GENERAL GIAP'S COMMAND POST

During the battle, General Giap's command post was located in the jungles of Muong Phang commune, 35km to the northeast and at an altitude of 1,000m. General Vo Nguyen Giap was commander-in-chief of the Vietnamese People's Army during the Indochina War. The paramount mission assigned to this command post by the Vietnamese Central Party and President Hô Chi Minh was the liberation of Dien Bien Phu, a mission successfully accomplished. Located at the top of Pho Ca hill, the site enabled the general to observe movements on the Muong Thanh plain. The complex has been more or less preserved and is now a place of remembrance and an open-air museum, where the straw huts that housed the general and his staff for 105 days (from January 31 to May 15, 1954) have been reconstructed. You can also visit an underground shelter dug beneath the mountain, a long trench and various camps. The scenery is magnificent, and the historic nature of the area has allowed the forest to be preserved. An excursion to Muong Phang is highly recommended. On the one hand, it provides a better understanding of the battle in a site that, unlike the plain, has undergone almost no transformation and remains impregnated with the spirit of the times; on the other, it offers the opportunity for a beautiful stroll through verdant valleys dotted with villages of the Tay minority. The Pa Khoang lake also contributes to the beauty of the area.