On May 7, 1954, France lost the battle of Dien Bien Phu, in the northwest of what is now Vietnam. Winners, the communist Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh and General Giap thus ended a century of French occupation of Indochina and eight years of murderous war which, according to several estimates, killed around a million people..
Dien Bien Phu is as much the name of a battle that sounded the death knell for the French colonial empire as that of a military fiasco. A modern army, supported by its American ally, capitulated to an army of insurgent colonized people, without an air force or navy, but with an asset underestimated by French strategists: cannons offered by the Viet Minh’s ally, communist China. .
Why and how did France lose this strategic battle? Answer in maps and period archives in this new episode of our Flashback video series.
Among the sources of this video:
“The Battle of Dien Bien Phu, March 13 – May 7, 1954” – ECPAD, Images Défense collection (2024).
“Dien Bien Phu seen from opposite. Lyrics of bô dôi » – Nouveau Monde (2013).
“Words of Dien Bien Phu. The survivors testify”, Pierre Journoud, Hugues Tertrais. Tallandier, (2004).
“Dien Bien Phu: from the trenches to the courtroom: 1953-1958”, history thesis by Laure Cournil, University of Paris I Panthéon – Sorbonne.