DienBienPhu- How difficult to convert?

[Gurachn]

Originally Posted by FASTBOAT TOUGH

Grant,
I'm glad this info was useful and fresh. One of the refs has a picture of the "mine" site which is well maintained by the Vietnamese government. I agree with you the story here was the bravery of the defenders. However of the 12,000+ captured and marched to the "re-education" camps almost 7500 would never make there-such a waste.
Bravery knows no flag, I really learned that standing on a hill called Little Round Top and looking across a field facing Cemetery Ridge in a small town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg. A difficult situation arose when I looked my wife in the eye and told her "I don't think I could've done what they did and crossed that field". I bow my head to all that have crossed those fields.
I hope this is correct...
le courageux et altruiste doit toujours trouver le chemin du ciel

Anyway happy I could help.

Regards,
Pat

Hey Pat,
Your comment that 'bravery knows no flag' is especially true for DBP, as although we often think of it as a battle of French against Vietnamese, the 'French' force was incredibly multinational, with the majority having never seen France. A large percentage of the defending force were Vietnamese from the Red river Delta, or T'ai tribesman, with the rest a mix from Algeria, Morocco, and even Senegal.

When I was 15 I took a trip with my dad down to Gettysburg, and also walked across that field in the footsteps of Pettigrew, Picket, et. al.
I remember looking across at where the guns had been and wondering how the hell they could have continue to march while they were being shot to pieces. Were they mad? Were they made of different stuff than us weak modern men?
It wasn't until I did bit of military service myself that I started to realize what might have motivated them to continue into the face of bloody murder.
I think there can develop a kind of bonding among squad mates to the point where the fear of letting down your comrades can actually outweigh the fear of potential death and mutilation.

Walking the grounds that we read about can give you a special understanding of the trials and horrors those long gone heroes faced. Things impossible to appreciate from books of TV docus. But in walking them alone you can never really understand their motivations.