Dien Bien Phu Victory’s significance still relevant after 70 years

In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory, the historian said at that time, the Indochina war was followed by people around the world, stressing that it was not merely a war between France and Vietnam but an international one.

French colonies such as Madagascar, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Africa closely watched the war in Vietnam with the hope that the French army would be defeated, he said. Therefore, according to him, the defeat of the French army at Dien Bien Phu was considered a victory for not only Vietnam but also all colonial peoples, opening the path to liberation for oppressed nations.

Lessons learned from the Dien Bien Phu campaign are still valid today in the current context of many conflicts in the world, Ruscio said, underlining that a united nation that refuses to be oppressed will always find a way, even though it may encounter many difficulties and obstacles.  

He noted that during the colonial period, there were many French people who stood up against the colonial regime and oppressive acts against the Vietnamese people as well as Cambodian and Lao people. Ruscio cited many examples such as Gabriel Péri, a French Communist politician, who came to Vietnam in 1934 to express his opposition to the war in the Southeast Asian nation, or journalists Andrée Viollis, Romain Rolland and Henri Barbusse.

During Vietnam's resistance war against the US, many French people also expressed their opposition to the US invasion of Vietnam. In a speech in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 1966, general Charles de Gaulle of France denounced US intervention in the region, saying that they would never succeed in making the people of Indochina bend.

The French historian believes that all of this has created a very special relationship between France and Vietnam.