French specialists help modernize Dien Bien Phu Victory Museum

THE HANOI TIMES — A group of experts from France’s Caen Memorial Museum have pledged to provide Vietnam with technical and professional assistance in museology.

The commitment was made during the delegation’s field trip at the Dien Bien Phu Victory Museum, which ran from September 7 to September 11 in the northern province of Dien Bien.

The French specialists also promised to help the Vietnamese museum improve artifact preservation and exhibition design, and provide materials and readings on the impact of the Dien Bien Phu campaign for further studies.

They also committed to helping the Dien Bien Phu–based museum renew exhibition design, improve the quality of public engagement and enhance the preservation and transmission of history to future generations.

The visit of the French experts marked the first concrete steps in implementing the two museums’ Memorandum of Understanding signed in May 2025. It outlines cooperation in several key areas, including museology, exhibition design, conservation, archiving and communication.

In return, a Vietnamese delegation from the Dien Bien Phu Victory Museum will visit Caen next year for further professional exchanges and training.

Kléber Arhoul, Director General of the Caen Memorial Museum, emphasized the shared mission of both institutions on studying the war history to appreciate the value of peace and reinforcing the cultural bonds between the two countries.

Clément Fabre, special adviser to the Director General of the Caen Memorial Museum, said that the Battle of Dien Bien Phu is the decisive turning point for Vietnam and France as it reshaped the modern world and was key to the global process of decolonization.

Tran Hai Ha, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Dien Bien Province, hoped that the partnership will grow as a center for historical education and cultural learning.

He expected that the Dien Bien Phu Victory will remain a historic attraction for both domestic and international visitors.

The Dien Bien Phu Victory Museum, inaugurated in 2014 to mark the 60th anniversary of the victory of the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The museum attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from Vietnam and abroad each year.

Its unique architecture, inspired by the bamboo helmets once worn by Vietnamese soldiers, houses a collection of over 7,000 documents and artifacts from the 56-day campaign that ended on May 7, 1954.

The decisive triumph led to the Geneva Accords restoring peace in Indochina and became a victory that, in the words of history, “resounded across the five continents and shook the globe.”

Since the inauguration of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi in 1997, France has supported the development of more than a dozen museums across the country through the Cultural and Natural Heritage Program, which concluded in 2023.