Developments Overseas
The historic Battle of Dien Bien Phu

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

On May 7, the Vietnamese people commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. This battle was the first instance in the history of humankind that a small colony clobbered a big colonialist power. In the 1960s, Ho Chi Minh, leader of the communist party and first president of Vietnam, summed it up and said that the Battle in Dien Bien Phu achieved "a glorious victory for the Vietnamese people and also for the forces of peace, democracy and socialism in the world."

In this battle, the Vietnam People's Army (VNPA) crushed the bigger and more sophisticated army of imperialist France within 55 days. The 16,000 enemy forces besieged in Dien Bien Phu were either crushed or captured. More than 10,000 Vietnamese patriots laid down their lives.

The courage shown by the Vietnamese people in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu shook the whole of Europe. It forced France to end a near-century of occupying Vietnam and other countries in Indochina. In his speech commemorating the battle, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, then the VNPA Commander and a member of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee, said that the victory in Dien Bien Phu proved that a determined country can defeat a foreign occupation force however powerful it may be.

Even before the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Vietnamese people's revolutionary movement formed part of a new wave of victorious revolutionary struggles in various parts of the world after the Second World War. The establishment of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe began in 1948 and the new-democratic revolution in China triumphed in October 1949. In January 1950, the Soviet Union, China and other people's republics recognized the newly established Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

But the imperialist forces tried to reverse the victories achieved by the Vietnamese people and prevent the spread of the revolutionary current to other countries in Indochina and Asia. With the blessings of US imperialism, Gen. Henri Navarre, chief commander of the French expeditionary troops in Indochina outlined the so-called "Navarre Plan" in mid-1953. It sought to wrest the strategic initiative from the Vietnamese within 18 months and reestablish imperialist domination over the entire Indochinese peninsula. The Vietnamese people resolutely opposed the plan.

The Party, the people's army and the Vietnamese people further strengthened their fighting spirit and solidarity to defend the victories they had gained when the Party launched five land reform campaigns in the liberated areas from April 1953 to July 1954. Simultaneously, a campaign was launched to rectify certain shortcomings in mass work.

By December 1953, after intense debate and exchange of views, the Party Central Committee decided to launch a daring war of a strategic character to frustrate the "Navarre Plan." The target of the campaign: to destroy Dien Bien Phu, the center of French military power in northwestern Vietnam.

The campaign was placed under General Giap's command. With the few pieces of equipment they had then, the newly formed artillery and infantry units of the Vietnamese people immediately began the construction of hundreds of kilometers of roadway that went deep into the forests and mountains and out towards the field of battle. The system of roads and trenches became the conduit for troops, military equipment, supplies and communication from the liberated areas in North Vietnam to Dien Bien Phu. Heavy weaponry like artillery were also placed in crucial points along this network of roads. The Vietnamese troops carried the cannons to the high mountains and down to the valleys even as the enemy continuously rained bullets on them.

As proof of the enthusiastic response of the Vietnamese masses to the slogan "all for the front, all for victory," 200,000 volunteers devoted over 3,000,000 work-days to ensure the victory of the offensive on Dien Bien Phu. Tens of thousands of youth, who were members of shock brigades bravely constructed new roads. With the engineering units, they also courageously defused the delayed-action bombs planted by the enemy along communication lines. They hauled rice, food and ammunition for the front, using all available modes of transportation such as bicycles, carabao- and cattle-drawn carts and row boats, among others. The bravery and sacrifice demonstrated then by the millions of Vietnamese were awe-inspiring.

That same month, VNPA troops began to launch attacks on the northwest. The Vietnamese troops wiped out large numbers of enemy forces in the course of the offensive, and liberated large chunks of territory previously held by the French. In the meantime, the Pathet Lao (the revolutionary movement in Laos) forces and the Vietnamese People's Volunteers in Central Laos also launched diversionary attacks to draw the enemy's attention from Dien Bien Phu even as they worked together to advance people's war in Laos. At the same time, guerrilla warfare was intensified behind enemy lines in North and Central Vietnam.

With the firm unity and coordination of the people and the people's army, the enemy was rendered deaf and blind. The French forces succumbed to a ruse by the VNPA that the Vietnamese offensive was over. On March 13, a 50,000-strong VNPA force launched one of the largest offensives against the confused and scattered French forces. The Vietnamese besieged the large enemy force in the extremely isolated fortress of Dien Bien Phu in what has gone down in history as one of the greatest battles of the 20th century.

21 May 2004
English Edition

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