New York 1967. The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 signalled the end of French influence in Indochina. To go to Dien Bien Phu is to discover one of the most beautiful rice valleys of North Vietnam and the historical remains of the battle that marked the end of French Indochina. The battle fought around Dien Bien Phu was the last major campaign by a European state in the region; by the end of the decade the United States was to … So it was that Dien Bien Phu came to form a fateful bridge between the end of the French war in Indochina and the beginning of the American war there. These were the weapons with which French commanders fought the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, and with which they ensured their own defeat. Jules Roy: Der Fall von Dien Bien Phu. Bernard B. Giap initiated his assault on the French on March 13, 1954. New York 2010. Roughly speaking Cogny presented the following objections to Navarre: Dien Bien Phu would not prevent Lai Chau from falling to the Vietminh 316th division and would not bar the way to Laos; the enemy was advancing everywhere and European ideas of strategy were valueless in Indochina. Dien Bien Phu is a city where, in 1954, the communist oriented Vietminh with Ho Chi Minh fought againts the French colonial army. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu, which took place in northern Vietnam in 1954, marked a major turning point in both the First Indochina War between France and the Viet Minh independence movement and the general position of European colonial powers in South-East Asia. While the French fortified their position at Dien Bien Phu, Giap and the Viet Minh surrounded the village. Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Some of the American civilian pilots who flew the run said that Viet Minh flak was as dense as anything encountered during World War II over the Ruhr River. Tension and hostility between the independence-seeking Viet Minh and returning French colonial forces led to the outbreak of the First Indochina War in late 1946. Dien Bien Phu is a city where, in 1954, the communist oriented Vietminh with Ho Chi Minh fought againts the French colonial army. 2. Ted Morgan: Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America Into the Vietnam War. By late 1953, the French army had lost the initiative in its fight to retain the nation’s colony in Indochina.A Vietnamese insurgency controlled much of the countryside and was steadily increasing in strength. Despite financial assistance from the United States, nationalist uprisings against French colonial rule began to take their toll. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu 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 French gained control of Vietnam in the nineteenth century, during the Age of Imperialism. Dien Bien Phu was a humiliating and debilitating loss that cost the French 1,500 men, leaving another 3,000 to 4,000 wounded and the remaining 10,000 taken prisoner. A few figures tell how murderous the air war around Dien Bien Phu was: Of the 420 aircraft available in all of Indochina then, 62 were lost in connection with Dien Bien Phu and 167 sustained hits. The frontier city of Dien Bien Phu, located in the northwest of Vietnam close to the border with Laos, was the site of the decisive battle of the First Indochina War (1946-1954). The scene of the decisive battle of the First Indochina War, Dien Bien Phu is synonymous with the defeat of the French colonial powers in Indochina. French troops suffered a big defeat here in the Indochina war in 1954. Dien Bien Phu. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climatic battle of the First Indochina War (1946-1954) between French military forces and those of the Communist Viet Minh. First Indochina War; Part of the Indochina Wars, the Cold War, and the decolonisation of Asia: Clockwise from top: After the fall of Dien Bien Phu supporting Laotian troops fall back across the Mekong River into Laos; French Marine commandos wade ashore off the Annam coast in July 1950; M24 Chaffee American light tank used by French in Vietnam; Geneva Conference on 21 July 1954; A Grumman … Fall: Hell in a Very Small Place – The Siege of Dien Bien Phu. The battle fought around Dien Bien Phu was the last major campaign by a European state in the region; by the end of the decade the United States was to become the prominent foreign power in Vietnam and … French troops suffered a big defeat here in the Indochina war in 1954. The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 signalled the end of French influence in Indochina. DIEN BIEN PHU AND THE VESTIAGES OF THE INDOCHINA WAR. One year later, he joined two dozen other American CAT pilots, providing air support to French forces in Indochina.