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INDOCHINA

A French Red Cross helicopter clattered out of a slate-grey sky, and put down at Dienbienphu. Two khaki-clad officers and an angular French civilian stepped gingerly down to the muddy, shell-torn airstrip, and a Communist liaison officer came forward to greet them. "You are one hour ahead of schedule, messieurs," said the Communist. "You should know that our Democratic Republic's time is one hour behind your own. Now, if you will please follow me." The French had come back to Dienbienphu to settle terms for evacuating their 1,500 wounded, as vouchsafed by the Communists at Geneva.

The little party moved off beneath a new Communist victory arch to three conference tents at the end of the runway. The Communists offered the Frenchmen tea with sugar, and Lucky Strikes. "They were very polite," said the helicopter pilot. "All they wanted was to be treated as soldiers according to their rank. But we didn't think very much about anything. The whole place was as silent as a graveyard, and when the wind kicked up, we could smell the death around us."

Decision in a Tent. The conference began. The French civilian, Dean Pierre Huard of Hanoi University's Medical School, first asked the Communists how many wounded prisoners they would release. "Four hundred and fifty to start with," replied a Communist doctor. "And 250 of these are serious cases." Asked Dr. Huard: "What about the Vietnamese soldiers you captured?" Replied a Communist colonel: "We want them to have a correct appreciation of the realities."

What were the Red conditions for the release? Said the colonel: "We want you to cease all air attacks within a radius of six miles of the Dienbienphu valley, and also along 70 miles of Route Coloniale 41 between Dienbienphu and Sonla. We use this road to evacuate our wounded and your own healthy prisoners of war."

It so happened that Route Coloniale 41 was Red General Giap's direct line of advance against Hanoi and the Red River Delta, but Huard apparently accepted the Red terms without question. That night the French army radio put out this note of appreciation: "The delegates of the French high command thank the delegates of the Viet people's army for their humanitarian concern." And the Communists seemed just as friendly next day when they helped load the first eleven wounded into a couple of French helicopters: "We hope you will remember what we have done for you. We hope this war will end very soon. Now au revoir." But the eleven wounded men of Dienbienphu"were rath er hostile" to the Communist speechmakers, said one who was there, and the helicopters quickly took off.

Story from the Hospital. About 15 hours later, the wounded were resting in Hanoi's military hospital, and three men were well enough to tell Dienbienphu's last story."It seemed as though thousands of shells were striking our hospital bunker," said Private Michel Champougny."One shell exploded right inside another bunker, and the wounded were buried alive. Outside we could hear the screaming of the Viet Minh and the answering shouts of the French. Everyone was fighting, hand to hand. But around 6 p.m. there was silence, and we knew the battle was over. "At 7 p.m. some Viet Minh soldiers, their helmets camouflaged with leaves, came into our bunker. 'We are fighting for our country,' a Viet Minh officer told us, 'and there are things worse than that.' Some of the Viets were laughing, but there was no attempt to mistreat us. The Viets said in French for our doctors, orderlies and walking wounded to form column, and they led them away. They later took away our nurse, Miss de Galard.* She looked as unafraid as ever. I also saw the Viets taking General de Castries. He was wearing his mudstained battledress and his red overseas cap. He looked detached and impassive. He climbed into a jeep between two heavily armed Viet soldiers, and was driven away.

"Then for three days, we lay where we were. Nobody bothered with us. One by one the badly wounded died. We had nothing to eat. The strongest ones dragged themselves over to a nearby dugout and found a few cans of French rations. Finally ten Viet Minh doctors and orderlies appeared. They made tents out of parachutes and put us inside them. They had nothing--no medicine, no disinfectants. The surgeons performed operations without anesthetics. We heard our comrades screaming. Then to our astonishment the French doctors and orderlies were brought back. Miss de Galard came back too. One day the Communists told me I was going to be released. They never told me why."

The second group, the walking wounded, were quartered in some camouflaged straw huts in the jungle. In this camp, the Communists divided the Foreign Legionnaires into nationality groups and distributed Communist literature. "Every day there were three hours of political indoctrination," said German Legionnaire Nicholas Neller. "They kept talking about American capitalism and English capitalism, but I was not interested."

Discovery at GHQ. At week's end a second French delegation flew to Dienbienphu. But around this time, it finally dawned upon the French commanders that they had been outwitted: the Communists were releasing no more than a pathetic handful of wounded per day, while their advance guards were driving down roads the French had agreed not to bomb (see below}. The French were risking defeat in the next battle to save a few gallant survivors of the last. So GHQ decided, "for technical reasons," to cancel the entire evacuation agreement, and to start bombing Route Coloniale 41. But GHQ assured the Communists that they were still ready to negotiate a fair agreement to save the wounded.

* Lieut. Genevieve de Galard Terraube, the only woman nurse at Dienbienphu. She has been awarded the Legion of Honor.

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