The seminar was co-chaired by Senior Lieutenant General Le Chiem, Deputy Defense Minister; Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Trong Nghia, Deputy Director of the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People’s Army; and Tran Van Son, Secretary of the Dien Bien provincial Party Committee.
Also present at the event were Major General Phung Si Tan, Commander of Military Region 2; Major General Nguyen Hoang Nhien, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Military History; leaders from Dien Bien, Son La, and Lai Chau provinces; and scientists, military and civilian historical witnesses who had participated in the campaign.
In his opening speech, General Nghia underlined that during the 1953-1954 Winter Spring Campaign, Vietnamese people and troops achieved the glorious Dien Bien Phu victory, making a “golden milestone” in the national history of constructing and defending the country. The victory defeated the invasion ambition of the French colonialists and directly led to the signing of the 1954 Geneva Accords on ending the war and restoring peace in Indochina.
The Dien Bien Phu victory stemmed from the great power of the entire nation’s great unity bloc in the Ho Chi Minh Era, the national iron will and high determination in the resistance war against the French invaders, and has become the pride of all generations of Vietnamese people and peace lovers in the world and one of the most important historical events in the human historical development process. As a result, the Dien Bien Phu victory has been and will be an attractive topic for domestic and international scholars and researchers, he added.
The seminar’s organizing panel received 80 memoirs from scientists, researchers, generals, and veterans who had taken part in the campaign.
The memoirs all focused on the great significance of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, re-affirmed the sound leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, and spotlighted the creativity and uniqueness of the Vietnamese people’s arts of war.
They also paid due attention to discussing the special alliance in combat among Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; and the whole-hearted assistance from socialist countries and French anti-war movements for Vietnam and Indochina, which contributed significantly to the success of the Vietnamese national resistance war against the French invaders.
In addition, delegates at the seminar assessed the status, role, experience, and historical lessons of the Dien Bien Phu victory, as well as application of valuable lessons and experience to the current national construction and defense cause.
Concluding the workshop, General Chiem stressed that the Dien Bien Phu victory played an important role as an army of an Asian colonized nation with its poor military means could defeat a well-equipped army of a European power for the first time. The victory was considered a disaster for France as it totally broke down its attempt to re-colonize Indochina and re-form its global colonial empire after the Second World War. It also made contribution to stopping the four-century European colonial regime around the world. In other words, it signaled the collapse of the colonialism system and ushered in a new era for oppressed peoples in colonized countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The Dien Bien Phu victory was seen as a historical Bach Dang, Chi Lang or Dong Da victory in the 20th century, ushering in a new page of the national history. It resulted from the patriotism and undauntedness of the Vietnamese people, the sound Party-oriented strategies, the combination of the strength of the entire nation and support and sympathy of the international community or close attachment of the strength of the national great unity bloc to the power of the era, and the special Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia in-combat alliance.
Through their presentations, the delegates at the seminar continued to clarify the great significance of the Dien Bien Phu victory to the success of the national resistance war against the French invaders.
The outcomes of the seminar are expected to raise the national pride and patriotism, promote trust and political determination of the entire Party, people and army in the the Doi Moi (Renewal) process, defeat every plot of hostile forces, and firmly construct and protect the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the new context.
Translated by Van Hieu