On this day, 57 years ago, French paratroopers and a small contingent from the elite Foreign Legion, came under attack in a valley 170 miles west of Hanoi. The place was called Dien Bien Phu. Their mission was to intercept a large Vietminh moving towards the northern border of Laos and keep them from reaching a supply cache hidden there. On that morning, Colonel Christian Castries and his men awoke to find themselves completely surrounded by 48,000 enemy troops.
The Vietminh had been formed several years earlier by Ho Chi Minh and commanded by his lieutenant, General Nuyen Giap. Their insurgency had lasted for several years. The frustrated the French people were beginning to consider their colonial assets in Indochina a waste of time and blood. A stunning victory was needed. Barely 13 years free of Nazi occupation, France was determined to restore her former glory.
Equipped with American weapons and funding, the French were confident that in a pitched battle, the Vietminh would easily crumble. From the initial planning stages they underestimated their foe.
After settling into the valley in November 1953, construction began on a large fort, complete with airstrip. The Nam Yum River went through the middle, and consisted of several outposts: Beatrice, Gabrielle, Dominique, Claudine, Hugette, Elaine and Anne-Marie. This would serve as the base of operations for patrols into the jungle. The French authorities in Saigon were confident that the Vietminh wouldn't be able to get a sufficient number of artillery pieces into the steep, rugged cliffs overlooking the base.
Little did they realize, the Vietminh were doing just that. Having disassembled their guns, they hauled them up one at a time using mules, bicycles and rope. It is considered one of the greatest feats of military logistics in modern history.
On March 13, the guns opened up. To the shock of the French, it was direct artillery fire, which required a perfect line of sight on the target and good training. The French could hardly return fire. The enemy positions were so well hidden that french air planes couldn't correctly identify them. After the second day, with one post taken and the airstrip destroyed the artillery commander, Charles Prioth, killed himself. He was buried in secret to preserve morale.
The battle disintegrated into trench warfare. Outnumbered, outgunned and with ineffective air support, French captain Jean Pouget realized that defeat was inevitable. With only 35 men, one machine gun and one hand grenade left at his outpost, he requested permission to withdraw. He was told very bluntly, "You're paratroopers. You're there to die."
Following the same, terrible idea as the Germans at Stalingrad barely a decade earlier, the French tried to resupply the fort entirely by air. But Dien Bien Phu was a windy valley. The little amount of crates that were dropped were blown into enemy positions. The planes rarely got through the clouds and enemy AA fire. To make matters worse, the rainy season started early, pounding the earthen works continuously. Legend has it that Richard Nixon urged Eisenhower to use nuclear weapons to prevent the fort's collapse. He refused, saying, "Dien Bien Phu is not the end of the world."
With their medicine gone, no clean water, trenches full of dead men and no help in sight, the French were overrun on May 7. One day earlier, two American pilots were shot down and killed. Their stories wouldn't be told until 2004 when the report was declassified.
The loss of Dien Bien Phu marked the end of French colonialism in Indochina. The Geneva Conference days later splint the nation at the 17th parallel, setting the stage for America's involvement.
Of nearly 16000 French troops, 11000 were captured. Of those men, only 3200 returned home four months later.
