No Dien Bien Phu

WI French don't establish base at DBP? Say Na San baser is overrun thus air-land base is not seen as viable concept, DBP site is seen as unfavourable to offensive opeerations, whatever. End result, Viet Minh doesn't get their battle field victory, French dont get their defeat.

IMO, VM increases attacks in the Delta, draining french manpower, resulting in eventual though delayed exit. How does this affect US policy toward SE Asia? If french piss more money away in Vietnam how is their economy affected? If nuke program is delayed does France become NPT-recognised nuclear power?
 
No effect whatsoever. The French cause in Vietnam was already lost by the time Dien Bien Phu took place. Furthermore, DBP was itself of no great importance in the scheme of things, the critical defeat in Indochina was the destruction of Groupe Mobile 100. That showed that no French unit, no matter how large, powerful or well-trained could operate outside the few remaining French fortresses without inviting destruction.

Dien Bien Phu was a public relations defeat more than anything else, it was newspaper headlines but little else. The war was already lost.
 
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