In his article posted on the RNA’s e-newspaper, journalist Gaston Fiorda recalled the moment when the red and gold star flag flew on the roof of the French commander bunker in Dien Bien Phu at 17:30 on May 7, 1954, and all French troops at the base surrendered and were captured.
The article said the modern history of Vietnam is connected with the 100-year French colonial rule and the Vietnamese people’s resistance war against the invaders. Under the leadership of the Communist Party and President Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese army and people successfully conducted the August Revolution in 1945 and the Dien Bien Phu campaign, which showed that a small nation is able to defeat a global military power.
Summarising three phases of the Dien Bien Phu campaign at Muong Thanh valley, Gaston Fiorda wrote that with their courage, intelligence and creativity, the Vietnamese army and people completely destroyed the Dien Bien Phu stronghold.
The campaign was the last chapter of Vietnam’s nine-year resistance war against the French colonialists, and the beginning of the breakup of the colonial institution across the globe, he wrote, describing the victory as a largest military feat in Vietnam’s Indochinese war (1945-1954).
Seventy years have gone by, the historical lessons of the global-shaking victory still echoed and become a source of encouragement for the Vietnamese people and peace loving nations in the world, he underlined.
