Modern Era · Southeast Asia · War
1954
Dien Bien Phu falls to the Viet Minh
May 7, 1954
After fifty-five days of siege in a remote valley in northwest Vietnam, the French garrison finally surrendered to General Giap's Viet Minh. It was the first time an Asian guerrilla army had beaten a European colonial power in open battle. France was finished in Indochina. Two decades of American war would follow.
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