60th anniversary of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu

A memorial in a rice paddy remembers the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in this Thai minority village a few kilometres outside of the town. It's 60 years today since Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh forces, led by celebrated, recently deceased general, Vo Nguyen Giap, crushed the French in one of the twentieth century's most important battles. The battle marked the end of French colonialism in Indochina. The remotenss of the battle location, on Vietnam's far nothern border with Laos, is striking. It's a stunningly picturesque region now.