The battle witnessed bravery and desperation on both sides, with General Giap outfighting the French Commander Navarre through forcing the French to disperse urgently needed troops and supplies far from the base, while mobilizing a huge coolie army to bring up supplies despite relentless harassment by French air forces. Ultimately, the French collapsed in a major defeat that led to their expulsion from the north of the country and the relinquishing of Indochina. However, the American forces were still massing off shore and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was threatening the use of atomic weapons. It was only forceful British diplomacy that prevented a much more intense war from then erupting and, instead, a Geneva Conference was instituted which saw the withdrawal of the French from Laos and Cambodia altogether and the partitioning of Vietnam along the Ben Hai river.
The Geneva Conference settlement was not, of course, allowed to stand as fresh invasions of the country plunged Vietnam into more warfare, with desperate human consequences for so many people.
Christie, Clive J., A Modern History of Southeast Asia: Decolonization, Nationalism and Separatism (London and New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 1996).
Hall, D.G.E.,A History of South-East Asia, fourth edition (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1981).
There is an official website dedicated to the memory of Dien Bien Phu that will be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more about this subject. The English language section may be accessed via: http://www.dienbienphu.org/english/index...
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