 Westmoreland — and the American media , which covered the action extensively — often made inevitable comparisons between the actions at Khe Sanh and the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ , where a French base had been besieged and ultimately overrun by Viet Minh forces under the command of General Giáp during the First Indochina War . Westmoreland , who knew of Nguyen Chi Thanh 's penchant for large @-@ scale operations — but not of his death — believed that this was going to be an attempt to replicate that victory . He intended to stage his own " Dien Bien Phu in reverse . " 
