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Moscow proposed to the United States, Britain, and France the convocation of
a “Five Power” conference to discuss the possibility of reducing international
tensions. The “Big Five” was a formulation that included the PRC. Several
days after Moscow’s proposal, Beijing endorsed it. This was the beginning
of a Sino-Soviet peace campaign that would lead to the Geneva conference
in 1954.
The Geneva Conference on Indochina
PRC strategy at the Geneva Conference (April 20–July 20, 1954) was “fighting
while talking” (tan, tan, da, da). Powerful military moves on Indochinese
battlefields were coordinated with a diplomatic push for agreements with
the Western powers to “reduce international tension.” By the end of 1952,
the Viet Minh campaign in northwest Tonkin had been successful.^9 Large
portions of that region had been brought under Viet Minh control, opening
the way for further expansion into Laos.^10 The French command responded
by deciding to occupy and fortify Dienbienphu on Tonkin’s westernmost
border with Laos in order to block a Viet Minh linkup with communist-led
forces in Laos. During the summer of 1953, just as Moscow and Beijing were
planning their international peace campaign, the Chinese Military Advisory
Group (CMAG) to the Viet Minh recommended that Vietnam’s northwest
continue to be the main theater of operation. The VWP Politburo endorsed
the CMAG plan in October 1953. When French intelligence noted increased
communist activity in the northwest, the French command responded by
deploying large forces to Dienbienphu and strongly fortifying that position.
China’s top military advisor in Vietnam, General Wei Guoqing, learned of
the French move and proposed that Dienbienphu be made the focus of at-
tack; the French bastion would be surrounded and annihilated. The VWP
leadership, then Mao and the CCP PBSC, approved Wei’s proposal.^11 In ef-
fect, a great military victory would lay the foundation for the peace cam-
paign at Geneva.
China provided large-scale, and probably decisive, assistance to the Viet
Minh assault on Dienbienphu. Four battalions of Viet Minh anti-aircraft
troops just completing training in the PRC were dispatched to the combat
theater. Resupply of the Dienbienphu bastion by air, and air attacks on attack-
ing Viet Minh forces, were crucial to the French plan, so the Viet Minh’s
PLA-trained anti-aircraft capabilities would play a major role in the upcoming
battle. Chinese advisors also instructed Viet Minh troops in sniper tactics re-
cently learned in Korea. PLA engineer advisors assisted the Viet Minh with
construction of trenches that enabled assault forces to close on French posi-
tions before a final exposed assault. Large quantities of ammunition were for-
warded by China. As the battle intensified, Mao ordered CMC vice chair Peng