(Based on Vietnamese newspapers)

On the afternoon of May 7, 1954, we ended the Dien Bien Phu campaign by destroying the entire Dien Bien Phu Group of fortresses and capturing alive all the French troops, including the headquarters and all the garrison troops stationed in the area.  Among those prisoners, there was a rather special person, who was the only female prisoner of war but received the privilege of President Ho Chi Minh, was released the earliest and carried heavy affection for Vietnam until the end of his life.

That woman was nurse Geneviève de Gallard, when she participated in the battle of Dien Bien Phu was about 30 years old, was a flight attendant. She was sent to Dien Bien Phu with the task of transporting wounded, working on flights to transport wounded and sick soldiers from Dien Bien Phu to Hanoi.

Her flight on March 31, 1954 could not return to Hanoi, she became one of more than 10,000 French soldiers who remained at Dien Bien Phu, either victorious or defeated.

From here, she performed the duty of a front-line nurse running around the battlefield full of bombs and death to collect, give first aid and transport wounded soldiers to the field surgical stations behind.

From the middle of the battle, when the important bases were gradually lost, the Viet Minh’s battlefield was increasingly expanded with important military and strategic calculations, the Viet Minh had an advantage right from the start.

Not realizing the weaknesses of the “hedgehog” of Dien Bien Phu, the French army gradually got bogged down in a trap created by themselves. Life under the extreme, huddled, lack of food, water, medicine.

Diseases, flies, and mud tortured French soldiers “live not as good as dead”.

The only route of reinforcement was by air, which was previously powerful, was completely paralyzed by the artillery power of Vietnam, causing not only the French soldiers but the headquarters as well as the entire Dien Bien Phu Group to lose gradually fighting strength, weakening and waiting for the day to end in despair.

Like all French soldiers, the nurse Geneviève de Gallard lived and worked in poor and difficult conditions, perhaps her positive and optimistic attitude had a strong impact on the morale of the soldiers.

She often comforts the dying and always maintains her toughness and courage in the face of casualties and growing defeat in this one-on-one battle.

On May 7, 1954, with the loss of the last door in the eastern defense line, the Viet Minh officially launched a general offensive to end the most important campaign in the resistance war against the more than 100 years invading French.

From Vietnam sides, the troops advanced directly to the enemy command bunker, destroying the last stronghold, the highest goal was to capture De Castries alive. Unlike what De Castries had promised his commanders earlier, with no resistance, no “honorable death” as the artillery commander Piroth had done before, the Group Headquarters surrendered to Vietminh. The Dien Bien Phu site calmly bowed its head, with the only move being to try to destroy important documents, so as not to fall into the hands of the Viet Minh.

Thanks to Vietnam’s leniency policy, many POW camps were set up everywhere outside the battlefield, along with ambulance camps. Many wounded enemy soldiers for nearly two months were piled up in cramped, gloomy, suffocating basements full of bugs and were brought up for treatment and treatment.

Immediately after her arrest, Ms. Geneviève de Gallard and French doctors, along with Vietnamese doctors, were mobilized to care for the wounded French POWs.

At that time, she boldly wrote a letter to President Ho asking for a pardon and was approved.

On the order of President Ho Chi Minh, on May 21, 1954, after 2 weeks of being arrested and being cared for by the Viet Minh, all seriously wounded soldiers-around 1000 POW, and Ms. Geneviève de Gallard were allowed to board a plane to leave Dien Bien Phu for Hanoi in boundless joy.

Before that, she sent a letter of thanks to President Ho Chi Minh and the humanitarian acts of the Vietnamese army for the kind treatment and proper care for French prisoners and wounded soldiers.

At Gia Lam airport, when she landed at the airport from the place of arrest, Ms. G. Gallard gave an interview to the press:

“If I had known the tolerance of Uncle Ho and the Vietnamese people, I would have asked to be a prisoner of war sooner.”

Returning to Paris, Ms. Geneviève de Gallard was honored by US President Eisenhower and awarded the Medal of Freedom.

Geneviève de Gallard married two years later and lived the simple life of an ordinary woman.

In November 2003, Ms. Geneviève de Gallard published the book “A woman in Dien Bien Phu” in which there is one passage as follows:

“For a long time, I wished to return to Vietnam. I recently learned that Vietnam has made reform efforts. Through some movies, I see Dien Bien Phu more beautiful. As time goes by, the memories of Dien Bien Phu still live in my heart.”

Many years after the war, the Dien Bien Phu incident is still an obsession for many French people. Many of them have returned to Vietnam, returning to Dien Bien Phu to reminisce about the old days of how they lived, fought, to see their fate was still luckier than many other teammates when they stayed and lied here forever.

There are also many articles, books, memoirs of French generals and officers, who have directly waged wars and participated in the war and are also heavily obsessed with the senseless war they did at Dien Bien Phu.

With Ms. Geneviève de Gallard, she made the days in Dien Bien Phu worth living, beautiful memories in later years.

Ms. Geneviève de Gallard always wanted the Vietnamese people to be happier and freer after the wars.///

By the way, I would like to talk about the fate of all over 10,000 French prisoners in the battle of Dien Bien Phu, then how were the Viet Minh treated? How to be released back home?

More than 10 years ago, in France there was a website called dienbienphu.org, to ask the big question:

There were more than 10,000 French prisoners of war at Dien Bien Phu, but after that, only more than 3,000 prisoners were released by the Viet Minh to France, the remaining more than 7,000 prisoners were unknown fate.

But now this website does not exist.

The truth is as follows:

Of the more than 10,000 French POWs at Dien Bien Phu, only over 3000 were French, the rest, more than 3000 people were of African descent, such as Algeria, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique,,,.

These more than 3,000 French were released to France after about six months of detention, as the website dienbienphu.org reported.

There were more than 200 French POWs who escaped through the jungle on their own, some were recaptured, the rest died or disappeared, no one knows. The Viet Minh also did not send souldiers to find them.

There are more than 2,000 Vietnamese who are serving as soldiers for France. The Viet Minh sent more than 2,000 Vietnamese people back to their homeland in Vietnam.

More than 3,000 French soldiers of African origin were contacted by the Viet Minh with the International Red Cross, released directly to Africa, not released back to France.

More than 1000 prisoners of war were seriously injured, were released by the Viet Minh right after the first 2 weeks of being captured, released through the International Red Cross, because the Viet Minh did not have the conditions to care for and treat them, as in the above section has said in the part of the nurse Geneviève de Gallard.//////