Battle of Dien Bien Phu: Difference between revisions
imported>Hayford Peirce (minor rewriting for clarity and diction; what's the name of Fall's other book, Street without Something or Other?) |
imported>Hayford Peirce (removed Navarre typo -- formatting is still weird until I do a Preview. Must have something to do with your text -- are you using Notepad, maybe?) |
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'''Dien Bien Phu''' is a valley and small town in North Vietnam, 260 miles northwest of [[Hanoi]] and the place of the 1954 decisive battle that soon forced [[France]] to relinquish control of colonial Indochina. In military discussions, Dien Bien Phu has also become a synonym for an extremely unwise decision: the attempt to hold a seemingly strong defensive position, against which the enemy, cooperating with the defender's plans, will then destroy himself against the impregnable fortifications. Unfortunately, the [[Viet Minh]], commanded by [[Vo Nguyen Giap]], did not play the part the French commander, [[Henri | '''Dien Bien Phu''' is a valley and small town in North Vietnam, 260 miles northwest of [[Hanoi]] and the place of the 1954 decisive battle that soon forced [[France]] to relinquish control of colonial Indochina. In military discussions, Dien Bien Phu has also become a synonym for an extremely unwise decision: the attempt to hold a seemingly strong defensive position, against which the enemy, cooperating with the defender's plans, will then destroy himself against the impregnable fortifications. Unfortunately, the [[Viet Minh]], commanded by [[Vo Nguyen Giap]], did not play the part the French commander, [[Henri Navarre]], had written for them. | ||
==The place== | ==The place== | ||
Revision as of 23:19, 24 November 2008
Template:TOC-right Dien Bien Phu is a valley and small town in North Vietnam, 260 miles northwest of Hanoi and the place of the 1954 decisive battle that soon forced France to relinquish control of colonial Indochina. In military discussions, Dien Bien Phu has also become a synonym for an extremely unwise decision: the attempt to hold a seemingly strong defensive position, against which the enemy, cooperating with the defender's plans, will then destroy himself against the impregnable fortifications. Unfortunately, the Viet Minh, commanded by Vo Nguyen Giap, did not play the part the French commander, Henri Navarre, had written for them.
The place
That the correct Vietnamese name for the area is not even Dien Bien Phu characterizes the misunderstandings that went into the battle. Properly, the area centers on a village called Muong Thanh by the T'ai tribesmen of the area. [1]
The opponents
Previous military use
Establishing the base
"Mission creep" was among the many French military sins. Originally, Navarre had planned to block Viet Minh access to Laos, and interfere with Giap's supply lines and his drug trade. As the Geneva conference of 1954 approached, however, he felt under pressure to produce a decisive victory.[2]
Party concept
Giap's reinterpretation of orders
The Battle
Aftermath
Lessons learned
When North Vietnamese and American troops faced one another at another remote valley, both sides had Dien Bien Phu in mind at the Battle of Khe Sanh.