ABSTRACT
The French see their war in Indochina, in purely military terms, falling into three phases: the 1945–46 attempt to reassert total control; the local colonial war period, 1947 to the end of 1950, in which France seriously underestimated the developing insurgency; and the last period of large-scale conflict including a new international dimension, ending with the catastrophe of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
