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The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam

by Martin Windrow

4.23 · Rating Details · 343 Ratings · 36 Reviews

In December 1953 French paratroopers, who had been searching for the elusive Vietnamese army, were quickly isolated by them and forced to retreat into their out-gunned and desolate jungle base-a small place called Dien Bien Phu. The Vietnamese besieged the French base for five long and desperate months. Eventually, the demoralized and weakened French were utterly depleted ...more

Paperback, 752 pages

Published December 27th 2005 by Da Capo Press (first published April 2004)

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Cambodia and Vietnam

29th out of 135 books — 119 voters

We Were Soldiers Once... and Young by Harold G. Moore

Vietnam War Books

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Dec 30, 2014 happy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history-military

This volume will probably replace Bernard Fall’s classic, Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu, as the definitive look at France’s lost battle and subsequent loss of Indochina. It is that good.

Mr. Windrow takes about 1/3 of the narrative to explain how the French and Viet Minh arrived at that valley in north western Viet Nam. He discusses both French disasters, the battle of RC4 in 1950 where more than 5000 of the 6000 French troops involved were lost and the French successes, This volume will probably replace Bernard Fall’s classic, Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu, as the definitive look at France’s lost battle and subsequent loss of Indochina. It is that good.

Mr. Windrow takes about 1/3 of the narrative to explain how the French and Viet Minh arrived at that valley in north western Viet Nam. He discusses both French disasters, the battle of RC4 in 1950 where more than 5000 of the 6000 French troops involved were lost and the French successes, such as the battle of Na San in 1952, where the concepts that were used at Dien Bien Phu (DBP) were tested and were successful.

In his telling of DBP, the author doesn’t pull any punches. He states that the French High command were not military incompetents as commonly perceived, every subordinate commander had serious reservations about the plan. However, as good soldiers, they saluted and said yes sir when the decision was made. In making that decision the French Commander, Henri Navarre, over road his subordinates and seriously underestimated the Viet Minh’s ability to move supplies and more importantly heavy artillery and AA guns to the isolated area. He also doesn’t spare the Viet Minh commander, Gen Giap, who didn’t modify his tactics leading to the decimation of his infantry and his mishandling of the heavy artillery that was so laboriously brought to the scene.

The author’s telling of the battle itself is masterful. His description of what it is like to be under heavy artillery bombardment is one of the best descriptions of that experience that I have read. In looking at the fighting, he explodes some of the myths that have grown up about the battle. One of them is the involvement of the Foreign Legion. People, if they know anything at all about the battle, think it was fought by the Foreign Legion exclusively. While they were there, less than a third of the troop were European let alone Legionnaires. Most of the troops committed to DBP were colonial troops – esp Moroccans and Algerians along with a significant contingent from the French led Viet Namese Army. Also he states that contrary to legend most of the Foreign Legionnaires were not ex German SS and Wehrmacht soldiers, though there were many Germans in the ranks. WW II had ended too far in the past and most of those types had already left the Legion.

One of the other stories that I found interesting was the use of Viet Minh prisoners of war as labors and stevedores – recovering the supplies that were parachuted in after the air field was closed. There were more than 2000 of them and after the surrender, they refused to turn over the French officers who were in charge of them and were ticketed for death by the Viet Minh.

Another story is the poor showing by the French Air Force. Mr. Window states that the French did not have enough aircraft of all types and probably more importantly, air crew to complete their missions. In talking about the US supplied B-26 bombers, he takes on the training of the crews. In many cases, the air crews were reassigned C-47 crews with only rudimentary training in bombing tactics and procedures.

Finally in telling the story, the political situation is explained. Even before the battle began the French were looking for a way out. Negotiations to accomplish this were announced shortly before the battle began. The French commander in Indo China, Gen Navarre, always maintained that the battle of DBP was lost with the announcement of the negotiations.
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Dec 03, 2014 Manray9 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: france, asia-africa-mideast

Like Martin Windrow my interest in the French debacle at Dien Bien Phu started many years ago with Bernard Fall's classic Hell in a Very Small Place. Now Windrow has surpassed Fall. The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam is an outstanding example of the non-fiction writer's art. I cannot imagine a better book on Dien Bien Phu.

Windrow's work was not a book quickly read. In fact, it was rather slow-going at times, but not because it was dull or poorly-written. Each chapter ...more

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Mar 13, 2016 Liam rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites, owned-books, bought-2015, history, 2016

Unlike the huge majority of the current generation in the West, the men on both sides at Dien Bien Phu did not live at a time or in places where they enjoyed the luxury of disregarding [that war is what human beings do]; and we, who are lifelong civilians, have not earned the right to sit in judgement over them.
-p55

The Last Valley is a fantastic historical work focusing on the Battle of Dien Bien Phu at the end of the Indochina War. It is written by Martin Windrow who, importantly, isn't a histo ...more

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Jul 22, 2012 'Aussie Rick' rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, read-military, vietnam

The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam by Martin Windrow is destined to be the definite account of this tragic battle. I knew as soon as I saw this title in the bookshop that I had to have it and it was one of the best purchases I have made so far this year (2005)!

This is an excellent and detailed account of the fighting in the Valley of Dien Bien Phu between the professional French forces, including Legionnaire and elite Parachute Units, and the Vietnamese Bo Doi (Viet The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam by Martin Windrow is destined to be the definite account of this tragic battle. I knew as soon as I saw this title in the bookshop that I had to have it and it was one of the best purchases I have made so far this year (2005)!

This is an excellent and detailed account of the fighting in the Valley of Dien Bien Phu between the professional French forces, including Legionnaire and elite Parachute Units, and the Vietnamese Bo Doi (Viet Minh) led by General Giap.

The author takes the time to explain the military and political settings of the war in Indo China, offers detailed accounts of the opposing forces and commanders and provides a well researched narrative of the events leading up to this battle. The story of the battle itself for Dien Bien Phu is a classic military narrative that really pulls the reader into the story and gives us a rare insight into the hardships of the French soldier and his enemy.

One quote in the book that was used for a chapter heading by Colonel de Castries says a lot about this battle and the terrible fighting involved; "It's a bit like Verdun, but Verdun without the depth of defence, and, above all, without the Sacred Way". This is an excellent account of a shocking battle and I am sure that anyone who enjoys reading or studying military history will find this book an excellent addition to his or her library.

In over 657 pages of text (HB version), along with 22 maps of varying size and detail the author offers the reader a well researched and well presented account of this famous battle. At no time did I find the story boring or bogged down in detail. The narrative is fast paced, exciting and filled with human tragedy and numerous stories of soldier?s courage in the face of horrendous conditions.

In closing this is what Max Hastings had to say about this book: "This is an outstanding work of military history. It tells the story of the ghastly French experience in Indo-China in a way that has never been done before in English. The account of Dien Bien Phu is a masterpiece of meticulous historical narrative."

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Apr 01, 2010 Matt rated it liked it

"Bonjour, ya cheese-eating surrender monkeys!"
-- Groundskeeper Willy teaching a French class in The Simpsons (episode 6.22)

French-bashing has become something of an American pastime. We have a lot of sport at the expense of our hirsute, haughty, beret-festooned friends across the sea. I think this comes from two places. First is Americans' limited knowledge of World War II. Instead of taking the time to understand the war, and thus expand our onionskin-thin tranche of knowledge, we prefer to boi ...more

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Nov 28, 2013 Raj Agrawal rated it it was amazing

Shelves: saass-books

Windrow provides a formidable account of France’s defeat at Dien Bien Phu, demonstrating France’s strategic lack of resolve, failure to commit to a tangible strategic objective, and a subsequent failure at the operational level. Windrow points out France’s series of blunders in Vietnam that he argues led to the eventual Vietnam War – which may very well have been avoided. However, he cautions that it would be an error to suggest that events may have turned out differently even if history could b Windrow provides a formidable account of France’s defeat at Dien Bien Phu, demonstrating France’s strategic lack of resolve, failure to commit to a tangible strategic objective, and a subsequent failure at the operational level. Windrow points out France’s series of blunders in Vietnam that he argues led to the eventual Vietnam War – which may very well have been avoided. However, he cautions that it would be an error to suggest that events may have turned out differently even if history could be rewritten.

One of Windrow’s arguments is that historians are wrong to paint this part of Vietnam’s history as the first successful movement through Mao’s stages. He believes this is a result of hindsight bias, and that there were other significant factors that undergirded this win for the Viet Minh: their single-mindedness of purpose as a nation, their manipulation of time, and their clear objective – “to kill as many French as possible, to drive the foreigners off their soil acre by acre, and to suborn, terrorize or destroy their Vietnamese ‘puppets’ (127). The French, on the other hand, had a general lack of commitment, underestimated the enemy, and had a strategic objective of creating “an ‘honourable way out’ – to achieve a position of military advantage that would allow France to negotiate a favourable peace” (205).

Airpower perspective: French plan was to airlift to supply Dien Bien Phu while using fighter-bombers to counter Viet Minh artillery and logistics routes. The Viet Minh was able to overwhelm any offensive air attacks with mass, resilience, air defense, and camouflage. The French had to use predictable flight corridors and did not anticipate Viet Minh’s ability to conduct air defense. Supply soon became restricted to air drops, which was not sufficient. The French appealed to the US for strategic bombing support, but Eisenhower would not commit US forces unless joined by other nations. No other nations volunteered their support. In hindsight, the US may have missed an opportunity to significantly attrit the Viet Minh since they were all concentrated around Dien Bien Phu.

While Windrow catalogs many of the significant operational and tactical shifts leading up to France’s defeat, his overarching theme appears to be that France was doomed to fail. This is a book that deserves quite a bit of time to really appreciate, but this is the book to read to really grasp how a great power can contribute to the destruction of a small power, as well as to the destabilization of the international system. Windrow connects the dots on how WWII and the Korean War also shaped the Vietnamese battlefield, and how potential allies can be turned into committed enemies. This is a powerful book, and one that I’ll return to in the future.
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Mar 14, 2013 Martin rated it it was ok

This book isn't for the person with only a casual interest in military history (like me). The last 300 pages tell a great story, but the first 300 pages are so bogged down with the names of various fighting units, obscure junior officers, and overly-detailed description of artillery strategy, etc that I nearly abandoned it mid-way through. It seems like the author had trouble deciding who his audience was. I would have enjoyed it much more had he stuck to the storytelling, but it seems he was tr ...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Au Yong Chee Tuck rated it it was amazing

Martin Windrow read Bernard Fall's "Hell in a Very Small Place" and the spark of interest in him was ignited about Dien Bien Phu.
How strange things work out in life - that the reading of one book could lead a would be author to write another book!
History buffs like this reviewer can only be grateful that Mr Windrow decided to write his book despite the fact that he "was not an academically trained historian." This apparent "defect" has not prevented him from writing what became the definitive hi ...more

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Sep 27, 2014 Nick rated it it was amazing

This book is a little intimidating, (656 pages without bibliography), depressing (see subtitle), immensely gripping (see grade) history books. Windrow makes good use of the expansive page count, giving flavorful detail and context to the titular battle, and sticking around for 50 pages afterwards the close the case. The detail Windrow can go into at times will drill all the way down to the kind of rice holder a typical Viet Minh soldier would carry his rations in, so by the time the battle start ...more

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Jan 02, 2011 Martin Mcananey rated it it was amazing

Startling indept account of the French defeat in Vietnam.
The bravery shown by both sides was astonishing, but the legions refusal to let their brothers in arms die alone was pure heroism !

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Feb 23, 2015 Steve Woods rated it it was amazing

Shelves: vietnam-war

This is the third account of this battle that I have read. It is the best of the three, (my apologies to Bernard Fall for whom I have only the greatest of admiration), probably because Windrow had access to more sources. It is above all an outstanding piece of military history, dealing well with this, possibly one of he greatest feats of arms in history, at both tactical and strategic levels. There was much to be learned here, the whole episode and the engagement of France in Indo China from 45 This is the third account of this battle that I have read. It is the best of the three, (my apologies to Bernard Fall for whom I have only the greatest of admiration), probably because Windrow had access to more sources. It is above all an outstanding piece of military history, dealing well with this, possibly one of he greatest feats of arms in history, at both tactical and strategic levels. There was much to be learned here, the whole episode and the engagement of France in Indo China from 45 tp 54, was tha harbinger of what was to come for the Americans over the next two decades. Incredible though not surprising was the failure of the Americans to learn anything from the French experience, no doubt in my mind based on that arrogance for which they are so infamous; the French were after all French and they the invincible Americans with moral right and absolute might on their side. This whole attitude encapsulated by an American general in Somalia applying the same force of "morality" in the 90's when he announced to the assembled Somali's that they should cooperate or the Americans would simply crush them. Well that turned out to be another miscalculation.

Some of those lessons, principally, might have been that the Viet Minh were courageous and capable and would suffer any cost to gain national unity. they demonstrated that on the field at Dien Bien Phu where their casualties at the hands of the French forces were so huge (an estimated 25,000) that they are still today a State secret. By the time the battle ended Giap was throwing untrained, inexperienced 16 year olds into the French wire. At the base of both the French and American defeats was this underestimation of the enemy. The American blunder in doing so the more grave because they had the evidence intron of them as them upped their involvement in '54 had they deigned to pay attention, but then "they are French, we are American"!

Further, as was to be the case with the Americans, the French won the war on the ground but lost it in their legislature and on the streets of Paris. The whole debacle related itself almost as a "clone" for the Americans. The failure of the French "Vietnaization" program me, would be repeated by the Americans and the reasons for that failure would be the same,poor motivation, poor leadership, poor training and corruption. Nothing learned there either. On top of all that the Americans, like the French give the conduct of the war to people like Abrhams and Westmoreland, traditional, conventional officers, no matter how brilliant trained and schooled in warfare against a conventional enemy along conventional lines with a deep and abiding suspicion of irregular forces and tactics.

As was the case withe the French partisan groups employing Viet Minh tactics and working in Viet Minh territory the American efforts at the same kind of warfare were outstandingly successful in yielding actionable intelligence, distorting Communist infrastructure and tying down substantial Communist resources in terms of both men and materiel. Unfortunately all quiet behind the scenes operations that did not suit the brass band intellect and career ambitions of the American command, which was a failure at the strategic level from beginning to end. Anyone who desired to bring the misguided direction of the effort to the fore was either ignored or destroyed by the establishment just as had been the case with the French; John Paul Vann and David Hackworth being but tow examples. The results were that this irregular effort, was always underrated and under resourced. This much to the satisfaction of the Communist high command, by their own admission.

I could go on and on, but to what end. Stupidity, ignorance, idealism and corruption at the most senior levels of command both political and military in both cases; it justifies the cry of those of the garrison who survived Dien Bien Phu "We are betrayed!"

The courage and endurance of the defenders in that place defy description, this applies to both side. The one misapprehension I wish to make a point of correcting here is the idea that the defenders were principally French, in fact over half were Vietnamese in the service of France. They fought with the same, courage and stoicism of the French Legionnaires and Paratroopers and their fate was if anything worse. They died in the mud and the blood as all the others did and when it was over there was no quarter given them by the Viet Minh, over 925 of those captured perished and the hands of their captors.Things weren't so hot for anyone else either but a little under half of the Frenchmen among the prisoners did survive the abominable conditions of their imprisonment at Communist hands, conditions that rivaled those experienced by POW's on the infamous Thai Burma Railway during WW2 at the hands of the Japanese. These Vietnamese soldiers of France showed that they were the equal of any if well led, well trained and well resourced with a sense of commitment to mission. Another lesson the Americans failed to take on board, consequently squandering this, their most valuable potential resource through political and military mismanagement and arrogant racially based paternalism. From this account the Vietnamese Paratrooper of 5 BPV would have stood up well against any of the lauded American Ranger or Paratroop units who were supposed to make the difference in the later war.

That American never learns has been amply demonstrated by the same ignorance and arrogance and the failure to take the lessons of the British or the Russians in Afghanistan or the basic lessons for an occupying power which could be drawn in numerous places from powers ranging from Rome to the Nazis and applied in Iraq. They took no lessons, they are after all American! The level of their incompetence driven by ideology is simply breathtaking and we are all still paying the price and will do so, possibly for a long time to come.

As a combat soldier, I have some idea of what the words on the printed pages of this book mean in real terms, I have a rely felt the stirrings of such absolute admiration for any soldier anywhere as that which I feel for those defenders of Dien Bien Phu and the bo doi who fought them. Derision for politicians and generals I have in ample quantity after a lifetime of seeing their modus operandi in action! This account did nothing to lessen the depth of my contempt I can assure you.

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Sep 26, 2014 Harry rated it really liked it

Well. This book was something.

Look, I'm a history geek - everyone that I know knows this about me. So I can dig into a chewy history book and love it. This book... I gave it 4 stars but that's really a mixed thing. 3.5 stars. I ding it for a few reasons, which is not entirely fair to the author: This book REALLY needs to be read in real print, where you can see the maps (the kindle edition is LAME. Sorry - truth). Second, the author slips into French mil-speak too often. Again, anyone who knows ...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Mansoor Azam rated it liked it

An interesting topic. and when i picked this voluptuous volume, i thought i'll get every bit of knowledge about this great battle.
To start with, it is indeed a researched book. The writer has taken pains to sneak into corners where historians with cursory look don't even peep. But i guess where he left me wanting ,big time, is how to stream line that information. I found too much information without timeline considerations. An event which you have come through clean may start on another page, An interesting topic. and when i picked this voluptuous volume, i thought i'll get every bit of knowledge about this great battle.
To start with, it is indeed a researched book. The writer has taken pains to sneak into corners where historians with cursory look don't even peep. But i guess where he left me wanting ,big time, is how to stream line that information. I found too much information without timeline considerations. An event which you have come through clean may start on another page, may be talking in terms of the medical supplies or ammunition supplies pertaining to a battle which you have already read start after 20 pages and in the midst of another battle. Then one crawls back to the earlier pages to connect the dots and gasp all the information that to me is tiring.
There are 20 plus maps in the book but unfortunately all given in the start. considering the 700 odd page volume of the book, imagine when you have to turn the leaf all the way back to consult the map. most of the maps are also not developed timeline wise. Although there is an effort of giving dates at some of them. I for one was not comfortable both with the location of maps and their utility in explaining to me the battles as they were described.
Moreover, i felt at some places that the research done by the author at places has wrong figures. for example at one place describing the paucity of artillery ammunition in the valley with GONO he writes that the transport aircraft could bring only this much shells per day. whereas, i could easily make out that 105 mm HOW shells are packed in a certain way and the aircraft could bring more easily. But after adopting (most likely) the Air force line he in the end gives a comparison in which admits that Air Force transport squadrons did transport far less than their capacity. Which leaves you bewildered in the end cuz all the way the writer is giving you the other figures as facts which your mind is devouring and reading the battle accordingly.
Then there is the paucity of pictures. It's a conflict which happened not much time ago. The writer admits at many places taking hints and ideas from the pictures of the conflict. I would have loved some more pictures of conditions in the camp which the writer refers to in between , also the pictures of main players from both sides so i could connect to the personalities.
Overall, its not a bad read. but if you are ready to devour piles of information in disorder. But its all not too bad i guess. One gets a complete picture of the times the French forces fought and the lack of political will of their government.
The writing style of the author has not made me a fan either. At places he resorts to emotionalism and scene building which makes you crave for more. but then he leaves that style altogether and you find him running through a battle without emotions, as if, he thinks he has allotted more space earlier and has to save some space in here.
My advice, if you can find something more lucid and well written under some other banner Go for that. for its weight this one is not worth it mates

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Jan 15, 2009 Stefan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history-politics

The first book I've read that focuses completely on the French in Vietnam, The Last Valley did not disappoint me, and was a brilliantly readable work of military history that focused on something I had read bits and snatches about, but not enough to give me the whole picture. Having read a large number of books on the Americans in Vietnam, to read about the French fighting to control their South-Asian colony was fascinating. It was advantageous to me, that the author was British instead of Ameri ...more

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Nov 06, 2009 Adam Morris rated it really liked it

Shelves: asia, history, non-fiction

I am surprised at how much I "enjoyed" this book which is to say I found it interesting and written in a style and format that made working through it's 650+ pages not difficult (but certainly not easy). It was very long and quite technical and detailed and yet I definitely got to know many of the principal players and got a real sense of the situation. What came across particularly clearly were the horrors of war. I've read a number of books that describe battles and the soldiers and what they ...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Scottnshana rated it really liked it

This book is timely. Windrow lays out France's situation nicely in Chapter 3, how its military forces were still in flux after the shock of the Second World War and in demand to help the victors police a divided Germany. Meanwhile, France’s efforts to hold onto its colonies in Indochina, recently won back from the Japanese, was continuously siphoning blood and treasure from an already exhausted nation. "The financial cost of the [Indochina] war was a serious drain on an impoverished country that This book is timely. Windrow lays out France's situation nicely in Chapter 3, how its military forces were still in flux after the shock of the Second World War and in demand to help the victors police a divided Germany. Meanwhile, France’s efforts to hold onto its colonies in Indochina, recently won back from the Japanese, was continuously siphoning blood and treasure from an already exhausted nation. "The financial cost of the [Indochina] war was a serious drain on an impoverished country that periodically faced balance of payments crises and bouts of industrial and social unrest." Meanwhile France's civilian population was growing tired and disinterested. "In the public forum only the extremes of Right and Left argued for and against the conflict, the loudest and most consistent voices came from the Left, relentlessly hostile to 'sale guerre'--this 'dirty war' of colonial repression. Widespread public interest would be aroused only intermittently and briefly, usually by some atrocity, scandal or disaster." It begs the question—when only a nation’s extreme factions care about a war, can war truly be fought in that nation’s interest? The author also does a good summation of the events that set the table for Dien Bien Phu (DBP) up to May 1953: "[Viet Minh] war aims could not have been simpler: to kill as many French as possible, to drive the foreigners off their soil acre by acre, and to suborn, terrorize or destroy their Vietnamese 'puppets'." One can easily see the interest here for American military scholars, as Ho Chi Minh's goals hadn't changed that much by 1968. There is further interesting material here on the Korea-style contest between human wave attacks and close air/artillery support to counter them, or as American military leadership said later, "Why send a man when you can send a bullet?" Windrow addresses the aforementioned close air support and argues that the French did it poorly, while also addressing the question of whether the Eisenhower administration would intervene to save Dien Bien Phu with or without tactical nukes. My favorite book on DBP is still Bernard Fall's "Hell in a Very Small Place," for its gut-wrenching depiction of the shrinking perimeter and stark depiction of people under pressure in a doomed effort. To better understand the frustrating diplomatic fencing that occurred in Geneva while France's best troops in Indochina were slowly slaughtered, Ted Morgan's "Valley of Death" holds more detail. I think these books (to include “The Last Valley,” all complement each other nicely for any military historian or national security scholar striving to get the best picture possible of this watershed event. ...more

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May 16, 2008 Lawrence rated it liked it · review of another edition

Very well researched book looking at the battle between the French and the Viet Mihn for control of Dien Bien Phu and, ultimately, Vietnam. The book focuses in great detail on the battle: capacity, strategy, day-to-day experiences, etc. I'm not a military historian so the details provided were sometimes overwhelming. Some of the larger historical context of France's involvement in IndoChina, etc. were included throughout the book and the strategic implications of the loss were considered in the ...more

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Feb 20, 2015 R.M.F Brown rated it really liked it

A formidable nuts and bolts account of one of France's greatest defeats.

To any student of modern history, it remains a mystery as to why France, occupied by the Nazis for four years, would seek to re-establish colonial rule upon the Vietnamese in the 1940s/50s.

The post-war French army, riven by factional fighting between Gaullists and former Vichy officers, and as unstable and underequipped as the country it was sworn to defend, was confronted by a formidable army of liberation under the leade ...more

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Oct 19, 2010 Mike Lindgren rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

This is a dense, well-researched, and occasionally stirring book about the siege that changed the course of Southeastern Asian history. Dien Bien Phu is one of those battles that exerts a strange and mysterious pull on my imagination. A garrison of ten thousand men, French paratroopers, veterans of the Resistance, legionnaires of every race and background, Algerian fusiliers, Thai militia, trapped in their jungle fortress, thousands of miles from anywhere, with no hope of escape. When the Vietmi ...more

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Jul 01, 2014 Aeneas rated it it was amazing

"Like all airborne soldiers, they cultivated a mystique that attracted highly motivated volunteers, and the nature of their training weeded out any who were not fit, brave and aggressive." -page 193

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Mar 25, 2014 Kenneth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12559859

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Jul 02, 2015 Steve Switzer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: modern-military, cold-war

Amazing account of the french experience in vietnam and their ultimate demise at den bien phu
Cant really be bettered

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Mar 08, 2016 Wally Grotophorst rated it really liked it

Great history with some new information over Bernard Fall's book

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Nov 08, 2013 Richard Marman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a dense read, but worth the effort if you are interested in the period. Dien Bien Phu seems to me to have been Stalingrad in microcosm and bears out what many people thought after WWII. France should never have been permitted to resume colonial control of Indochina and (like everyone else)got a pasting for doing so. It's a bit like Afghanistan really - There are some place you should just steer clear of.

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Mar 23, 2015 Craig rated it liked it

One of the few books on the subject and probably the only one that was published is recent times. Lots of good detail not just about what happened but also about warfare in general. A little to densely written and maps were all located in one location which made it tough to keep track of what happened. I blame some of that on the publisher however. I look forward to more books from the author.

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Jul 26, 2015 Scott rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, vietnam-war

If you want to understand Dein Bien Phu, how it happened and what it meant for Vietnam and the French occupation, read this book. Windrow tells the story of the utter defeat of the French and their mountain stronghold in fascinating detail, recounting the idiocy, bravery and fatal human tragedy of the end of French colonial power.

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Mar 28, 2015 Goran Ozanic rated it it was amazing

Great and detailed book about the course of the First Indochina War, which culminated at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Book's main focus is the battle but it also goes in detail to the time before the battle and to the results of the battle. Recommending it to anyone who is interested in this time period.

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May 28, 2009 D. E. rated it it was amazing

Post colonial lunacy. Windrow expands greatly on Fall's HELL IN A VERY SMALL PLACE. The French partake of La Légion étrangère's practiced art of utter defeat. Hints at what being shelled for weeks on end does to a human being. Impossible to even begin to imagine.

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May 30, 2012 Mari Stroud rated it really liked it

Smart, deeply-detailed history of the Viet Minh's rise to prominence, the end of French imperialism, and the inevitable road towards the Vietnam War. Touch of Noble Savage analysis at the beginning, but don't worry: Windrow shakes it off quickly.

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Jun 01, 2015 Jason Young rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, vietnam, 2014

A thorough, well written account of an under covered battle that had rippling effects through history. It is a very long, sometimes dry, read, but well worth it for any one interested.

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About Martin Windrow

Martin C. Windrow is a British historian, editor and author of several hundred books, articles and monographs, particularly those on organizational or physical details of military history, and the history of the post-war French Foreign Legion.

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“Unlike the huge majority of the current generation in the West, the men on both sides at Dien Bien Phu did not live at a time or in places where they enjoyed the luxury of disregarding [that war is what human beings do]; and we, who are lifelong civilians, have not earned the right to sit in judgement over them.” — 0 likes

“For 56 days they had given everything, endured everything; they had achieved the impossible, not once but again and again. They deserved to win; and if they were now being robbed of victory, then the real thieves weren't the People's Army, the 'rats of the Nam Youm', or anyone else in the filth of this last valley, but men who slept between clean sheets far away.” — 0 likes

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