On March 13, 1954, the Battle of Diên Bien Phu in French Indochina began. A defeat which sounded the death knell for the French colonial presence in Asia.
Between March 13 and May 7, 1954,. French soldiers faced an enemy four times their number. 3,300 of them lost their lives; 10,300 were taken prisoner and sent to camps to be "re-educated", 70% of whom never returned. In reality, the Viet Minh armies suffered a real bloodletting (20,000 men killed out of 48,000 mobilized)