The French war memorial at Dien Bien Phu was created in 1994 upon the initiative of a former member of the French Foreign Legion, veteran of the Indochina War, and putschist during the Algerian War, Rolf Rodel. The French minister of Defence and Jacques Chirac supported this initiative and financed its transformation into a war memorial in collaboration with the Association Nationale des Anciens Prisonniers et Internés d’Indochine (ANAPI). In 1997, during Chirac’s participation in the Francophonie Summit held in Hanoi, he visited the Dien Bien Phu war memorial in the company of Rodel. In 1999, the memorial was officially consecrated by the visit of the ANAPI. The Dien Bien Phu site is today an officially recognized French war monument. See also ASSOCIATION OF MOTHERS OF SOLDIERS; EXPERIENCE OF WAR; MYTH OF WAR; ASSOCIATION NATIONALE DES ANCIENS D’INDOCHINE ET DU SOUVENIR INDOCHINOIS; ASSOCIATION NATIONALE DES ANCIENS ET AMIS DE L’INDOCHINE ET DU SOUVENIR INDOCHINOIS; ASSOCIATION NATIONALE DES COMBATTANTS DE DIEN BIEN PHU; ASSOCIATION NATIONALE DES ANCIENS PRISONNIERS ET INTERNÉS D’INDOCHINE.