Why did all military of the West believe it was impossible for VietMinh to bring artillery up Dien Bien Phu?

Question

As of today general history books and school history textbooks in the West criticize the French for completely believing it would be impossible for the VietMinh to bring artillery up the mountains of Dien Bien Phu and thus general Western history books make it out as the French were complete fools who were not following military doctrine . However if you read magazine articles and intelligence reports of various Western nations (ESP U.S. and Great Britain), they all stated that it would be impossible for the VietMinh to transport artillery up DBP!Infact Pentagon Papers created by American intelligence agencies all stated it would be completely impossible for the VietMinh to ever be able to transport artillery to DBP!British Secret Service intelligence papers state the same thing too!Its not just intelligence agencies of Western nations that believed it would be impossible for the VM to bring artillery in DBP. Military forces of every nation in the Western world all believed that the VM simply cannot bring artillery up to DBP!Literally the generals of every military forces of all Western nations including those of US,Britain, the Netherlands,Italy, Spain, and even the West Germany all believed it would be improssible for VietMinh to bring artillery! Even British and American generals who had been in DBP to observe the fortress before the battle all completely agreed that it there would be no way that the VietMinh to bring artillery up DBP! Believe or not,even the Joint Chiefs of Staff believed it would be impossible for the VM to possess artillery in the upcoming battle in DBP!The Joint Chiefs of Staff were so convinced that VietMinh simply cannot bring artillery in the battle that even President Eisenhower himself became completely convinced that any attack on DBP would fail because the VietMinh won't be able to use artillery!Even Churchill agreed with the intelligence reports! The only western generals who believe that the VietMinh will be able to bring artillery up DBP are a few dissident voices in the French army including General Renee Cogny(who was the one who sent paratroopers to attack and fortify DBP in the first place).Colonel Cogny and several other French officers doubted French intelligence reports of the impossibility of artillery being used by the VM in DBP and even tried to warn General Navarre(head of the French forces during DBP) and the entire French military of the possibility of VM being able to bring artillery in DBP.

As historians and history books today criticize the French for inaccurate intelligence in DBP, this leads me to one question:Why did all military forces of the West including top generals and political leaders of the West including Eisenhower and Churchill believed the VM could never bring artillery in DBP?Why did no one listen to the warnings of lower ranking French officers?I mean looking in retrospect,it s as though Western nations all see the VIetnamese as too primitive to transport artillery!

Answer 1

It seems that several people, including "Wayne C" are mistaking the wars. The question is about the FIRST indochina War (1947-1954), NOT the Second Indochina War (1954-1975).



Most Generals were accustomed to transporting artillery pieces around as one single item. The PAV soldiers broke the artillery pieces down to components and took them up the hills on the top of pushbikes and reassembled them at their gun placements on the hills. This was something the Western Generals did not think of.



The PAV were not the first army to use pushbikes for transporting troops or materials. The Japanese did the same during WW-2 and the PAV learnt and remembered what the Japanese had done in Vietnam during WW-2.

Answer 2

One major problem, only FRENCH generals looked, and there was only one general in that area at the time. It wasn't so much they doubted that they could move them there, but that they even had that much anyway. That website is poop. Go find some real history books.



!British Secret Service intelligence papers state the same thing too!Its not just intelligence agencies of Western nations that believed it would be impossible for the VM to bring artillery in DBP. Military forces of every nation in the Western world all believed that the VM simply cannot bring artillery up to DBP!Literally the generals of every military forces of all Western nations including those of US,Britain, the Netherlands,Italy, Spain, and even the West Germany all believed it would be improssible for VietMinh to bring artillery! Even British and American generals who had been in DBP to observe the fortress before the battle all completely agreed that it there would be no way that the VietMinh to bring artillery up DBP!



Anyone who believes that bilge is stupid or uneducated. Period, end of discussion.

Answer 3

11,000 French vs 65,000 Viet Minh. The artillery was just overkill.



Walter Chonkrite claimed the war was lost in 68 after the first TET Offensive too. Funny how the VC were desimated and fleeing into both Laos and Cambodia when they were delcared the winner of TET 68. Did not Gen Giap get fired over that?



Damned Historians screw up pretty damned often......and leave lot's of info out.



Funny how the Vietnamese here seem to be unaware of all the rapes and village burinings done by US and other Allied Troops.....at least if you listen to John Kerry, Jane Fonda and others that claim it was regular and daily stuff.



WTF would helen and her family know? They just lived thru the whole damned thing. Her brother in law was an ARVN Officer from 55-75. As the Liasion Officer with both US and Australian Troops in Tra Vinh Area he would have known of any and all such things.....problem is he does not know....as they did not happen. Damned Historians just get it wrong so freaking often!



What should we all believe?



Regardless of then I know what goes on there now and it ain't pretty if you have any connection to the old RVN, folks just go missing if they say the wrong thing about the government, the phone is tapped when she goes to visit, they watch her on occasion...she could be planning the overthrow of the Communists....these tricky westernized 60 year old women can be a problem....yeah right!

Answer 4

Why? Because it was a very steep hill up to DBP and the VM did not have any way to bring up their artillery other than having people pull it up (which is what they did). The terrain was difficult even on flat ground, so nobody thought that men could pull huge weapons up a great big hill without aid.

Answer 5

History is rife with stories of "impossibilities" proven wrong. What's new?

Answer 6

It would have been impossible - for the French.