INDO-CHINA: Back to Dienbienphu

• Share

INDOCHINA

A French Red Cross helicopter clattered out of a slate-grey sky, and put down at Dienbienphu. Two khaki-clad officers and an angular French civilian stepped gingerly down to the muddy, shell-torn airstrip, and a Communist liaison officer came forward to greet them. "You are one hour ahead of schedule, messieurs," said the Communist. "You should know that our Democratic Republic's time is one hour behind your own. Now, if you will please follow me." The French had come back to Dienbienphu to settle terms for evacuating their 1,500 wounded, as vouchsafed by the Communists at Geneva.

The little party moved off beneath a new Communist victory arch to three conference tents at the end of the runway. The Communists offered the Frenchmen tea with sugar, and Lucky Strikes. "They were very polite," said the helicopter pilot. "All they wanted was to be treated as soldiers according to their rank. But we didn't think very much about anything. The whole place was as silent as a graveyard, and when the wind kicked up, we could smell the death around us."

Decision in a Tent. The conference began. The French civilian, Dean Pierre Huard of Hanoi University's Medical School, first asked the Communists how many wounded prisoners they would release. "Four hundred and fifty to start with," replied a Communist doctor. "And 250 of these are serious cases." Asked Dr. Huard: "What about the Vietnamese soldiers you captured?" Replied a Communist colonel: "We want them to have a correct appreciation of the realities."

What were the Red conditions for the release? Said the colonel: "We want you to cease all air attacks within a radius of six miles of the Dienbienphu valley, and also along 70 miles of Route Coloniale 41 between Dienbienphu and Sonla. We use this road to evacuate our wounded and your own healthy prisoners of war."

It so happened that Route Coloniale 41 was Red General Giap's direct line of advance against Hanoi and the Red River Delta, but Huard apparently accepted the Red terms without question. That night the French army radio put out this note of appreciation: "The delegates of the French high command thank the delegates of the Viet people's army for their humanitarian concern." And the Communists seemed just as friendly next day when they helped load the first eleven wounded into a couple of French helicopters: "We hope you will remember what we have done for you. We hope this war will end very soon. Now au revoir." But the eleven wounded men of Dienbienphu"were rath er hostile" to the Communist speechmakers, said one who was there, and the helicopters quickly took off.