Dien-Bien-Phu

The Invisible Army ← Series Home Key Takeaways Simplicity beats complexity: Giap's logistics used bicycles, porters, and jungle trails—invisible to French reconnaissance, immune to air attack, adaptable to any terrain. Mass compensates for capacity: Each porter carried 50 pounds; each bicycle carried 400 pounds. But 100,000 porters and 20,000 bicycles moved more than the French thought possible. Disperse to survive: No convoys, no depots, no targets. The supply chain was invisible because it was everywhere and nowhere. Time is a resource: Giap took months to position forces the French expected in weeks. The patience to build logistics slowly enabled decisive operations. The Impossible Siege In November 1953, French paratroopers seized Dien Bien Phu—a remote valley in northwest Vietnam, 200 miles from Hanoi and 10 miles from the Laotian border. ...

The Kinetic Chain 1 Part 1: Alexander's Invisible Army 2 Part 2: Napoleon's Fatal Calculation 3 Part 3: The Railroad Revolution 4 Part 4: The Crimean Catastrophe 5 Part 5: Barbarossa and the Battle of the Gauges 6 Part 6: The Battle of the Bulge and the Tyranny of Fuel 7 Part 7: Wholesale Distribution and the American Way of 8 Part 8: The Pacific Logistics Challenge 9 Part 9: Victory Through Logistics 10 Part 10: Vietnam and the Tyranny of Terrain 11 Part 11: Giap's Bicycle Brigades 12 Part 12: The Ho Chi Minh Trail 13 Part 13: American Largesse in Vietnam 14 Part 14: The M16 Debacle and Logistics Failure 15 Part 15: The Falklands Logistics Miracle 16 Part 16: Desert Storm and the Logistics Miracle 17 Part 17: The Future of Contested Logistics ← Series Home Key Takeaways Simplicity beats complexity: Giap's logistics used bicycles, porters, and jungle trails—invisible to French reconnaissance, immune to air attack, adaptable to any terrain. Mass compensates for capacity: Each porter carried 50 pounds; each bicycle carried 400 pounds. But 100,000 porters and 20,000 bicycles moved more than the French thought possible. Disperse to survive: No convoys, no depots, no targets. The supply chain was invisible because it was everywhere and nowhere. Time is a resource: Giap took months to position forces the French expected in weeks. The patience to build logistics slowly enabled decisive operations. The Impossible Siege In November 1953, French paratroopers seized Dien Bien Phu—a remote valley in northwest Vietnam, 200 miles from Hanoi and 10 miles from the Laotian border. ...