Battle of Dien Bien Phu

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (Diên Biên Phû) occurred in 1954 between Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap and French forces. The battle was fought at the village of Dien Bien Phu in northern Vietnam in Indochina and became the last battle in the Indochina War which had begun in 1947.

Dien Bien Phu was the location of a major French garrison in the middle of a bowl-shaped river valley sided by steeply forested hillsides which the French forces were confident could not be scaled and used for military advantage. The Viet Minh, however accomplished precisely that with determined ingenuity that managed to position heavy artillery obtained from the Chinese at those locations and bombard the base with devastating ease.

The battle lasted from March 13, 1954 to May 7, 1954 when the French capitulated with huge losses. It ended French involvement in Indochina.

The victory by the Viet Minh led to the 1954 Geneva accords, which partitioned Vietnam into a communist Northern and pro-Western South Vietnamese governments. This partition was supposed to be temporary, and the two sides were supposed to be reunited by national elections in 1956. The USA supported the southern government under Ngo Dinh Diem which opposed the agreement, surmising that Ho Chi Minh from the North would win those elections - even though the southern government was created under the terms of that agreement. Thus the competition for the whole of Vietnam began, and would escalate into the Vietnam War.