(LĐ online) - On the afternoon of May 7, 1954, General De Castries and his entourage crawled out of the command bunker and surrendered to the Viet Minh army, ending the Dien Bien Phu Campaign in victory.
“Nine years of building Dien Bien, creating a red wreath and a golden page of history”, the Dien Bien Phu victory was not simply the victory of a “strategic decisive battle” ending the resistance war against France, but this victory went beyond national boundaries, “resounding throughout the five continents, shaking the globe”, greatly impacting the world situation, carrying a profound contemporary significance.
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| On May 7, 1954, the "Determination to fight, Determination to win" flag of the heroic Vietnam People's Army flew on the roof of General De Castries' bunker, marking the historic Dien Bien Phu campaign's complete victory. Photo: VNA |
“BOMB SOUND” IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GENERATION CONFERENCE
In 1953, in order to save France from being bogged down in Indochina, with the help of the United States, France sent the 4-star general Navarre to be the Commander-in-Chief of the expeditionary army. Navarre proposed a plan named after himself with the intention of finding an “honorable way out” within 18 months, but less than 10 months later, what he and his colleagues received was a humiliating defeat at the Dien Bien Phu battlefield - a place where both the French and the Americans boasted of being “the impregnable fortress” called “Verdun Indochina” had been shaken violently since mid-March 1954.
On May 4, 1954, our negotiating delegation led by Prime Minister Pham Van Dong arrived in Geneva. In Zhou Enlai and the Geneva Conference, Qian Jiang wrote: “Mr. Pham Van Dong arrived in Geneva with a radiant face. The continuous news of victory from the Dien Bien Phu front filled him with hope.” The Viet Minh’s victory was like a bomb exploding in the heart of France, France was stunned and stunned. The news of victory hit the Geneva Conference like a thunderclap in the ears of France and the United States. The French delegation arrived at the conference the next day (May 8, 1954) in black suits, as if mourning the Dien Bien Phu defeat - an undeniable admission of defeat.
Australian journalist Willfred Burchett commented: “Mr. Pham Van Dong's close comrade, Mr. Vo Nguyen Giap, handed him the most effective weapon, which not any negotiator would have dared to think of when starting such a conference - Dien Bien Phu was completely victorious one day before the Geneva Conference opened. Thanks to Mr. Giap's brilliant timing, the Dulles (US Secretary of State) plan to internationalize the war failed.”
In his Memoirs, Nikita Khrushchev (Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) recalled: “A miracle happened. As soon as the delegations arrived in Geneva, the Vietnamese resistance fighters had won a great victory at Dien Bien Phu [in May 1954]... Honestly, when this news flew back from Geneva, we breathed a sigh of relief and felt satisfied.”
As our Party has affirmed: "Achieving the above Agreement is a great victory of our people and army united, unanimous, and bravely fighting under the leadership of President Ho Chi Minh and the Party."
INDEPENDENCE, SOVEREIGNTY AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY FOR THE PEOPLE OF INDOCHINA
The victory of Dien Bien Phu was not only the victory of our army and people but also the common victory of the people of the three Indochinese countries: Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia. In a telegram sent to Vietnamese cadres and soldiers at the Dien Bien Phu Front, the Khmer National United Front wrote: "The victory of our brothers at the Dien Bien Phu front not only destroyed an important number of enemy forces but also had a great influence on our Khmer battlefield...".
Prime Minister Souphanouvong emphasized, “The Dien Bien Phu victory had an extremely great influence and value on the common resistance war of the three countries of Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia and on the current movement to protect world peace.”
Assessing the great impact of the Dien Bien Phu Victory on Indochina, American Associate Professor, Doctor C. Lentz emphasized: “The Dien Bien Phu Battle changed the world. The Vietnam People's Army defeated the French colonialists. The victory contributed to encouraging and consolidating Vietnam's position in diplomatic negotiations, signing the Geneva Agreement ending 8 years of war, dissolving the Indochina Federation and recognizing the Democratic Republic in North Vietnam from the 17th parallel”.
Thus, after 75 days and nights with 31 plenary sessions, the thunder of Dien Bien Phu led to the end of the Geneva Conference with an Agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in Indochina.
BLOW UP THE WORLD'S NATIONAL LIBERATION STRUGGLE
The charge of the Viet Minh army from Dien Bien Phu quickly echoed to the continents, becoming the common charge of oppressed peoples.
General Vo Nguyen Giap and the Vietnam People's Army with the flag "Determined to fight, Determined to win" have become an image for oppressed peoples, peace-loving and progressive peoples to admire.
Assessing the historical value and impact of the Dien Bien Phu victory on the world, M. Victoria of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences affirmed: “The Dien Bien Phu victory is an important milestone in the history of Vietnam. This event not only helped Vietnam escape from the oppression of French colonialism but also opened the way to independence for both Indochina and the colonies in Africa.”
C. Lentz, an American professor, also shares the same opinion. He believes: "This victory also has a ripple effect, encouraging other oppressed peoples to be more determined to fight against the imperialist regime."
Since 1954, the “explosion of Dien Bien Phu” has erupted into a “roaring thunder”, awakening the long sleep of the people of all ethnic groups in Asia, Africa and Latin America living under the domination of old and new colonialists to rise up and fight, and becoming a catalyst to unite the movement into a solid block, into a “hurricane” that blew away all large parts of the cracked colonial system of colonialism.
President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: “Dien Bien Phu is like a golden milestone in history. It clearly shows where colonialism rolled downhill and disintegrated, while the national liberation movement around the world was rising to complete victory.”
In Africa, after the battle of Dien Bien Phu, African soldiers in the Foreign Legion returned home, bringing with them lessons from the Vietnam People's War; many became soldiers and leaders of the national liberation movement and actively promoted those experiences to serve the revolutionary cause of their homeland.
“The victory of Dien Bien Phu made the colonial peoples raise their heads high”, many countries regained their national independence: Algeria (1962), Tunisia (1956), Morocco (1956), Sudan (1956), Ghana (1957), Guinea (1958) … turning Africa into a “rebellious continent”.
In Latin America, the Dien Bien Phu victory encouraged the fighting spirit of this region, turning it into a “burning continent” that burned down pro-American dictatorships. The beginning was the struggle movement of the Cuban people, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, who defeated the reactionary Batista group (1959) and in 1961 they created a Dien Bien Phu with the resounding Hiron victory. Many Latin American countries such as Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru… regained the right to national self-determination.
SIGNALING THE COLLAPSE OF OLD-STYLE COLONIALISM
The victory of Dien Bien Phu was not only the death knell for French colonialism in Asia but also signaled the collapse of old colonialism, “Dien Bien Phu and Hiron are the words written on the grave of imperialism”.
From the influence of the Dien Bien Phu victory, the struggle movement all over the world has brought many resounding victories of the forces of peace, democracy and progress. From here, it also marked the disintegration of old-style colonialism and paved the way for the movement against new-style colonialism.
French journalist Jules Roa, in his book The Battle of Dien Bien Phu, noted: “The Battle of Waterloo was less famous around the world, and the defeat at Dien Bien Phu caused terrible horror. It was one of the great defeats of the West, signaling the disintegration of the colonies and the end of a republic. The thunder of the Dien Bien Phu event still reverberates.”
The victory at Dien Bien Phu dealt a fatal blow to the foundations of French colonialism and American intervention, destroying the citadel of old colonialism, signaling the global strategic failure of the United States.
Historian Berna Fol said: "Dien Bien Phu was not only a military victory of the Viet Minh over the French, but also a political victory of the Viet Minh over the Americans."
After World War II, the US imperialists paid great attention to and considered the strategic position of Indochina, especially Vietnam. American and Western strategists believed that this place had a particularly important position in protecting Southeast Asia from the “red wave” of Communism. Therefore, the Indochina battlefield was part of the “massive retaliation” strategy to prevent and eventually destroy communism in the world. To internationalize the Indochina war, the US increasingly increased aid to France, deeply intervening in the Indochina war.
However, the victory at Dien Bien Phu was like a blow to the flank, making the US unable to react in time, forcing the US to change its strategy afterwards. “Eisenhower (US President) identified Indochina as a domino about to fall, and its collapse under Communist control would threaten other countries in Southeast Asia.”
SUPPLEMENT TO THE WORLD MILITARY TREASURE “THE ART OF PEOPLE'S WAR”
The Dien Bien Phu victory also contributed to the world military treasure a pinnacle of the art of people's warfare. In this campaign, we mobilized frontline laborers from the controlled areas to supply supplies by carrying poles, bicycles, etc., combined with machinery to ensure logistics and necessities for the entire campaign.
The French and American military could not foresee the greatness of the people's war. They did not expect that the groups of laborers walking or cycling on primitive roads to transport tens of thousands of tons of food, weapons and equipment to meet the needs of the campaign could defeat their modern airlift.
To talk about the greatness of the art of people's war, historian Stanley Karnow in the Preface to Dien Bien Phu - the historic confrontation that America wants to forget wrote: "Like ants, the Viet Minh walked, pushed carts through the forests to reach their bases, loaded on the carts everything from weapons, ammunition to giant bags of rice that had to be brought into remote areas. With superhuman strength, they could push cannons up the slopes, to the peaks where they could observe the French army".
As President Ho Chi Minh said: “At first, the enemy was a hundred thousand times stronger than us in terms of material. But in terms of spirit and politics, we were a hundred thousand times stronger than the enemy. That is the art of Vietnamese people's war. When answering Howard R. Simpson, General Giap said: “People's war does not mean guerrilla activities but rather covers everything from the actions of a small unit to the actions of the entire army.”
It can be said that Dien Bien Phu is one of the battles that changed the fate of the world, contributing to the submergence of old colonialism and opening the way to fight against new colonialism. It has a great epochal stature and has become an endless source of inspiration for national liberation movements, peace movements, democracy, and social progress in colonial, semi-colonial and dependent countries.
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