27. A French Plan to Deliberately Trap Their Own Army as Bait
Japan seized Indochina from France in 1940, and when the French returned to resume charge after Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II, things had changed. The colonial subjects were not eager to resubmit to foreign rule and sought independence. The result was the First Indochina War (1946 – 1954). As that conflict wore on, France’s grip on her Southeast Asian colonies was loosened by the increasingly assertive Viet Minh nationalist forces. On the plus side for the French, they had a decided edge in firepower. However, they could not get the lightly armed Viet Minh to offer the type of stand-up pitched battle in which superior firepower could prove decisive.
At wit’s end, a plan was hatched to entice the guerrillas to mass for a pitched battle: offer them an irresistible lure. That lure would be French paratroopers airdropped into an isolated base, Dien Bien Phu. The Viet Minh, unable to resist the opportunity to destroy the isolated French, would flock to the area. The garrison kept supplied by air, would resist. They would draw in more and more Viet Minh into a battle of attrition, in which they would be wrecked by superior French firepower. The paratroopers were dropped into Dien Bien Phu, whose main feature was an airstrip in a valley encircled by hills. As seen below, things did not go in accordance with the plan.
