DIEN BIEN PHU
By: Alexa Y.
In March, 1954, Dien Bien Phu, a French troop in Vietnam, was overwhelmed by communist Vietminh forces under the command of General Vo Nguyen Giap. When the French surrendered, they had been effectively driven from all of French Indochina. France agreed to give its colonies total independence.
Indochina was divided into the nations of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, with Vietnam further segregated into a communist-dominated North and a Western-oriented South.The barricade of Dien Bien Phu also marked a turning point in the role of the United States military in Vietnam. President Dwight D. Eisenhower resisted the influences and opinions of his military advisers to intervene to save the French. After the surrender of Dien Bien Phu, the United States had to consume the responsibility for maintaining the political and military possibility of South Vietnam against the efforts of the North to unify the country under communist control.
Indochina was divided into the nations of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, with Vietnam further segregated into a communist-dominated North and a Western-oriented South.The barricade of Dien Bien Phu also marked a turning point in the role of the United States military in Vietnam. President Dwight D. Eisenhower resisted the influences and opinions of his military advisers to intervene to save the French. After the surrender of Dien Bien Phu, the United States had to consume the responsibility for maintaining the political and military possibility of South Vietnam against the efforts of the North to unify the country under communist control.