{"id":72707,"date":"2024-06-14T06:14:23","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T06:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/14\/genevieve-de-galard-french-angel-of-dien-bien-phu-dies-at-99\/"},"modified":"2024-06-14T06:14:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T06:14:23","slug":"genevieve-de-galard-french-angel-of-dien-bien-phu-dies-at-99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/14\/genevieve-de-galard-french-angel-of-dien-bien-phu-dies-at-99\/","title":{"rendered":"Genevi\u00e8ve de Galard, French \u2018Angel\u2019 of Dien Bien Phu, Dies at 99"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Genevi\u00e8ve<\/div>


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For almost two months, in the hell of the besieged French military base at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam, Genevi\u00e8ve de Galard, a military nurse, tended to the wounded in a dark, filthy underground infirmary \u2014 men with holes in their backs, abdomens shot out, shrapnel wounds everywhere.<\/p>\n

When the fight was over, on May 7, 1954, after more than 10,000 soldiers had been taken prisoner by the communist Viet Minh insurgents in one of the greatest military disasters in French history, Ms. de Galard continued to change the bandages of the wounded, refusing to leave their side. By then the legend of the \u201cAngel of Dien Bien Phu,\u201d as the American press later baptized her, had been born.<\/p>\n

Ms. de Galard died on May 30 in Paris at 99. Her death was confirmed<\/a> by the French Defense Ministry. No other details were given.<\/p>\n

The battle of Dien Bien Phu ended nearly seven decades of French colonial rule, and for 70 years afterward, Ms. de Galard, a modest aristocrat, asserted, whenever asked \u2014 and the questions became less and less frequent as France sought to put that inglorious episode behind it \u2014 that she had simply \u201cdone my duty.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n