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

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…

- Kind: Newsreel
- Genres: War, News, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/26752TinderboxInAsia)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/26752TinderboxInAsia?play=1)