<P> 22 April French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault told Dulles that only massive U.S. air strikes could save Điện Biên Phủ and withdrew French objections to a multinational effort . Winston Churchill in Great Britain, however, said he' was not prepared to give any undertakings about United Kingdom military action in Indochina in advance of the results of Geneva ." </P> <P> 26 April The Geneva Conference (1954) on Korea and Vietnam began . </P> <P> 6 May Two American pilots, James B. McGovern, Jr. and Wallace Buford, were killed when their cargo plane, attempting to airdrop supplies into Dien Bien Phu, was shot down . They were employed by Civil Air Transport, a CIA owned company . 37 American pilots participated in the effort to keep Dien Bien Phu supplied from the air . </P> <P> 7 May French forces at Dien Bien Phu surrendered to the Viet Minh . 11,721 soldiers of the French army surrendered, many of them wounded . Most of the soldiers were from the French Foreign Legion or French colonial possessions in Africa and Indochina . 4,148 prisoners were repatriated later in 1954 . Most of the others are presumed to have died in captivity although the fate of 3,013 Vietnamese serving in the French army and captured at Dien Bien Phu is unknown . </P>

What events turned vietnam into a war zone after 1954