There are historical events that took place like the inevitable; as time goes by we better understand their position and historical significance. The Victory of Dien Bien Phu is such a special event. 70 years have elapsed, and we all realise that Dien Bien Phu Victory is not only a golden epic and a brilliant milestone in the country’s heroic history, but also an epoch-making historic miracle.
Dien Bien Phu or present-day Dien Bien Phu city, Dien Bien province, is a flat field of nearly 10,000 hectares, about 500 km far from Hanoi. In late 1953, the French concentrated their forces on building a heavily fortified base including 49 fortifications with 17 infantry battalions, 3 artillery battalions, and other engineer, transport, air force, and elite units. It was the strongest fortress group not only in Indochina, but also in all colonies of France at that time. However, with the willpower, knowledge, and strength of Vietnam in the Ho Chi Minh era, our Army attacked and destroyed the whole fortress group within 56 days and nights of combat.
A historic miracle
Poet To Huu summarised the Victory of Dien Bien Phu in his work: “It took 9 years to score the seismic Dien Bien Phu victory/ The fruits were red flowers and a golden epic”. The Victory of Dien Bien Phu that “resounded across the five continents, shook the globe” is a historic miracle of our nation. That could be proved via several elements as follows.
Our Party Central Committee and President Ho Chi Minh’s correct situational assessments. Half a victory will be decided by correct situational assessments. The most typical feature of our Party’s strategic direction is that the Party always seizes and maintains the initiative for offensive. Taking the initiative is the most important condition for an offensive strategy.
With reference to the enemy’s strategic plan and our strategic initiative from the Winter – Spring Offensive of 1953 – 1954 to the Victory of Dien Bien Phu, there are two things worth mentioning. First, according to Navarre’s intent, the French would concentrate their strength, seize the initiative, and prepare a key battle on the battlefield of their own choice. However, we forced them to disperse their strategic mobile forces, thereby destroying their main strategic instrument. Second, the enemy did not plan to deploy troops to the Northwest theatre. Nevertheless, we adopted measures to entice and force the enemy to concentrate their main units on Dien Bien Phu to turn this place into the strongest fortress group in preparation for a key battle with us. Although Dien Bien Phu had not been included in the Plan of General Navarre, it became the biggest battle of our Army with French colonialists.
Our Party’s ingenuity in seizing and taking advantage of the opportunity. During a war, situations change rapidly, every step taken by each side conceals their intent and action. Thus, strategic direction must keep pace with developments on the battlefield and especially arising factors to formulate sound, effective strategies. Our Party’s strategic direction during Dien Bien Phu Campaign put the enemy into passivity and took them by surprise for many times. At that time, French and American generals and high-ranking officers all believed that Dien Bien Phu was an impregnable fortress group, boasting that attacking Dien Bien Phu means suicide. Apparently, the enemy was too confident and arrogant. They thought that we were not capable of attacking Dien Bien Phu, but we decided to launch a large-scale operation on this front as a big surprise to them. They assumed that we would suffer heavy losses, but in fact, we gained a complete victory.
The perfection of the Victory. Dien Bien Phu Victory is impressive and couldn’t be more complete. With correct decisions made by the Party Central Committee and Uncle Ho, active and proactive preparations, great determination, proper forms of warfare, iron will, and courage, we won a complete victory. Our offensive during the battle of Dien Bien Phu could be described as thunder and storm, and perfectly it was the combined strength of the entire people and Army under the Party’s leadership to form the strength of the entire nation. In the beginning of the resistance war, our Army was only capable of destroying each enemy battalion in solid fortresses and normally fought the enemy at night-time; in the battle of Dien Bien Phu, our Army made great progress in destroying 21 battalions in the strongest fortress group in Indochina, with 8 resistance centres and 49 fortresses. That battle was the most typical and could be seen as a robust development of our Army.
The miracle of Dien Bien Phu Victory also reveals another military element. In the past, our ancestors destroyed foreign invaders with their landslide victories in Bach Dang, Chi Lang, and Dong Da. In those periods, we were basically at the same level of development with the enemy in terms of social system and military equipment. Our ancestors defeated the enemy by their patriotism, courage, and strategies. The Dien Bien Phu front was a different story. At that time, France achieved a high level of technology, not to mention the US support; in Dien Bien Phu, the French deployed tens of aircraft and tanks as well as a large number of modern weapons. Therefore, Vietnam’s Victory in Dien Bien Phu could be seen as a wonderful feat of arms and a miracle in the national history. The Victory of Dien Bien Phu gloriously ended our people’s resistance war against the French, forcing the enemy to sign Geneva Accords, liberating half the country, turning the North into a solid base of the country’s revolution, laying a foundation for liberating the South, unifying the country, and taking the whole country to socialism.
The magnitude of the times
Commemorating the 10th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory, President Ho Chi Minh wrote: “Dien Bien Phu is like a shining golden landmark of history. It shows where colonialism rolled downhill and disintegrated, and at the same time, national liberation movements around the world were rising to total victory.” He also wrote: “That is a great victory of our people and a common victory of all oppressed people around the world”. President Ho Chi Minh’s words help us gain a more profound perception of the epoch-making significance of Dien Bien Bien Phu Victory, which can be manifested in the following.
First, the battle of Dien Bien Phu is likened to other famous ones in the world’s war history, such as Waterloo, Borodino, and Stalingrad. All above-mentioned battles are of epoch-making significance. For Dien Bien Phu, it was not only a glorious victory of the Vietnamese people ending the French domination after nearly 100 years, but also a start for national liberation struggles of small nations against colonialism and imperialism. Dien Bien Phu Victory set an example and gave every one a lesson: a small, weak nation can defeat an imperial power. The Vietnamese nation won the Victory of Dien Bien Phu as the opening of a new era with the chances of victory for colonies. The Vietnamese nation successfully fulfilled the mission entrusted by history.
Second, the Victory of Dien Bien Phu contributed to changing the world politics in a positive way. Dien Bien Phu is the most heroic, greatest feat of arms of a colony over a modern army of a Western imperial power. That was also the first and most typical victory in the history of the oppressed people against foreign invaders, opening up a victorious period of the national liberation movement, marking the unavoidable collapse of colonialism the world over. The Victory of Dien Bien Phu cut off an important link of the chain of domination established by colonialism, provided an impetus for oppressed people to rise up, and partly made imperialist forces draw back and hand over independence to their colonies.
The Victory of Dien Bien Phu brings valuable lessons to mankind. It is the lesson on the invincible strength of a united nation fighting for its own independence and freedom. It is the lesson on maintaining self-reliance and combining the strength of the nation with the strength of the times. That is revolutionary and scientific, dynamic and sound political guidelines appropriate to reality and rules, with creative measures to resolutely achieve the goal. “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom” will forever be a guiding flag and a source of immense strength for not only the Vietnamese people, but also other nations around the world.
Third, elements that make history. The Victory of Dien Bien Phu is a miraculous story. Key parts of that story include: the sound, independent, self-reliant, and creative guidelines of our Party headed by President Ho Chi Minh; a close-knit bond between the Party’s leadership and the spirit of determination to fight and to win as well as the wisdom and creativity of our people and Army; the strength of solidarity, courage, and indomitable spirit from the people during combat; the practical development of Vietnam’s military art with the combination of the strength of the nation and the strength of the times. National independence, socialism, peace, and friendship represent the meaning of life of the Vietnamese people.
When it comes to the Victory of Dien Bien Phu, nobody forgets to praise and honour General Vo Nguyen Giap – the “eldest brother” of the Vietnam People’s Army. General Vo Nguyen Giap is called “the General of the people’s heart” as a special respect for him in Vietnam; he is also honoured all over the world. There have been hundreds of books and articles published across the globe about General Vo Nguyen Giap. Most of those books and articles regarded General Vo Nguyen Giap as one of the most excellent military strategists of all time. In the book titled “My War with CIA”, late Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk wrote: “General Vo Nguyen Giap is a great strategist of all time”. In February 1984, General Vo Nguyen Giap was selected as one of the 10 greatest generals of the world by the Royal British Council of Science. American military historian Cecil B. Currey described General Vo Nguyen Giap as the only general in the modern history that had fought the enemy from an extremely weak position, with insufficient equipment, financial resources, and troops, but continuously defeated Japanese empire, French army, and the US. Meanwhile, in his work entitled “Giap, an assessment”, General Peter Macdonald, a British researcher of army history and science stressed that General Vo Nguyen Giap was among few people who could change history; it was General Vo Nguyen Giap that had commanded a primitive army but managed to defeat two Western major powers. The author also quoted US General William Westmoreland in his book: “The qualities that make a great military leader – the ability to make decisions, the moral strength, the ability to concentrate, and the intelligence that unifies all those qualities – Giap possesses them all”.
The Victory of Dien Bien Phu covers a golden page of Vietnam’s history, deeply imprinted in the memory of the present and future generations. Since the Victory of Dien Bien Phu, in our revolutionary journey, we have continued to achieve glorious, landslide feats of arms, defeating both colonialism and neo-colonialism to effectuate a unified Vietnam towards socialism, an innovated Vietnam for wealthy people, strong nation, democracy, equality, civilisation. Looking at the great potential and fortune of our country nowadays, we better understand the significance and magnitude of the Victory of Dien Bien Phu.
Prof. VU VAN HIEN, PhD