Word: viet
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...Communist move that Dulles, had anticipated in Berlin was not long in coming. "Almost as rapidly as they could issue orders and gather their forces," as one Administration official said, the Viet Minh began their assault on Dienbienphu. It was quickly apparent that, in spite of high words from the French, Dienbienphu was going to fall. Dulles began to search for a countermove that would shore up the West's bargaining power. He decided to propose a conference on "united action" in Indo-China by ten powers-the U.S., Britain, France, the Associated Indo-Chinese states, Thailand, the Philippines...
...four days they faced the delegates of the Free Nations in secret sessions on Indo-China. The Communists' principal line repeated daily was that any settlement must be applied to all three Indo-Chinese states. The West retorted that Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia must be discussed separately...
...diplomat in the U.S.: "France will not continue to be the foot soldier of the free world In Southeast Asia. The free nations will have to join the fight, not only with planes and ships, but also with troops." The U.S. replied with preliminary, tentative conditions: France must give Viet Nam complete independence, agree to step up its own military effort, accept an allied command...
...three men were well enough to tell Dienbienphu's last story."It seemed as though thousands of shells were striking our hospital bunker," said Private Michel Champougny."One shell exploded right inside another bunker, and the wounded were buried alive. Outside we could hear the screaming of the Viet Minh and the answering shouts of the French. Everyone was fighting, hand to hand. But around 6 p.m. there was silence, and we knew the battle was over. "At 7 p.m. some Viet Minh soldiers, their helmets camouflaged with leaves, came into our bunker. 'We are fighting...
...Then for three days, we lay where we were. Nobody bothered with us. One by one the badly wounded died. We had nothing to eat. The strongest ones dragged themselves over to a nearby dugout and found a few cans of French rations. Finally ten Viet Minh doctors and orderlies appeared. They made tents out of parachutes and put us inside them. They had nothing-no medicine, no disinfectants. The surgeons performed operations without anesthetics. We heard our comrades screaming. Then to our astonishment the French doctors and orderlies were brought back. Miss de Galard came back...