In 1954 some 10, 000 French troops surrendered at Dien Bien Phu to a Vietminh army under General Vo Nguyen Giap.

ECONOMIST: Nguyen Co Thach

Mr Thach, a lieutenant-colonel in the Vietminh army, was Giap's aide.

ECONOMIST: Nguyen Co Thach

He retells the terrible siege of Dien Bien Phu earlier that spring, when the North Vietnamese commander, Vo Ngu-yen Giap, made thousands of porters drag artillery into the hills surrounding a French base, from where they pounded the foreign army.

ECONOMIST: The first Vietnam war