Their ‘Waterloo’ at Dien Bien Phu Still Rankles French

PARIS —  It’s synonymous with overwhelming defeat, an utter rout that four decades later is the modern Frenchman’s Waterloo.

France’s defeat at Dien Bien Phu by a Vietnamese peasant army still causes shudders and shrugs among French today.

“It leaves the image on one hand of defeat, on the other of relief, because it meant the end of the war in Vietnam,” said Henri Tabah, a 73-year-old art photographer. “But it was at much too high a price.”

The 40th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu is being overshadowed in France by the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy in June, the 80th anniversary of the declaration of World War I in August and the 40th anniversary of the start of the Algerian war in November, according to the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs.

“Besides, it’s not something we French commemorate much,” Tabah said.

Many young French people have little awareness of this corner of France’s past.

“Something over in China, was that it?” frowned Patrice Chesnaie, a butcher’s apprentice in his 20s. “Sorry, I only know the name.”

Dien Bien Phu was “a particularly searing symbol of French military defeat,” according to the authoritative Perrin’s Historical Encyclopedia of France.

Unlike Americans the French have resisted confronting their Vietnam experience, and only in 1992 did the first feature film about Dien Bien Phu appear.

Director Pierre Schoendorffer, himself taken prisoner of war during the battle, felt moved to make the film “Dien Bien Phu” because “it’s a European tradition to let the wounds heal without talking about them.”

“For me, it’s a sacred place,” Schoendorffer said when he revisited the battlefield. “This was a country we loved, this was our last battle. . . . But we can come back with our heads high, with respect for the Vietnamese.”