La Conquête (1953-1955) (E04)

March 1953. Stalin is dead. Following many long hours of agony in his dacha, the Little Father of Peoples is now no more than an embalmed corpse. His potential successors eagerly flock to pay their respects. In East Berlin, a wave of hope comes over the German workers who rise up against the party. This hope is swiftly crushed by Soviet tanks? In Asia, the heated conflicts are coming to an end. After the Panmunjom truce, the US leaves Korea without glory. The few remaining troops impatiently await a visit from Marilyn Monroe. In the meantime, in Indochina, another army prepares a far less exciting event. The French hope to stop the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu, a village surrounded by mountains, 185 miles from Hanoi? But the French generals don't suspect that at that very moment, the Vietminh's General Giap and his Chinese advisors are putting together a battle plan that is based on a trap: let the French forces to settle in the Dien Bien Phu valley, surround them, and destroy them. The French army soon leaves the country, seriously wounded and humiliated. Ho Chi Minh is only partially victorious. During negotiations in Geneva, his Chinese and Soviet comrades don't live up to his expectations, for fear of causing the conflict to escalate. Ho Chi Minh gets North Vietnam, but the South remains in the hands of the West. What will Ho Chi Minh do? (National Geographic)