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NARRATOR: When Dwight D.
Eisenhower became president,

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the French had been fighting
the Viet Minh for six years.

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Like President Truman, President Eisenhower
considered Indochina of vital interest

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to the United States.

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Since 1945, the United States had paid
for 80 percent of the costs of the war,

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and it had sent the French planes, tanks, arms,
even military advisors--and still the French

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were losing the war.

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Then in 1954, in April and May, the Viet Minh
trapped and surrounded a large French force

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at a western outpost: Dien Bien Phu.

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President Eisenhower almost sent American
troops and bombers to rescue the French,

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but he did not.

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The French cause--to win back
Indochina--like Dien Bien Phu, was finished.

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For France, the war was over.

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