The Vietnamese town that lives the country’s fighting spirit
- Dien Bien Phu was the site of an ignominious French defeat that arguably marked the beginning of the end for European colonial powers in Asia
- Today its inhabitants are still proud, but face a new set of challenges – bringing lasting peace, prosperity and social mobility
Dien Bien Phu is a nondescript provincial town surrounded by rice paddies, some 456 kilometres (or more than 10 hours overland) to the northwest of the capital, Hanoi. Located in the lap of a broad valley and surrounded by hills, it’s also just 30 kilometres from the border between Vietnam and Laos.
Anyone who questions the resolve of the Vietnamese would be well-advised to make the arduous journey from the capital (though there is a daily turbo-prop flight as well) to this town, with its intriguing mix of montane peoples – from the Tai to the Mong and Kinh.
The 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu and ignominious French defeat was one of the most significant events of the post-second world war era. It arguably marked the beginning of the demise of the European colonial powers in Asia (the British were to withdraw from Malaya in 1957) and the ascendancy of nationalist movements and the Americans.
But the French in this case were very much responsible for their own humiliation. They selected the isolated spot, setting up a garrison of well over 15,000 troops supplied by a sole airstrip. The idea was to lure the elusive and lightly-armed Democratic Republic of Vietnam forces out into the open.
