Embers of War (127 page)

44
Nixon,
RN
, 122–25.

45
Nixon speech in Hanoi, November 3, 1953, “1953 Far Eastern Trip,” Series 366, Box 2, Nixon Pre-Presidential Papers, NARA–Laguna Niguel; Saigon to FO, November 10, 1953, FO 474/7, TNA.

46
Saigon to FO, November 10, 1953, FO 474/7, TNA.

47
Memcon, NSC meeting, December 24, 1953, Box 5, Ann Whitman File, NSC Series, Eisenhower Library.

48
“Vice President Nixon’s Report to Department Officers on His Trip to the Near and Far East,” January 8, 1954, Box 69, NSC Staff Papers, OCB Central File Series, Eisenhower Library.

49
Ibid.

CHAPTER 16:
Arena of the Gods

  
1
Bernard B. Fall,
Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1966), 22–23.

  
2
Raoul Salan,
Mémoires: Fin d’un empire
, vol. 2:
Le Viêt-minh mon adversaire
(Paris: Presses de la cité, 1971), 417.

  
3
For an interpretation that emphasizes the importance of opium in French decision making, see Douglas Porch,
The French Secret Services: A History of French Intelligence from the Dreyfus Affair to the Gulf War
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995), 319–38.

  
4
In 1955, following bitter charges and countercharges by Navarre and Cogny in the press, there would be an official government commission of inquiry into Dien Bien Phu, chaired by General Georges Catroux. Top commanders testified, as did colonels and unit commanders. Pierre Pellissier,
Diên Biên Phu: 20 novembre 1953–7 mai 1954
(Paris: Perrin, 2004), 548–68.

  
5
“Comité de defense nationale du 24 juillet 1953; Extrait du process verbal no. 821/ CND du 18 septembre 1953,” 10 H 179, Service historique de l’armée de terre. See also Joseph Laniel,
Le drame indochinois
(Paris: Plon, 1957), 20–22; Pierre Charpy, “ ‘Pourquoi je ne me suis pas suicidé,’ par le général Navarre, responsable de Dien Bien Phu,”
Nouveau Candide
, October 17, 1963; Général René Cogny, “La libre confession du général Cogny,”
L’Express
, November 21, 1963; and
L’Express
, December 6, 1963.

  
6
Georges Catroux,
Deux actes du drame indochinois
(Paris: Plon, 1959), 168–69; Alphonse Juin,
Le Viêt Minh, mon adversaire
(Paris: Plon, 1956), 237. The text of the treaty is in Press and Information Division, French Embassy, Washington, D.C.,
Indochinese Affairs
1 (February 1954): 25–28.

  
7
Georges Boudarel and Francois Caviglioli, “Comment Giap a faille perdre la bataille de Dien Bien Phu,”
Nouvel Observateur
, April 8, 1983. I thank Chris Goscha for drawing this illuminating article to my attention.

  
8
Henri Navarre,
Agonie de l’Indochine
(Paris: Plon, 1956), 121.

  
9
On Paris being informed of the operation after the event, see Laniel,
Le drame indochinois
, 36. On the November 20 operation, see also Pierre Journoud and Hugues Tertrais,
Paroles de Dien Bien Phu: Les survivants témoignent
(Paris: Tallandier, 2004), 67–74.

10
Chen Jian,
Mao’s China and the Cold War
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 132; William J. Duiker,
Ho Chi Minh: A Life
(New York: Hyperion, 2000), 448.

11
These figures from BMA Saigon to War Office, June 7, 1953, FO 371/106748, TNA. See also Taquey to Craig, May 14, 1953, Box 12, NSC Staff Papers, PSB Central Files, Eisenhower Library.

12
Dang Huu Loc (Military History Institute of Vietnam chief editor),
Lich Su Quan Doi Nhan Dan Viet Nam
[History of the People’s Army of Vietnam], 4th printing, with additions and corrections (Hanoi: People’s Army Publishing House, 1994), 387. See also Cao Pha,
Nhung Ky Uc Khong Bao Gio Quen
[Memories I Will Never Forget] (Hanoi: People’s Army Publishing House, 2006), 84–86. I thank Merle Pribbenow for his translations. See also Vo Nguyen Giap,
Dien Bien Phu: Rendezvous with History
(Hanoi: Gioi, 2004), 13–26.

13
Le Kinh Lich (chief editor),
Tran Danh Ba Muoi Nam: Ky Su Lich Su, Tap 1
[The Thirty Year Battle: A Historical Report, vol. 1] (People’s Army Publishing House, 1995), 593. I thank Merle Pribbenow for his translation. See also Trinh Vuong Hong, “Dien Bien Phu: A Historical Inevitability,” in
Dien Bien Phu: History, Impressions, Memoirs
(Hanoi: Gioi, 2004), 49.

14
Tran Danh Ba Muoi Nam
, 593.

15
See here also Vu Quang Hien,
Tim hieu chu truong doi ngoai cua Dang thoi ky
1945–1954
(Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Chinh tri quoc gia, 2005), 169–701; Pierre Asselin, “The DRVN and the 1954 Geneva Conference: New Evidence and Perspectives from Vietnam,” unpublished paper in author’s possession, p. 5.

16
Tran Danh Ba Muoi Nam
, 593.

17
Bernard B. Fall, “Indochina: The Last of the War,”
Military Review
, December 1956; Pierre Rocolle,
Pourquoi Dien Bien Phu
? (Paris: Flammarion, 1968), 169–76.

18
Lich Su Quan Doi Nhan Dan Viet Nam
, 393.

19
“Dinh Cao Chien Cong Tinh Bao Thoi Chong Phat” [The Peak of Intelligence Success During the Resistance War Against the French],
Quan Doi Nhan Dan
[People’s Army], October 21, 2005, at
www.quandoinhandan.org.vn/sknc/?id=1587&subject=8
, last accessed June 5, 2009. I thank Merle Pribbenow for drawing this article to my attention and for his translation.

20
Rocolle,
Pourquoi Dien Bien Phu?
, 206; Martin Windrow,
The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam
(Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, 2004), 257.

21
Jules Roy,
La bataille de Diên Biên Phu
(Paris: René Julliard, 1963), 83–86.

22
Windrow,
Last Valley
, 258–59.

23
George W. Allen,
None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam
(Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001), 51–52.

24
Chen Jian,
Mao’s China
, 133–34. Chen maintains that the Chinese played a determining role in the decision.

25
Quan Doi Nhan Dan
[People’s Army] newspaper supplement, “Su Kien va Nhan Chung” [Events and Witnesses], Special issue no. 1 commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, June 12, 1953. I thank Merle Pribbenow for providing me with a translated version of this article.

26
Ibid.; Giap,
Rendezvous with History
, 47–48.

27
Lich Su Quan Doi Nhan Dan Viet Nam
, 1:387–95; Christopher E. Goscha, “Building Force: Asian Origins of Vietnamese Military Science (1950–54),”
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
34 (2003): 556.

28
Ilya V. Gaiduk,
Confronting Vietnam: Soviet Policy Toward the Indochina Conflict, 1954–1963
(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2003), 14; Duiker,
Ho Chi Minh
, 449.

29
See Chen,
Mao’s China
, 167–70.

30
Ho Chi Minh,
Toan Tap I
, no. 6, pp. 494–96, as cited in Duiker,
Ho Chi Minh
, 451.

31
Party studies quoted in Pierre Asselin, “The DRVN and the 1954 Geneva Conference: New Evidence and Perspectives from Vietnam,” unpublished paper, in author’s possession.

32
Quoted in Allan W. Cameron, ed.,
Viet-Nam Crisis: A Documentary History
, 2 vols. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1971), 1:217–18. See also Vu Quang Hien,
Tim hieu chu truong doi ngoai
, 171.

33
Ho Chi Minh,
Selected Works
, 4 vols. (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961–1962), 3:408–10; Pellissier,
Diên Biên Phu
, 116–17; James Cable,
The Geneva Conference of 1954 on Indochina
(London: Macmillan, 1986), 35.

34
Ho Chi Minh, “Report to the Assembly of the DRV,” December 1–4, 1953, in
Ho Chi Minh on Revolution: Selected Writings, 1920–1966
, ed. Bernard B. Fall (New York: Praeger, 1967), 258–69.

35
General Hoang Van Thai,
Tran Danh Ba Muoi Nam
, 730.

36
Ho Chi Minh,
Selected Works
, 3:431.

37
Edward Rice-Maximin,
Accommodation and Resistance: The French Left, Indochina and the Cold War
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1986), 139.

38
Cable,
Geneva Conference
, 35.

39
Le Monde
, December 1, 1953.

40
Cable,
Geneva Conference
, 36; Jean Lacouture,
Pierre Mendès France
, trans. George Holock (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1984), 200.

41
“Situation en Indochine de 1 au 9 Décembre 1953,” F60 3038, AN. Tam is quoted in
Le Monde
, December 4, 1953, as cited in Waite, “End of the First Indochina War,” 73.

42
C.D. Jackson notes, “Bermuda Commentary,” December 1953, Box 68, C.D. Jackson Papers, Eisenhower Library.

43
Ibid.; Sir Evelyn Shuckburgh diary, as quoted in Cable,
Geneva Conference
, 37.

44
Lord Moran,
Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival 1940–1965
(London: Constable, 1966), 503–12; Cable,
Geneva Conference
, 37; David Carlton,
Anthony Eden: A Biography
(New York: HarperCollins, 1986), 335–37; John Colville,
The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries, 1939–1955
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1985), 643.

45
See Memcon, December 4, 1953,
FRUS, 1952–1954, Western European Security
, V:1739.

46
Colville,
Fringes of Power
, 683, as quoted in Kevin Ruane, “Anthony Eden, British Diplomacy, and the Origins of the Geneva Conference of 1954,”
Historical Journal
37 (1994): 155.

47
Dulles to Acting SecState, December 7, 1953,
FRUS, 1952–1954, Indochina
, XIII, 1:901–2; Eden minute to Churchill, December 7, 1953, FO 371/105574, TNA.

48
Excerpt of communiqué, December 7, 1953,
FRUS, 1952–1954, Indochina
, XIII, 1:901n2.

CHAPTER 17:
“We Have the Impression They Are Going to Attack Tonight”

  
1
Martin Windrow,
The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam
(Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, 2004), 320.

  
2
Bernard B. Fall,
Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1966), 72. See also Vo Nguyen Giap,
Dien Bien Phu: Rendezvous with History
(Hanoi: Gioi, 2004), 48–51.

  
3
Pierre Rocolle,
Pourquoi Dien Bien Phu?
(Paris: Flammarion, 1968), 225–26.

  
4
Jules Roy,
La bataille de Diên Biên Phu
(Paris: René Julliard, 1963), 89.

  
5
Ibid., 81–82; Pierre Pellissier,
Diên Biên Phu: 20 novembre 1953–7 mai 1954
(Paris: Perrin, 2004), 118–20; Fall,
Hell in a Very Small Place
, 54–56.

  
6
Pellissier,
Diên Biên Phu
, 124–28; Howard R. Simpson,
Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot
(Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1994), 25.

  
7
Fall,
Hell in a Very Small Place
, 88–90; Roy,
Bataille de Diên Biên Phu
, 98.

  
8
Simpson,
Dien Bien Phu
, 36–38.

  
9
Roy,
Bataille de Diên Biên Phu
, 111–13.

10
Howard R. Simpson,
Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam, 1952–1991
(Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1991), 102.

11
Quoted in Simpson,
Dien Bien Phu
, 40.

12
George Ball, “Cutting Our Losses in Vietnam,” June 28, 1965,
FRUS, 1964–1968
, III: 222.

13
Saigon to FO, December 31, 1953, FO 371/106779, TNA.

14
Lich su Dang Cong san Viet Nam
[A History of the Vietnamese Communist Party] (Hanoi: Su that, 1984), 691, as quoted in William J. Duiker,
Ho Chi Minh: A Life
(New York: Hyperion, 2000), 453.