People's war strategy in the historic victory of Dien Bien Phu

69 years ago, under the correct and creative leadership of the Party, our army and people achieved the Dien Bien Phu victory - the peak of the 1953 - 1954 Winter-Spring campaign, crushing the highest war effort of French colonialism and American intervention, successfully ending the resistance war, ending the war, and restoring peace in Indochina.

That victory has gone down in national history as a Bach Dang, a Chi Lang, a Dong Da of the 20th century and into world history as a brilliant milestone, marking the collapse of old colonialism. That victory was the crystallization of many factors, first of all, it was the victory of the people's war, the whole people fighting the enemy under the leadership of the Party, headed by President Ho Chi Minh. It was also the victory of the highly promoting the tradition of great solidarity, the will to fight and win of the entire Vietnamese people in the history of building and defending the country. Promoting national strength

Our soldiers celebrate on the wreckage of a French plane shot down in Muong Thanh. Photo: Document/VNA

In carrying out the resistance war against the French colonialists for the second time, our Party determined that this was a resistance war: "All-people, comprehensive, long-term, self-reliant". Right in the “Call for National Resistance” (December 19, 1946), President Ho Chi Minh pointed out: “...any man, woman, any old person, any young person, regardless of religion, party, ethnicity, as long as they are Vietnamese, they must stand up to fight the French invaders, save the Fatherland. Responding to his call, all our people, all our army from North to South, from forests, mountains, rural plains to urban areas, everywhere stood up to unite and fight, together with the armed forces, fighting harder and harder, gradually regaining strategic initiative on the main battlefield, pushing the enemy into a quagmire, passive position. That call had the power to spread, calling on people everywhere to enthusiastically join the army to coordinate with the main force to fight and serve the fight. During the Dien Bien Phu campaign, tens of thousands of laborers participated in carrying the wounded, carrying food, provisions, weapons, and equipment to serve the battlefield; cutting mountains, clearing passes for our troops to pull in artillery. battlefield, contributing the most manpower and resources to make the revolution. The national spirit surged fiercely. That people's war battle became a solid wall to submerge the traitors and invaders. That battle was for a single goal: Fighting for the independence and freedom of the nation, all for the front line, all for victory. The people of Thanh Hoa province alone sent 9,000 tons of rice to the front line, the people of Lai Chau province contributed to Dien Bien Phu 2,666 tons of rice, 226 tons of meat; 210 tons of green vegetables, mobilizing 16,972 laborers, participating in 517,210 working days; 348 pack horses, 58 rafts, contributing 25,070 trees to build roads. The people of Inter-zone V in the four years from 1951 - 1954 contributed 1,322,600 tons of rice and an equivalent amount of money. 1,500,000 tons. The people of the whole country contributed 25,056 tons of rice, contributed 260,000 people to work on the front line, the campaign logistics line alone used a force of about 33,500 people serving with more than 30,000 working days. In the 4 years from 1950 - 1954, we restored and expanded 3,670km of old roads, built 505km of new roads, of which the strategic transport route was 2,080km long (According to "Dien Bien Phu, anthology of scientific works"). Along with the combat activities of the military forces, the work of ensuring service for the campaign was also carried out very urgently. Every night, up to 200 trucks, artillery tractors entered and exited the battlefield, hundreds of bicycles transported rice, ammunition, and necessities for the fight, each vehicle with many innovations could carry from 200 - 300kg. Logistics organization was also gradually perfected along with combat activities, combining local logistics organizations with the Supply Council from the Central to the inter-regional and provincial levels, forming a supply network, mobilizing human and material resources in localities, combining superior sources, local sources and on-site exploitation sources, promoting people's logistics to ensure the campaign's victory. Combining operations of the main army and the people's armed forces

To form the core for the entire people to fight the enemy and establish a people's war posture, we first organized the main force regiments and a number of technical arms. Right from the end of 1949 and the beginning of 1950, the regiments were quickly established such as: Division 308 (August 28, 1949), Division 304 (March 10, 1950), Division 325 (December 5, 1952)... By the end of 1952, we had 6 divisions: 304, 308, 312, 316, 320, 325 and the 351 Artillery Division. Along with the remarkable growth of the main force regiments, we advocated building three types of armed forces, promoting guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare. National history has proven that: To fight against an invading army that is stronger in terms of forces and means of war, we cannot rely only on the standing army but must mobilize the entire people to fight the enemy. The combination of operations of the main army and the armed forces of the entire people has demonstrated a mindset that is not limited to conventional combat methods, but rather the battle formation and method of combining the uprising of the masses to wage revolutionary war and the guerrilla teams everywhere - the battle formation of people's war. Through combat practice, we have promptly drawn experience from the entire army and the entire people, conducted military rectification and training, improved the class nature of the revolutionary and regular people's army, completed the organization, staffing, and equipment; step by step forming the combat method of attacking strongholds and clusters of strongholds in solid fortifications, improving the ability to coordinate between forces in combat, between the operations of the main mobile divisions with local armed forces, militia and guerrillas, establishing a people's war posture nationwide and on the entire Indochina battlefield, making the enemy gradually lose the initiative. That is the art of organizing and directing the three types of armed forces and the art of organizing and mobilizing the people to participate in the resistance war and national construction with all weapons at hand, closely coordinating with the armed forces, promoting material and spiritual strength to defeat the enemy... Nearly 70 years have passed, from the historic Muong Thanh field, the lessons of the Dien Bien Phu victory are still valuable. From Dien Bien Phu, our army and people won the resistance war against the US, saved the country, reunited the country, brought our nation into the era of "independence, freedom and socialism"; Building the country, protecting the Fatherland, bringing Vietnam to a worthy position in the international arena... It is also the process of promoting values and applying lessons learned, including the lesson of the great solidarity strength from the feat "famous in five continents, shaking the earth".

Hien Hanh (Vietnam News Agency)