Why France Lost The Battle of Dien Bien Phu 1954 (4K Documentary)

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Personally, I think Vietnam's history is probably the most intriguing in the world because it's unique and unusual. The Mongols according to historians are still regarded as the mightiest, deadliest and most feared military force of all time even though they existed more than 8 centuries ago. The Mongol army of roughly 200,000 troops was able to wipe out all the powerful Chinese dynasties and finally successfully conquered the entire China with a population of over 180 million people in the 13th century! With its unbeatable army, the mighty Mongol Empire peaked its power under the command of the legendary Mongol general and statesman Kublai Khan controlling roughly 28 million sq. km of territory from the Pacific Ocean to central Europe, which is 3 times as large as the land area of the present day China and almost double that of Great Russia. However, even the mighty Mongol Empire had been unable to conquer the teeny tiny Southeast Asian country known as Dai Viet! It's said looks can be deceiving. In the bloody Bach Dang River battle in 1288, the Vietnamese army led by the Vietnamese Prince Hung Dao triumphantly defeated the unbeatable Mongol army, twice its size and completely sank the entire fleet of Mongol giant warships. The Bach Dang River battle has been the outstanding and incomparable naval battle ultimately destroying the last Mongol invasion of Dai Viet. The fact that the Vietnamese prince had fully understood the natural scientific phenomenon of the rising and falling tides of the Bach Dang river and placed the wooden stakes along the river bed to impale and destroy the Yuan China's naval fleet, has been a mystery challenging and intriguing modern historians' understanding. How could the Vietnamese ancestors known as the one and only people in human history more than 1,000 years ago, come up with such an ingenious and unique strategy to totally crush their powerful invaders including the mightiest and deadliest Mongol army? In fact, the unbeatable Mongol army being bitterly defeated 3 times by the Vietnamese people in the 13th century, eventually ended Genghis Khan's dream of conquering the entire world and forever changed the course of the world history. Again in the 20th century, emulating his ancestor's battle on the Bach Dang River against the invading armies of the Mongol Empire and the Han Chinese dynasties over 600 years ago, the legendary Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap's Dien Bien Phu Battle on land against the French in 1954, in fact brought an end to a 120 year domination of the French colonialism in Indochina, which eternally changed the course of human history leading to one of the bloodiest wars of the 20th century-the Vietnam War. In the Vietnam War known to the Vietnamese people as the Great Patriotic War to unify North and South Vietnam, the Ho Chi Minh Trail system is considered "one of the great achievements of 20th century military technology", according to the US National Security Agency. Military experts added, The legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail running from North to South Vietnam, has been considered a strategic feat, and a unique phenomenon in contemporary world military history. The trail with the length of more than 20,000km (over 12,500 miles) cutting through forests and mountains, is a magnificent construction project in human military history. The Ho Chi Minh Trail is the symbol of the indomitable will of the Vietnamese people to determine to overcome all the brutality of war and all the deadly obstacles of harsh nature on the vast mountains and in the dense forests despite the fact that more than 20,000 Vietnamese soldiers had lost their lives, 6,000 are still missing in action, and more than 30,000 were seriously wounded to keep the vital trail open under the overwhelming pressure of more than 4 million tons of the carpet bombing by the B-52 aircraft. The Ho Chi Minh Trail represents the Vietnamese people's desire for independence, freedom and the national unification. Things change and the world changes, but their iron will to unify their war-torn country as one nation, is forever engraved in stone. In the past, even after a 1,000-year domination, all the powerful Chinese Han dynasties had utterly bitterly failed to assimilate the Vietnamese into the Han Chinese. And big and populous China with over 4.000 years, is still unable to conquer Vietnam. Vietnam is still Vietnam standing tall today. In his book Ending the Vietnam War in Vietnam, Henry Kissinger (RIP) - former US secretary of state and national security adviser wrote: "Since Vietnam, the concept of power has radically changed." "Vietnam represented a unique situation, geographically, ethnically, politically, militarily and diplomatically," he wrote in the memorandum, which was declassified in 1998.

Having read several books about the battle, the one thing that always amazes me is the sheer logistics for the vietnamese at the battle, and the insane work put in by the porters.

Do you know why the Viet Minh had artillery at Dien Bien Phu? Because the Vietnamese army brought all the artillery here, completely with bare hands. No helicopters, no trucks, no tanks. All with bare hands. The Vietnamese army created roads through the mountains specifically for pulling artillery into Dien Bien Phu. They pulled the 2.4-ton cannons with bare hands and ropes up 40-degree slopes. Each cannon required 50, even 100 people to pull it. A total of at least 24 105mm M2A1 howitzers entered the battlefield in this way along with many 37mm M1939 (61-K) guns.

It's like that fridge commercial back in the day "How do you put an elephant in the fridge? You open the fridge and you stick it in". The Viet Minh was like "How do you put a bunch of artillery pieces on top of hills without trucks? You pull them by hands".

My grandfather fought in Dien Bien Phu for Viet Minh, he still has a bullet in his back till he died in 2016, he told me stories about battles many times and always inspired me

My grandfather fought in Dien Bien Phu. They sent him China to learn how to drive a truck, and later on he drove soldiers and supplies to the battlefield. He got bombed twice, survived with a piece of shrapnel inside his leg

"The biggest fear of a true Vietnamese people is the fear of losing country"..remember it

My grandmother's youngest sister secretly joined the Viet Minh army after her family prevented her from doing so because she was too young. Occasionally she would send letters to her family to reassure everyone, but then one day we could no longer find any information about her. Some people believe that she participated in supporting the battle of Dien Bien Phu. We never knew where or how she died, and we were never able to find her remains.

"Don't worry guys, our air force can totally resupply a surrounded garrison". Sounds like someone hasn't been paying attention in class...

0:17 The French wanted a final decisive battle in Dien Bien Phu, they got exactly that. The battle was final and decisive, just not in the French's favor.

What's even more impressive is how recently the Vietnamese army was created at this time. 10 years before they were at most a few thousand lightly armed guerillas, but they were able to build a very skilled and motivated force that by 1954 was capable to take on the very best French units. While they did have a lot of outside help in training and equipment, without motivation and skill, all those resources could just be wasted (see the Afghan army the US spent billions of dollars and 20 years to build, collapsing to small bands of Taliban...).

BRILLIANT commentary ! As a 6 years old French child in 1954 I have heard the name < Dien Bien Phu > so many times . First time I reallly understand what was going on at the geopolitical level

In 1966, Moshe Dayan visited Vietnam as a journalist. He gained, and shared, a lot of insights about the American military adventure being undertaken there. One of his comments was that any soldiers that could move heavy pieces of artillery up and down mountains, without any mechanical help, would be "a formidable enemy."

I really can't describe my love to vietnam, long live brothers 🇩🇿❤️🇻🇳

In the lyrics of the song “ Singing Marching Songs Forever” there‘s a line: Even though my life likes roses. Our enemies force us to hold our guns.

My grandfather was a soldier at Dien Bien Phu on the Viet Minh side. He was a very skilled mapper so he was part of a scouting mission tasked to watch French movements from only 200 meters away.

My grandfather brother was taken by force from Algeria to Vietnam, he survived this battle and when returned to Algeria, the revolution has already started there, so he immediately joined it and was killed by napalm in 1958

I always admire the sheer resilience of the Vietnamese to fight for their independence time and time again against larger, powerful foes in its history.

When the Australian Army trained me as an officer (early 1980s) we studied several battles that were examples of what to not do. This battle was one of them.