Dien Bien Phu victory is a significant milestone of our troops and people, proving the important and decisive role of the young Vietnam People’s Army when defeating the expeditionary and professional forces of French Colonialists. In term of military art, this victory was attributed to not only the operational art in Dien Bien Phu Front but also the strategic cooperation among battlefields, where Inter-zone 5 was an important direction, directly “sharing fire” with Dien Bien Phu to the decisive victory.
Inter-zone 5 coordinated with Dien Bien Phu to destroy the “Navarre Plan”
After being appointed as the Chief Commander of French forces in Indochina, General Navarre gave out the “Navarre Plan” aimed at changing the battlefield and clinching a decisive victory to “end the war with honour”. On considering “Inter-zone 5, together with other bases in the Bolaven Plateau as the permanent dangers for the entire Indochinese South, etc. and the liberation of this region as the spiritual effect for the whole Vietnam, including the regions controlled by Viet Minh”, the French colonialists defined that one of the most important goals in the 1953-1954 Winter Spring Offensive was to occupy the entire Viet Minh’s free zone in Inter-zone 5, “capture and completely pacify this region”. In implementing this ambition, the French colonialists intensely made adjustment and completion to all units, herding the troops into Inter-zone 5 with the estimation of nearly 50.000 fully-equipped troops to deploy Operation Atlante.
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| Letter of President Ho Chi Minh hailing Inter-Zone 5 after winning Dak Po victory in 1954 (A file photo) |
Facing the conspiracy of the French, and on grasping the viewpoints of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission on “Avoiding the enemy’s strength, fighting their weaknesses to disperse and destroy their forces and widen the free zones”, Inter-zone 5 defined the guideline of actively and drastically developing into the Central Highlands, to the North at first, together with reinforcing the free zones; concurrently, directed the rule of close combination between the main battlefield (North Central Highlands) and the nationwide ones, etc. Implementing that guideline, Inter-zone 5 decided to concentrate the regular forces to attack the North Central Highlands to connect the free zone of the Inter-zone with the ones of Lower Laos and Northeast Cambodia; at the same time, use the local people’s war posture to slow and gradually destroy and break the enemies’ raiding attacks; strengthen the activities in the enemy rear, turn the whole Inter-zone into the battlefield and regularly threaten the enemies from all directions. This was a sound, daring and breaking decision, making the French troops totally surprised. As a result, they had to change from active offence to passive defence, and then suffered a complete defeat. On 20 January 1953, Operation Atlante started with the land of the French troops on Tuy Hoa and their gradual occupation of Phu Yen. There, they were not only unable to destroy our forces but also halted, ground and destroyed by our people’s war and guerrilla war. On 26 January 1953, Inter-zone 5 kicked off the North Central Highlands Campaign, with the stormy attacks by the troops and people of the Inter-zone, after one week, Kon Tum Province was completely liberated; the Inter-zone 5’s free zone was connected with the ones in Middle and Lower Laos and Northeast Cambodia. With these advancements, the French’s fear of the Indochinese battlefield being half-separated appeared. Despite losing Kon Tum, the French colonialists still insisted that attacking the free zone would force us to withdraw our troops. Therefore, on 12 March 1953, they landed in Quy Nhon, merging with their forces deployed from the South to attack Binh Dinh. One day later, Dien Bien Phu Campaign began and achieved important victories, which encouraged our forces to move forward and destroy the enemy, making the French troops in Inter-zone 5 anxious and shaken. In that spirit, our troops and people in Binh Dinh fought bravely, forcing the enemies to huddle in Quy Nhon town. They were unable to connect Quy Nhon with An Khe and Pleiku as planned.
Following the victory of the second phase of Dien Bien Phu Campaign, Inter-zone 5 continually strengthened their attacks in all directions. In the North Central Highlands, we continued to separate Road 19, surround and threaten An Khe and Pleiku, block their reinforcements, inflicting heavy damage on them. In Phu Yen, Regiment 803 moved to the West of the Province, coordinated with local troops and guerrilla forces to destroy thousands of the enemy troops. In the South Central Highlands, the local troops in Dak Lak sped up their attacks in areas surrounding Buon Ma Thuot; the ones in Lam Dong also separated many parts of Road 20, forcing the French forces to maneuver their troops from Phu Yen to protect these areas. In the areas temporarily occupied by the enemies, the local soldiers also strengthened their activities and well-coordinated with the main battlefield in North Central Highlands. It was the close coordination among battlefields that significantly decreased the French attacks in the free zones, at the same time, detained them in Inter-zone 5, not giving them any chance to support Dien Bien Phu. Navarre once admitted: “The attacks by Viet Minh to the Middle and Southern Laos and Central Highlands confined our forces there and prevented any mobilisation of mobile forces. We could not withdraw forces from any battlefields, even the newly-established units were also made to participate in the war”.
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| The French convoy destroyed by Inter-Zone 5 in the battle of Dak Po in 1954 |
On 07 May 1954, Dien Bien Phu Campaign won great victory. Over 16,000 French troops were destroyed and arrested, the “Navarra Plan” was basically broken down. Fully understanding the revolutionary ideology and promoting the momentum form Dien Bien Phu Victory, Inter-zone 5 directed the continuous attacks in all battlefields, making more followed-up and devilish attacks which were of significant military and political meanings, forcing the French colonialists to sign the Geneva Accords.
Over 7 months of continuous combat, the troops and people in Inter-zone 5 fought hundreds of battles, destroyed 28,000 troops, captured 7,500 weapons, 400 tons of ammunition, 373 vehicles of all types; completely liberated Kon Tum province and most of Gia Lai province; the free zone was widened to the South of the Cam Le river. More importantly, Inter-zone 5 coordinated closely with the main battlefield Dien Bien Phu and other strategic directions, dispersing the French troops, restraining them and making them unable to support each other. Each battlefield was reciprocal to the other by their “fire-sharing” roles. Together they contained the enemies, preventing them from supporting each other. People and troops of both battlefields emulated to destroy the enemies and gain victories. This was one of the main causes to the French defeat in Dien Bien Phu.
The armed forces of Military Region 5 bring into play the spirit of Dien Bien Phu in the new era.
Bringing into play the spirit of Dien Bien Phu, during its building, combat and growth, Military Region 5 has firmly held the revolutionary ideology, united and closely coordinated with the nationwide battlefields to make great victories of Ba Gia, Nui Thanh, Van Tuong, Pleime (1965), Dak To – Tan Canh (1972), Nong Son – Thuong Duc (1974), especially the unique “nerve” attack in Buon Me Thuot in the Central Highlands Campaign (1975) which brilliantly commenced the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising and the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign, gloriously ending the war against the US for national salvation. The spirit of Dien Bien Phu has also been brought into play to create the great spiritual strength for the armed forces of Military Region 5 to coordinate with the Vietnamese volunteer soldiers to gain great victory in implementing the international duty, helping Cambodian people to overthrow the Pol Pot - Ieng Sary reactionary, genocidal regime, reviving the nation and people. In the new era, this spirit has been transformed into the spiritual-political force inside each cadre and soldier, creating the huge motivation for the Region to successfully accomplish the military and defence tasks, safeguarding the Fatherland.
Celebrating 70 years of Dien Bien Phu Victory and being proud of the glorious traditions, the armed forces of Military Region 5 have been deeply aware of the responsibility for inheriting and bringing those traditions to a higher level. They have continued to comprehensively grasp and effectively implement the Party’s military and defence viewpoints, guidelines and strategies on safeguarding the Fatherland, especially Resolution No. 44-NQ/TW, dated 24 November 2023 by the Party Central Committee (13th tenure) on Strategies for safeguarding the Fatherland in the new situation, Strategies for Cyber Security, Strategies for safeguarding the national borders; Law on National Defence, Decree No. 21/2019/NĐ-CP, dated 22 February 2019 by the Government on building the defence zones and other resolutions and directions by the Central Military Commission (CMC), Defence Ministry on the military and defence tasks. They have also made accurate forecast on the military and defence situations, timely advised the CMC, Defence Ministry to flexibly and correctly solve the situations arising in the locality; strengthened their leadership and direction on improving the quality of military and defence work, building the Region’s defence zones, provincial and city defence zones in the new situation; paid attention to research, adjusting the posture and building the potentials of basic and complete defence zones in each locality; proactively coordinated with the local party committees, governments and units in the localities to intensely build the all-people national defence, the all-people national defence posture combined with the people’s security posture, and the “people’s hearts and minds posture”; brought into play the patriotism, the traditions of solidarity, independence, self-reliance, self-resilience, overcoming difficulties to create the general power in task performance; well conducted the democratic regulation at the grassroots levels, solved the people’s problems, etc., making contribution to building the national unity, holding and strengthening the unity among soldiers and people, the friendship with the people and armies of Laos and Cambodia.
The Military Region 5 has intensely built the comprehensively strong, “exemplary, typical” armed forces which are in the general quality, high combat capability, and absolutely loyal to the Fatherland, Party, State and the people, ready to receive and successfully accomplish the assigned tasks; paid attention to the work of building the Military Region’s Party Committee which is strong in politics, ideology, morality, organisation and cadres; continuously improved the leadership competence of all-level party committees and organisations as the “nuclear” in leading the units; focused on improving the quality of education and training, regularity building, discipline and law observance, and safety of all units; heightened the vigilance, effectively prevented the hostile forces’ plots and artifices of “peaceful evolution”, making contribution to maintaining the political stability, social order and safety in the locality, the peaceful and stable environment for the sustainable development in the Middle – Central Highlands and the entire country.
Lieutenant General TRINH DINH THACH, Political Commissar of Military Region 5