A Battle that Changed Everything - France Defeated at Dien Bien Phu

During the last months of the First Indochina War in 1954, French General Henri Navarre believed that he could get rid of the Viet Minh Communist guerrilla if he concentrated his forces at the valley of Dien Bien Phu, an isolated location deep into enemy territory.

Navarre believed that strict French training and artillery superiority would be more than enough to destroy the enemy, but he was quickly proven wrong.

When the Viet Minh finally attacked, Navarre was surprised by the 50,000-strong army and countless artillery pieces that his counterpart, General Võ Nguyên Giap, was able to put together and transport through the jungle.

Navarre had cornered himself into a zone where retreat was impossible, so it would either be France’s defining victory, or the beginning of the end of French Indochina…

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