The lessons of Little Big Horn and Diên Biên Phu

Rating: 8/10 (2 February 2003)

Lieutenant General Harold G. More thought about General Custer at Little Big Horn and indeed his Sergeant Major (Sam Elliot) answers him: "Sir, Custer was a pussy. You ain't.". Why did he not think about Diên Biên Phu where the French lost 10.000 men and the Vietnamese 25.000 soldiers in 1954, eleven years before? While the Americans at that time had no intention entering Vietnam. There was a Catholic government in South-Vietnam and as long as the military did not intervene in South-Vietnamese affairs, the Americans had no reason to enter the country. The battle-scenes are realistic and are interrupted by showing the families of the military at home who receive the mail of the soldiers or the announcement of their death. It is shown with a sentimental reserve which is a good balance to the horror of this battle. The Americans kept thinking that the Vietnamese would continue their kamikaze-attacks but soon after they changed tactics and tried to hide for the American marines until the American bombers spit them out. It is strange that the Americans started this war after their experiences in Corea and the lessons they could draw from the French. Why do people always start so voluntarily a war?