Operation Vulture Operation Vulture ( ) was the name of the proposed American operation that would rescue French forces at battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 via B - 29 raids based in the Philippines . The French garrison had been surrounded by the communist Viet Minh during the First Indochina War . Vulture was the sequel of the failed Operation Condor . Background . Viet Minh forces under General Võ Nguyên Giáp surrounded and besieged the French , who were unaware of the Viet Minh ' s possession of heavy artillery , including anti - aircraft guns . The attack that formally began the battle was launched 13 March 1954 . French artillery outposts fell within hours , and a dismal trickle of wounded survivors into Dien Bien Phu ’ s garrison hospital began . The French tried to hit back with artillery and airpower , including some 30 US C - 119 Flying Boxcar s which had modified to drop napalm on the Viet Minh artillery and flown mainly by American employees of Civil Air Transport , the contract airline founded by Maj . Gen . Claire Lee Chennault , the head of the World War II Flying Tigers . Dien Bien Phu could be supplied only via airdrop , and dropping and retrieving supplies became a nightmare as Viet Minh artillery shrank the effective size of the drop zone . On 27 March , French Col . Jean Louis Nicot , the man in charge of the aerial resupply effort , had to raise the drop altitude from 2 , 000 feet to 8 , 000 feet . Drop zone accuracy declined , and some supplies inevitably fell into Viet Minh hands . The French , with the encouragement of some US officials based in Saigon , pressed hard for the US to launch an overwhelming air strike to save Dien Bien Phu . French - American meeting . Just ten days after the start of Giap ’ s initial assault , General Paul Ely , the French Chief of Staff , arrived in Washington to plead the French case to US policy - makers . Discussions involved General Ely , U . S . Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Admiral Arthur W . Radford , Chairman of the U . S . Joint Chiefs of Staff . The plan . One version of the plan envisioned sending 60 B - 29s from US bases in the region , supported by as many as 150 fighters launched from US Seventh Fleet carriers , to bomb Giap ’ s positions . The plan included an option to use up to three atomic weapons on the Viet Minh positions . Radford , the top American military officer , gave this nuclear option his backing . US B - 29s , B - 36s , and B - 47s could have executed a nuclear strike , as could carrier aircraft from the Seventh Fleet . U . S . carriers sailed to the Tonkin gulf , and reconnaissance flights over Dien Bien Phu were conducted during the negotiations . According to Richard Nixon the plan involved the Joint Chiefs of Staff drawing up plans to use 3 small tactical nuclear weapons in support of the French . Decision against the operation . Nixon , a so - called " hawk " on Vietnam , suggested that the U . S . might have to " put American boys in " . President Eisenhower made American participation contingent on British support , but London was opposed . In the end , convinced that the political risks outweighed the possible benefits , Eisenhower decided against the intervention .