" VIET NAM: TINDERBOX IN ASIA " 1955 DEFEAT OF FRENCH IN DIEN BIEN PHU, VIETNAM WAR NEWSREEL 26752

About

Dating from the time of the Kennedy Administration, this newsreel shows American military advisors working in Indochina to prop up the South Vietnamese Army, and portrays the South as a freedom-loving country deserving of support. It also shows Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch anti-Communist, who became president in 1955. He later imprisoned and murdered hundreds of Buddhists, causing the U.S. to remove its support. He was assassinated, along with his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu by Nguyễn Văn Nhung, the aide of ARVN General Dương Văn Minh on 2 November 1963, during a coup d'état that deposed his government.

The newsreel starts with a short history of the region, beginning with the French struggle to control its colonies in Indochina - Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos following WWII. Despite financial assistance from the United States, nationalist uprisings against French colonial rule began to take their toll. On May 7, 1954, the French-held garrison at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam fell after a four month siege led by Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh. After the fall of Dien Bien Phu, the French pulled out of the region. Concerned about regional instability, the United States became increasingly committed to countering communist nationalists in Indochina. The United States would not pull out of Vietnam for another twenty years.

The film provides an overview of the historical events surrounding the division of Vietnam in 1954, starting with the fall of Dien Bien Phu and the end of France's colonial empire in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is divided into North and South, with the communist state established in Hanoi. Nearly a million refugees flee from communist rule in the North, while South Vietnam, supported by technical assistance from America, develops its economy and infrastructure. Saigon emerges as a bustling port city, and education becomes a cornerstone of freedom in the South. President Ngo Dinh Diem leads with staunch anti-communist policies, facing the challenge of defending against communist infiltration and sabotage. The United States sends significant technical and military assistance, with U.S. troops training Vietnamese forces to combat the Vietcong guerillas. The war returns to South Vietnam, and the people continue to fight for their freedom.

0:06 - Introduction to the Screen News Digest presented to Maryland students as a public service.

0:44 - Dien Bien Phu, French Indochina in 1954, surrounded by communist guerillas.

1:02 - End of eight years of bloody fighting in Vietnam, with France's colonial empire in Southeast Asia doomed.

1:23 - Vietnam is divided in two at Geneva, with the French handing over the northern part to the communists.

1:38 - Hanoi becomes the capital of the new communist state.

2:00 - Almost 1 million refugees flee from communist rule in North Vietnam.

2:14 - In South Vietnam, farmlands are redistributed, leading to increased rice harvests starting in 1954.

2:48 - With technical assistance from America, South Vietnam develops its natural resources, including coal mining.

3:08 - South Vietnam's economy grows with record-high currency reserves.

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