End of and Empire – Walter Cronkite (1962)

“This 1962 episode of the TV show ‘The 20th Century’ presents the story of the French involvement in Indochina and the devastating collapse at Dien Bien Phu. The program starts with a short history of the region, beginning with the French struggle to control its colonies in Indochina – Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos following WWII. Despite financial assistance from the United States, nationalist uprisings against French colonial rule began to take their toll. On May 7, 1954, the French-held garrison at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam fell after a four month siege led by Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh. After the fall of Dien Bien Phu, the French pulled out of the region. Concerned about regional instability, the United States became increasingly committed to countering communist nationalists in Indochina. The United States would not pull out of Vietnam for another twenty years. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union’s French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries. It was, from the French view before the event, a set piece battle to draw out the Vietnamese and destroy them with superior firepower. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a comprehensive French defeat that influenced negotiations over the future of Indochina at Geneva. …”
YouTube: FRENCH INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM & DIEN BIEN PHU 26:01