On this day in 1954,

Viet Minh Rout French At Dien Bien Phu - Eisenhower Rejects French Plea For Help

Viet Minh Plant Their Flag At French Headquarters

On this day in 1954, the Viet Minh surrounded 15,000 French troops at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. The French asked Republican President Dwight Eisenhower for military help. Eisenhower, who knew a thing or two about when and how to fight a war, declined. All but 73 of the French troops were killed or captured by the Viet Minh. The massacre at Dien Bien Phu effectively marked the end of French involvement in Vietnam. 

10 years later, Democrat President Lyndon Johnson would ignore the advice of his generals and mislead the American people during the presidential campaign regarding the scope of American involvement in Vietnam and what lay ahead. By the time the Vietnam War was over, 58,000 American boys, most of whom had been drafted and forced to go to Vietnam to fight, had been killed.

[Partial source: Lt. General H.R. McMaster (President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor), Dereliction of Duty (1997).]