In part one of this video, we laid the foundation of the First Indochina War, while in part two,
we discussed the surrender of the Japanese Army in Vietnam and the return of the French before
we delved into the conflict proper. By now, it should be clear that the First Indochina War
was indeed a politically complicated, bloodstained affair, made even more complicated
by the concurrent Chinese Civil War and the rising backdrop of the Cold War. In this third and final
part of our mini-series on the First Indochina War, we arrive at its devastating conclusion.
Where we left off, the French General Raoul Salan
had just taken over from General de Lattre, who established the De Lattre Line
and killed the momentum of Việt Minh General Võ Nguyên Giáp or Red Napoleon's 1951 offensives.
With de Lattre gone, the Việt Minh continued its attack on French forces withdrawing from Hòa Bình,
where they had dealt the French a defeat, albeit at a heavy cost, back in November 1951,
after General Salan took over the defence. By the 22nd of February 1952, the French had finished
their withdrawal to the De Lattre Line, where they regrouped and staved off guerrilla attacks
for much of the year. In October, Red Napoleon tested the French defence once again, this time
at Nà Sản, but French hedgehog tactics proved too much for the attackers, who withdrew after taking
some 6,000 casualties. Afterwards, the French strategically bailed from Nà Sản to prepare
for a larger Việt Minh assault on French outposts along the Black River. With Red Napoleon applying
heavy pressure to the vulnerable outposts, General Salan was looking to make a big play.
On the 29th of October, he launched Operation Lorraine. In response to this
30,000-man offensive into Việt Minh territory, which was aimed at the district of Phù Yên,
Red Napoleon simply withdrew his forces, sabotaging the French
as they advanced. Salan had no choice but to can Operation Lorraine and begin a withdrawal.
At Chan Muong on the 17th of November, the Việt Minh ambushed the French column,
inflicting heavy casualties until French air support and an Indochinese bayonet charge cleared
the way for the column's retreat. Some 1,200 French troops perished in the failed operation.
The following year, Red Napoleon switched up his tactics, planning to invade neighbouring Laos
instead of smashing head-first into the De Lattre Line in the hopes of taking Hanoi. In May, General
Salan was removed in favour of General Genrhi Navarre, who studied the successes of French
hedgehog tactics at Nà Sản and opted to put a stop to the Việt Minh's invasion of Laos at a small
town named Điện Biên Phủ on the border. The French launched Operation Castor on the 20th of November
1953, dropping paratroopers over Điện Biên Phủ so they could secure its airstrip. The paratroopers
clashed with a Việt Minh, but by the 22nd, the town was in French hands. Under Colonel Christian
de Castries, the French bolstered their defences, deploying over 9,000 troops (plus 1,800 support
personnel) and setting up a hedgehog defence to once again defeat the aggressive Red Napoleon.
But the Việt Minh general had learnt from his experience
at Nà Sản. He wouldn't charge recklessly into the spikes of the French defence.
Instead, he would lock down their airstrip with anti-aircraft guns,
bombard the crap out of them with artillery, and place some 50,000 troops in the wooded
hills surrounding the valley and the French position, which he likened to a "rice bowl."
On the 13th of March 1954, it began. Việt Minh artillery, mortars, and recoilless rifles opened
up on the French position designated Béatrice. The French battalion commander was blown apart,
and communication crumbled. After the French were nice and soft, the Việt Minh advanced,
breaking through the French defence with sappers and gunning their way to victory at this position.
After this crushing blow, the French artillery commander in charge of the defence committed
suicide with a hand grenade. He could do nothing to stop the Việt Minh artillery
dug into the surrounding hills, and he couldn't live with the shame of it.
At night on the 30th of March, the Việt Minh 312th Divison attacked the French position Dominique,
seizing two of the position's outposts but then biting off more than they could chew.
As they advanced on the next outpost, French artillerymen levelled their 105 mm howitzers
and fired them into the division's ranks, 18th-century-cannon style.
The French also fired on the enemy troops with AA guns, ultimately forcing a retreat. The Việt
Minh had better luck at the French position Eliane, taking Eliane 1 and most of Eliane 2
on the 31st. French counterattacks at Eliane 1 and Dominique were ultimately unsuccessful, but
French Major Marcel Bigeard managed to drive the Việt Minh out of Eliane 2 with the aid of
French tanks. The French also clung tooth and nail to the position Huguette, which contained
the airfield and was located on the west side of the Nam Yum River, and French planes
continued to do their best to resupply the men via parachute drops despite heavy Việt Minh AA fire.
By the 5th of April, Red Napoleon had switched up his tactics again.
French artillery and air support were delivering some serious hurt to his ground forces,
so he ordered his men to dig trenches. It was in these muddy hellholes that their morale took a
turn for the worse, with soldiers being threatened with death if they didn't continue the attack,
and the wounded often going unattended. Things didn't improve for the Việt Minh when Major
Bigeard bombarded Eliane 1 to the moon on the 10th of April and then followed said bombardment with
small unit infiltrations, ultimately retaking the position. Over the Nam Yum River, however,
things were looking better for the attackers. By the 22nd of April, the Việt Minh had taken the
vast majority of the airfield, preventing French reinforcements from landing there.
Without fresh supplies and troops, it was now only a matter of time for the French. In early May,
Red Napoleon wrested control of Eliane 1 and the remainder of Dominique and Huguette.
The French at Eliane 2 held on for a while longer, even against the Soviet Katyusha multiple rocket
launchers the Việt Minh brought to the party. They could not withstand the detonation of a
mine beneath the outpost, however, and with Eliane 2 devastated, Red Napoleon sent in
some 25,000 troops to mop up the remaining 3,000 French. The last words to come out of the French
HQ were as follows: "The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"
By the end of it, the Việt Minh had captured some 11,700 French, of which over 4,400 were wounded.
As many as 2,300 died in the battle, while more than 1,700 were branded MIA. On the Việt Minh
side, the French estimated that they slew 8,000 and wounded a further 15,000 men. Either way,
the French defeat in the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ was a game-ending blow to the French in Indochina.
While they were fighting at Điện Biên Phủ, the 1954 Geneva Conference was in progress, and the
French defeat influenced the conference's outcome. In light of France's ever-weakening position,
there would be a general ceasefire; Vietnam would be temporarily partitioned into what was,
in essence, the communist North Vietnam (or the Democratic Republic of Vietnam)
and South Vietnam (officially the Republic of Vietnam); France would withdraw to the south
and then get the hell out of Indochina; and there would be an election in July 1956
to unify Vietnam. Additionally, people could move between the North and South without hassle for 300
days, facilitated by the US Operation Passage to Freedom, which we mentioned in part one.
Not everything went according to plan, however. The new Prime Minister of South
Vietnam [Text: Technically, he was prime minister of what remained of the State of Vietnam.], Ngô
Đình Diệm, wasn't interested in following through with the July 1956 election, and many of Hồ Chí
Minh's Việt Minh soldiers stayed behind in the South. When the Việt Minh realised that a fair
election was not on the table, they took up their guns, and this eventually escalated
into the Second Indochina War or, as some know it, the American War in Vietnam.
If you've stuck with us from part one, thank you; you're a legend. Overall, what do you
think? Did you know the First Indochina War was so intense? Were you aware that it set the stage
for the Vietnam War we all know and love? Do you know anything about this seven-year-seven-month
conflict that we didn't cover in any part of this video? And lastly, do you enjoy videos split into
multiple parts like this one? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.