The last days of French empire By Eric margolis 7 May 2000 BITCHE, FRANCE - This grim little Alsatian fortress town on the eastern sector of the Maginot Line is an appropriate place to remember the anniversary of the battle of Dienbienphu, a decisive French defeat that marked the beginning of America's own subsequent disaster in Vietnam. I vividly recall as an 11-year old seeing a newspaper on a neighbor's doorstep, with a huge headline: `Dienbienphu Falls.' The date was 7 May, 1954. Two decades later - on 30 April 1975 - Saigon fell to the advancing North Vietnamese Army. France, financed by the US, had been battling North Vietnam's communists and nationalists (Vietminh) since 1946 to regain control of its pre-war Indochina colonies. Vietminh forces, trained and armed by communist China, avoided large battles with the French, preferring guerilla tactics and ambushes. France's new theater commander, an elegant desk general, Henri Navarre, sought to draw the Vietminh into a set-piece battle in which his aviation and guns would grind them up. Navarre selected a remote, 11 mile long by 5 mile wide valley 200 km northwest of Hanoi known as Dienbienphu, a strategic position athwart Vietminh communications lines from China and Laos. The plan was military lunacy, and bitterly opposed by Navarre's subordinates. Ironically, the US later duplicated Navarre's folly at the siege of Khe Sanh. In early 1954, Navarre inserted 14,000 elite troops into the valley. Forty percent were French; the rest Foreign Legionnaires, North African `goumiers,' and Vietnamese. The French established a 30-mile perimeter entrenched camp comprised of fortified stronpoints with bunkers and artillery, surrounded by minefields and belts of wire. In true French style, the strongpoints were named after women - Huguette, Beatrice, Isabelle, etc - the various mistress, it was said, of the aristocratic French fortress commander, Col. De Castries. A mobile bordello unit and powdered wine accompanied the troops. North Vietnam's brilliant supreme commander, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, saw the fortress-loving French had committed a calamitous error by offering battle in a remote location that could not be relieved by ground troops just as the monsoon was approaching. Giap quickly concentrated 50,000 of his best troops, including the veteran 308th Iron Division, 316th, and 325th, supported by 300,000 porters, and invested Dienbienphu at the beginning of March. The French generals staff believed the Vietminh had little artillery and could not move big guns through the mountains of northwest Vietnam. But China secretly supplied the Vietminh with 200 75mm and 105mm howitzers, many captured from the US in Korea, as well as anti-aircraft guns and rocket batteries. In a titanic feat of logistics, the Vietminh transported the disassembled guns, 45,000 large caliber shells, and 200,000 tons of supplies through dense jungles and over mountains by trucks, ox carts, bicycles, and on porter's backs. Giap dug his guns into caves concealed in the mountain sides overlooking Dienbienphu, rendering them virtually immune from French air strikes and counter-battery fire. Giap's artillery poured a steady deluge of fire on the French positions below. Elite Vietminh engineer units began driving a network of flying saps towards the French lines. French counter-attacks were beaten back. French aviation pounded the Vietminh with bombs and napalm, but could not stop the determined enemy infantry, nor halt the rain of shells that was turning French strongpoints into little Verduns. Low-lying monsoon clouds blanketed the valley. French aircraft were downed by Giap's AA guns. On 13 March, `Beatrice' was stormed. The next night, `Gabrielle' was swamped by human wave attacks. Their garrisons died fighting. By mid-April, the airstrip was put out of action, forcing the French to resupply solely by airdrops. `Eliane' fell. Four thousand French volunteers, many who had never before jumped, parachuted into Dienbienphu. French doctors performed operations by flashlight in semi-flooded bunkers on the 1,400 seriously wounded. France was transfixed by both the heroism and the agony of its sons at Dienbienphu, battling a ferocious foe to whom casualties meant nothing. Foreign Legionnaires, many of them German, fought magnificently, taking over 50% casualties. So did Col. Bigard's tough paratroopers. But the human wave assaults continued. `Hugeuette' fell after particularly fierce resistance. Her garrison sang `La Marseillaise' before dying. President Eisenhower rejected French pleas to use the A-bomb against the besiegers. On 6 May, Giap ordered the final assault. That night, as the valley lay wreathed in explosions and smoke, Vietminh troops swamped the remaining French positions, using the bodies of their dead comrades to cross the French wire. Out of ammo, the Legionnaires fought with their bayonets and knives. Waving red flags and blaring bugle calls, the Vietminh overran the last positions. On the 7th of May, after 57 days of siege, 10,000 French troops surrendered. Most died in captivity. At least 1,500 French died in combat, 4,000 were wounded. Dienbienphu was the worst disaster to befall French arms since the German blitzkrieg of May 1940. It eerily resembled the defeat and capture of Napoleon III's entire army in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War at Sedan. France's generals have repeatedly proven unworthy of the gallantry of their soldiers. France went into national mourning. Soon after, France abandoned Indochina, where 100,000 of its men had fallen. The first Vietnam War was over. The second, was just about to begin. At VE commemoration ceremonies yesterday, I had the honor to join the members of the 100th U.S. Army Division which liberated Bitche in 1944. Copyright: E. Margolis, May 2000 "War at the Top of the World" the struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet, by Eric Margolis, is now available in Canada and the U.S. through major book outlets and online. To send *personal mail* to Eric Margolis, please do not click reply, but use this link: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ************** To UNSUBSCRIBE to this list click the following link and enter the words UNSUBSCRIBE FOREIGNC in the body of the email. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
