PBP - Battle for Dien Bien Phu Prelude to the Vietnam War (1979)

“Hell in a very small place” is how one survivor described the Vietnam siege at Dien Bien Phu in early 1954. Like Midway and Stalingrad it ranks as one of the most decisive and seminal battles of the century, one which led directly to America's involvement in Vietnam - with all that that entailed. Using interviews and archival footage, this documentary examines the events leading up to and including the actual battle of Dien Bien Phu. In Dien Bien Phu, a small valley not far from the Laos border, location chosen by the French strategists, the decisive battle between the French army and the Vietnam liberation front took place, from March 13 to May 8, 1954. On March 13, 1954, after intense artillery preparation, the Viet Minh attack was carried out on the Beatrice and Gabrielle fortified positions. Despite a fierce and bloody fight, Beatrice fell within a few hours. The French, surrounded and shelled relentlessly by enemy artillery, fiercely resisted at the cost of heavy losses. On May 8 at 100 a.m., the last position, Isabelle, stopped firing in turn. Dien Bien Phu no longer exists. The next day, at the Geneva conference, France requests an armistice. On May 7, 1954, General de Castries, commanding the besieged French garrison, received orders to surrender to General Giap's troops. It was one of the French army's most severe defeats, a battle which left nearly 12,000 dead on both sides. Nearly 12,000 French Union soldiers were taken prisoner, 70 percent died in captivity. Dien Bien Phu illustrates how a motivated peasant army, fighting on its own ground, could defeat a trained, American-supported French military force. Survivors tell the tale of arrogant western generals and ingenious eastern peasants, a pattern which was to be repeated in the Vietnam War. It was the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu that led directly to America's involvement in Vietnam. Like Midway and Stalingrad, the battle for Dien Bien Phu ranks as one of the most decisive and seminal military battles of the Twentieth Century. It is a fascinating tale of arrogance and ingenuity, of false pride and astonishing heroism, of back room political bargaining and gross military bungling. The story is illustrated with striking archival footage of the battle from both sides incorporated with notable contributions from some of the principal survivors.

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