La Poste France 50th Anniversary of the Battle at Dièn Bièn Phu

LA POSTE FRANCE in 2004 issued a first day cover stamp commemorating the  50th Anniversary of the Battle at Dièn Bièn Phu, IndoChina (Vietnam).  Design and layout was undertaken by Jean-Paul Véret-Lemarinier, who chose to show aircraft dropping paratrooperss, engineers and supplies onto the battlefield at Dièn Bièn Phu. Printing mode used was Heliogravure. Colour cachet is from an actual photo taken during an airdrop.

It seems odd La Poste France should release a stamp marking France's defeat and subsequent withdrawal from IndoChina. Nevertheless while the Battle of Dièn Bièn Phu was the decisive engagement in the first Indochina War (1946–54), the commemorative stamp is more of a  tribute to honour the combatants who fought and died there, not  just French but French Legionnaires, Algerians, Moroccans, Thai, Vietnamese, and American CIA and Air Force personnel (who flew aircraft and airdropped supplies and military equipment). Interestingly two American pilots were shot down and died during this battle.

A year before the battle, the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, had seized virtually all of northern Vietnam, with the exception of the area around Hanoi. The Viet Minh also controlled territory in Laos and Cambodia. Fearing a larger Viet Minh offensive into Laos, French generals planned to build a base along the border to cut off the Viet Minh and draw its fighters onto open ground, where they could be destroyed by artillery and air power.

After French forces occupied the Dièn Bièn Phu valley in late 1953, Viet Minh commander Vo Nguyen Giap amassed troops and placed heavy artillery in caves of the mountains overlooking the French camp. Boosted by Chinese aid and military advisers, Giap mounted assaults on the opposition’s strong points beginning in March 1954, eliminating use of the French airfield.  Viet Minh forces overran the base in early May, prompting the French government to seek an end to the fighting with the signing of the Geneva Accords of 1954.

The battle was significant beyond the valleys of Điện Biên Phủ. Giáp's victory ended major French involvement in Indochina and led to the Geneva accords which partitioned Vietnam into North and South.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Dièn Bièn Phu (March 13-May 7, 1954) a French commission of inquiry, charged in 1955 to give an opinion on the conduct of the battle, concluded its report with the following text:

 "The commission would be failing in its duty if, at the end of its work, it did not pay fair and full tribute to the officers and troops of the land, sea and air forces who, directly or indirectly, defended Dièn Bièn Phu for 57 days and 57 nights, without their hearts failing.

"If their firmness, their spirit of sacrifice and their fidelity to honor and duty could not spare them a defeat whose causes exceeded them, their military virtues have, at least, placed the defense of Dièn Bièn Phu in the number of glorious and memorable actions of war, of which they have the right to be proud and for which the Nation must be grateful to them. History will tell of them that, placed in a desperate situation, they resisted until the last hour, that they did not bring the colors and that, if the position entrusted to them was overwhelmed, she did not surrender. All of these Combatants of the French Union should be honored and first of all to those of the garrison who led the fight step by step and without respite and whose survivors experienced the bitter ordeal of captivity, especially to the infantrymen belonging to the French or Vietnamese paratroopers, to the Foreign Legion, to the Algerian, Moroccan or Thai skirmishers, to the artillerymen who, at the cost of a third of their troops and firing openly, held out under enemy fire, tirelessly sappers in the breach , the tanks which were present in all the counter-attacks, the airmen who fought as infantry after the ban on the airstrip, the Health Service which did better than its duty, despite the technical difficulties beyond measure.

"Honor must also be paid to the air formations which deployed an activity beyond all admitted possibilities and, despite obstacles of all kinds, supported and supplied the entrenched camp, to the units of the Naval Aviation which made an exceptional effort to cooperate with the Forces of the air."