British documentary about the famous 1954 battle. Some irritating errors in the narration - “the Vietnamese didn’t give the French too much trouble” prior to World War Two. Yeah, right. But worth it for some tremendous vision: troops arriving in Vietnam in 1945, Ho Chi Minh chairing meetings, paratroops arriving, Giap planning battles (next to him is a self-conscious officer who keeps smiling), Russian footage of coolies creating supply lines for Vietminh, Giap and his model of Dien Bien Phu, the first attack, the destroyed air strip. They have to rely on photos for vision of the French camp during the battle, but there is vision of the surrender.
It sticks it to the French for clinging on to their colonies and bad military strategy, which was based on “come and get me”. Be careful what you wish for, Frenchies. Even when they knew it was a bad idea they stuck around as it was too expensive to withdraw. Assuming the Vietnamese would not be able to get their hands on heavy guns. They had 24 hours of the attack but it didn’t seem to do any good). The French seem to have lost the battle on the first day of the attack when they lost an outpost and the airfield was attacked. Within the first five days they lost all the outposts and soon they were cut off.
Two thirds of the French forces were not French, one fifth of the French side deserted (the majority sat it out within the entrenched camp, asking for food from their former comrades). Dulles wanted the Yanks to bomb the Vietnamese but Eisenhower refused. Half the French who surrendered die in imprisonment.
No vision of the two brothels they shipped in, unfortunately. (That would make a great story – POV of this battle from the hookers.) But an interesting doco all the same.
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