DeForest Reports on the Fall of Dien Bien Phu

Q&A DeForest & Wetterhahn / Fall of Dien Bien Phu / Negotiations are ongoing between American and Afghan officials about the U-S role in Afghanistan following the pullout of NATO combat troops in 2014. Retired U-S Air Force Colonel Ralph Wetterhahn, an expert on the Vietnam War, says officials could gain some insights into possible success or failure in that region by looking at the French defeat in the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. In that battle, the French colonial power was forced to relinquish its territory in South East Asia. That defeat set off a chain of events that eventually led the United States to go to war against Communist North Vietnam. VOA's Dave DeForest recently spoke to Col. Wetterhahn about the importance of the battle of Dien Bien Phu.