An article, released ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory, says the 1954 campaign etched General Vo Nguyen Giap's name into the annals of military history.

Not only did the victory mark the end of a nine-year anti-colonial resistance war, it also laid a foundation for Vietnam's full independence.

The triumph at Dien Bien Phu showed colonial powers that a determined force, though modestly equipped, could prevail against adversaries wielding advanced weaponry.