Điện Biên Phủ
The Việt Minh besiege and overrun a French fortress in a remote north-western valley, ending French rule in Indochina.
- Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu — Bernard B. Fall, Lippincott (1967)
- Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam — Fredrik Logevall, Random House (2012)
- Vietnam: A New History — Christopher Goscha, Basic Books (2016)
By 1953 the French, now heavily funded by the United States, were losing the war. Their commander, General Henri Navarre, dropped paratroopers into the valley of Điện Biên Phủ near the Laotian border, hoping to lure the Việt Minh into a set-piece battle. General Võ Nguyên Giáp accepted, but on his terms: tens of thousands of porters, many on foot or pushing bicycles, hauled artillery and supplies through the mountains, and guns were dug into the hills overlooking the French positions.
- Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu — Bernard B. Fall, Lippincott (1967)
- Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam — Fredrik Logevall, Random House (2012)
The attack began on 13 March 1954. Việt Minh artillery quickly closed the airstrip, and over eight weeks the attackers dug trenches ever closer, taking the strongpoints one by one at a terrible cost in their own lives. The garrison surrendered on 7 May. Some 11,000 French Union soldiers, many of them Vietnamese, North African and Legionnaires, were taken prisoner; thousands died on the march to camps or in captivity. The next day the Geneva Conference turned to Indochina.
- Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu — Bernard B. Fall, Lippincott (1967)
- Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam — Fredrik Logevall, Random House (2012)
- Vietnam: A New History — Christopher Goscha, Basic Books (2016)
Why it matters today
Điện Biên Phủ is the proudest victory in modern Vietnamese history, taught as proof that a poor, colonised people could defeat a European army. It inspired anti-colonial movements from Algeria onwards and made Võ Nguyên Giáp a legend.