The dogs of war
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Today marks the anniversary of the French military defeat at Dien Bien Phu. On May 7, 1954, the French-held garrison at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam fell after a four-month siege led by Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh and his top military leader, General Giap.
The Viet Minh victory signaled the end of French colonial influence in Indochina and cleared the way for the division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel at the conference of Geneva. Although the defeat brought an end to French colonial efforts in Vietnam, the United States soon stepped up to fill the vacuum, increasing military aid to South Vietnam and sending the first U.S. military advisers to the country in 1959. The full-scale US invasion that followed would meet the same fate as the French in 1975.
The proxy war in Ukraine grinds on.
Boston Globe reports that Biden is sending more arms shipments to Ukraine worth $150 million, according to an administration official, who said it will include 25,000 artillery rounds, counter-artillery radars, jamming equipment, and other field equipment.
No winners
After weeks of intense fighting, neither side has been able to achieve a major breakthrough, with one army taking a few villages one day, only to lose just as many in the following days. In its latest effort to reclaim territory, the Ukrainian military said that “fierce battles” were being waged as it fought to retake Russia-controlled areas around Kharkiv in the northeast and Izyum in the east.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a statement Friday supporting efforts by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to broker a diplomatic resolution to the war.
But Ukrainian Pres. Zelensky insisted Friday that peace talks cannot resume until Russian forces pull back to where they were before the invasion. Still, he did not foreclose the possibility of a negotiated settlement.