Operation Castor
Navarre then decided to seize the remote upland Dien Bien Phu basin by airborne assault for use as a “mooring point” for raids in support of pro-French partisans or – he never made his logic explicit – to draw Giap’s divisions into battle on terms favorable to the French.

The assault, Operation Castor, went in on Nov. 20, and Giap quickly rose to the bait, sending his divisions west. They arrived, as French intelligence predicted, in early December, but in greater strength and with more firepower than expected. The result was a catastrophe for the French, though it took some five months to play out. Vietminh 105mm and 75mm howitzers, dug into the backs of limestone karst mountains overlooking the French position and sited for direct fire, opened up on Mar. 13, closing the airstrip as a means of re-supply and reinforcement.

Vietminh assault troops quickly overran the outlying strongpoints to the north and began digging their way toward the main position in a manner reminiscent of 18th century siege warfare. Beginning on the night of Mar. 30, they systematically assaulted the French central position, taking heavy casualties. The garrison was now totally dependent on airdrop for re-supply, an effort mounted by Armée de l’Air C-47s and C-119s on loan from the U.S. Air Force and flown by American civilians.

The morale of the Algerian and Moroccan troops cracked under the Vietminh hammer blows, but that of the Foreign Legion and parachute battalions held. French artillery, although useless against Vietminh artillery-the communist guns were never spotted, let alone silenced-was devastating against assaulting infantry, and the French were able to mount effective counterattacks, causing a crisis of Vietminh morale in mid-April. Still, repeated assaults shrunk the French perimeter, causing an increasing proportion of airdropped ammunition and supplies to fall into communist hands. By May 7, it was all over: Vietminh infantry occupied the blasted remains of the position. The garrison’s survivors were marched off to captivity, and in most cases death.

The Geneva Accords
The French had entered into negotiations with the Vietminh in Geneva in April, and the fall of Dien Bien Phu eliminated what little leverage they had. The Geneva accords, signed on July 21, partitioned Vietnam at the 17th Parallel with Ho’s government taking over in the north. South Vietnam, fully sovereign by French decree, was to be ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem, a French-educated Catholic from a mandarin family.

A staunch nationalist and ardent anticommunist, Diem was distant and imperious. Widely dismissed as a weak transitional leader, he turned out to be a brilliant political in-fighter, playing the religious sects, his rising army, and the French against one another. He secured the withdrawal of French forces and concentrated political power in his own hands. The Eisenhower administration sent $100 million in military aid, committing the United States to the support of a non-communist South Vietnam.

Ho and his colleagues were committed to the unification of Vietnam under Marxist-Leninist rule, but for the moment, they bided their time, withdrawing some 50,000 Vietminh from northern South Vietnam but leaving their undercover cadres in place. Meanwhile, Diem sent his army and police to sweep the countryside of communists, whom he termed Viet Cong, loosely meaning “dirty commie.” Thousands of suspects, few of them actually communists, were jailed and brutally interrogated. The communists had never been strong in the south, but the resultant hatred of Diem’s government gave them a solid recruiting base.

Rising insurgency
The communists reactivated their underground cells, and in 1957, began guerrilla attacks on pro-government villages. In 1959, they opened the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the web of roads, paths, and waterways in central and southern Laos through which reinforcements and supplies flowed from north to south. They also embarked on a major assassination campaign against government officials.

By 1960, Viet Cong guerrillas – technically, forces of the Popular Liberation Front formed on Hanoi’s orders to coordinate the struggle in the south – had seized control of much of rural South Vietnam. At the same time, Diem’s blatant favoritism toward Catholics had produced an ARVN (for Armed Forces of [South] Vietnam) senior officer corps for whom personal loyalty to Diem seemed more important than the growing communist threat.

Still, Diem could not ignore increasing communist strength. In 1961, he requested American military advisors and increased aid. The U.S. commitment was initially modest: Special Forces teams to organize the non-Vietnamese Montagnard hill tribes of the Central Highlands; M-113 APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers) for the ARVN; Army H-21 and Marine H-34 helicopters to carry ARVN infantry into battle; Air Force Air Commandos, to train the VNAF ([South] Vietnamese Air Force) – and to deliver fire support in critical tactical situations.

Army aviators pioneered the use of helicopter gunships, converted from UH-1 “Huey” troop carriers. The new weapons and tactics were initially successful. Demoralized by helicopter assaults on areas they thought secure, the Viet Cong found themselves with their backs to the wall.
Ap Bac, a desperate VC stand
Pressed hard by the new allied weapons and tactics, on Jan. 2, 1963, the Viet Cong in desperation stood and fought at the hamlet of Bac southeast of Saigon against a multi-battalion ground and helicopter-borne assault. Poor allied coordination and the caution of Diem-appointed officers helped the VC achieve a signal victory, in which they shot down four U.S. helicopters in five minutes and repelled a troop of M-113s before breaking contact and fading away. A small action, it put heart into the Viet Cong and restored their credibility.

Meanwhile, Diem’s religious chauvinism had provoked the hitherto-apolitical Buddhists, producing street demonstrations to which he responded with a violent police crackdown. The resultant media coverage deeply embarrassed President John F. Kennedy, like Diem a Catholic. His embarrassment turned to outrage when Buddhist monks turned to highly publicized self-immolations as a means of protest. The offer by Diem’s sister-in-law and de facto first lady, the beautiful and acid-tongued Madam Nhu, to provide the gasoline for the next “Buddhist barbecue,” made in response to a reporter’s question, was the last straw.

With internal dissent mounting and support from Washington waning, Diem was overthrown by coup and murdered on Nov. 2, 1963. There is no evidence that Kennedy ordered Diem’s removal let alone murder, but it is clear that the coup had his administration’s implicit approval. However that may be, political chaos followed. Diem was replaced by a string of unstable military regimes, and the chaos was amplified by Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas less than three weeks later. Click here to go to Part 3.

French government (top) and U.S. Air Force (bottom) photos courtesy Jim Mesko.