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The Last Valley by Martin Windrow
11 June 2008 I referred to this recent war history published by Castle in paperback 2002, in my article on this website marking the anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944. The subtitle of the book is ‘Dien Bien Phu and the French defeat in Vietnam’. Windrow is to be congratulated for writing a book that is thoroughly researched and detailed and extremely objective. This would certainly disqualify him from writing or reporting in today’s Main Stream Media, where lies and omissions serve an agenda. Windrow is not sympathetic to French Imperialism but his book is scrupulously fair to all the participants in this disastrous episode of 1953/54. The book is relevant to today and those who do not study history fail to learn important lessons for despite the populist promises of Hussein Obama and his Democrat Party comrades, the West has many enemies and US and UK soldiers will be called upon to fight on foreign soil again and again. The French had included Indochina in its Empire until the Japanese invasion of 1940. The French capitulation to Nazi Germany and the subsequent collaboration of the Vichy Government resulted in the Japanese occupiers of Indochina allowing the French administration to continue until 1945, when, with the war going badly, it disbanded the French administration. After the end of the war, and the collapse of the Japanese Empire in Asia, the newly liberated (though humiliated) French Government was permitted by the US/UK victors to reoccupy Indochina. French Indochina included Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, the latter being a long narrow country with a seaboard and most significantly a northern border with China. As a result of the war and defeat by the Germans, France after the war was even more divided within, though in typical French fashion it retained an illusion of grandeur and power. It was neither strong enough to rule other nations nor united politically and the presence of a strong Communist Party and an even stronger Socialist Party guaranteed a series of weak minority governments in Paris. The French attempt to incorporate foreign peoples into a ‘greater’ French polity was doomed to failure for the subject peoples no longer viewed Western nations as omnipotent and Communism was getting a foothold in Asia. Ho Chi Minh, a French-educated Communist (and Stalinist) and his sidekick Vo Nguyen Giap led a Vietnamese Communist Party that was determined to create a Communist Indochina. Both men had taken refuge with the Chinese Communist insurgents and had built a small but significant underground Party in Vietnam. Minh was gradually successful in infiltrating the Vietnam Nationalist movement and taking over its leadership in the fight for independence from France. His aim of course was not an independent Vietnam but a Vietnam that was part of international Communism. His appeals to the desire of many Vietnamese intellectuals for independence and to peasants for land reformation helped his forces to grow and the French found themselves increasingly on the defensive. Minh copied the Chinese Communist tactics of avoiding direct military conflict with French forces, opting instead for guerilla actions supplemented with terror against both the French and the neutral or opposing Vietnamese. There were many of the latter, especially amongst those who had converted to Catholicism. The French might well have defeated Minh’s forces with US aid and built a non-Communist Vietnam, but the victory of Communism in China was a turning point, for now an unlimited supply of weapons was available to Minh and a place over the border where he could train his soldiers in more than guerilla methods. The French military in Vietnam and Laos found themselves fighting a war of attrition and increasingly confined to urban areas. Back in Metropolitan France the politicians changed seats in Government with ever greater frequency so that no politician was ever held accountable for policies and decisions. The French military in Indochina, given the remit to seek victory was nevertheless deprived of both resources and political direction. Few in France cared much about the situation in Indochina or about the soldiers and airman who were in the frontline. In desperation the Army leaders in northern Vietnam (where the situation was becoming untenable) decided to place a great fortified camp in a valley near the Laotian border. It was anticipated that this fortress would hamper the Communist thrust into Laos and draw General Giap into a major battle which his more primitive army would lose. There had been what appeared to be a promising French victory at Na San a few months earlier, when Giap had attempted to storm a strong French position and lost. Unfortunately for the French and their allies, Dien Bien Phu was not Na San and the logistical support from China for Minh was growing by the day. The French chose a large valley for their fortress with an airfield as its core, believing that its forces there could be easily and indefinitely supplied. Within the fortress perimeter there were hills but these were dwarfed by jungle clad mountains beyond. None of the military experts believed that the Communists could assemble an overwhelming force in this remote and inhospitable place. They reckoned without the Chinese logistical support, the fanatical determination of the Communist leaders and cadres and the ability of totalitarian movements to forcefully recruit great masses for sacrifice. The 10,000 troops placed in this trap were a mixture of French and Vietnamese paras, Foreign Legionaires, North African and African soldiers led by French officers and some ethnic troops of Thai and other tribes who were pro-French. The French forces built defences as best they could in this unfriendly terrain and waited. Meanwhile, far away there were ‘peace-talks’ between the French politicians and Communist leaders. Each side hoped a victory at Dien Bien Phu would strengthen its hand in negotiations. Giap, created a huge force of volunteers and conscripts to haul weapons and supplies through jungle, swamp, forest and over mountains and he ringed the French fortress with heavy gun emplacements and huge numbers of soldiers. The French plan had underestimated the ability of totalitarian leaders to demand unlimited sacrifice. Giap had no need to be careful with his manpower for he and his Communist movement were unaccountable to ordinary people. It was enough to tell them that they were sacrificing for a glorious future for mankind. The Communist forces began the real battle with an artillery barrage that stunned the defenders and revealed the vulnerability of the fortress, for nowhere in it was an area that was safe from bombardment. The French artillery was exposed and unable to pinpoint its opponents and air support was too meager to have a major impact. Windrow describes in depressing detail the heroic resistance of the French and French-led forces against overwhelming odds from early March 1954 to the fall of the fortress in the first week of April. The airfield was soon irrelevant and for most of the battle supplies had to be parachuted in to an increasingly shrinking perimeter. The region’s weather did not help, but the truth was that there never existed sufficient resources to keep the fortress supplied and there was no will on the part of those at the top in Hanoi and Paris to provide them. The US did its part though and provided what it could. All of the French forces in Bien Dien Phu were volunteers and many who parachuted in after the battle commenced knew that the cause was hopeless. Loyalty to units and comrades was the sole motive for their sacrifice. Ironically the French forces were superior in quality throughout the battle and Communist casualties must have exceeded 100,000. It would not have required many extra men and guns for the French to have won, for Giap had expended almost all of his forces and supplies against this small band of heroes. Asian Communism would have suffered a great moral defeat and history changed. Why are we concerned with this battle on this website? Well, some things never change and the indifference of most politicians (far from the war, living in comfort and jockeying for gain) has been a feature of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Almost all Congressmen voted for the wars after the shock of 9/11 and then many bailed out when the going got tougher for the troops. Leftist politicians are always attacking and starving military budgets and attempting to channel money to dependent and feckless constituents. There are always Leftist politicians and activists who demonize there own military and have uncritical sympathy for the enemy. There are many conservatives who are gung-ho for military ventures and never consider the cost in lives of our best patriots. When the opponents of the wars become vociferous, many conservatives become mute. Some leave politics and carve careers, as though their responsibilities have ended. Then there is the Media - always feckless and staffed with journalists who are wise and superior after the event. Now we have a Media Class governing us whose preoccupations and priorities are same-sex marriage, easy abortion, unlimited immigration in order to Balkanize the Nation-state and marginalize traditional values. This Class has no interest in defending Western civilization and its core values, preferring a fantasist’s view of the world and a history rewritten by Hollywood. Obama, the candidate that the Media Class has promoted and intends to place in the White House, is already declaring his intention to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan (thus betraying our allies there) and his intention to slash our military strength and stop research for new weapons. We face an enemy (Islamic Imperialism) that has shown its ability to terrorize its own people, sacrifice them in unlimited numbers, mobilize primitive masses, all in order to enslave us and yet Obama and his masters in the Media regard our military as the enemy and are pre-occupied with promoting sodomy for all. We ignore the lessons of Dien Bien Phu at our peril as November approaches. |
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