|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 16 May 2004 |
 |
|
 |
News |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Epic battle of Dien Bien Phu A few days ago on May 7 Vietnam celebrated the 50th anniversary of an epic battle - the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The French military Commander in Vietnam, General Henry Navarre, built the Dien Bien Phu garrison in the remote Dien Bien valley close to the Lao border with a single purpose in mind. He wanted to provoke the Viet Minh, the liberation fighters into a full-scale battle to annihilate them. Some 15,000 French and pro-French Vietnamese forces were assembled for this do-or die battle. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the father of the Vietnamese Liberation Army, however, had other plans. He did not want to get provoked into battle. Instead an attack was planned using the policies developed by the Vietnamese Communist Party for the liberation war. He put into practice the theory of People's War whereby the entire population was mobilised to assist the regular forces, the militia and the guerillas. The attack was launched on March 13, 1954 and within 36 hours, the Viet Minh forces were able to capture two vital hills of Him Lam and Doc Lap overlooking the valley. With it the fate of the French garrison was sealed. The siege of the garrison lasted almost for two months till the surrender of the French troops on May 7, 2004. As General Vo Nguyen Giap later recalled. "The aggressor troops were submerged in the ocean of the people's war. They faced a war without front line and without rear, with a battlefront which was nowhere and everywhere" (Vo Nguyen Giap: Selected Writings. p.411). The victory at Dien Bien Phu changed the entire character of the liberation struggle and led to the eventual overthrow of French colonial rule in Vietnam. It was also a forerunner to the victory of the Vietnamese people in the subsequent war against the United States. The significance of the battle of Dien Bien Phu goes far beyond Vietnam. It is the first time that a national liberation movement had triumphed in battle against a powerful colonial power. It is the beacon that lights the path of all oppressed peoples including the people of Iraq who are now struggling to oust American invaders. (JV) |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
