Veterans, tourists, comment on anniversary

1. Dien Bien Phu valley shrouded in mist 2. Wide top shot of Dien Bien Phu town 3. Locals on street with banners commemorating 50th anniversary of battle of Dien Bien Phu 4. Ethnic Thai women wheeling bicycles with children past commemorative banner 5. Street with banners 6. Commemorative T-shirt being held by vendor 7. Tourists visiting A1 Hill (known as 'Helene' by French), site of battle 8. Vietnamese in front of commemorative monument at A1 Hill 9. Tourists, including veteran Vuquy Hoanh, climbing up hill 10. SOUNDBITE: (Vietnamese) Vuquy Hoanh, Dien Bien Phu veteran "Today is the day of the historical victory of the Vietnamese nation and military, to which I contributed my part. I am 80 years-old now and still try to come back to visit my former battlefield." 11. Stone monument with relief depicting French commander Colonel Christian de Castries' bunker - pans to real-life bunker being visited by tourists 12. Vietnamese veterans 13. Set-up shot of Nguyen Tuong Muu, Dien Bien Phu veteran 14. SOUNDBITE: (Vietnamese) Nguyen Tuong Muu, Dien Bien Phu veteran "When I come back home I can tell my offspring about how hard I tried to fight to achieve this glorious victory." 15. Various of monument to French soldiers killed at Dien Bien Phu 16. Close-up of inscription on monument - tilts down to incense at base 17.SOUNDBITE: (French) Jean Daniel Guerregenton, 58 year-old, French tourist "I recall, 50 years on, that the day of eighth birthday was the day of the defeat at Dien Bien Phu - so I had a very, very, very unhappy birthday." 18. Wide top shot of Vietnamese military cemetery 19. Pan across graves 20. Set-up shot of Michele Marszalek 21. SOUNDBITE: (French) former pilot and Dien Bien Phu French veteran "The government decides to go to war, and the soldiers obey. Then wars finish and there is a winner and a loser and then we shake our hands and after, perhaps, we start again." 17. French tourists with Vietnamese veteran standing in front of tank to pose for photograph STORYLINE: The mist-shrouded mountains surrounding the tiny Vietnamese border town of Dien Bien Phu served as the backdrop for a siege 50 years ago that that is still being studied by military historians. Today, tourists and veterans alike have returned to the site of the battle which ended the French colonial war in Indochina on May 7, 1954. The town of Dien Bien Phu, now home to 70-thousand people, sprawls out below the hills, a patchwork of colourful blocks surrounded by emerald rice paddies. The main boulevard is named 7th of May. Over the decades, the bomb craters and trenches have been filled in and flattened into farmland. On Friday, veterans returned to the site where the 56-day siege of the French troops by the Vietnamese ended. They climbed up A1 Hill (known as 'Helene' by the French) - the last hill captured by the Vietnamese during the fighting. Trenches and barbed wire have been left here for tourists. Clad in their original uniforms, former Vietnamese soldiers laughed and cried during their reunions. Thin, small men with feathery whiskers dangling from their chins, some walked with limps or missing limbs. Their bodies may be weak their spirit remains strong. Visitors - including many French - swarmed to the bunker where Colonel Christian de Castries, the French commander, surrendered. The Vietnamese flag was raised above this site, ending the colonial war and setting the stage for a conflict with the Americans. The human price was terrible: the French suffered more than two-thousand deaths in battle and countless others died during a forced prison march. The Vietnamese suffered at least three times as many deaths during the fighting, plus tens of thousands wounded. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/44c9e00ab740a534a0c46e6c98bc0872 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork