70 years after the battle of Dien Bien Phu, Vietnamese and French veterans look back at a conflict that shaped the world and their lives.
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00:00Every year on May 7th, veterans from the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
00:04look back on a conflict that shaped the future of Vietnam,
00:07the world, and their own lives.
00:10Now, 70 years after the fighting ended,
00:13veterans from France are returning to the site.
00:16I think it's a country that brought me a lot.
00:21It's a country where I suffered a lot.
00:26When we fight, we are enemies.
00:30But at this time, we still hold hands
00:34so that we can unite and build a country
00:42and a world of peace and happiness.
00:46Seventy years earlier, France was fighting to maintain control
00:49of the Union of French Indochina,
00:51a colony made up of Cambodia, Laos, and a divided Vietnam.
00:56And it wasn't going well.
00:59Led by Ho Chi Minh, nationalist Viet Minh forces
01:02had been fighting for Vietnam's independence since 1946.
01:07Under growing pressure, France's military started to look
01:10for a knockout blow to end the war.
01:13With military and financial support from the United States,
01:16they decided to make their stand here in Dien Bien Phu.
01:21From the remote valley, they thought they'd be able to take out
01:24the Viet Minh supply lines and force an end to the fighting.
01:27At that time, I thought that if the West couldn't defeat Vietnam,
01:32then Vietnam and the youth would have to fight.
01:36France hoped their outposts would lure Viet Minh forces
01:39into open fighting where they could leverage their superior weaponry.
01:43But they underestimated the determination of their foe.
01:47Viet Minh forces, led by General Vo Nguyen Zap,
01:50cut over 500 kilometers of paths through the jungle
01:53and carried artillery pieces to the tops of nearby mountains
01:56on their backs.
02:14What followed was weeks of fierce fighting.
02:17In the nearly two-month siege, thousands died on both sides.
02:23When the Viet Minh troops fell into the valley,
02:26the whole valley was blown up.
02:29No one was left alive.
02:34We had to pick up the pieces of meat
02:39and hang them on trees and grass.
02:45But in the end, the Viet Minh's sacrifice won them victory.
02:49On May 7, through the smoke,
02:52a red flag appeared above the French base.
03:06With thousands of its soldiers taken captive,
03:09France was forced to sue for peace and abandon its colonies.
03:13Cambodia and Laos became independent kingdoms,
03:16and Vietnam was divided into two independent countries,
03:20a communist north and a U.S.-backed south.
03:24It would take 20 more years of civil war
03:27before the two were united in 1975,
03:30creating the modern state of Vietnam.
03:33Justin Wu and Bryn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.