'So much sweat and blood': Vietnamese veterans recall historic battle victory at Dien Bien Phu

HANOI (AFP): Ninety-six-year-old Hoang Vinh proudly shows off a metal badge picturing a communist soldier holding a rifle, a reminder of the battle he fought in Vietnam's Dien Bien Phu to push out French colonisers.

Vinh is one of the few surviving veterans of the battle in Vietnam's northwestern hills, which unfolded over eight weeks in 1954 and ended in a decisive victory for the Viet Minh that ultimately brought an end to the French empire in Indochina.