Foreign media spotlights Dien Bien Phu Victory

On May 7, Reuters rab an article titled: “Viet Nam marks 70th anniversary of the 'historic' Dien Bien Phu victory”.

War veterans, party leaders and diplomats gathered in Viet Nam's Dien Bien Phu province on Tuesday for an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the country's victory over French colonial forces.

Undeterred by unrelenting rain, tens of thousands of people crowded Dien Bien Phu's main stadium to watch military parades and variety shows, and listen to rousing speeches, which were broadcast on national television.

The news agency assessed that the historic Dien Bien Phu battle is considered one of the great battles of the 20th century. The French defeat led to the signing of the Geneva Accords on July 21, 1954.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh was quoted as saying at the opening ceremony that “We aim to achieve another Dien Bien Phu victory but in terms of economy expansion."

"A lesson from the Dien Bien Phu campaign is that Viet Nam must clearly identify its national interests and pursue these interests strategically," Carl Thayer, a senior expert on Viet Nam security said. "Viet Nam has codified this approach in the expression 'bamboo diplomacy' – to be firm and unyielding on basic principles but flexible in the ways and means to achieve its strategic objectives," he added.

French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu attended Tuesday's ceremony in Dien Bien Phu.

On this occasion, newspapers and state media outlets of Laos and Spain also dedicated significant coverage to the historic event.

The May 7 Editorial of Pasaxon, the official newspaper of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, positioned the Dien Bien Phu Victory as the "pinnacle" of Viet Nam's fight for national liberation, a decisive blow against old-style colonialism and the intervention of new-style imperialists, etching a permanent mark on Vietnamese and global history in the 20th century.

The Lao News Agency's Pathet Lao newspaper echoed this sentiment with a front-page article the same day. Declaring May 7 a "historic day for the people of the three Indochinese countries”, the article underlined the invaluable lessons the Dien Bien Phu Victory imparted on the national liberation movements in the region, including the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR).

Another Pathet Lao article, published a day earlier, delved into the enduring lessons of the longstanding friendship and solidarity between Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia, especially the combat alliance forged between Viet Nam and Laos, from the Dien Bien Phu campaign to the present day.

Unidad y Luch, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE), published an article praising the Vietnamese army and people's Dien Bien Phu Victory which "resounded across the five continents and shook the globe", referring to it as Viet Nam's World War II battle of Stalingrad.

The article said in the chronicles of revolutionary victories that can be classified as global heritage, Dien Bien Phu was one of the decisive battles that changed the course of the struggle for colonial peoples in Indochina seeking liberation from the French rule./.