Dien Bien Phu's 70th!!
From: Hue-Tam Tai via Vsg <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2024 2:44 PM
To: passelin@sdsu.edu; vsg@u.washington.edu; vsg@uw.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Oh Yeah: Dien Bien Phu's 70th!!Pierre,
Your narrative does not even marginalize local non kinh communities, it ignores them altogether. Yet they played a crucial role in the Viet Minh's success.
Vietnamization (aka nationalism) has infected historiography. For an excellent account of the Vietnamization of Son La into Dien Bien Phu, see Christian Lentz, Contested Territory
This is not to negate the.importance of the battle of Dien Bien Phu in ending the French effort to hangon to Indochinabut to restore agency tp the right actors.
Hue Tam Ho Tai
Harvard University emerita
From: Pierre Asselin via Vsg <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2024 1:49 PM
To: VSG <vsg@u.washington.edu>; vsg@uw.edu
Subject: [Vsg] Oh Yeah: Dien Bien Phu's 70th!!
Divided, Alienated, Frustrated, But Always Cherished Comrades:
In the midst of everything, DBP's 70th has gone unmentioned. I'm sharing with you a few articles from Vietnam (below, including one in several translations) based partly on foreign insights, including my own.
For you Swifties out there who may not be familiar with that historic event, here's a brief summation:
Basically, in late 1953 the French decided to set up an illegal encampment in Northwestern Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh was like, "Yo! You guys can't do that. You're threatening the security of my peeps."
The French were like, "Dude, if you want us to leave, you have to divest yourself from global communism and revolutionary nationalism."
Ho didn't know what to do, so he turned to his boy, Vo Nguyen Giap, who was all like, "Bro, players gonna play, haters gonna hate. It's time we play."
So then Ho was all like to the French, "OK, you have have to disband your encampment, otherwise my administration will have no choice but to use force."
And the French were like, "Bro, we're not leaving until our demands are met. Lol.... OMG."
And then a 55-day battle began, which culminated in talks in Geneva that allowed the Vietnamese to live happily ever after.... or something like that.
Pierre
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https://en.vietnamplus.vn/dien-bien-phu-victory-from-international-perspectives-post285331.vnp
https://fr.vietnamplus.vn/la-victoire-de-dien-bien-phu-du-point-de-vue-international-post223862.vnp
https://ru.vietnamplus.vn/pobeda-pri-d-enb-enfu-s-mezhdunarodnoi-tochki-zrenija-post67791.vnp
https://special.vietnamplus.vn/2024/04/18/dien-bien-phu-victory-echoes-70-years-on/
Pierre Asselin
Professor of History - Dwight E. Stanford Chair in US Foreign Relations
San Diego State University