The Road to Dien Bien Phu: A History of the First War for Vietnam by Christopher Goscha. Christopher teaches History at the Université du Québec à Montréal. This is perhaps one of the new, most important books regarding France’s failure across Indochina.
In short, Christopher has written an amazing book addressing how the communist Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh established a long term strategy to defeat France. Ultimately, this reveals how America began our generational nightmare in southeast Asia. This is perhaps one of the most misunderstood battles that impacted America.
Christopher certainly is delivering new insights regarding the discovery of documents now available to western scholars. Yet, there must also be an accepted acknowledgement the folklore of Ho Chi Minh, easily nurtured by the victors, actually permits a more even and understood review of how France would collapse at the siege.
Perhaps these details reveal how the French surrender at Dien Bien Phu was a decade in the making. And for more than a generation, Americans and even French citizens would be amazed at the resilience of the Viet Minh. This was no rag-tag group of guerrillas in black pajamas. This was an effort led by Ho but driven by several key leaders with the assistance of China and the Soviet Union in that order.
