The Battle of Điện Biên Phủ was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union’s French Far East Expeditionary Corps and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s (DRV) People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and Việt Minh revolutionaries. It was, from the French view before the event, a set piece battle to draw out the Vietnamese and destroy them with superior firepower. It finished as one of the most famous examples of guerrilla tactics employed by PAVN general Võ Nguyên Giáp. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a comprehensive French defeat that influenced negotiations after the battle at the Geneva Conference among several nations over the future of Indochina.
