In this case on the representation of former French colony Indochina in cinema, the debate gravitates around three motion pictures released in France in These films are solely a social representation of likelihood, a pure phantasmal and mythical legitimization of French presence in Indochina designed to fix and reconstruct the memory of the past; this memory offers only a colonialist perspective to the spectator.
Furthermore, Norindr writes this memory is created with symbols and images denuded of colonial oppression. These symbols and image are the beautiful landscape, the love story between France and Indochina. Moreover, he explains this evocation in his book Dien Bien Phu: de la bataille au film as a personal emotion about Vietnam, especially about Tonkin, and as a symbolic adulation with the soundtrack throughout the film.
This was the same situation for the other two films about Indochina. Pomonti refers to the presidential support to cinematographic art in the context of the cultural influence France hoped to gain in exchange of its support to the Vietnamese Regime. Indeed, as he was on his way to Cambodia, President Mitterrand made a furtive visit to the site of the battlefield. Schoendoerffer and other veterans were travelling with the French head of state; they described the battle to the president.
Upon completion of his guided tour of the battlefield, Mitterrand has expressed his regret that he had not seen any French memorial honoring the combatants and non-combatants of the French Union who had perished in the cuvette.
The political significance Norindr highlights refers to the unification of left-wing and right-wing politics for the inauguration, in France, of a monument dedicated to the Indochinese conflict, which lasted from to It is often used to directly refer to the president himself. It is often used to directly refer to the French Government. Unlike Norindr, Phil Powrie, a professor of Modern Language at the University of Surrey, England, introduces a study on the revival of the French heritage cinema in the s and the complex issue around the French national cinema and the debate on the cultural exception during the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Convention in GATT In his book French Cinema in the s: Continuity and Difference, which is a collection of essays by different authors, Powrie introduces the reader to three types of French heritage cinema official, postcolonial, and Vichy heritage.
Powrie emphasizes that the nostalgia for the lost empire and the acceptance of decolonization are as important. This process of reconstruction also aims at the creation of new sexual, national, and racial identities. In addition, Rollet asserts the postcolonial heritage cinema is merely the revival of the colonial film genre, which was preeminent in the s. She describes it rather as a return to the old colonial genre focusing on the iconography.
In this narrative, Rollet identifies emotions and personal memories. Rollet describes also the relationship between women and Indochina. Lastly, the reader understands that Rollet asserts the role of postcolonial heritage films as a instrument to reinvent a positive collective memory in France through amnesia in realms of memory. Unfortunately, Rollet does not deeply exploit this concept of an invented collective memory based on personal memory.
Indeed, Halbwachs teaches that this collective memory helps maintaining a contemporary society in equilibrium and in unison with its newly created heritage. In other words, postcolonial heritage films are an invented collective memory based on a realm of memory, which keeps traumatic events at bay, in complete amnesia. Schoendoerffer imposed his experience in Tonkin in shaping it to reflect the positive greatness of France, even in the darkest moment of its past.
In other terms, Schoendoerffer created a new French heritage with the Battle of Dien Bien Phu to highlight the solidarity of all French soldiers, of all origins, in the face of hardship and struggle, at times of great anxiety; this anxiety was comparable in on the 23 Ibid, It is to represent an intangible past with a contemporary opinion and a perception designed to reinforce governmental control over an anxious and unstable modern society.
It does so in depicting and in re-creating the past while promoting national uniqueness and pride. For her, the creation of heritage, through postcolonial heritage films, aims to promote a sense of pride among Frenchmen and second-generation immigrants of colonial origins in a society challenged by unemployment, crisis of identity, and unification of political Europe.
They are the depiction of a strong unity and camaraderie within the ethnic and national diversity of the French Union troops, the engagement of these troops in the political dilemma regarding the decolonization of the French Empire, and the devotion and altruistic sacrifice of young men for their nation France and Indochina.
Continuing her analysis, Oscherwitz writes the postcolonial heritage cinema deals with the topic of decolonization only from the point of view of the colonizers. These films are a nostalgic reproduction of the colonial era voicing only the colonizers who express at times a sense of loss and regret.
These films are picturesque frescos in which characters tell very personal stories; sometimes these stories are from native Indochinese. Per Oscherwitz, the objective of the narratives is to transform this personal memory, of the s, into a collective memory, of the s.
In turn, this collective memory changes into a national identity permitting the incorporation and assimilation of the second-generation immigrant in French culture and nation.
Indeed, she refers to the integration of immigration as an act of adoption. It is the new relationship between a mother, symbolically France motherland , and her new child, symbolically the immigrant from former colonial empire. Yet, Oscherwitz argues this image permits French government to claim native French and immigrants 30 Ibid, Therefore, this claim provides a common ground for the consolidation of national unity of the French Republic.
Although Oscherwitz recognizes the virulent political debate in the s regarding the integration of immigration in France, she asserts postcolonial heritage cinema acts as a national bound through the creation of collective memory, which narrate native French and former colonies immigrants share the same history, the same origins, and therefore share the same identity.
In sum, these authors Norindr, Rollet, and Oscherwitz have each used two interpretations of these three concepts without really linking to the third one.
Giap rapidly concentrated his forces and built excellent logistics support. He placed his artillery in well concealed and fortified positions which could use direct fire on French positions. Giap also had more and heavier artillery than the French believed him to have. Additionally he brought in a large number of anti-aircraft batteries whose firepower from well concealed positions enabled the Viet Minh to take a heavy toll among the French aircraft that attempted to supply the base.
Unlike at Na-Son, Giap did not throw his men away in human assaults. Instead he used his Sappers combat engineers to build protective trenches leading up to the very wire of French defensive positions. These trenches provided both concealment and protection from the French. In time these trenches came to resemble a spider web that enveloped the French base. Without belaboring the point the French fought hard as did the Viet Minh.
One after one French positions were overwhelmed by accurate artillery and well planned attacks. The French hoped for U. They were turned down by a US Government that had grown tired of a war in Korea.
Relief forces were unable to get through and the garrison died, despite the bravery of the Paratroops. Colonials and Legionaries. The French garrison was let down by their high command and their government and lost the battle due to inadequate logistics and air power. The survivors endured a brutal forced march of nearly miles on foot to POW camps in which many died. Few French troops caved to the Viet Minh interrogations and torture but some would come away with the belief that one had to use such means to fight the revolutionaries.
Some French troops and their Algerian comrades would apply these lessons against each other within a year of their release. French soldiers and officers were shipped directly from Indochina to Algeria to wage another protracted counterinsurgency often against Algerians that they had served alongside in Indochina.
The Algerian campaign proved to be even more brutal and it was lost politically before it even began. The wars in Indochina and Algeria tore the heart out of the French Army. The defeats inflicted a terrible toll. France would endure a military coup which involved many who had fought in Vietnam and Algeria. Having militarily won that war these men called The Centurions by Jean Lartenguy had been turned into liars by their government. They were forced to abandon those who they had fought for and following the mutiny, tried, imprisoned, exiled or disgraced.
They saw Dien Bien Phu as the defining moment. The effects of the wars in French Indochina, Algeria and Vietnam on the French military establishment were long lasting and often tragic.
The acceptance of torture as a means to an end sullied even the hardest French officers. Men like Galula and Marcel Bigeard refused to countenance it, while others like Paul Aussaresses never recanted. One of the most heart rending parts of the Dien Bien Phu story for me is that of Easter which fell just prior to the end for the French:. At Dienbeinphu, where the men went to confession and communion in little groups, Chaplain Trinquant, who was celebrating Mass in a shelter near the hospital, uttered that cry of liturgical joy with a heart steeped in sadness; it was not victory that was approaching but death.
Like many American veterans of Vietnam, many of the survivors of Dien Bien Phu made peace and reconciled with the Vietnamese soldiers who opposed them.
While many still regretted losing they respected their Vietnamese opponents and questioned the leadership of their country and army. Colonel Jacques Allaire, who served as a lieutenant in a battalion under the command of MajorMarcel Bigeard reflected to a Vietnamese correspondent in The aircrafts were not able to give us relief. The French Government changed 19 times in nine years and that messed everything up. General Navarre did not know anything about the battlefield in Vietnam.
After the Na San battle, the French commanders thought they could win and decided to attack at Dien Bien Phu, but they were wrong. When it comes to this time of year I always have a sense of melancholy and dread as I think of the unlearned lessons and future sacrifices that we may be asked to make. Nor were the lessons of Algeria. It was an arrogance for which we paid dearly and I do not think that many in our political, media and pundits or military have entirely learned or that we in the military have completely shaken ourselves.
Add the casualties suffered by our NATO allies the number of allied dead is now over Some 36, Afghan National Army soldiers and Police officers have been killed. Afghan civilian deaths are estimated between , and ,, not counting the wounded or those killed in Pakistan. In January the Pentagon classified data on Afghan military, police, and civilian casualties. The Afghan debacle has spanned three Presidential administrations so there accountability for it must be shared between Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump, as well as their administrations, the military, and Congress.
In the last two weeks before the fortress fell, French and some American aircrews continued to do what they could to bomb and strafe Viet Minh positions and to deliver aerial supplies, despite increasingly intense anti-aircraft fire.
After that, momentous events unfolded rapidly. France realized that it had lost Indochina and made clear that it would fight no more. Paris began preparations for a full withdrawal from that part of the world. In June , France, charged with civil administration in southern Vietnam, granted that region its independence. Out of this conference came measures that were supposed to end the Indochina war. The conference agreed to a partition of Vietnam into north and south.
Partition was to be temporary, with unification to come after national elections in Elections never came. At the same time, however, the US began organizing a collective defense system aimed at blocking communist advances. By that time, however, American blood had already been spilled in Vietnam.
McGovern and Wallace A. Clear weather made it easy for the Viet Minh anti-aircraft gunners to target the aircraft.
The stricken Boxcar crashed behind enemy lines. Thus it was that McGovern and Buford—two pilots—became the first Americans known to have died in combat in Vietnam. Skip to content. By Rebecca Grant. Tables Turned Giap, a brilliant strategist, turned the tables in three ways. Dien Bien Phu would never be the stronghold the French wanted.
Instead, it had become a trap. Operation Vulture With the drop zone all but gone, the French—with the encouragement of some US officials based in Saigon—pressed hard for the US to launch an overwhelming air strike to save Dien Bien Phu.
Operation Vulture, however, was the source of considerable confusion. Dien Bien Phu fell on May 7. Rebecca Grant is a contributing editor of Air Force Magazine.
Present Joe Biden has again turned to the military to fill staffing shortages and to help hospitals surge medical staffs as the omicron variant of COVID continues to strain hospitals nationwide. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. In , Dr. Now, Wallander has been nominated to be assistant secretary of defense for international…. Maturing nuclear thermal propulsion to maneuver satellites out of the way of attacks could also keep the U. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing to become the first assistant secretary of defense for space policy, Plumb also addressed how….
Airmen and Guardians are now allowed to include their pronouns in the signature block of emails, memoranda, letters, and papers. A satellite constellation specially suited to tracking hypersonic missiles could be up and running by The Biden Administration has economically sanctioned five individual North Koreans, a Russian national, and a Russian company in response to six missile tests conducted by Pyongyang since September, which the Administration says violate U.
Security Council resolutions. The sanctions, which follow a Jan. The Air Force on Jan. The objectives are aimed at better preparing Airmen to compete and win in a high-end fight against China or Russia. This website uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. By using this site, you agree to our use of cookies. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.
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These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Necessary Necessary. While military subjects will be fully explored, there will be greater attention to other aspects of the war. All of this is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over cross-referenced dictionary entries. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Vietnam War.
The policy of containment was formed, China was established as an important military power, and the US increased its military expenditure fourfold as a result of a conflict which killed over 33, Americans. What has been less appreciated is the role played by the United Nations and the British Commonwealth in influencing US strategy at this time of crisis: the Truman administration invested time and effort into gaining UN approval for the conflict in Korea, and the course of the war was adapted to keep UN allies, often holding crucial strategic positions in other Cold War theatres, in tow.
Robert Barnes develops a fresh perspective on these fluctuating relationships, the tensions between Washington and its British Commonwealth allies and their impact on the direction of the conflict in order to challenge the common view that the United States was able to use its dominant position within the UN to pursue its Cold War ambitions with impunity.
This important new interpretation is supported by evidence from a wealth of sources, from official government records to private papers and memoirs written by the most important American and Commonwealth personalities directly involved in shaping the UN's response to the conflict.
This study presents a thorough deconstruction of the decision-making process behind US handling of the Korean War from the outbreak of conflict in to the Geneva Conference of Author : James H.
Others survey the literature on US relations with particular regions of the world or on the foreign policies of presidential administrations.
The result is a comprehensive assessment of the historical literature on US foreign policy that highlights recent developments in the field. By , the French army was on the defensive and determined to force the Viet Minh into a decisive set-piece battle at Dien Bien Phu.
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