The 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between French troops and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries. The battle significantly influenced negotiations over the future of Indochina. Military historian Martin Windrow wrote that Dien Bien Phu was:
“the first time that a non-European colonial independence movement had evolved through all the stages from guerrilla bands to a conventionally organized and equipped army able to defeat a modern Western occupier in pitched battle.”