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The myth of French cowardice in battle is completely false. The French are very brave and love their homeland. The more accurate version is that French politics has been an unrelenting series of disasters for the past 1000 years, while their military leadership swings between talented tyrants and absolutely laughable incompetence. The French stalemate inWW1 was the result of atrocious French leadership, while the French defeat in WW2 was the result of even worse French leadership. Dien Bien Phu wasn't the result of cowardice, but of 1) a terrible idea (the remoted bases) compounded by 2) the NVA feat of moving heavy artillery by hand through hilly jungle into unassailable firing positions.

It is likely France has not had a single officer worthy of the title of General since the Napoleonic Wars. De Gaulle was a particularly sorry example, and his only real accomplishment was that he used his vastly superior tanks to at least try to fight Rommel (though he still got dog-stomped). He then proceeded to drag the US into French post-WW2 colonial ambitions by threatening to join the Soviets if we pressed him to stop enslaving Viet Nam. And that's their BEST commander since Napoleon....you get the picture from the fact that the list deteriorates rapidly from there.