In the 1950s, France was struggling to hold on to colonies around the world. The most troublesome region was French Indochina, specifically Vietnam. A well-organized independence movement, supported by communist China, had taken control of North Vietnam. French generals decided to use their air power to drop a base more than 100 miles behind Vietnamese lines, where they would be able to cut off Vietnamese supply lines and force the Viet Minh into an open battle.
The French picked an airfield called Dien Bien Phu in the northern hill country of Vietnam to carry out their plan. In November 1953, airplanes began moving thousands of troops into the valley; within a few weeks more than 10,000 soldiers were busy digging fortified positions around the airfield. The French forces included light tanks and artillery, Foreign Legionnaires, local troops and even a pair of "mobile field brothels" staffed by Vietnamese and Algerian women.
Had the French commanders taken a close look at a map, they might have noticed that Dien Bien Phu was in a valley, surrounded by high mountains on all sides. Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap, who later led the Vietnamese army against American troops, called it a "rice bowl." Giap spent months quietly moving big guns – many of which were American, captured during the Korean War and given to the Vietnamese by their Chinese allies -- to the hills above the French base. By January 1954, Giap had the French surrounded and outnumbered 5 to 1.
Continuing reading about the Battle of Dien Bien Phu with
Trapped at Dien Bien Phu.
