Dien Bien Phu, << dyehn byehn FOO >>, Battle of, was fought between Vietnamese revolutionaries, called Vietminh, and France in 1954. It was the decisive battle of the First Indochina War (1946-1954). The French were defeated, and they gave up their colonies in Indochina.
In November 1953, France began building an army base around the village of Dien Bien Phu, in what is now northwestern Vietnam. The base was intended to disrupt Vietminh army movements. On March 13, 1954, about 50,000 Vietminh soldiers began attacking the French force of more than 10,000 troops at the base. They quickly destroyed the base’s airfield, leaving the French without adequate supplies. The outnumbered French resisted the Vietminh attack for 56 days, but were forced to surrender on May 7, 1954. The fighting ended early the next day.
