Judging from the distance of the surrounding mountains, this valley was bigger than Khe Sanh or A Shau.
We walked down the road and passed a small hill on the left, atop which was an old French tank. We continued on and passed an army museum and a big military cemetery, then turned right at a sign that showed crossed swords, the international symbol for battlefield.
As we walked, I saw a bunker with a wooden sign in French, Vietnamese, and good English. The sign read Here is the bunker of Colonel Charles Piruth, commander of the French artillery. On the second evening of the battle, Colonel Piruth, realizing he was surrounded by overwhelming Viet Minh artillery, apologized in person to all of his artillery men, then went into this bunker and killed himself with a hand grenade.
I stared at the bunker, which was open, and I assumed they’d cleaned up the mess.
Susan said to me, “I don’t think I get it.”
I replied, “I guess you had to be here.”
I looked at the hills that ringed this valley, and thought maybe I got it. The French were looking for a set-piece battle, like the Americans at Khe Sanh, and they came here, in the middle of nowhere, to lure the Communists into a fight. They got more than they bargained for. Shit happens.
Susan took a photo, and we continued on. We crossed a bridge over the small river that flowed through the valley. On the other side of the bridge was a monument to the Viet Minh casualties, built on the French stronghold named Eliane.
Small groups of Western tourists were walking around, all of them with guides.
We followed a group, who made a left turn on a rural road. A few rusting tanks and artillery pieces sat in vegetable fields, and there were a few markers in French and Vietnamese.
We came to a big bunker around which a group was standing. The sign near the bunker said Here is the bunker of General Christian de Castries, commander of the French forces, and the site of the French surrender.
A Viet guide was giving a talk in French to ten middle-aged men and a few women. I wondered if any of them had been survivors of this place. One older guy, I noticed, had tears in his eyes, so I guess that answered my question.
A young Vietnamese man came up to us and said something in French. I said, “Je ne parle pas français.”
He seemed surprised, then looked us over and asked, “American?”
I replied, “Canadian,” which I’d been taught is good cover for Americans in certain parts of the world where Americans aren’t fully appreciated. Thank God for Canada.
The guy spoke English and asked, “You come to see battlefield?”
Remembering my many covers, I replied, “Yes. I’m a military historian, a botanist, and a naturalist. I collect butterflies.”
Susan was smiling rather than rolling her eyes. I think she had missed the old Paul Brenner and was happy he was back.
The guide said, “You please give me one dollar, I tell you about battle.”
Susan gave the guy a buck, and it was like putting quarters in a jukebox. He began a rap that was barely comprehensible, and when he was stumped on an English word, he used French, and when French became a problem, he used Vietnamese.
The long and the short of it was that in early 1954, ten thousand soldiers of a French army including Foreign Legionnaires and about three thousand Montagnard and Vietnamese colonial troops set up a string of strongpoints in this valley, all named after women who had been mistresses of General de Castries. There were seven strongpoints, and I was immediately impressed with the French general.
The Viet guide made what was probably a standard joke and said, “Maybe more mistresses, but he no have enough soldiers.”
“Good point.”
The guide went on awhile, and the whole sorry episode sounded like a replay of Khe Sanh, except the French didn’t have the airpower to neutralize the overwhelming force of fifty thousand Viet Minh soldiers led by General Vo Nguyen Giap, the same guy who’d planned the Siege of Khe Sanh, and the ’68 Tet Offensive, and who I was starting to dislike, or maybe admire.
The guide said, “General Giap men carry many hundred cannon through hills and surround Dien Bien Phu. Shoot many thousand cannon shell at French. French colonel kill self when thousand cannon shell fall. He very surprised.”
I looked at the hills I’d driven through the night before. I’d be surprised, too. I’d barely gotten the motorcycle through here; hundreds of artillery pieces would be a real challenge.
There was something about the Vietnamese that made them incredibly patient, plodding, and persevering. I thought of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the Cu Chi tunnels, dragging hundreds of huge artillery pieces over terrain that was barely passable on foot. I asked our guide, “Did they dig tunnels and trenches here?”
“Yes, yes, many, many kilometer — les tranchées. See there? Les trenchées. Viet Minh soldier dig close, attack Eliane, Ann-Marie, Françoise, Dominique, Gabrielle, Beatrice, Claudine.”
I said to Susan, “I’d name a fortress for you. Strongpoint Susan.”
The guide understood and smiled politely. “Yes? You name fort for this lady?”
Susan was back to rolling her eyes and didn’t reply.
The guide informed us that the French dropped another three thousand paratroopers into Dien Bien Phu to try to save the besieged army. In the end, however, after two months, all thirteen thousand French and colonial troops had been killed, wounded, or captured, and the Viet Minh, according to our guide, had lost half their fifty thousand men, but won the war. He said, “French people have enough war. French soldiers go home.”
This story had a familiar ring to it, like it was 1968 instead of 1954, and since no one in Washington had learned anything from Dien Bien Phu, I suppose you could say that the American war in Vietnam started right here.
The guide said, “Two thousand French soldiers lay here—” He made a sweeping motion with his arm to encompass the vegetable fields where water buffalo walked and women worked with hoes. “French people make monument there. See there? Many French come to see here. Some American come, too. I never meet Canada people. You like?”
I thought I’d seen enough battlefields in the last two weeks to last me the rest of my life. Notwithstanding that, I felt a bond with the men who’d fought and died here. I said, “Interesting.”
Today was Thursday, and by Sunday, I should be in Bangkok. I was feeling like most short-timers feel with four days left and counting: paranoid. I recalled what my platoon sergeant was nice enough to say to me a few days before I left the field to go home: “Don’t get your hopes up, Brenner. Charlie still has seventy-two hours to fuck you up.”
Susan gave the guide her camera, and he took a photo of us near General de Castries’s command bunker. The photo album should be titled My Worst Winter Vacation Ever.
The guide asked us, “You want see all battlefield? I take you. One dollar.”
I replied, “Maybe tomorrow. Hey, what do you do for fun in this town?”
“Fun? What is fun?”
I was wondering about how to get Tran Van Vinh to Hanoi on a motorcycle built for two, assuming he was alive and was going to stay alive— and also assuming I actually needed to take him to Hanoi, which I didn’t know, though Susan knew. It occurred to me that maybe Susan would be riding alone, and I didn’t need to worry about this. Nevertheless I asked, “What’s the best way to get to Hanoi?”