French Indochina War

In South Vietnam in 1948 the French set up a standing counter-surveillance, headed in 1949 by the former Emperor Bao Dai as head of state. The entire expeditionary force of the French forces at that time had a strength of some 370,000 men, of whom about 20,000 were legionnaires.

At Dien Bien Phu, the French had built a fortress, which was considered impregnable. France wanted to force through the construction of the fortress of the Viet Minh’s way of warfare. In the fortress were 16,000 men consisting of French soldiers and foreign legionnaires.

Under the Foreign Legion were numerous Germans, who were previously used in the SS and SA. Unnoticed by the French Enlightenment, the Viet Minh managed solely by human labor to bring up large amounts of material.

Particularly damaging for the French artillery was China, who had been built up unnoticed. In November 1953, French troops began the preparations for Operation Castor. This was intended to bring about a turnaround in the war against the Vietnamese forces.

Contrary to the predictions of the French High Command, the Vietnamese stormed the fortress. The battle lasted 55 days and 10,000 men were lost. The fall of Dien Bien Phu was in spite of great financial and military support from the United States, approximately 80% of the cost of the Indochina War was financed by them. The total support was three billion U.S. dollars. President Truman started this support through their involvement in Vietnam.

Dien Bien Phu marked the end of French colonial rule in Indochina. This was followed by a ceasefire and the Geneva Conference on 21st July 1954. This was the division of Vietnam along the 17th Parallel to the (North) Democratic Republic of Vietnam (Hanoi capital) and the (southern) Republic of Vietnam (adopted capital Saigon).

In May 1955, France had to withdraw all troops from Indochina. Among the 92,000 dead of this war solely on the French side, there were 12,000 foreign legionnaires from around the world.

In South Vietnam leader Bao Dai commissioned on 16th June 1954 the Catholic leader of the Diem government. The following year, Diem deposed Bao Dai and became the head of state. Land reforms which had led to the Viet Minh, were withdrawn. The Diem government was unpopular, students and Buddhists protested against government policies.

The United States was obliged to increase its support for South Vietnam to prevent the overthrow of the regime. Until 1960, South Vietnam was sinking ever more into corruption and chaos. Diem was assassinated in November 1963. Then several short-lived regimes followed until a protege of the U.S. military under Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao Ky, gave himself the power and Duong Van Minh became the Head of State.