Was Dien Bien Phu One of the Great Strategic Battles of History?

As an American Baby Boomer, it is near impossible to not have been impacted by the two major crises of the 1960s: the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. Each has left our generation divided and disturbed.

When Ken Burns' documentary on the Vietnam War was shared on Public Television it made an impact on all who watched it. It was impressive how Burns was able to reveal such diverse perspectives without being judgmental, his aim being to make it easier for us to dialogue, to express our thoughts, feelings and experiences, an act that takes courage when we're coming from such antithetical spaces.

This week I discovered that there is an audiobook version of this historical narrative, also produced by Ken Burns. Whereas the documentary begins with the U.S. deployment of advisors (see Graham Greene's The Quiet American), the audiobook goes into a little more depth explaining the history that preceded U.S. involvement.

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French exploration in Vietnam began in the 17th century after French missionaries took a toehold in Southeast Asia. This eventually evolved into territorial conquest and France becoming a Colonial overlord in the 19th century.

At the end of World War I, when the Paris Peace Talks were taking place and many other nations under Colonial rule were becoming free countries, a young Ho Chi Minh was in France trying to make a case for liberty for his people of Vietnam. Ho failed, and the French maintained control until 1954, at which time Dien Bien Phu became the decisive battle that broke the backbone of the beast.

As I listened to the strategic initiative that demolished the French resolve to continue, it seemed worthy of being shared. It seemed worthy of be considered as one of the great battles of military history. It was brilliantly conceived, and decisive in its significance.

* * * *
Several years ago when I read James R. Arnold's book Grant Wins the War, I was struck by the introduction in which the author stated that of the 20 greatest military battles in history, 12 were devised by Napoleon and only two were from the Civil War. These were Jackson's Shenandoah Campaign and Grant's victory at the Battle of Vicksburg.

General Giap presents his plan to Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh leadership.

As Ken Burns detailed the action of the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu I couldn't help but consider this to be as remarkable a story as Grant's maneuvering that led to the siege and victory at Vicksburg.

The French were seeking to bring a decisive end to the conflict that had been taking place for years with the Viet Minh communist revolutionaries. General Henri Navarre chose Dien Bien Phu as the insertion point for their French Expeditionary Corps. Geographically it was a bowl-shaped zone where the French could fly in troops, artillery and everything needed to set up a base of operations and destroy the Viet Minh with superior firepower.

This French overconfidence would be repeated ten years later in the prolonged war that stained several U.S. presidencies. French generals hoped to draw the Vietnamese into a major confrontation that would crush their will to keep fighting. Little did they know how prepared their adversaries were. The plan devised by General Võ Nguyên Giáp unfolded like this.

Viet Minh on the attack.

First, the peoples of Vietnam were weary of French rule, so it wasn't just the army that went to war. It was a nation--the masses--who longed for liberty and pitched in to obtain it. What they did, unbeknownst to the French, was dismantle all their armaments, artillery, everything, and carry it through the jungles 100 miles to the rim of the bowl where the French were assembling. The Viet Minh dug tunnels through the mountain to place all these massive cannons so that even though the French controlled the skies, they could not see how many armaments were being brought in, piece by piece, and concealed on the high ground surrounding the airstrip and French encampments.

Once the shelling began the French were stunned. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. General Giap compared it to a "rice bowl" with his troops occupying the rim and the French below. It didn't take long for the French to realize the Viet Minh artillery far exceeded what they thought they were up against.

Viet Minh flag being waved over the French camp.

The Battle of Điện Biên Phủ was decisive. Shortly after, the war was over. The 1954 Geneva Accords were signed.

A second feature of this rout was the use of Viet Minh volunteers who essentially took an inventory of what the French had assembled. General Giap knew exactly what he was up against and where the French artillery was located. The French, on the other hand, were clueless. They had no idea how many guns were raining shells down on them once the fighting began.

General Giap also bombarded the runway with shells so the French had no way to fly in reinforcements once things were underway. Nor an easy escape route.

Whether it be in war or in business, the biggest failures occur when we don't know what we do not know. Those unknowns can really bite us. And in the end, this battle was a decisive defeat for the French. General Navarre was told that his plan "carried very little risk." Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Not only was this a disaster for the French, it was a disaster for the U.S. as well. As it turns out the U.S. was underwriting 80% of the French expenditures. We probably thought that if we provided the ammo, we wouldn't have to send our own boys to die over there. Somehow we failed to learn from our ally's mistakes.

Shortly after this humiliating loss, the French government sought to end the fighting by signing the Geneva Accords of 1954. For the U.S. it was only the beginning.

Related Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dien_Bien_Phu 
https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-timeline
https://www.history.com/topics/france/battle-of-dien-bien-phu 
My first blog post on The Cold War Killing Fields

Our Military Industrial Complex

"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." ~ John F. Kennedy, Letter to Navy friend

This is a very interesting observation by former president John Kennedy, especially on the heels of President Eisenhower’s parting remarks expressing concern about the growing power of the military-industrial complex. It’s interesting because today we have a minority with a shot at the White House, as well as a woman within striking distance. On the other hand, where is the nearest conscientious objector?

Here is what I find especially interesting regarding the Sixties protestors who took a stand against the military-industrial complex. The very phrase itself originated in the mouth of a U.S. president.

A conscientious objector is someone who, for matters of conscience, must decline from military service. Usually it is for religious reasons, but some there are who simply refuse to do harm to others of the human family. In the course of history many conscientious objectors have been imprisoned, or even killed, for this adherence to conscience. It's a stain on our history.

The stance of conscientious objector is a challenging one. Few there are who would disagree that a brutal tyrant like Adolph Hitler would require being stopped, which presupposes a commitment to maintaining armaments of greater force. Conscientious objectors can be opposed to carrying weapons and doing damage to others, but may be fully integrated into an army as stretcher bearers or nurses, though others would oppose even this assistance to a war effort.

The attitude of a conscientious objector may also include a call for reflection on whether a war is just or unjust. Patriotism is challenged by this stance. Many patriots, standing beneath the banner “My country right or wrong,” demand a fully unified affirmation from the masses. To be perceived as unpatriotic is a form of anarchy or sin in their eyes. But a conscientious objector can love his or her country very much while calling the nation into account to higher laws.

Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy felt strongly that war was incompatible with Christian faith altogether, citing much historical literature to support his beliefs. Here is but one typical example of Tolstoy’s view. “The most ardent and sincere fathers of the Church declared the teaching of Christ to be incompatible with one of the fundamental conditions of the existence of the State: armed force. In other words, a Christian must not be a soldier prepared to kill every one whom he is ordered to.”
Dr. Francis Schaeffer, however, cites Charles Finney to lay out a case for Christians taking up arms against tyrants. In this manner he justifies the American Revolution in his book “A Christian Manifesto” which also provided the wind power that swept many Christians into political activism in the 1980’s. C. S. Lewis stated in one of his essays that two Christians serving their countries as soldiers might shoot one another simultaneously and meet immediately once more on the other side of the veil.

In other words, individuals can with good conscience choose a variety of paths, each becoming accountable for his or her individual choices and actions. If I may weigh in here, I would suggest that the important thing is that we have the fredom to have this dialogue and not have it taken from us.

War is a terrible thing, and even winning has a terrible cost.

As we look back on the turbulence of the sixties, it helps to keep in mind the context for what we saw and experienced. The warning from Ike (below) took root in the soil of many hearts and was transformed through song into a movement. Masters of War by Dylan, Pete Seeger's troubadorian protest stance, and the beautifully tragic appeal reflected in Joan Baez were all woven together into an anthem that found hearers whose consciences had not yet been seared.



Joan Baez sings "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

Stonehenge

I guess I learned something new today. When we look at photos of Stonehenge, we're not seeing the unaltered relic of ancient days. Rather, we have been seeing a "restored" Stonehenge, an "artist's rendition" as it were.

The photos here tell the story. The first shows us how the monuments appeared in an 1877 photo of their original disarray, ravaged by the centuries. The second shows how the British re-shaped and stabilized the pillars to give it the form they believe it once might have had in the mid-twentieth century.

History is probably a lot like this. Historians give us neatly packaged stories that attempt to explain everthing so that it is orderly and understandable. But the real histories are quite a bit messier because life is just a bit more complicated than what historians can effectively reproduce. People are simply too complex, with complex motivations and drives, both rational and irrational.

Makes it all the more fascinating to wonder what future historians will write about our place in history. Let's work together to make the story something good.

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If you think you might enjoy a strange piece of historical fiction, you might be interested in my story An Unremembered History of the World which also has its beginning in rural England.

Columbus Day Reflections

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. With three ships he crossed the Atlantic: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

This year in late summer a replica of the Nina, one of these three ships, came to Duluth, Minnesota as a tribute to this significant occasion. Simultaneously, our town was also visited by protestors of this historical achievement. With increased awareness of the dark side of the Conquest of the Americas, some have suggested that we discontinue the celebration of Columbus Day as a national holiday.

In December 1980 when I was at the Zocalo in Mexico City, archeologists had unearthed a room the length and width of a football field filled with human skulls to a depth of twenty feet. The protesters of the Nina here in Duluth may have desired to (correctly) note that Christopher Columbus did not herald all good things for natives of the Americas, but this single archeological dig is evidence that not all atrocities in this hemisphere originated with whites from across the seas.

Christopher Columbus' original aim was to find a route to India. His intentions were earnest, not malicious. And no, he was not a genocidal maniac.

The dark side of human behavior neither begins nor ends with Western Civilization. Robert Burns noted, “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” Horrors have been committed by every race throughout the course of history. This past century we have seen horrors in Rwanda, Uganda, Cambodia, Algeria, Bosnia, Albania, as well as the German Holocaust and Stalin’s terrors. A-bombs obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And going further back we see the Spanish Inquisition, Ghengis Kahn, the American slave trade, Vikings, Huns and more.

Since perpetrating evil is the province of all races, perhaps the solution can be found by all races working together to find solutions that are relevant to all races… today. In our own time, better jobs, housing, freedom to live without fear of violence, hope for tomorrow… these are things toward which we can all work together, rather than quibbling over the meaning of a replica of a 500 year old boat.

Unfortunately, we can't change the past. Hopefully we can learn from it.

And There Shall Be Wars

At age 79 my father-in-law Bud Wagner called me on the phone and said, "I'd like you to help me buy a computer." That night we went out and did just that. He taught himself how to use it and proceeded to finish a project that he'd carried in his heart for most of a lifetime.

At age 80, Wagner completed his first book, based on his diaries from World War Two. Wagner was the second Minnesotan drafted into the war. Cook, machine gunner and company agent, Wagner had the privilege of being on the first convoy to make its way across the Atlantic for the European theater. And the good fortune of having survived the duration of the war without becoming a casualty in North Africa and Italy, which included beachheads at Anzio and Salerno.

The book, And There Shall Be Wars, is a truly powerful account of this man's experience and worthy of being included in the annals of military history.

Wagner had several motivations for writing the book. "I wanted to put my diary in a concise journal form for the family," Wagner said. "I've kept a diary out of habit since I was a young kid. During the war nobody else did it and I wanted to have it as part of my life experience." Diary writing was rare not only because few soldiers did it, but also because the army had rules against it. When citing the value of diaries Wagner fondly quotes the Chinese proverb, "The faintest ink is stronger than the strongest memory."

A primary theme for this blog is journal writing. That is, I have been sifting thought my personal journals and bringing to light excerpts that might lead to some thought provoking discussion, or insights of value. Bud Wagner's book is similar in design. He kept a journal during the war, but his book is more. Having spent decades researching that siginifcant period of history, his journal notes include commentary amplifying the entries, with additional historical facts collated to make this book especially valuable.

For more information on this book, and to see what others have said.

To purchase a copy of And There Shall Be Wars, send an email to ennyman3@gmail.com