As a Vietnam vet, I have read everything I could lay my hands on regarding "my war" to better understand it; not just the American involvement or point of view, but everything! Prior to World War Two, Vietnam (then known as French Indochina) was a French colony. Early in the war, Japan drove the French out and took over. Ho Chi Minh, along with a large number of Vietnamese, cooperated with the American OSS (forerunner of the CIA) to fight the Japanese. At the end of the war, not wanting the French to return, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam to be an independent nation and formed a government. (As an admirer of the United States, he actually adopted a constitution based on the US constitution.) He knew he would need political support to keep the French from returning, so he requested diplomatic recognition of his government from the United States, which would have stopped the French from trying to reclaim their 'colony'. Unfortunately, President Truman and others in the US government were more concerned with the spread of Communism in Europe (Asia was just a 'backwater' to them) and didn't want to alienate De Gaulle and the French government, so that diplomatic recognition was withheld. The French returned, and the rest, as they say, is history. Another point; as the video said, after the French defeat, Vietnam was divided into north and south with separate governments. What the video did not say was that division was intended to be temporary until elections could be held, scheduled for 1956, at which time the Vietnamese people would decide under which government to unite. By that time, the United States had become concerned with the spread of communism in asia, and knowing "Uncle Ho" would win the election, did not allow the elections to take place. So came the Vietnam war for America. Maybe the saddest part is that although Ho Chi Minh was a communist, he would have been independent rather than a puppet for either China or Russia. Tito in Yugoslavia was a communist, and yet the United States supported him for years because he maintained his independence from the Soviet Block. Had Truman given Ho Chi Minh the diplomatic recognition he requested in 1947, not only would the Vietnam war have been averted, but Vietnam would have likely been a strong ally for the United States in asia. If you read nothing else about Vietnam, find a copy of "Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War". Unbiased and told from both sides.
Can't expect much from American,look how they betray Turkish in 21 century, American is not trustful, either you can balance your benefits and theirs, otherwise stay out working with them
@@enlightenedwarrior7119 The U.S. did Back Ho and his partisans. They were armed by the O.S.S. and helped by O.S.S. advisors. The Vichy French in Indo China collaborated with the Japanese. He states most of this. This is all historical fact that can be found by searching records online.
They did not defeat China. The "war" vs China was from 79-91, not just the 3-4 week battle in 79 where both sides lose similar amount of troops, but north Vietnam towns and industry was destroyed, setting back Vietnam for decades afterwards.. Vietnam made concessions in the end, lost towns and islands, and ended up adopting a foreign policy that was acceptable to China, which was China's goal to begin with. The foreign policy is the 3 nos(now updated to 4 nos), no foreign military bases, no foreign alliances, no teaming up with another country to attack a third country. In other words, Vietnam is isolated now and cannot ever go against Chinese regional interests. Vietnam was too confident after us war, even wanting to be regional superpower and invading it's neighbors like back in history. But china will not allow such a thing since China is the regional superpower and China does not want wars going on next to its border, or foreign military bases but wants stability and peace. After 91 Vietnam was never brave enough to fight China directly again and today is in Chinas economic shadow and reliant on Chinese economy to grow. Just like vs France or USA, Vietnam will not survive without Chinese support or protection.. for example USA cannot step one foot in north Vietnam for the whole war purely because of Chinese support and them learning their lesson in the Korean war. Obviously this is a huge advantage for Vietnam and means they literally can never lose and just need to outlast USA and keep killing them until they had enough and decide to go home. Just like in Afghanistan. Basically, the wins vs France and USA would not be possible without Chinese support. Both militarily, politically, economically. Chinese support and knowledge was also essential. Like Chinese engineers, war doctrines that China learned and successfully mastered in Korean war, etc etc. China had already learned how to defeat USA, sk, and 17 other UN countries combined in direct frontal combat. This is why Vietnam knows how to use artillery after, and the tactics involved, along with anti air guns and other critical knowledge, even building, running and maintaining armies itself. Chinese were also directly involved in the fighting at dien bien phu itself and teaching them to operate artillery, and also supplying the artillery and shells that devasted the French forces. The rest is history as we say.
@@ex0duzz Chinese dont know how to fight, human waves tactics suffered mass casualties , even with Soviet air cover and overwhelming fire power , Chinese couldnt push the Americans out of Korea . Vietnam is weak we lost many people , but Vietnam is unified one country one people, while China have to beg for a foreign visa to go to their own sovereign territory such as Taiwan.
My grandfather was a Moroccan who fought for the French Foreign Legion during this battle. He spoke of how on patrols the Vietminh would hide in the lakes, breathing through grass straws, and then flank his platoon from behind after they had walked pass. It took his platoon ages (more than a few patrols) to figure out how they managed to get past them without detecting them. The unprecedented combat tactics employed by the Vietminh in such an unconventional terrain for war would have assured them overall victory in Vietnam regardless of the outcome of Dien Bien Phu. That is how they beat the Americans.
+dev3rse Moroccan and Algerian soldiers equipped with US and UK weapons are the soldiers who fought with the allied forces to liberate France during WWII: 6000 of them died heroically during the Battle of Monte Cassino (Italy). Only few French natives fought, the French replaced their North African, West African, Polynesian soldiers by white French when situation improved on the battledield in 1943: this is called French Army "whitening" ( "blanchiement"). African were sent back home, some of them who fought in 1940 were gunned down by French Army to avoid paying pensions (December 1944 Camp Thiaroye massacre near Dakar). Later French massacred Algerian at Setif (8 May 1945), during the end of of WWII Celebration when Algerians asked independence in return for Algerian help in liberating France. In 1953, some Moroccan soldiers joined the Vietminh, and fought with Vietminh, after Morocco king Mohamed V was exiled from Morocco by the French who replaced Mohamed V by a puppet regime obedient to the French.
+TheSatanicTicTac Free French were mainly muslims, here is the order of battle of the Free French in Italy: - 1rst, 2nd, and 3rd GTM (Moroccan Tabor groups) totaling 7,800 men. - 2nd Moroccan Infantery Division - 3rd Algerian Infantery Division - 4th Moroccan Mountain Division - 1rst Free French Division (1ere Division Francaise Libre) which was composed of at least 50% Aftricans: in Fall 1944, De Gaulle replaced 20,000 Africans by 20,000 white French ("Blanchiement"). If you visit Italy, near Monte Cassino ask for what happened to 7,000 women on May 1944. Don't forget to enjoy the view from Castro dei Volsci where stand the memorial dedicated to the victims of the mass rape of 7,000 Italian women (aged 11 to 86 years old, some of raped until death: 800 died trying to protect them) by units of Free French Forces. Even young Italian males, including priests were sodomized: the priest of Esperia was attached to a tree and sodomized, he died after 2 days of torture. The memorial is called "La Mamma Ciociara". After WWII, French sent those units to Indochina, to teach "Christian Civilization". Each Moroccan Goumier (from the GTM) was paid French Francs 4 per day + commission on the number of enemy ears brought back + plunder.
"Beat the American"? The U.S just left after their deal with Deng Jiaoping in 1973. It was a proxy war between the powers and that took place in Việt Nam. The real loser was Viet Nam since over 3 millions dead and the landscape got destroyed.
+Nick Nguyễn USA is the real looser. The Soviet Union lost over 20 Million people against Nazi Germany and still won. Those who won are the one who reached their goal, not who has the less casualties
@@mouloudo not even, note that the amount of enemy regulars outnumbered them during the peak of the war in 1968-1972 by at least 2:1. Their strength was the fact that the rural population supported them due the disastrous pacification campaign led by the US Military. That and the fact that the ARVN suffered from problems such as corruption, dissertion and overall low morales, crippling their capability to fight effectively. That led to the US taking the lead, but that also crippled the legitimacy of the government in the eyes of the population, seeing the coalition not as an international efforts to hamper a rebellion but as an invading force.
Official communist accounts should not be taken at face value. This idea that morale did not waver on the Vietnamese side isn't supported by unofficial primary accounts from the Vietminh side. While ultimately victorious, their losses were gravely disproportionate and the ability to sufficiently feed the 50,000 troops was strained to put it mildly. One account of Vietminh soldiers describes foraging for edible brush and trying to figure out how to sufficiently boil paltry amounts of rice that was thoroughly rotten. This and other accounts are cited in Max Hasting's book, Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy
@@RatherCrunchyMuffin Their morale was superior to the US because they saw what foreign occupation did to their country in 100 years. The vietnamese would have gladly died before surrendering to the west
@@goodluckchannel9938 Uncle Ho worked as a short-order cook in Paris when he was young. He said he ws half impressed with French cookery, but wasn't really overwhelmed. How could one take seriously a bunch of chefs who didn't even know how to sharpen their knives? Think of that artillery at Dien Bien Phu as French methods with Confucian thoroughness.
@@TheDavidlloydjones Dien Bien Phu was conceived as a trap to destroy the viet army . It costed them 150.000 men, half of their army. Another " victory " like that and vietminh would has been entirely fucked . But France was directed by a left government including communists, and partner of the ennemy, who took pretext of this " defeat " to give up . Their press wrote about the battle of " Lon San Fou " (= " We don't care") ...
@@felix25ize Felix, Congratulations. You've found a new one. What you have there is a more ridiculous version of the 1968 rationalization that the Tet Offensive was a great victory for America because they never got the copying machine in the press room of the Saigon Embassy. The army that was trapped at Dien Bien Phu was the French one because the French were entirely incapable of imagining that the Vietnamese could get heavy artillery up into the hills dominating their stupid camp down on the plain. I don't know where you got your 150,000 figure from, but it's entirely implausible: even advanced modern air power doesn't cause that sort of casualty count in a single location in a single season. The French, remember, were begging the US for air assistance, and Eisenhower was wisely putting them off. There were no human-wave attacks on the plain, either: the French simply walked into a trap of their own construction, and then gave up, partly from starvation, partly from loss of the support of the Mendes-France Administration back home. You're quite right that the Vietnamese made huge sacrifices in both cases, perhaps rather more in the Tet case because the French didn't have the USAF's power in 1954. Nevertheless, your story is entirely lunatic, and you are entitled to some sort of prize for coming up with it.
@@unemusiqueunjour France have no right to claim to be a liberal country if your proud of repressing a lesser developed country , how did you feel when the Wehrmacht occupied France that was only for 4 years untill British and American blood bought your pathetic little countries freedom.
I’m American. Born in South Carolina. To see the patriotism by the north Vietnamese only brings respect to my mind. Regardless of any political indifference they fought as a country. Watch the beginning 3:20 when they start mentioning the supply root that was built for the heavy artillery and anti air... women in the work line carrying supplies and smiling. Actually enthusiastic to help her country. They fought with honor and ferocity. I don’t condone the regime but damn if they aren’t patriotic I don’t know what is. ✊🏻
A regime that is supported by the people cannot be defeated by a power like the United States. I'm sure you don't know what that "regime" is like in Vietnam, other than the defamatory propaganda of the US government.
Why is it that every military blunder is usually caused by comfortably assuming the enemy won't attack me from "there". That its impossible to attack through a jungle, a mountain, a lake or a certain distance. What happened to the military mantra "the enemy will attack where you least expect it"?
No the truth is the French army generals were pretty cocky bout it. Remember They're the ones who chose Dien Bien Phu as the battle to win the war in Vietnam and you are telling me its all because of troop deployment? If that's the case why DIDN'T they have enough troop deployments? They chose the location, they had the time, they had all the SUPERIOR military equipment. Reality is they thought the enemy could be easily repelled by artillery and air strikes. But if you are telling me they had “enough troops“ then the assumption is that they would suddenly know - 1. NVA could haul up artillery up the surrounding mountains? 2. They would know that they had anti aircraft guns? 3. They would know the strength of the enemy? 4. They would also know that NVA could dig tunnels around the mountains? That does not make sense. So again they were just overconfident. I never said it was like playing a video game. I said most military defeat were all similar in that they don't expect the enemy to attack from a certain area. Also Lack of reliable Intel playing a crucial role in it. In short underestimating the enemy. So my original statement still runs true.
@@jackpacquiao Im talking within the context of this particular battle in 1954 with the French forces. When one side is able to field howitzers, tanks and aircrafts during battle and the other side doesnt, thats what i mean by superior military equipment.
France thought always that the Germans could never march through the Ardennes Forest. No need. They marched along the very good roads running through the Ardennes.
A French survivor of DBP in an interview stated that the Vietminh soldiers told the prisoners that they "had won the battle because they were fighting for an ideal and [the French] were not". When he told them of the French paratroopers that fought valiantly and bravely to the death, they replied with "heroism is no answer".
They won the battle because french were 10k fighter (17k total personnal) against more than 200k. The french prepared all their defense in order fo support max 87mm mortar. Bad Intel, they faced US made 105mm artillery given by china. The viets literally did a genocide in all ex Indochina. The hmongs are still chase to death, to this day.
@@gringologie9302 Some Hmongs are still chased because they allied with foreign powers. It's the consequences of their action (unfortunately). If you are Hmong or know Hmongs, stop or tell them to quit being puppet to foreign powers.
Vietcong and Taliban are probably some of the most resilient fighters in the past 100 years. Both defeated the world's leading empire in about the same amount of time
@@Patrickka32 The Vietnamese were losing strategically and tactically. The Americans lost support for the war from their population which elected new representatives with a different foreign policy that withdrew their forces.
@@andrewdriver3318 Losing strategically and tactically? If so, why did the US sign the Paris Peace Accords with most conditions in favor of North Vietnam?
@@vietthanhbui5964 loss of support for the war at home saw new politicians elected who had different foreign policy objectives. They basically sold out the south Vietnamese to ensure reelection at home and needed to have the negotiations concluded before they were up for reelection. They also needed to get back pows held in North Vietnam since there would now be no military ability to rescue them. Nixon actually planed to resume military intervention in support of South Vietnam after his reelection but was ruined by the Watergate scandal instead.
Never underestimate the power of determined people. Win the war on the ground. Win the hearts and minds of the people. Let the locals win their own war. If not, let the locals lose the war.
The leaders of the VietMinh movement were exceptionally capable, both militarily and as political leaders. They had been leading the war against the French since 1946, and had been preparing for it since the 1930’s. They had also gained practical experience by fighting Japanese occupation during WW2. The strategy-makers of the French, and later the US, were stupid in comparison.
Well the French just got out of WW2, their country was devastated. So not a good start at first. The war was unpopular just like Vietnam War and it rapidly lost support from civilians. The "strategy makers" had the WW2 in mind. How could they know that the viets could move 155mm cannons in the mountains? How could they know about the tunnels, the Trail, their ability overall? Viet-minhs were losing by using conventional tactics, but when they started to use guerilla warfare, French troops were doomed.
I think the issue was so many Americans simply didnt know about it. Alot of the top politicians and officers were Korean and WW2 vets, mainly with experience on the major theaters like the bombing campaigns. The guys who fought in the jungles in WW2 were mostly grunts who retired, and most civilians learned about the big battles at sea and the air in the pacific or the grand campaigns in Germany, not the countless skirmishes in the China-Burma campaign or Saipan.
During 1969, I was in the 101st Airborne Division, in the A Shau valley, on a RTO artillery team. The NVA were tough and good soldiers, and like the French we found out real fast!
Roger Borroel You lie; you were never there! I spent two years there; we almost depopulated North Vietnam! I killed so many I was told my body count was too high!
Viet Minh used the same tactic the British used against Fort Ticonderoga in 1777. Occupy the uncontested high ground and fire cannon at the enemy. Overconfidence is timeless.
Giap: "It's over De Castries, I have the High Ground" De Castries: "You understimate my power!" Giap:"Dont try it!" De Castries: REEEEEEE *Giap's artillery bombards the entire French defense in half*
Viet Minh occupy the uncontested highground because we haven't enough guns, and ammunitions to ultilizing benefit from contested highground. That things was mentioned by Giap generals in his memoir "Dien Bien Phu - Historical Point" in chapter 11,12 of his book. The key of victory in Dien Bien Phu is trench warfare. Giap mentioned in his memoir France never expected and had not prepared for trench warfare tactics of Viet Minh When realized that Viet Minh using trench warface Navarre asked for some trench warfare trained units but France can't filled this.
Outnumbered 2:1 and commanded by Anthony St. Clair... Retreating with 20 casualties was actually a good outcome for the Americans. Let's look at St. Clair's most famous battle for perspective. St. Clair: Let's camp with our forces divided. Nothing bad ever happens when you divide your forces. Miami scout: It looks like their militia's eating breakfast, nobody's keeping watch, and they've put all their weapons in a neat pile in the center. Their regulars are camped on the other side of the river. Little Turtle: Wow. That's stupid. Let's kill all of them.
Ho Chi Minh was in France for 4 months to campaign for France to cease fighting in Vietnam. He came to the United States and asked the US to help Vietnam build a democratic American model. But after all they refused, and Vietnam had to go its own way. Communism or capitalism is not important, it is important that they bring freedom, happiness for the people, and the economy of Vietnam is still better than 80% of democratic countries. If you are in a democratic country, respect your decision-making power in other countries. If yesterday you have mistaken Vietnam, today is still the same. When Pol Pot attacked Viet Nam the United Nations and other countries in the world did not respond to reports from Vietnam. They all assumed that Vietnam invaded Cambodia, then the Vietnam embargo. Now you know that Pol Pot's genocide regime under Chinese help has killed a third of Cambodia's population
No kidding. The Khmer Rouge outlawed money, banned fishing, evicted people from the city to the countryside, worked them to death in rice fields, tortured the religious, separated families and shot anybody who were, in their eyes: "Enemies of the State"!
Napoleon Bonaparte: "Morale is to the physical as three is to one". Nothing is more powerful in the battlefield that the will of kick out a foreigner invasor.
There are few people in the world as tenacious as the Vietnamese. Despite being separated by thousands of miles they remind me of the Scots, who fought off the Romans, English, and Vikings for centuries to the point that the Romans built a wall to contain them, the Vikings decided to sail further south for easier pickings, and the English found it easier to join forces with them. The Vietnamese are similar, pushing back the Chinese, fighting off the Mongols, and pushing out both the French and Americans.
@jason lu Among American military historians there is a short list of truly great generals. It includes Washington, Lee, Geronimo, Giap, and very few others. He certainly earned the respect of his opponent.
@@billmcfadden4791 Keeee-rect! This sound saying gives us a chance to gauge the New York Times's David Brooks's command of facts. Brooks says that it was *President* Eisenhower's bon mot. I don't know whether the idea was original with Eisenhower but doubt it. It was, however, the backbone of *Captain* Eisenhower's teaching as an instructor at West Point immediately after his graduation. Ike later deepened his feeling for the notion with his arduous coast-to-coast truck convoy across the semi-built highways of the 1930s. The horrible memory of that very sound and important military experiment informed him at two interesting points later. He puzzled some officers by loading gravel-pit equipment on the cross-channel ships right after D-Day: he knew that the roads of France and Germany were going to evaporate under Montgomery's and Patton's tanks. Later he put the thought to good use, when President, as builder of the Interstates.
Hồ Chí Minh warned Sainteny at the failure of the peace talks in Hà Nội in 1946: "You will kill 10 of our soldiers, we will kill in exchange only 1 of yours. But you will lose and we will win this war!" The Americans did not want to learn the painful lesson of the French and repeated the same unbearable humiliation! The more powerful ones had the clock and the weaker ones had time. The ones had no endurance/patience, while the others were ready to fight for 10 years or 20 years or more for their unification, freedom and independence
Your in ur country and you re going to fight like a tiger. A never ending war. concede victory renegociate a fair deal for those people but the need for funding a war industry who finance politicians . Corporations rule North America, Europe is still holding and China is becoming the first military power
@@TeeKoon simply this. Human history has lasted for millions of years and it will continue for the next thousands, tens of thousands of years. If viewed that way, every nation never escapes the rules of being affected by war or other adverse factors that affect the survival of its nation or nation. So you know what it takes for a country to survive? that is patriotism. so don't see a war that never ends but consider it a scary thing because every nation, every country has to face it, sooner or later and the most resilient and persistent will survive in the end.
@@TeeKoon Maybe we have to make nuke and missile in order to have a more lasting peace. I'm sure the leaders of the Communist Party of Vietnam will also have to think about it.
minh many here think the french just gave the VM the initiative and actually wanted to sit back on the defense. that is completely wrong. your assessment, on the other hand, is flawless. I would only add that the french lost the initiative because they underestimated their adversary.
@@johnsepulveda443 Are you sure you're taking heroin? Have you ever been to Vietnam? no one is forcing children or citizens like you say so don't misrepresent nonsense. this is the 21st century, be civilized and open your heart to accept the change of the world
Two great legacies left behind by the French in Vietnam is the architecture particularly in the north and the great bread making skills they shared with the Vietnamese . Vietnamese bread rolls are yummo.
From that day, only the Soviet Union was their true ally. No matter what the world got to say, the Vietnamese chose the Russian to be their comrades-in-arm.
@Alexis Versa Yeah they fought the chinese and win because the chinese has fulfilled their purpose and retreat themselves. the new chinese president strengthened his position in the army and removed a threat in the south and started to reform china into a superpower. the vietnamese got stripped off everything and industry they built in the north for decades and live forever in poverty. You can say they win if you like though.
@@johnsepulveda443 master? they only supply our weapons, they dont get to say what will we do or how we fight tho, and they didnt try to , Russian arent US you know, bull crap propaganda shit
I can think of three times completely unexpected artillery on higher ground has won a devastating victory in history,this,Napoleon at Toulon and probably the most daring of all, Knox at Dorchester heights,pulling canons by Oxen through 300 miles of freezing swamps and frozen lakes,no wonder Fort Knox is aptly named after this Military genius. One of the most underrated and modest Artillery commanders in history.
Dien Bien Phu has often been called the last battle of the Wehrmacht. Many thousands of ex German troops joined the Foreign Legion at the end of WWII. The French, who were scrambling to build up their armed forces, loudly proclaimed that no one involved in war crimes would ever serve France but there was little incentive for them to look too closely when presented with trained, experienced soldiers, ideal for fighting foreign, far away wars, so many of the men who parachuted into Dien Bien Phu were ex Nazi soldiers. As to be expected, they gave an excellent account of themselves in battle. In an ironic twist, the Russians captured thousands of German small arms on the Eastern Front in WWII. It was decided to refurbish and stockpile them for possible emergency issue. However the emergency never arose, the war ended and as the calibers were incompatible with those in use by the Red Army, they were given away to any ideological allies. This included the Viet Minh who used many of them at Dien Bien Phu. Thus we have the odd situation of ex German military servicemen being shot at by ex German military service weapons. Strange world.
In fact most FFL soldiers in the 50s and 60s were ancient SS soldiers. This is why a lot of FFL marching songs are inspired by German chants. They were crucial as they already acquired experience through ww2 and knew a thing or two about anti partisan warfare. France had to renew their fighting force after ww2 of course
I did not know that 🤔. Thank You for sharing - interesting about the rifles the French 🇫🇷 always getting in over their head 💀. Always so. arrogant + ignorant confidence - then asking US 🇺🇸 to save them - again and again
General Giap was no fanatic. He cared very much about his troops and paused his attack in order to change tactics since he didn't want to see his casualty rate continue to rise. Building trenches was his answer to move close in. What the French could not envision was the million men and women carrying artillery parts, ammunition and supplies. They were facing two powerful converging historical forces, nationalism and socialism. Sun Tzu kicked Clausewitz ass.
Love him, or hate him, Giap was one of the greatest tacticians in Military History. Wasn't just "Luck" that his Armies saw so much victory in the field considering he had virtually no Air Force and literally NO Helicopters or Navy. Giap fought with what he had and "Dollar for Dollar" he was forced to be a brilliant tactician just to stand up to Great Industrial Armies like France and the USA with virtually unlimited resources at their disposal. As for Sun Tzu and Clausewitz it is hard to compare. Sun Tzu brings more 'wisdom' while Clausewitz brings more practical, common sense and logistical understanding. It is an unfair comparison because both had strengths and weaknesses in different areas. Who is greatest is an impossible question to answer.
randy109 I agree with you. Clausewitz doesn't take intangibles in consideration, Sun Tzu does. The mandate of heaven is one of the five preconditions for victory.
+Neville C He understood his enemies weakness and exploited them. Also he never used human waves, his troops launched small skirmishes and exhausted the French until the last great battle.
Lol, that's why you always lose to us, because you don't understand the most basic thing of why we fought. 99% of those peasants voluntarily fought and carried as heavy as they could, they did anything possible to gain independence and freedom from those colonizers who exploited and killed millions of Vietnamese for almost 100 years. Sacrifices had to be made, everybody understood that, don't act like you are way smarter than our fathers, because they knew the cost far too well, but they did it for us anyway. Anyway, I don't know where you learned those nonsense knowledge of how we fought (actually I do have a good guess though), just a fact for you: our peasants were our army, and our army were all normal people: peasants, teachers, workers, etc. Few were fully trained, we didn't have time and resources, given the scenario that we just gained our freedom, and we had to rebuild the whole agricultural system which was nearly destroyed by the Japanese. When our President Ho Chi Minh were calling out for all people to stand up to protect the freedom, none were hesitated since we all knew it was everybody's job.
No. As for french side, their whole country benefitted from colonies, not just politicians. Unlike US - Vietnam war, french citizens do see direct economical benefits from this war. They even retain economical benefits from some african countries up to this day. As for Vietnamese side, they fought so that other Vietnameses get a chance to live like human
Plus, majority of french soldiers are imported from frances other colonies anyway, no f was given to those lives. Overall French people were probably very happy about all this.
@@jpc7118I worked for a Russian immigrant once that claimed they also supplied some of that. Anyway the Viet Minh is who toted those 155s up into those hills for their surprise. Gave the garrison a weeks cease fire to bury their dead then sighted in on their cemetery. Hell they did the same feat with placing artillery on the high ground at Khe Sanh . . . More than we had, (so I saw on TH-cam). B52s might've saved the US from similar. Got to wonder if military brass actually knew a goddamned thing about that history going in or if they just wanted to outdo the French at a stupid idea.
French Generals and Politicians: Now that fixed fortifications completely failed at the Maginot Line, let's build a fort in the middle of the jungle deep in enemy territory and invite them to attack it.
@Александр The whole fucking point of the maginot line was to force the german army to pass trough belgium, where the french, british and belgian were supposed to have a their army. Unfortunally, there was the Rheinland rearmament fuck up that delayed the reaction time of the alliance, and a massive failure at intelligence analysis, which led to the Sedan break and everything else. But the maginot line did her job.
I’m chinese and I support Vietnam~ Vietnamese sacrificed a lot for the independence and freedom of the nation~ long live the people of vietnam!!! 🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳
Not to forget, China actually invaded Vietnam (What about not interfering in the sovereign affairs of other countries!) in response to the Vietnamese attempt to overthrow the Khmer Rouge, one of the most genocidal governments in history.
It is clear that the indochinese want independence and are oppressed by the french. The video also shows the west threatening to use nukes. The person responsible for indochinese liberation is somehow a criminalous villian?
🇩🇿🫡🇻🇳 These freedom fighters were/are Algeria's spiritual brethrens, one cause: expel the colonialists. Rip to all who gave up their lives for their nation's freedom. Allah yerhem el shuhada'.
La Guerre d'Algérie fut une victoire militaire pour la France. Le FLN n'avait aucune chance contre un contingent français de plusieurs centaines de milliers. La situation militaire était même totalement inverse par rapport à ce qu'elle fut durant la Guerre d'Indochine. C'est une décision politique émanant de la France de donner à l'Algérie son indépendance. Cette guerre à couté très cher et la volonté du général à ce moment la était d'en sortir la France pour pouvoir réallouer des budgets pour moderniser le pays et financer également les couts de développement du nucléaire civil et militaire français.
@@inerttech2570 My friend EK, as you possibly can not tell I do not live under a rock, and although I do appreciate your reply with what you might consider a more "historic fact" I have in fact heard it all before mainly from the French side. Furthermore I did not claim our ALN "CRUSHED" the French army, as all of what the ALN consisted of were simple peasants with a great will to gain freedom and who took inspiration from the Vietnamese people. a French general calling Algerian resistance fighters to lay down their home made bombs in Algiers El Arbi Ben Mhidi simply replied to him give us your Tanks and we'll give you our bombs. And on the political side, even with all the western countries supporting France in their fight against the FLN, They lost... heavily :) So again it wasn't just about military might and some "economy" and "we will give them their independence" it was a struggle of will, freedom and faith as well against the occupying aggressors. The result is Algeria's independence.
1/ You seem to be a god young man. My Father was for 15 years in the Legion, you cant imagine how much those Warriors (all the Legionnaires) are faithful to each others, how brave and disciplined soldiers they are. There are not many Americans in the Legion (I dont know why), but dont worry, they will teach you French language. Remember that : "have a good sense of team work, be good at sport (they run and walk a lot in the Legion), and give the Best of yourself in every exercises".
I knew this story. I still remember, so many Algerians at this day were sent to Vietnam. And most of them gathered in Dien Bien Phu. They had to build trenches, fortress and finally reparing cannons. But we Algerians felt sick when staying in Vietnam, cause: no mosques, Vietbac, diseases,... meanwhile Saadi Yacef and Ahmed Ben Bella told that "we don't wanna be French. We are wanting for a home."
+Algérienne Berber French never talk of these regiments, but there were at least 3 Algerian Regiments at DBP: 2nd Battalion/1st Algerian Rifle Regiment 3rd Battalion/3rd Algerian Rifle Regiment 5th Battalion/7th Algerian Rifle Regiment There was also at least a Moroccan Regiment: 1st Battalion/4th Moroccan Rifle Regiment French also forgot to tell that Algerian contributed largely to free France from German occupation. Who is talking about the 3rd Algerian Infantry Division (Algerian and Tunisian Regiments): 3rd AID fought at Monte-Casino during WWII and took Monte Belvedere and Colle Abate. Core of Free French forces who liberated France were North Africans: native French were collaborating with German (Milice francaise). French Navy fought the Allied Forces at Mers El Kebir and was defeated. French army (under French General Henri Dentz) fought Allied forces in Syria-Lebanon and was defeated.
+Algérienne Berber Algerian Regiments played a vital role in Indochina protecting convoys which supported French defenses along Route Coloniale 4. The French later lost Route Colonial 4 Battle and abandoned fortified Lang Son (October 1952) abandoning weapons, ammo, and equipment which could then equip a whole division during one year. French Colonel Constan panicked and ordered Lang Son evacuation while there were no Vietminh around: it was an "under cover retreat", not a single shot was fired.
+tellarjj Pas n'importe quoi: cherchez "Cao Bang, les soldats sacrifiés d'Indochine". C'est un très beau documentaire en Français. Le frère d'un des officiers Vietminh commandant une unité de combat sur la RC4 enseignera plus tard la Physique des matériaux à l'Ecole Polytechnique en France: comme le monde est petit! Comme beaucoup d’historiens le reconnaissent aujourd’hui, c’est sur la RC4 que la guerre a été perdue pour la France. DBP est presque de la rigolade.
German (Milice francaise)???? Who are these???? Are they the Germans that where forced into the French Foreign Legion after the 2nd world war. The German POWs had the choice to starve or join the legion!!
My dad fought in the bloody hand to hand combat battle for LZ Albany not even 10 years later, The second major battle of the Vietnam War.. The first was based on the movie with Mel Gibson We Were Soldiers, The Battle for LZ X Ray.
Jim joe Kelly It sounds like music from a great Vietnam war film from the early 80s that was never filmed, except in our imagination. Something like music from ''The Year of Living Dangerously'' or ''Fields of Death''... but more of a gritty war drama with mass scenes than intimate piece of few people. I could imagine this music at the end of the film when Francois, sergeant in French army, was being evacuated from Vietnam and he looks at the land he fell in love into despite death and war and suffering and at the same time he feels deep nostalgia and that the whole era is coming to its end, long passed colonial age...
Traiano Welcome do you understand what the North Vietnamese army and especially the viet Cong were doing to villagers ??? Killing women and children Are you familiar with the picture of the south Vietnamese officer who shot the viet Cong in the head and why he did it? The viet Cong had just killed his entire family!!!
@Traiano Welcome Politicians bossing the soldiers is called democracy. The soldiers running things is military dictatorship of one kind or another. Recently Peronism has been the most popular variety.
@buster rymes lol, no one in VN love McDonald and burgers, we only eat those once in a while, our street food is much better and healthier anyway, come comrade, come to our place and we teach you real food
Part-2 Ludendorff launched 5 offensives in 1918, the French were responsible for stopping all of them. In Michael and George, French attacks on the Germans flanks halted the offensive. In Blucher the French halted that attack at Villiers de Cotterets and Mt. De Choisy. In Gneisnau-Yorck, the Germans were defeated by a French attack that rolled up their flank. During the peace offensive, the French fourth defeated the Kaiser's army while he watched.
Hmmm, let's see, mountains all around me, with high ground advantage. There's this low valley, where I can be observed from all the surrounding peaks. Furthermore any deployment of artillery on the peaks would increase their range. It's not like locals who lived in the mountains would know the perfect spots to place this artillery. ..... yeah, let's set up at Dien Bien Phu....
that's the point. the french had such a strong military advantage that they gave the vietminh the terrain advantage hoping to lure them into a big battle and destroy their fighting force once and for all. the vietminh had been focused on guerilla warfare and the french wanted to end it. what they underestimated was how big the tactical advantage could become if the vietminh set up their attack correctly. as you can see from the video, the vietminh outnumbered the french by 5 to 1 and they still suffered losses 5 times more than the french did in most skirmishes.
@@DiamondhandsForever it was stupidity. That's why the French have been losing wars for the past 90 years. The stronger your army is the *MORE* prudent you have to be. It was stupid that's why a ragtag army handed them their asses.
@@Peterblack12 you sound terribly dumb They knew it and they wanted that, but the only thing they didn't expect was that Russia and China gave them shiton of weapons and ammunitions in order to bring full communism in Vietnam and have a control on it... You don't know shit about this war, do you? Where are you from? Dear general from youtube
Lol! The French failed because 1) they failed to respect the enemy and their resolve 2) they did not understand or prepared for the geographic challenges. They failed like they did against the Germans, woefully unprepared
Another point is NVA have the full support of the Chinese Army. All support and logictic was provided by the chinese army. And for the 10 000 french soldiers captured, only 2 000 came back, the others were killed by starving.
@@wtfsob123456 they killed 4 times more viets than they lost men, while outnumbered and abandonned by their allies while China was providing hard for vietnam...
@@mouloudo LOL how much Vietnamese got from Chinese compare to France got from USA? Even I provide you ten million tons of weapon and supply, transport it 500 km to Dien Bien Phu through moutain and jungle only by walking is quite challenge. lol. Loser can tell everythings and they still lose even they had superiority in everything.
Vraiment très intéressant et objectif il me semble, ma conclusion est toujours la même : le sang des braves coule à flot à la source de l'incompétence des dirigeants. Dommage que beaucoup de commentaires soient...comment dire...si désespérants de bêtise !
Apparently, French Army can't learn lessons. In Dien Bien Phu they did basically what their countrymen did with Maginot Line: "Hey, here's an idea: let's shove our troops in this stronghold and hope that somehow everything come out well".
I feel sorry for the French during this battle they didn't realize what was coming to them but when you put yourself in an enemy territory surrounded by almost all of the enemy at the end of the day there's really nothing that you could do they were in Vietnam they weren't in France...
French soldiors are brave, simply wrong French soldiers that led to its defeat from the start, the fight against a heroic nation who fought for their homeland.
I thought those generals and commanders who were seasoned in battle, finished school and academy, must be better than General Giap, a history teacher, It wasn't ?
@@namonlyone well not exactly ...17,000 men DID go to the garrison but wounded and dead kept the garrison to just under 10,000 at any one time. the garrison had artillery and tanks but the actual fortifications were simple wood, earth, thin sheet metal, and barbed wire ...except for a pre-built concrete roof for the command post and wood for repairs became quite difficult to obtain.
It was a gallant last stand. Most of the guys who left Hanoi to be dropped over Dien Bien Phu were not paratroopers. They knew being sent for an already lost battle but refused to let their comrades down. Maybe not a smart gesture but certainly a true esprit de corps.
France is like the Roman army. Rome got defeated in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. France is not good to fight in jungle and trees. Big armies are only good in open field battle. Which is why they set up in that valley. France has advantage in Open field battle while the Vietnam has advantage in the jungle.
Casualties and losses of France: 1,571-2,293 dead 5,195 - 6,650 wounded 1,729 missing 11,721 captured (of which 5,000 wounded) 8,290 POW dead after battle Casualties and losses of Vietnam: 4,020 dead 9,118 wounded 792 missing French estimated: 23,000 killed and wounded. The number 23,000 is estimated by France to reduce shame.
US Provided 2 B-26 Invader bomber squadrons (painted with French marks), dozen of C-119 Flying Boxcars, etc.. All those planes were fawn by American Pilots. France aircraft force were maintained by some 200 hundred American maintenance crew. USS Saipan provided the whole logistical support. French troops which were professional soldiers and mostly soldiers from other colonies and Algeria were equipped by the US, from underwear to howitzer. The French have access to Napalm. All the information about US participation to Dien Bien Phu were declassified and US pilots who helped resuply the French received the Legion of Honor in 2005. Captain James B. McGovern Jr was awarded posthumously the Legion of Honor, his plane was downed at DPB while he tried to resupply the French.
BÊn tấn công thì tất nhiên phải hy sinh nhiều hơn bên ngồi trong công sự vững chắc thôi, nhưng chúng nó toàn đưa ra để bào chữa cho việc đi ăn cướp bị đánh vỡ mặt.
At 2:30, it is stated that the French Commander was certain that the Aircraft could supply all of the Bases needs. At Stalingrad, Goring was certain that the Luftwaffe could supply Von Paulus with all of the Germans needs too. History Repeated Itself!
Why the French ever thought this was a clever strategy will forever be a mystery. Why the US tried essentially the same, idiotic, tactic, only fourteen years later, knowing full well what had happened to the French, is yet another example of arrogance, bordering on insanity.
P Joubert You are basically correct. Had we utilized our SPECOPS like we did against the Taliban, we’d have destroyed the NCA quickly. As a Marine ground FAC I killed at least 200 gooners; twice White Feathers score.
"Why the US tried essentially the same, idiotic, tactic, only fourteen years later..." Because people in the Military had new "stuff" to hammer NVn, if it escalated. It never did, though. Chemical weapons, nerve gas, biological weapons - and Nukes. Yes, indeed. it really is true. America could have vaporized North Vietnam. Could you imagine 20 to 30 million dead soldiers in 1 day - or less? It could have been.
The terrain in Vietnam is widely varied from mountains to white beaches. The terrain played a small part but it was. Mostly the resolve of the Vietnam people that carried the.day.
Listen, it was the French who actively chose Dien Bien Phu as a place to fight the Viet Minh, not the active Viet Minh. so don't use the terrain to advantage for Viet Minh and disadvantage for France
Great film- in these days of Afghan war ended , I have looked back 1975 war and further deep down on dien bien Phu … what a hell of logistics and man powers that Viet minh armies can mobilize from the valley to the top of the hill so that they can manage to battle and win the fight … mission impossible becomes possible !!!!
Key to this Viet Minh victory was the aquisition of AA machine guns and 37mm AA guns along with larger artillery pieces with the French intelligence hadnt understood.
The US paid about 80% of the cost of the French war on Vietnam. Are you saying that the Americans didn't give them the latest weapons too? Of course they did. The French made a strategic mistake: they tried to hold on to a colony whose people wanted their freedom and independence. Guns were not the problem, as the Americans were to find out later on, when they used B-52 bombers and all the best weapons, and still lost.
Yes de Castries family arrogance. French industrialist Roger Godino said Indochine was where he learned that a French soldier was worth no more than a Vietnamese.
You can purchase it here. www.amazon.co.uk/Battlefield-3-DVD-Tim-Pigott-Smith/dp/B0009KKWG8/ref=sr_1_2?crid=228WIWEBA7PWF&keywords=battlefield+vietnam&qid=1559202942&s=gateway&sprefix=battlefield+vie%2Caps%2C191&sr=8-2
Very bad thing to get surrounded on all side with enemy on higher ground. The Foreign Legion sure fought hard though. It's a fatal decision to stay in those entrenched position. Might have been different if the French run and fight, negating the Vietmin artillery factor.
most us people dont think that, youre just a prejudiced person. And technically thats not even what happened. We had the division set up, and troops were there to police it. Back home people didnt want to be at war anymore, the lowest of society was being sent to the jungle to die while colleges swelled with kids turning into hippies. Look at afghanistan for an example of when we stay. Its a policing action, nation-building, not a war in the sense that usa and vietnam are in total war
Malcolm X Ballot or Bullet speech brought my here. He said that the same thing happened to the French in Algeria. Saying that "they didn't have anything but a rifle. The French had all of these highly mechanized instruments of warfare. But they put some guerilla action on them, and a white man can't fight a guerilla warfare. Guerilla action takes heart, it takes nerve, and he doesn't have that."
As a Vietnam vet, I have read everything I could lay my hands on regarding "my war" to better understand it; not just the American involvement or point of view, but everything! Prior to World War Two, Vietnam (then known as French Indochina) was a French colony. Early in the war, Japan drove the French out and took over. Ho Chi Minh, along with a large number of Vietnamese, cooperated with the American OSS (forerunner of the CIA) to fight the Japanese. At the end of the war, not wanting the French to return, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam to be an independent nation and formed a government. (As an admirer of the United States, he actually adopted a constitution based on the US constitution.) He knew he would need political support to keep the French from returning, so he requested diplomatic recognition of his government from the United States, which would have stopped the French from trying to reclaim their 'colony'. Unfortunately, President Truman and others in the US government were more concerned with the spread of Communism in Europe (Asia was just a 'backwater' to them) and didn't want to alienate De Gaulle and the French government, so that diplomatic recognition was withheld. The French returned, and the rest, as they say, is history. Another point; as the video said, after the French defeat, Vietnam was divided into north and south with separate governments. What the video did not say was that division was intended to be temporary until elections could be held, scheduled for 1956, at which time the Vietnamese people would decide under which government to unite. By that time, the United States had become concerned with the spread of communism in asia, and knowing "Uncle Ho" would win the election, did not allow the elections to take place. So came the Vietnam war for America. Maybe the saddest part is that although Ho Chi Minh was a communist, he would have been independent rather than a puppet for either China or Russia. Tito in Yugoslavia was a communist, and yet the United States supported him for years because he maintained his independence from the Soviet Block. Had Truman given Ho Chi Minh the diplomatic recognition he requested in 1947, not only would the Vietnam war have been averted, but Vietnam would have likely been a strong ally for the United States in asia. If you read nothing else about Vietnam, find a copy of "Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War". Unbiased and told from both sides.
they did not fight the Japanese much
Can't expect much from American,look how they betray Turkish in 21 century, American is not trustful, either you can balance your benefits and theirs, otherwise stay out working with them
You failed to mention why we didn't back ho ? The French said they might not have a choice but to go to the other side FACT
Thanks for paying attention.
@@enlightenedwarrior7119 The U.S. did Back Ho and his partisans. They were armed by the O.S.S. and helped by O.S.S. advisors. The Vichy French in Indo China collaborated with the Japanese. He states most of this. This is all historical fact that can be found by searching records online.
Great respect for the Vietnamese people. Resilient, tough and patriotic. Defeated and humiliated France, USA and China.
They did not defeat China. The "war" vs China was from 79-91, not just the 3-4 week battle in 79 where both sides lose similar amount of troops, but north Vietnam towns and industry was destroyed, setting back Vietnam for decades afterwards.. Vietnam made concessions in the end, lost towns and islands, and ended up adopting a foreign policy that was acceptable to China, which was China's goal to begin with. The foreign policy is the 3 nos(now updated to 4 nos), no foreign military bases, no foreign alliances, no teaming up with another country to attack a third country. In other words, Vietnam is isolated now and cannot ever go against Chinese regional interests. Vietnam was too confident after us war, even wanting to be regional superpower and invading it's neighbors like back in history. But china will not allow such a thing since China is the regional superpower and China does not want wars going on next to its border, or foreign military bases but wants stability and peace.
After 91 Vietnam was never brave enough to fight China directly again and today is in Chinas economic shadow and reliant on Chinese economy to grow. Just like vs France or USA, Vietnam will not survive without Chinese support or protection.. for example USA cannot step one foot in north Vietnam for the whole war purely because of Chinese support and them learning their lesson in the Korean war. Obviously this is a huge advantage for Vietnam and means they literally can never lose and just need to outlast USA and keep killing them until they had enough and decide to go home. Just like in Afghanistan.
Basically, the wins vs France and USA would not be possible without Chinese support. Both militarily, politically, economically. Chinese support and knowledge was also essential. Like Chinese engineers, war doctrines that China learned and successfully mastered in Korean war, etc etc. China had already learned how to defeat USA, sk, and 17 other UN countries combined in direct frontal combat. This is why Vietnam knows how to use artillery after, and the tactics involved, along with anti air guns and other critical knowledge, even building, running and maintaining armies itself. Chinese were also directly involved in the fighting at dien bien phu itself and teaching them to operate artillery, and also supplying the artillery and shells that devasted the French forces.
The rest is history as we say.
@@ex0duzzagainst china is stalemate
@@ex0duzz Chinese dont know how to fight, human waves tactics suffered mass casualties , even with Soviet air cover and overwhelming fire power , Chinese couldnt push the Americans out of Korea . Vietnam is weak we lost many people , but Vietnam is unified one country one people, while China have to beg for a foreign visa to go to their own sovereign territory such as Taiwan.
My grandfather was a Moroccan who fought for the French Foreign Legion during this battle. He spoke of how on patrols the Vietminh would hide in the lakes, breathing through grass straws, and then flank his platoon from behind after they had walked pass. It took his platoon ages (more than a few patrols) to figure out how they managed to get past them without detecting them. The unprecedented combat tactics employed by the Vietminh in such an unconventional terrain for war would have assured them overall victory in Vietnam regardless of the outcome of Dien Bien Phu. That is how they beat the Americans.
+dev3rse Moroccan and Algerian soldiers equipped with US and UK weapons are the soldiers who fought with the allied forces to liberate France during WWII: 6000 of them died heroically during the Battle of Monte Cassino (Italy). Only few French natives fought, the French replaced their North African, West African, Polynesian soldiers by white French when situation improved on the battledield in 1943: this is called French Army "whitening" ( "blanchiement"). African were sent back home, some of them who fought in 1940 were gunned down by French Army to avoid paying pensions (December 1944 Camp Thiaroye massacre near Dakar). Later French massacred Algerian at Setif (8 May 1945), during the end of of WWII Celebration when Algerians asked independence in return for Algerian help in liberating France.
In 1953, some Moroccan soldiers joined the Vietminh, and fought with Vietminh, after Morocco king Mohamed V was exiled from Morocco by the French who replaced Mohamed V by a puppet regime obedient to the French.
+TheSatanicTicTac Free French were mainly muslims, here is the order of battle of the Free French in Italy:
- 1rst, 2nd, and 3rd GTM (Moroccan Tabor groups) totaling 7,800 men.
- 2nd Moroccan Infantery Division
- 3rd Algerian Infantery Division
- 4th Moroccan Mountain Division
- 1rst Free French Division (1ere Division Francaise Libre) which was composed of at least 50% Aftricans: in Fall 1944, De Gaulle replaced 20,000 Africans by 20,000 white French ("Blanchiement").
If you visit Italy, near Monte Cassino ask for what happened to 7,000 women on May 1944. Don't forget to enjoy the view from Castro dei Volsci where stand the memorial dedicated to the victims of the mass rape of 7,000 Italian women (aged 11 to 86 years old, some of raped until death: 800 died trying to protect them) by units of Free French Forces. Even young Italian males, including priests were sodomized: the priest of Esperia was attached to a tree and sodomized, he died after 2 days of torture.
The memorial is called "La Mamma Ciociara". After WWII, French sent those units to Indochina, to teach "Christian Civilization".
Each Moroccan Goumier (from the GTM) was paid French Francs 4 per day + commission on the number of enemy ears brought back + plunder.
"Beat the American"? The U.S just left after their deal with Deng Jiaoping in 1973. It was a proxy war between the powers and that took place in Việt Nam. The real loser was Viet Nam since over 3 millions dead and the landscape got destroyed.
no evidence you idiot
you have no solid proof you fool
+Nick Nguyễn USA is the real looser. The Soviet Union lost over 20 Million people against Nazi Germany and still won. Those who won are the one who reached their goal, not who has the less casualties
Vietnam's mastery of the landscape and the fact their moral never wavered seems to make them an impossible force to beat.
No. Like the soviets, their force was their number
Moral didn't waver because Giap had whole villages pressed into service along the way. He made them an offer they couldn't refuse.
@@mouloudo not even, note that the amount of enemy regulars outnumbered them during the peak of the war in 1968-1972 by at least 2:1. Their strength was the fact that the rural population supported them due the disastrous pacification campaign led by the US Military. That and the fact that the ARVN suffered from problems such as corruption, dissertion and overall low morales, crippling their capability to fight effectively. That led to the US taking the lead, but that also crippled the legitimacy of the government in the eyes of the population, seeing the coalition not as an international efforts to hamper a rebellion but as an invading force.
Official communist accounts should not be taken at face value. This idea that morale did not waver on the Vietnamese side isn't supported by unofficial primary accounts from the Vietminh side. While ultimately victorious, their losses were gravely disproportionate and the ability to sufficiently feed the 50,000 troops was strained to put it mildly. One account of Vietminh soldiers describes foraging for edible brush and trying to figure out how to sufficiently boil paltry amounts of rice that was thoroughly rotten. This and other accounts are cited in Max Hasting's book, Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy
@@RatherCrunchyMuffin Their morale was superior to the US because they saw what foreign occupation did to their country in 100 years. The vietnamese would have gladly died before surrendering to the west
Ironically General Giap credited Napoleon on his massive unconventional artillery emplacement that lead to victory.
a Vietnamese person taught French about its military ideology LOL
what ?@@goodluckchannel9938
@@goodluckchannel9938
Uncle Ho worked as a short-order cook in Paris when he was young. He said he ws half impressed with French cookery, but wasn't really overwhelmed. How could one take seriously a bunch of chefs who didn't even know how to sharpen their knives?
Think of that artillery at Dien Bien Phu as French methods with Confucian thoroughness.
@@TheDavidlloydjones Dien Bien Phu was conceived as a trap to destroy the viet army . It costed them 150.000 men, half of their army. Another " victory " like that and vietminh would has been entirely fucked . But France was directed by a left government including communists, and partner of the ennemy, who took pretext of this " defeat " to give up . Their press wrote about the battle of " Lon San Fou " (= " We don't care") ...
@@felix25ize
Felix,
Congratulations. You've found a new one. What you have there is a more ridiculous version of the 1968 rationalization that the Tet Offensive was a great victory for America because they never got the copying machine in the press room of the Saigon Embassy.
The army that was trapped at Dien Bien Phu was the French one because the French were entirely incapable of imagining that the Vietnamese could get heavy artillery up into the hills dominating their stupid camp down on the plain.
I don't know where you got your 150,000 figure from, but it's entirely implausible: even advanced modern air power doesn't cause that sort of casualty count in a single location in a single season. The French, remember, were begging the US for air assistance, and Eisenhower was wisely putting them off. There were no human-wave attacks on the plain, either: the French simply walked into a trap of their own construction, and then gave up, partly from starvation, partly from loss of the support of the Mendes-France Administration back home.
You're quite right that the Vietnamese made huge sacrifices in both cases, perhaps rather more in the Tet case because the French didn't have the USAF's power in 1954.
Nevertheless, your story is entirely lunatic, and you are entitled to some sort of prize for coming up with it.
Respect to the entire people of Vietnam
Who?
Vietnamese army are smart and brave.
An amazingly resilient country with beautiful People
Amazing food
Yet we occupied your country for almost a century.
@@unemusiqueunjour France have no right to claim to be a liberal country if your proud of repressing a lesser developed country , how did you feel when the Wehrmacht occupied France that was only for 4 years untill British and American blood bought your pathetic little countries freedom.
Thank you.i am from Việt Nam
Long live Vietnam, from IRAN
From Việt Nam 🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳
The great thing about resupply by parachute drops is its fairness: you supply both sides pretty much equally.
True, our soldiers did get a lot of good stuff.
@@namlehai2737
Well done, and congratulations!
They said that 60% of supply drops fall into Vietnam side.
@@namlehai2737 what about american scrap metal? We tended to deliver 2000 lb at a time I understand... kinda rough
@@robertmaybeth3434 operation rolling thunder?
I’m American. Born in South Carolina. To see the patriotism by the north Vietnamese only brings respect to my mind. Regardless of any political indifference they fought as a country. Watch the beginning 3:20 when they start mentioning the supply root that was built for the heavy artillery and anti air... women in the work line carrying supplies and smiling. Actually enthusiastic to help her country. They fought with honor and ferocity. I don’t condone the regime but damn if they aren’t patriotic I don’t know what is. ✊🏻
Because they don't want some white dude from other side of the world come and rule them..
Because country protection has absorbed into their veins since thousands year
When you are not intergrated you have better cooperation and pride
Why don't you condone the regime? What else would any other honorable regime do.?
A regime that is supported by the people cannot be defeated by a power like the United States. I'm sure you don't know what that "regime" is like in Vietnam, other than the defamatory propaganda of the US government.
Why is it that every military blunder is usually caused by comfortably assuming the enemy won't attack me from "there". That its impossible to attack through a jungle, a mountain, a lake or a certain distance. What happened to the military mantra "the enemy will attack where you least expect it"?
No the truth is the French army generals were pretty cocky bout it. Remember They're the ones who chose Dien Bien Phu as the battle to win the war in Vietnam and you are telling me its all because of troop deployment? If that's the case why DIDN'T they have enough troop deployments? They chose the location, they had the time, they had all the SUPERIOR military equipment. Reality is they thought the enemy could be easily repelled by artillery and air strikes. But if you are telling me they had “enough troops“ then the assumption is that they would suddenly know -
1. NVA could haul up artillery up the surrounding mountains?
2. They would know that they had anti aircraft guns?
3. They would know the strength of the enemy?
4. They would also know that NVA could dig tunnels around the mountains?
That does not make sense. So again they were just overconfident. I never said it was like playing a video game. I said most military defeat were all similar in that they don't expect the enemy to attack from a certain area. Also Lack of reliable Intel playing a crucial role in it. In short underestimating the enemy.
So my original statement still runs true.
@@elkapitan75 SUPERIOR military equipment - not true. Had Russia and China refused to supply heavy weapons to Vietnam, then you are right.
@@jackpacquiao Im talking within the context of this particular battle in 1954 with the French forces. When one side is able to field howitzers, tanks and aircrafts during battle and the other side doesnt, thats what i mean by superior military equipment.
@@jackpacquiao If You read the history, French forces had tanks and aircrafts stationed within that camp.
France thought always that the Germans could never march through the Ardennes Forest. No need. They marched along the very good roads running through the Ardennes.
A French survivor of DBP in an interview stated that the Vietminh soldiers told the prisoners that they "had won the battle because they were fighting for an ideal and [the French] were not". When he told them of the French paratroopers that fought valiantly and bravely to the death, they replied with "heroism is no answer".
They won the battle because french were 10k fighter (17k total personnal) against more than 200k. The french prepared all their defense in order fo support max 87mm mortar. Bad Intel, they faced US made 105mm artillery given by china.
The viets literally did a genocide in all ex Indochina. The hmongs are still chase to death, to this day.
@@gringologie9302 lol are u troll?
@@gringologie9302 that is their fault for being traitors to the land and siding with white devil invaders. all traitors should get such a reward.
@@gringologie9302
Some Hmongs are still chased because they allied with foreign powers. It's the consequences of their action (unfortunately).
If you are Hmong or know Hmongs, stop or tell them to quit being puppet to foreign powers.
Vietcong and Taliban are probably some of the most resilient fighters in the past 100 years.
Both defeated the world's leading empire in about the same amount of time
The end of French colonialism and the beginning attempts of American colonialism.
Euan Reid American liberation
Uhm america did not want to colonize vietnam
@@felixbeutin9530 :v
@@huyvuquang9533 đúng thật mà Mỹ nó k chơi thuộc địa hóa. Đó h nó chơi kiểu bắt làm tay sai cho nó
AND THEN , A FEW YEARS LATER THE US MILITARY SAID, ". HOLD MY BEER, THIS WILL ONLY TAKE A COUPLE OF MONTHS TO FIX"!!
20 years later also the US:
th-cam.com/video/5FjWe31S_0g/w-d-xo.html
Kaleidoscope 😂😂😂 yep 20 years later they run back home
@@Patrickka32 The Vietnamese were losing strategically and tactically. The Americans lost support for the war from their population which elected new representatives with a different foreign policy that withdrew their forces.
@@andrewdriver3318 Losing strategically and tactically? If so, why did the US sign the Paris Peace Accords with most conditions in favor of North Vietnam?
@@vietthanhbui5964 loss of support for the war at home saw new politicians elected who had different foreign policy objectives. They basically sold out the south Vietnamese to ensure reelection at home and needed to have the negotiations concluded before they were up for reelection. They also needed to get back pows held in North Vietnam since there would now be no military ability to rescue them. Nixon actually planed to resume military intervention in support of South Vietnam after his reelection but was ruined by the Watergate scandal instead.
Never underestimate the power of determined people. Win the war on the ground. Win the hearts and minds of the people. Let the locals win their own war. If not, let the locals lose the war.
The leaders of the VietMinh movement were exceptionally capable, both militarily and as political leaders. They had been leading the war against the French since 1946, and had been preparing for it since the 1930’s. They had also gained practical experience by fighting Japanese occupation during WW2. The strategy-makers of the French, and later the US, were stupid in comparison.
I wouldn't say stupid, naive is a more apt term.
Pride is the poison of the arrogant
@پاسدار فرد Александрtotally false. The german made it with the half of the Europe and with the northern Africa and the russia
@پاسدار فرد Александр and for your generalknowledge, Napoléon made it with a part of the Europe and the colonial empire worked during centuries
Well the French just got out of WW2, their country was devastated. So not a good start at first. The war was unpopular just like Vietnam War and it rapidly lost support from civilians. The "strategy makers" had the WW2 in mind. How could they know that the viets could move 155mm cannons in the mountains? How could they know about the tunnels, the Trail, their ability overall? Viet-minhs were losing by using conventional tactics, but when they started to use guerilla warfare, French troops were doomed.
This event was forgotten by the USA in the early '60s. The Vietnamese don't give up.
I think the issue was so many Americans simply didnt know about it. Alot of the top politicians and officers were Korean and WW2 vets, mainly with experience on the major theaters like the bombing campaigns. The guys who fought in the jungles in WW2 were mostly grunts who retired, and most civilians learned about the big battles at sea and the air in the pacific or the grand campaigns in Germany, not the countless skirmishes in the China-Burma campaign or Saipan.
10 năm xem lại vẫn hay
from Dien Bien Phu with love ♥
During 1969, I was in the 101st Airborne Division, in the A Shau valley, on a RTO artillery team. The NVA were tough and good soldiers, and like the French we found out real fast!
The "WE" that always seems to win all the spoils in this country already knew. You just didn't matter.
Roger Borroel You lie; you were never there! I spent two years there; we almost depopulated North Vietnam!
I killed so many I was told my body count was too high!
@@TomCook-jw6ur Did your "body" count include woman and children or inocent people?
@Astro Mars Yeah, yeah, and you were there????? And look who won...was it the western soldier, or the Viet soldier? Case closed.
@@TomCook-jw6ur 'Depopulated North Vietnam'? You mean certain areas in South Vietnam do you?
Viet Minh used the same tactic the British used against Fort Ticonderoga in 1777. Occupy the uncontested high ground and fire cannon at the enemy. Overconfidence is timeless.
Giap: "It's over De Castries, I have the High Ground"
De Castries: "You understimate my power!"
Giap:"Dont try it!"
De Castries: REEEEEEE
*Giap's artillery bombards the entire French defense in half*
Viet Minh occupy the uncontested highground because we haven't enough guns, and ammunitions to ultilizing benefit from contested highground.
That things was mentioned by Giap generals in his memoir "Dien Bien Phu - Historical Point" in chapter 11,12 of his book.
The key of victory in Dien Bien Phu is trench warfare.
Giap mentioned in his memoir France never expected and had not prepared for trench warfare tactics of Viet Minh
When realized that Viet Minh using trench warface Navarre asked for some trench warfare trained units but France can't filled this.
Outnumbered 2:1 and commanded by Anthony St. Clair...
Retreating with 20 casualties was actually a good outcome for the Americans.
Let's look at St. Clair's most famous battle for perspective.
St. Clair: Let's camp with our forces divided. Nothing bad ever happens when you divide your forces.
Miami scout: It looks like their militia's eating breakfast, nobody's keeping watch, and they've put all their weapons in a neat pile in the center. Their regulars are camped on the other side of the river.
Little Turtle: Wow. That's stupid. Let's kill all of them.
the viet minh lost big time in reality and vietnam still losed due to communism.
@@budmcneely1571 by chattering like a clown
Ho Chi Minh was in France for 4 months to campaign for France to cease fighting in Vietnam. He came to the United States and asked the US to help Vietnam build a democratic American model. But after all they refused, and Vietnam had to go its own way.
Communism or capitalism is not important, it is important that they bring freedom, happiness for the people, and the economy of Vietnam is still better than 80% of democratic countries. If you are in a democratic country, respect your decision-making power in other countries.
If yesterday you have mistaken Vietnam, today is still the same. When Pol Pot attacked Viet Nam the United Nations and other countries in the world did not respond to reports from Vietnam. They all assumed that Vietnam invaded Cambodia, then the Vietnam embargo. Now you know that Pol Pot's genocide regime under Chinese help has killed a third of Cambodia's population
Democracy is a lie anyway.
if voting mattered they wouldn't let us do it - Mark Twain
No kidding. The Khmer Rouge outlawed money, banned fishing, evicted people from the city to the countryside, worked them to death in rice fields, tortured the religious, separated families and shot anybody who were, in their eyes: "Enemies of the State"!
Exactly
Agree.
you keep telling yourself that these people that still live in mud huts are doing so much better then us lol brainwashed for sure
Napoleon Bonaparte: "Morale is to the physical as three is to one". Nothing is more powerful in the battlefield that the will of kick out a foreigner invasor.
Vietnamese has very high morale when it comes a war protecting country
@@TheVietarmy and they were surroundering the french by 20+ to one.
@@jpc7118 you forgot 20+ bicycles to carry logistics as well, did french just sit in the camp and fired brave viet soldiers moving forward?
There are few people in the world as tenacious as the Vietnamese. Despite being separated by thousands of miles they remind me of the Scots, who fought off the Romans, English, and Vikings for centuries to the point that the Romans built a wall to contain them, the Vikings decided to sail further south for easier pickings, and the English found it easier to join forces with them. The Vietnamese are similar, pushing back the Chinese, fighting off the Mongols, and pushing out both the French and Americans.
Lol you talk about morale being 3 to 1 but dont forget that the viets were 10 to 1. And still the french mad emore casualties to the viets...
It goes to show ALL;
NEVER underestimate your opponent.
The logistical achievements of Giap approach wizardry.
@jason lu yep you dont know how heartbreaking we were on the day of his funeral , he is our people's hero
amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics.
@jason lu Among American military historians there is a short list of truly great generals. It includes Washington, Lee, Geronimo, Giap, and very few others. He certainly earned the respect of his opponent.
@@billmcfadden4791
Keeee-rect!
This sound saying gives us a chance to gauge the New York Times's David Brooks's command of facts. Brooks says that it was *President* Eisenhower's bon mot.
I don't know whether the idea was original with Eisenhower but doubt it. It was, however, the backbone of *Captain* Eisenhower's teaching as an instructor at West Point immediately after his graduation.
Ike later deepened his feeling for the notion with his arduous coast-to-coast truck convoy across the semi-built highways of the 1930s. The horrible memory of that very sound and important military experiment informed him at two interesting points later. He puzzled some officers by loading gravel-pit equipment on the cross-channel ships right after D-Day: he knew that the roads of France and Germany were going to evaporate under Montgomery's and Patton's tanks.
Later he put the thought to good use, when President, as builder of the Interstates.
BubbleBreak Yeah, he was the NVA Grant: 40 to 1 kill ratio!
Hồ Chí Minh warned Sainteny at the failure of the peace talks in Hà Nội in 1946: "You will kill 10 of our soldiers, we will kill in exchange only 1 of yours. But you will lose and we will win this war!" The Americans did not want to learn the painful lesson of the French and repeated the same unbearable humiliation! The more powerful ones had the
clock and the weaker ones had time. The ones had no endurance/patience, while the others were ready to fight for 10 years or 20 years or more for their unification, freedom and independence
Your in ur country and you re going to fight like a tiger. A never ending war. concede victory renegociate a fair deal for those people but the need for funding a war industry who finance politicians . Corporations rule North America, Europe is still holding and China is becoming the first military power
@@TeeKoon simply this. Human history has lasted for millions of years and it will continue for the next thousands, tens of thousands of years. If viewed that way, every nation never escapes the rules of being affected by war or other adverse factors that affect the survival of its nation or nation. So you know what it takes for a country to survive? that is patriotism. so don't see a war that never ends but consider it a scary thing because every nation, every country has to face it, sooner or later and the most resilient and persistent will survive in the end.
@@TeeKoon Maybe we have to make nuke and missile in order to have a more lasting peace. I'm sure the leaders of the Communist Party of Vietnam will also have to think about it.
This is what happens when you underestimate your adversary, and also, loose the initiative. A lesson for all.
minh
many here think the french just gave the VM the initiative and actually wanted to sit back on the defense. that is completely wrong.
your assessment, on the other hand, is flawless. I would only add that the french lost the initiative because they underestimated their adversary.
im not agree !they didn t underestimate their foe !believe me ! i know some vets who there and even nowaday they have lot of respects !about Viets
Heroic Vietnam fought many wars. Against Japan, France, USA and China.
And devil Cambodia polpot
@@johnsepulveda443 Are you sure you're taking heroin? Have you ever been to Vietnam? no one is forcing children or citizens like you say so don't misrepresent nonsense. this is the 21st century, be civilized and open your heart to accept the change of the world
N mongols
Two great legacies left behind by the French in Vietnam is the architecture particularly in the north and the great bread making skills they shared with the Vietnamese . Vietnamese bread rolls are yummo.
^^.
From that day, only the Soviet Union was their true ally. No matter what the world got to say, the Vietnamese chose the Russian to be their comrades-in-arm.
don't you mean to say masters?
Hmmm, Chinese are there as well, fighting the French and later American.
Alexis Versa russian lose with bunch of cave dwellers in afghanistan
@Alexis Versa Yeah they fought the chinese and win because the chinese has fulfilled their purpose and retreat themselves. the new chinese president strengthened his position in the army and removed a threat in the south and started to reform china into a superpower. the vietnamese got stripped off everything and industry they built in the north for decades and live forever in poverty. You can say they win if you like though.
@@johnsepulveda443 master? they only supply our weapons, they dont get to say what will we do or how we fight tho, and they didnt try to , Russian arent US you know, bull crap propaganda shit
This is from the TV documentary series called 'Battlefield: Vietnam. Narrator - Gavin MacFadyen
I can think of three times completely unexpected artillery on higher ground has won a devastating victory in history,this,Napoleon at Toulon and probably the most daring of all, Knox at Dorchester heights,pulling canons by Oxen through 300 miles of freezing swamps and frozen lakes,no wonder Fort Knox is aptly named after this Military genius. One of the most underrated and modest Artillery commanders in history.
Dien Bien Phu has often been called the last battle of the Wehrmacht. Many thousands of ex German troops joined the Foreign Legion at the end of WWII. The French, who were scrambling to build up their armed forces, loudly proclaimed that no one involved in war crimes would ever serve France but there was little incentive for them to look too closely when presented with trained, experienced soldiers, ideal for fighting foreign, far away wars, so many of the men who parachuted into Dien Bien Phu were ex Nazi soldiers. As to be expected, they gave an excellent account of themselves in battle.
In an ironic twist, the Russians captured thousands of German small arms on the Eastern Front in WWII. It was decided to refurbish and stockpile them for possible emergency issue. However the emergency never arose, the war ended and as the calibers were incompatible with those in use by the Red Army, they were given away to any ideological allies. This included the Viet Minh who used many of them at Dien Bien Phu. Thus we have the odd situation of ex German military servicemen being shot at by ex German military service weapons. Strange world.
In fact most FFL soldiers in the 50s and 60s were ancient SS soldiers. This is why a lot of FFL marching songs are inspired by German chants. They were crucial as they already acquired experience through ww2 and knew a thing or two about anti partisan warfare. France had to renew their fighting force after ww2 of course
I did not know that 🤔. Thank You for sharing - interesting about the rifles the French 🇫🇷 always getting in over their head 💀. Always so. arrogant + ignorant confidence - then asking US 🇺🇸 to save them - again and again
@@CarlosAlvarado-sf6km an american saying arrogant and ignorant ! great
@@Courrier_ 40% higher rate of German in the regiment who had more Germans (among all FFL reg).
@@CarlosAlvarado-sf6km where are you from ?
This was a great condensed version of the battle, very informative. It explained every position held and lost, right to the bitter end.
General Giap was no fanatic. He cared very much about his troops and paused his attack in order to change tactics since he didn't want to see his casualty rate continue to rise. Building trenches was his answer to move close in.
What the French could not envision was the million men and women carrying artillery parts, ammunition and supplies. They were facing two powerful converging historical forces, nationalism and socialism.
Sun Tzu kicked Clausewitz ass.
Love him, or hate him, Giap was one of the greatest tacticians in Military History. Wasn't just "Luck" that his Armies saw so much victory in the field considering he had virtually no Air Force and literally NO Helicopters or Navy. Giap fought with what he had and "Dollar for Dollar" he was forced to be a brilliant tactician just to stand up to Great Industrial Armies like France and the USA with virtually unlimited resources at their disposal.
As for Sun Tzu and Clausewitz it is hard to compare. Sun Tzu brings more 'wisdom' while Clausewitz brings more practical, common sense and logistical understanding. It is an unfair comparison because both had strengths and weaknesses in different areas. Who is greatest is an impossible question to answer.
randy109 I agree with you. Clausewitz doesn't take intangibles in consideration, Sun Tzu does. The mandate of heaven is one of the five preconditions for victory.
+Neville C He understood his enemies weakness and exploited them. Also he never used human waves, his troops launched small skirmishes and exhausted the French until the last great battle.
Lol, that's why you always lose to us, because you don't understand the most basic thing of why we fought. 99% of those peasants voluntarily fought and carried as heavy as they could, they did anything possible to gain independence and freedom from those colonizers who exploited and killed millions of Vietnamese for almost 100 years. Sacrifices had to be made, everybody understood that, don't act like you are way smarter than our fathers, because they knew the cost far too well, but they did it for us anyway. Anyway, I don't know where you learned those nonsense knowledge of how we fought (actually I do have a good guess though), just a fact for you: our peasants were our army, and our army were all normal people: peasants, teachers, workers, etc. Few were fully trained, we didn't have time and resources, given the scenario that we just gained our freedom, and we had to rebuild the whole agricultural system which was nearly destroyed by the Japanese. When our President Ho Chi Minh were calling out for all people to stand up to protect the freedom, none were hesitated since we all knew it was everybody's job.
@SgtBaker16 he didn't. Human wave could be hard crashed by strong weapon, and French expected Viet minh use it. That's why they lost
vietnam really wanted to be an independent nation and was not afraid to die for it, makes them a deadly enemy
the politicians got richer - the soldiers died
fuck off mate. this ideology is retarded in every possible way except all the America war
@@blackwood4734 Why is it "retarded"? Too difficult for you to accept that your cherished heroic vets were nothing but tools?
No.
As for french side, their whole country benefitted from colonies, not just politicians. Unlike US - Vietnam war, french citizens do see direct economical benefits from this war. They even retain economical benefits from some african countries up to this day.
As for Vietnamese side, they fought so that other Vietnameses get a chance to live like human
Plus, majority of french soldiers are imported from frances other colonies anyway, no f was given to those lives. Overall French people were probably very happy about all this.
i think a lot of politicians in those days, really did feel they were fighting a very powerful enemy: COMMIE BASTARDISM
The times when Discovery was showing good programs.
Viet Minh Artillery decided that one. Never underestimate a foe.
It was chinese artillery actually... and AA artillery was the most important to deny the french a too efficient air superiority.
@@jpc7118I worked for a Russian immigrant once that claimed they also supplied some of that. Anyway the Viet Minh is who toted those 155s up into those hills for their surprise. Gave the garrison a weeks cease fire to bury their dead then sighted in on their cemetery. Hell they did the same feat with placing artillery on the high ground at Khe Sanh . . . More than we had, (so I saw on TH-cam). B52s might've saved the US from similar. Got to wonder if military brass actually knew a goddamned thing about that history going in or if they just wanted to outdo the French at a stupid idea.
Great music and narration- feels like you ARE going back there for real
For those wondering, this is from the series "Battlefield Vietnam" that aired on PBS in the US.
French Generals and Politicians:
Now that fixed fortifications completely failed at the Maginot Line, let's build a fort in the middle of the jungle deep in enemy territory and invite them to attack it.
The fixed fortifications of the Maginot line did not fail, they held out for months.
The concept worked pretty well at Na San one year earlier, in 1953.
@Александр The whole fucking point of the maginot line was to force the german army to pass trough belgium, where the french, british and belgian were supposed to have a their army. Unfortunally, there was the Rheinland rearmament fuck up that delayed the reaction time of the alliance, and a massive failure at intelligence analysis, which led to the Sedan break and everything else. But the maginot line did her job.
I’m chinese and I support Vietnam~ Vietnamese sacrificed a lot for the independence and freedom of the nation~ long live the people of vietnam!!! 🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳
Tùng Trần 🤗🤗🤗🌷🌷
The last war China fought (and lost) was against Vietnam.
Not to forget, China actually invaded Vietnam (What about not interfering in the sovereign affairs of other countries!) in response to the Vietnamese attempt to overthrow the Khmer Rouge, one of the most genocidal governments in history.
@@andrewsmith3613 the war caused by Americans
Too bad that the Vietnamese are now being “colonized” by the communist government of Vietnam.
much respect to General Giap
Fuck Giap that fucker!
@@NgJackal1990 hmmMMM someone got butthurt
Giap was a son off of bitch.criminal of War ...
It is clear that the indochinese want independence and are oppressed by the french. The video also shows the west threatening to use nukes. The person responsible for indochinese liberation is somehow a criminalous villian?
MrShaneVicious , US should drop few Nuclear then, save over 58k their soldiers later
🇩🇿🫡🇻🇳
These freedom fighters were/are Algeria's spiritual brethrens, one cause: expel the colonialists.
Rip to all who gave up their lives for their nation's freedom. Allah yerhem el shuhada'.
La Guerre d'Algérie fut une victoire militaire pour la France. Le FLN n'avait aucune chance contre un contingent français de plusieurs centaines de milliers. La situation militaire était même totalement inverse par rapport à ce qu'elle fut durant la Guerre d'Indochine. C'est une décision politique émanant de la France de donner à l'Algérie son indépendance. Cette guerre à couté très cher et la volonté du général à ce moment la était d'en sortir la France pour pouvoir réallouer des budgets pour moderniser le pays et financer également les couts de développement du nucléaire civil et militaire français.
@@inerttech2570 My friend EK, as you possibly can not tell I do not live under a rock, and although I do appreciate your reply with what you might consider a more "historic fact" I have in fact heard it all before mainly from the French side. Furthermore I did not claim our ALN "CRUSHED" the French army, as all of what the ALN consisted of were simple peasants with a great will to gain freedom and who took inspiration from the Vietnamese people. a French general calling Algerian resistance fighters to lay down their home made bombs in Algiers El Arbi Ben Mhidi simply replied to him give us your Tanks and we'll give you our bombs. And on the political side, even with all the western countries supporting France in their fight against the FLN, They lost... heavily :)
So again it wasn't just about military might and some "economy" and "we will give them their independence" it was a struggle of will, freedom and faith as well against the occupying aggressors. The result is Algeria's independence.
@@inerttech2570 Of course it was a victory because France preyed on impoverished civilians but didn't stand a chance against the wehrmacht.
1/
You seem to be a god young man.
My Father was for 15 years in the Legion, you cant imagine how much those Warriors (all the Legionnaires) are faithful to each others, how brave and disciplined soldiers they are. There are not many Americans in the Legion (I dont know why), but dont worry, they will teach you French language.
Remember that :
"have a good sense of team work, be good at sport (they run and walk a lot in the Legion), and give the Best of yourself in every exercises".
I love VIETNAM.. I from vietnam
Làm sao chiến thắng được 1 dân tộc quyết đứng lên đánh đuổi ngoại xâm. Tự hào là người Việt Nam!
Traded one tyrant for a worse homegrown one 😂
@@darbyohara You will never understand Vietnamese people and Vietnamese History! kid!
Thumbs up and I am now a subscriber
Amazing vietnam
th-cam.com/video/q9nTxg5l9Zo/w-d-xo.html
Even in war, the French are hopeless romantics.
*even though they have the most successful military of all time*
@@bebased1785 *yet they lost to a guerrilla army*
@@anishapoorwakispotta7754 that went on to beat the Americans...
I knew this story. I still remember, so many Algerians at this day were sent to Vietnam. And most of them gathered in Dien Bien Phu. They had to build trenches, fortress and finally reparing cannons. But we Algerians felt sick when staying in Vietnam, cause: no mosques, Vietbac, diseases,... meanwhile Saadi Yacef and Ahmed Ben Bella told that "we don't wanna be French. We are wanting for a home."
+Algérienne Berber French never talk of these regiments, but there were at least 3 Algerian Regiments at DBP:
2nd Battalion/1st Algerian Rifle Regiment
3rd Battalion/3rd Algerian Rifle Regiment
5th Battalion/7th Algerian Rifle Regiment
There was also at least a Moroccan Regiment:
1st Battalion/4th Moroccan Rifle Regiment
French also forgot to tell that Algerian contributed largely to free France from German occupation. Who is talking about the 3rd Algerian Infantry Division (Algerian and Tunisian Regiments):
3rd AID fought at Monte-Casino during WWII and took Monte Belvedere and Colle Abate.
Core of Free French forces who liberated France were North Africans: native French were collaborating with German (Milice francaise).
French Navy fought the Allied Forces at Mers El Kebir and was defeated. French army (under French General Henri Dentz) fought Allied forces in Syria-Lebanon and was defeated.
+Algérienne Berber Algerian Regiments played a vital role in Indochina protecting convoys which supported French defenses along Route Coloniale 4.
The French later lost Route Colonial 4 Battle and abandoned fortified Lang Son (October 1952) abandoning weapons, ammo, and equipment which could then equip a whole division during one year.
French Colonel Constan panicked and ordered Lang Son evacuation while there were no Vietminh around: it was an "under cover retreat", not a single shot was fired.
+zephira994 N'importe quoi sur beaucoup de sujet !!!!!
+tellarjj Pas n'importe quoi: cherchez "Cao Bang, les soldats sacrifiés d'Indochine". C'est un très beau documentaire en Français. Le frère d'un des officiers Vietminh commandant une unité de combat sur la RC4 enseignera plus tard la Physique des matériaux à l'Ecole Polytechnique en France: comme le monde est petit!
Comme beaucoup d’historiens le reconnaissent aujourd’hui, c’est sur la RC4 que la guerre a été perdue pour la France. DBP est presque de la rigolade.
German (Milice francaise)???? Who are these???? Are they the Germans that where forced into the French Foreign Legion after the 2nd world war. The German POWs had the choice to starve or join the legion!!
Is very good that Vietnamese able to drive French out of Vietnam once for ever.
The people, united, will never be defeated.
“Only enemy artillery provided a danger” .......only.
From an Artilleryman.
My dad fought in the bloody hand to hand combat battle for LZ Albany not even 10 years later, The second major battle of the Vietnam War.. The first was based on the movie with Mel Gibson We Were Soldiers, The Battle for LZ X Ray.
Beautiful lesson for anybody!!!Remember!!!Keep your hands off Vietnam!!!
สภาพไอ้ขยะ
The music has a hopeless and frightening feeling to it
Jim joe Kelly It sounds like music from a great Vietnam war film from the early 80s that was never filmed, except in our imagination. Something like music from ''The Year of Living Dangerously'' or ''Fields of Death''... but more of a gritty war drama with mass scenes than intimate piece of few people. I could imagine this music at the end of the film when Francois, sergeant in French army, was being evacuated from Vietnam and he looks at the land he fell in love into despite death and war and suffering and at the same time he feels deep nostalgia and that the whole era is coming to its end, long passed colonial age...
Damn I remember this show, that music is great.
The music is so haunting. Who is it by?
Kudos to the French and Americans who fought the communist invasion in the south
The politicians lost these wars not the brave soldiers
Traiano Welcome they did their sworn duty
Traiano Welcome do you understand what the North Vietnamese army and especially the viet Cong were doing to villagers ???
Killing women and children
Are you familiar with the picture of the south Vietnamese officer who shot the viet Cong in the head and why he did it?
The viet Cong had just killed his entire family!!!
@Traiano Welcome
Politicians bossing the soldiers is called democracy.
The soldiers running things is military dictatorship of one kind or another. Recently Peronism has been the most popular variety.
When you poke a tiger, make sure you have a very long stick.
Vietnam and Afghanistan hold the undisputed title of empire killer. I think it's in their people's will to resist
Commendable fight by Viet Minh against colonial power.
@buster rymes lol, no one in VN love McDonald and burgers, we only eat those once in a while, our street food is much better and healthier anyway, come comrade, come to our place and we teach you real food
is this a primary or secondary source thanks youtube?
*Warning:Be adviced to wear a hazmat suit in the comment section*
Part-2 Ludendorff launched 5 offensives in 1918, the French were responsible for stopping all of them. In Michael and George, French attacks on the Germans flanks halted the offensive. In Blucher the French halted that attack at Villiers de Cotterets and Mt. De Choisy. In Gneisnau-Yorck, the Germans were defeated by a French attack that rolled up their flank. During the peace offensive, the French fourth defeated the Kaiser's army while he watched.
Hmmm, let's see, mountains all around me, with high ground advantage.
There's this low valley, where I can be observed from all the surrounding peaks. Furthermore any deployment of artillery on the peaks would increase their range.
It's not like locals who lived in the mountains would know the perfect spots to place this artillery.
..... yeah, let's set up at Dien Bien Phu....
that's the point. the french had such a strong military advantage that they gave the vietminh the terrain advantage hoping to lure them into a big battle and destroy their fighting force once and for all. the vietminh had been focused on guerilla warfare and the french wanted to end it. what they underestimated was how big the tactical advantage could become if the vietminh set up their attack correctly. as you can see from the video, the vietminh outnumbered the french by 5 to 1 and they still suffered losses 5 times more than the french did in most skirmishes.
@@DiamondhandsForever it was stupidity.
That's why the French have been losing wars for the past 90 years.
The stronger your army is the *MORE* prudent you have to be.
It was stupid that's why a ragtag army handed them their asses.
Hey moron!!!! Moron....moron....moron!!! You build a runway on a mountain in a jungle. Ya think the french weren't aware of that general?
@@Peterblack12 you sound terribly dumb
They knew it and they wanted that, but the only thing they didn't expect was that Russia and China gave them shiton of weapons and ammunitions in order to bring full communism in Vietnam and have a control on it... You don't know shit about this war, do you?
Where are you from? Dear general from youtube
They didn't learn noting from thier defeat in WW2. Yes, the soldiers were brave but the generals were idiots.
Can’t believe the few French hold 2 months under heavy intense fire at nearly 1 against 5
Haha few French... please learn history again. French was killed 8000, captured more than 10000 troops and many general.
Lol! The French failed because 1) they failed to respect the enemy and their resolve 2) they did not understand or prepared for the geographic challenges. They failed like they did against the Germans, woefully unprepared
Another point is NVA have the full support of the Chinese Army. All support and logictic was provided by the chinese army. And for the 10 000 french soldiers captured, only 2 000 came back, the others were killed by starving.
@@wtfsob123456 they killed 4 times more viets than they lost men, while outnumbered and abandonned by their allies while China was providing hard for vietnam...
@@mouloudo LOL how much Vietnamese got from Chinese compare to France got from USA? Even I provide you ten million tons of weapon and supply, transport it 500 km to Dien Bien Phu through moutain and jungle only by walking is quite challenge. lol. Loser can tell everythings and they still lose even they had superiority in everything.
I Hope the south and north Korean people will unite one day.
You are being sarcastic right?
@@thehyperioncorporation8416 The Koreans are one people. They would bev united by now if it was not for the USA.
@buster rymes You are so ignorant you must be an American
@@klabumalami6699 nut job
@@ianbeddowes5362 And you a Marxist...
Vraiment très intéressant et objectif il me semble, ma conclusion est toujours la même : le sang des braves coule à flot à la source de l'incompétence des dirigeants. Dommage que beaucoup de commentaires soient...comment dire...si désespérants de bêtise !
th-cam.com/video/q9nTxg5l9Zo/w-d-xo.html
le sang des braves coule à flot à la source de l'incompétence des dirigeants.....quel braves ?? les votres ?? vraiment du cran
Feel the magic in the air.... Allez Allez Allez.... levez le main's en l'air....... Allez Allez Allez......
Vous dites que Le maréchal de Lattre Celui qui a gagné la seconde guerre mondiale
Apparently, French Army can't learn lessons. In Dien Bien Phu they did basically what their countrymen did with Maginot Line: "Hey, here's an idea: let's shove our troops in this stronghold and hope that somehow everything come out well".
The soundtrack is haunting. Who is it by?
Good video. Many good comments.
Please no more war. Everyone stay in your own country.
mopther
maybe the communist in the North should have stayed out of RVN.
Glory to the viet army!!
I feel sorry for the French during this battle they didn't realize what was coming to them but when you put yourself in an enemy territory surrounded by almost all of the enemy at the end of the day there's really nothing that you could do they were in Vietnam they weren't in France...
French soldiors are brave,
simply wrong French soldiers that led to its defeat from the start, the fight against a heroic nation who fought for their homeland.
Get out of people country. I am not Vietnamese but I am glad the Vietnamese destroy the French.
I thought those generals and commanders who were seasoned in battle, finished school and academy, must be better than General Giap, a history teacher, It wasn't ?
Anyone know what this clip is from? I know I watched it years ago but I've never been able to find it since
Pride forever comes..... before a tragic Fall.
Drop 800 men to stop 5 divisions, smart.
It was 17 thousands French troops not 800, you idiot. They defended in reinforced fortress with modern equipments.
@@namonlyone They lost the war did you know?
@@namonlyone
well not exactly ...17,000 men DID go to the garrison but wounded and dead kept the garrison to just under 10,000 at any one time.
the garrison had artillery and tanks but the actual fortifications were simple wood, earth, thin sheet metal, and barbed wire ...except for a pre-built concrete roof for the command post and wood for repairs became quite difficult to obtain.
It was a gallant last stand. Most of the guys who left Hanoi to be dropped over Dien Bien Phu were not paratroopers. They knew being sent for an already lost battle but refused to let their comrades down. Maybe not a smart gesture but certainly a true esprit de corps.
@MAGNIFIQUE pp
I"m sorry sir
i dont speak or read french
I would gladly read your comments if you would translate them into english
why would you set up in a valley? oh yea, they underestimated the will power of the Vietminh to carry heavy artillery up those treacherous mountains
it supposed to be a natural fortress until they meet Vietminh, digging tunnel, bring heavy ass artillery and anti air up to these high ass mountain.
France is like the Roman army. Rome got defeated in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. France is not good to fight in jungle and trees. Big armies are only good in open field battle. Which is why they set up in that valley. France has advantage in Open field battle while the Vietnam has advantage in the jungle.
Or maybe the fact that planes have to land on flat ground?
Gives a whole new meaning to "high ground". Who the hell thinks they can defend a valley emplacement.
can someone tell me the name of this tv show/ documentary
Casualties and losses of France: 1,571-2,293 dead
5,195 - 6,650 wounded
1,729 missing
11,721 captured (of which 5,000 wounded)
8,290 POW dead after battle
Casualties and losses of Vietnam: 4,020 dead
9,118 wounded
792 missing
French estimated: 23,000 killed and wounded. The number 23,000 is estimated by France to reduce shame.
US Provided 2 B-26 Invader bomber squadrons (painted with French marks), dozen of C-119 Flying Boxcars, etc.. All those planes were fawn by American Pilots. France aircraft force were maintained by some 200 hundred American maintenance crew. USS Saipan provided the whole logistical support. French troops which were professional soldiers and mostly soldiers from other colonies and Algeria were equipped by the US, from underwear to howitzer. The French have access to Napalm. All the information about US participation to Dien Bien Phu were declassified and US pilots who helped resuply the French received the Legion of Honor in 2005. Captain James B. McGovern Jr was awarded posthumously the Legion of Honor, his plane was downed at DPB while he tried to resupply the French.
BÊn tấn công thì tất nhiên phải hy sinh nhiều hơn bên ngồi trong công sự vững chắc thôi, nhưng chúng nó toàn đưa ra để bào chữa cho việc đi ăn cướp bị đánh vỡ mặt.
@@zephira994,
Ở Điện Biên Phủ VN ắn rơi 1 số máy bay MỸ và bắt được mấy thằng phi công MỸ.
@@tranvinh7574 đúng, đây là câu chuyện tôi kể trong bình luận của tôi. Không có sự giúp đỡ của Mỹ, người Pháp trần trụi chiến đấu.
@@zephira994 Stupid babbling.People volunteered to join the army and help the army fight the French.
At 2:30, it is stated that the French Commander was certain that the Aircraft could supply all of the Bases needs.
At Stalingrad, Goring was certain that the Luftwaffe could supply Von Paulus with all of the Germans needs too.
History Repeated Itself!
Do u have full documentary of this movie???
Does anyone recall the name of the tv series this video is from?
Well done Vietnam
Why the French ever thought this was a clever strategy will forever be a mystery. Why the US tried essentially the same, idiotic, tactic, only fourteen years later, knowing full well what had happened to the French, is yet another example of arrogance, bordering on insanity.
P Joubert You are basically correct. Had we utilized our SPECOPS like we did against the Taliban, we’d have destroyed the NCA quickly.
As a Marine ground FAC I killed at least 200 gooners; twice White Feathers score.
"Why the US tried essentially the same, idiotic, tactic, only fourteen years later..." Because people in the Military had new "stuff" to hammer NVn, if it escalated. It never did, though. Chemical weapons, nerve gas, biological weapons - and Nukes. Yes, indeed. it really is true. America could have vaporized North Vietnam. Could you imagine 20 to 30 million dead soldiers in 1 day - or less? It could have been.
The terrain in Vietnam is widely varied from mountains to white beaches. The terrain played a small part but it was. Mostly the resolve of the Vietnam people that carried the.day.
Listen, it was the French who actively chose Dien Bien Phu as a place to fight the Viet Minh, not the active Viet Minh. so don't use the terrain to advantage for Viet Minh and disadvantage for France
Great film- in these days of Afghan war ended , I have looked back 1975 war and further deep down on dien bien Phu … what a hell of logistics and man powers that Viet minh armies can mobilize from the valley to the top of the hill so that they can manage to battle and win the fight … mission impossible becomes possible !!!!
Great military lesson for 🇫🇷.
Putain mais ferme là, on a le pays qui a ont tenu l'Europe et le Monde pendant 500 ans
Key to this Viet Minh victory was the aquisition of AA machine guns and 37mm AA guns along with larger artillery pieces with the French intelligence hadnt understood.
The US paid about 80% of the cost of the French war on Vietnam. Are you saying that the Americans didn't give them the latest weapons too? Of course they did. The French made a strategic mistake: they tried to hold on to a colony whose people wanted their freedom and independence. Guns were not the problem, as the Americans were to find out later on, when they used B-52 bombers and all the best weapons, and still lost.
The music is very haunting - anyone know what the band /song is please?
I've seen this documentary before. I cannot recall the show or production company; and it's not listed in the TH-cam credits.
The French fort at Dien Bien Phu fought very well, but it was under supported.
No manpower, no firepower, no chance.
De Castries, Navarre, incompetent French COs. I feel sorry for those under their orders.
Yes de Castries family arrogance. French industrialist Roger Godino said Indochine was where he learned that a French soldier was worth no more than a Vietnamese.
I'm impressed by the narrator's french pronunciation, it's not that bad
Is there any source's for this video?
You can purchase it here. www.amazon.co.uk/Battlefield-3-DVD-Tim-Pigott-Smith/dp/B0009KKWG8/ref=sr_1_2?crid=228WIWEBA7PWF&keywords=battlefield+vietnam&qid=1559202942&s=gateway&sprefix=battlefield+vie%2Caps%2C191&sr=8-2
Very bad thing to get surrounded on all side with enemy on higher ground. The Foreign Legion sure fought hard though. It's a fatal decision to stay in those entrenched position. Might have been different if the French run and fight, negating the Vietmin artillery factor.
Can we talks about the fact that US people still think they have won this war? :D
THey won it in the movies.
We won the War. But lost the Peace.
They never lost it either.
most us people dont think that, youre just a prejudiced person. And technically thats not even what happened. We had the division set up, and troops were there to police it. Back home people didnt want to be at war anymore, the lowest of society was being sent to the jungle to die while colleges swelled with kids turning into hippies. Look at afghanistan for an example of when we stay. Its a policing action, nation-building, not a war in the sense that usa and vietnam are in total war
im american and recognize vietnam as a lose lol
Malcolm X Ballot or Bullet speech brought my here. He said that the same thing happened to the French in Algeria. Saying that "they didn't have anything but a rifle. The French had all of these highly mechanized instruments of warfare. But they put some guerilla action on them, and a white man can't fight a guerilla warfare. Guerilla action takes heart, it takes nerve, and he doesn't have that."
That music is disturbing- it captures the feel of centuries past, battles fought.. won and lost... 😮
Very good show indeed