The Road to Dien Bien Phu

"""A thought-provoking reexamination of the recipe for Vietnam’s back-to-back victories against Western powers."" * Publishers Weekly * ""[A] zestfully granular history of the Vietminh war against the French.""---Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs ""In this important book, Christopher Goscha . . . offers new insight into a post-colonial struggle that emerged from the Second World War. . . . Goscha’s command of French, English, and Vietnamese sources is a great strength in drawing out this neglected history.""---Tim Cook, Literary Review of Canada ""In The Road to Dien Bien Phu, Goscha tries to answer the question posed by Frantz Fanon, the Martiniquais psychiatrist who supported anti-colonial revolutions in Algeria and other parts of the world. ‘What must we do to realize a Dien Bien Phu? How do we go about doing it?’ Goscha details the recipe in a book of more than 500 pages—a recipe not duplicated in North Africa or any anti-colonial struggle outside Asia. . . . Like any great work of history, Christopher Goscha’s book resonates with connections to the present.""---Thomas A. Bass, Mekong Review ""Eye-opening. . . . It is the best work in English, French, or Vietnamese on the First Indochina War as a whole.""---Shawn F. McHale, American Historical Review ""The greatest merit of Christopher Goscha’s splendid history of the First Indochina War . . . is his unsparing devotion to letting facts inform his assessments and conclusions.""---Francis P. Sempa, Asian Review of Books ""[A] thrillingly acute and serious piece of work.""---Rana Mitter, Literary Review ""[A] magisterial account.""---David Luhrssen, Shepherd Express ""The Road to Dien Bien Phu showcases the ingenuity and resourcefulness of ideologically driven authorities obstinately struggling to overcome technological, economic and other deficits with a view to satisfying aspirations that were, in the final analysis, as narrow as they were unshakable.""---Pierre Asselin, History Today ​​​​​​​ ""The Road to Dien Bien Phu will become a classic volume in the history of the Indochinese Wars standing alongside Bernard B. Fall’s Street Without Joy. . . . Required reading for anyone studying the post-World War II era of Southeast Asian politics. Goscha has provided keen insight into the war through his travels and interviews in the region. The Road to Dien Bien Phu belongs on the bookshelf of any historian studying this area of history or politics. ""---David A. Mattingly, International Social Science Review ""One of the most important accounts of the First Indochina War to date. . . . [The Road to Dien Bien Phu] emphatically deserve[s] the attention of military historians of the Vietnam Wars and beyond.""---Justin Simundson, Journal of Military History ""Magisterial. . . . Goscha’s work, along with Sean McHale’s The First Vietnam War, fills a considerable void in the anglophone historiography of the First Indochina War from the perspective of the Vietnamese. It is a magnificent scholarly effort that will remain the standard text on its subject for years to come.""---Daniel R. Hart, Michigan War Studies Review ""[A]n extensive and comprehensive account of the lesser-known First Indochina War. . . . There is much to commend in The Road to Dien Bien Phu.""---Seb Rumsby, LSE Review of Books ""To the growing literature on Vietnam during this crucial period, Christopher Goscha has added an illuminating study that is ambitious in scope, copious in detail, and original in interpretation. . . . A deeply satisfying work by a prolific scholar and masterful writer.""---Christian C. Lentz, Journal of Vietnamese Studies ​​​​​​​"