open combat.

By 1954 the French Expeditionary Corps had been fighting in Indochina for seven years. French forces totaled 240,000 men, including Foreign Legion contingents, African colonial troops, and Indochinese recruits. They were assisted by the Vietnamese National Army of 211,000, 21,000 Laotians, and a Cambodian army of 16,000. Against this force the Viet Minh fielded a Communist force of 300,000, about half of which were regular army...