Embers of War by Fredrik Logevall

Author:Fredrik Logevall [Logevall, Fredrik]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-679-64519-1
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-08-20T16:00:00+00:00

VI

AT DIEN BIEN PHU ON JANUARY 25, EVERYONE IN THE ENTRENCHED camp waited with nervous anxiety. And waited. By nightfall, no attack had come. A Dakota circled above the basin, like some silver metallic hawk, ready to drop flares at the first sight of advancing enemy troops, but none emerged. By sunrise the next morning, all was still quiet. At 1:50 that afternoon, Navarre and Cogny arrived at the camp, along with two other dignitaries: Marc Jacquet, the minister for the Associated States, and Maurice Dejean, the high commissioner for France in Indochina. De Castries, his red scarf blowing in the breeze, was there to meet the plane, as was Piroth, his empty sleeve tucked into his belt. Immediately the group headed to de Castries’s command post, the only dugout protected by steel plates. While Paule Bourgeade, de Castries’s beautiful young secretary (whose lipstick-stained cigarette butts were prized possessions among the paras), prepared coffee, the group grappled with the question: Why had Giap held his fire the night before?

No obvious answer presented itself. Perhaps, someone offered, he will attack this evening. The moon will still be out, and perhaps he just needed an additional day for final preparations. This seemed as good a theory as any, and the discussion moved on to the state of the garrison’s defenses. De Castries, unflappable as always, calmly announced himself ready for the undertaking. Jacquet took Piroth aside and said, “Colonel, I know there are hundreds of guns lying idle at Hanoi. You ought to take advantage of a minister’s presence [that is, Jacquet himself] to get a few sent you on the side.” Piroth declined the suggestion with the air of a military man having to endure a civilian offering battlefield advice. “Look at my plan of fire, M. Minister. I’ve got more guns than I need.”

Someone asked if he was sure. “If I have thirty minutes warning,” Piroth replied, “my counterbattery will be effective.” The follow-up hung in the air, unasked: What if he didn’t have thirty minutes warning?31

As the afternoon drew to a close, Navarre turned to Jacquet: “We have the impression they are going to attack tonight. I would prefer not to expose a minister to any risks.” Soon thereafter the official Dakotas lifted off and disappeared in the clouds. There would be no attack that night either, or the next night, or the night after that.32

What happened? Why did the Battle of Dien Bien Phu not begin on that moonlit evening in late January 1954? For years, historians aware of the initial plan assumed that the Chinese got cold feet and prevailed on Giap to issue a cancellation. It now appears, however, that the decision was Giap’s and that he made it in the face of opposition, or at best grudging acquiescence, from the Chinese.

There were actually two postponements. The first was issued on January 24. That day a Viet Minh soldier from the 312th Division fell into French hands; under interrogation, he revealed what the French already knew, that the attack would commence the following day at five o’clock.

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