Operation Vulture
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Operation Vulture (Opération Vautour in French) was the name of the proposed American operation that would rescue French forces at battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 via B-29 raids based in the Philippines. The French garrison had been surrounded by the communist Viet Minh during the First Indochina War. Vulture was the sequel of the failed Operation Condor.
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[edit] French-American meeting
Discussions involved French Minister of Foreign Affairs Georges Bidault, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and the U.S. Chief of Staff.[1]
[edit] Atomic bomb option
A revised version of the operation replaced the B-29 by the use of the atomic bomb, it was planned on March 23rd 1954 by French Chief of Staff General Ely and U.S. Navy Admiral Radford (JCS) in Washington. They tried to convince U.S. President Eisenhower to agree on revised Vulture.[2] U.S. carriers sailed to the Tonkin gulf, and reconnaissance flights over Dien Bien Phu were conducted during official negotiations.
However, Eisenhower argued that he would only accept if British Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed with the operation.[3]
[edit] Operation cancelled
Churchill refused, arguing that such an operation would ruin the upcoming Geneva Conference. As a result Vulture was cancelled. The B-29 and atomic bomb plans were rejected and the French garrison was overrun shortly afterwards.[4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Peter Hercombe, Dien Bien Phu, Chronicles of a Forgotten Battle, Transparences Productions, 2004 Documentary broadcasted on public channel France 2
- ^ Dien Bien Phu by Rebecca Grant in Air Force Magazine, August 2004, Vol. 87, No. 8
- ^ Peter Hercombe, Dien Bien Phu, Chronicles of a Forgotten Battle, Transparences Productions, 2004 Documentary broadcasted on public channel France 2
- ^ Peter Hercombe, Dien Bien Phu, Chronicles of a Forgotten Battle, Transparences Productions, 2004 Documentary broadcasted on public channel France 2
[edit] Bibliography
- The sky would fall: Operation Vulture - the U.S. bombing mission in Indochina, 1954, John Prados, Dial Press, 1983
- Operation Vulture - The True Story of America's Secret Plan to Drop a Nuclear Bomb on Vietnam in the 1950s!, John Prados, I Books, June 29, 2004
- The First Vietnam War: Colonial Conflict and Cold War Crisis, Mark Atwood Lawrence and Fredrik Logevall, Harvard University Press, February 27, 2007
[edit] See also
- Battle of Dien Bien Phu
- Operation Castor
- First Indochina War
- Operation Condor (1954)
- Civil Air Transport
- Franco-American relations
- Suez Crisis
- 2003 invasion of Iraq
