The French Bit Off More Than They Could Chew at Dien Bien Phu
France conquered Vietnam in the 19th century, added it to her colonial empire of French Indochina, then proceeded to exploit the country and its people. Living under foreign rule led to nationalist resentment, which eventually broke into an armed bid for independence after WWII – the First Indochina War (1946 – 1954). As that conflict wore on, France’s grip on Vietnam was loosened by the increasingly assertive Viet Minh nationalist forces.
While the French had superior firepower and technology, they were unable to bring the lightly armed Viet Minh to offer the type of stand-up pitched battle in which such superiority could prove decisive. Ever elusive, the Viet Minh conducted a masterful guerrilla campaign. They launched hit and run attacks, interdicted French supply lines, and overran isolated French garrisons. Then they melted into the jungles and countryside before the French could bring their superior firepower and technology to bear.
As things went from bad to worse for the French, they reasoned that if they could not take French superior firepower to the Viet Minh, then they would bring the Viet Minh to French superior firepower. A plan was concocted to entice the guerrillas into massing for a pitched battle by offering them an irresistible lure. That lure would be French paratroopers airdropped into an isolated base, Dien Bien Phu, which they would garrison. The French reasoned that the Viet Minh, unable to resist the opportunity to destroy an isolated garrison, would flock to the area. The garrison, kept supplied by air, would resist. That would draw in increasingly greater numbers of Viet Minh into a battle of attrition, during which they would be destroyed by superior French firepower.
The French paratroopers were dropped into Dien Bien Phu, whose main feature was an airstrip in a valley encircled by hills. Things quickly went wrong, as many French assumptions turned out to be mistaken. The French had assumed the guerrillas lacked antiaircraft capabilities. However, the surrounding hills were soon studded with flak guns, forming a deadly gauntlet through which aircraft had to fly when taking off or landing from the airstrip. So many aircraft were shot down that the French were forced to rely on airdrops for supply, many of which missed their targets and landed within enemy lines, instead.
The French had also assumed the Viet Minh would have no artillery. The Viet Minh commander, general Giap, organized tens of thousands of porters into a supply line that hauled disassembled guns over rough terrain to the hills overlooking the French. There, the guns were reassembled, ingenuously dug in to shield them from counter-battery fire, and the porter supply line kept them adequately supplied with shells.
The besieged French were shelled nonstop, and began to run low and supplies and munitions. Relentless Viet Minh attacks captured French fortified positions, one after another, and the defensive perimeter shrank steadily. Within two months, the Dien Bien Phu garrison was forced to surrender. After losing 4000 dead and missing, and nearly 7000 wounded, the survivors, numbering nearly 12,000, were herded into Viet Minh captivity.