Vietnam had been a French colony since the late 1800s, except during WWII when Japan controlled it. France resumed control in 1945, but Ho Chi Minh's forces soon started fighting to oust them. A 1972 newsreel described how the French, like the Americans later, struggled against mobile guerrillas. In November 1953, the French dropped 7,000 paratroopers into Dien Bien Phu to lure the communists into battle. The communist commander accepted, leading to a brutal siege. With Chinese military aid, the communists surrounded the French, cutting off their supplies. After six months of intense fighting, deprivation, and starvation, the French paratroops surrendered on May 7, 1954, dealing a severe blow to French morale. The defeat marked the end of the French Empire in Indochina and began the decline of European colonial power in Asia.
Vocabulary:
• Melt away into the jungle: running away and hidding in the forest.
• Unrelenting: Not stopping.
• To shatter: To break something into many small pieces.
• To withdraw: to move away from a place.
• Paratroopers: Overtrained soldiers who jump out of airplanes using parachutes.
• Guerrilla warfare: Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians use ambushes, sabotage, and quick raids to fight against an enemy better equipped.
• A guerrilla: A fighter using guerrilla warfare techniques.
• To lure: To attract someone to go somewhere or to do something.
Source: South China Morning Post YouTube channel.