The Battle of Dienbienphu
Roy, Jules / Wetterhahn, Ralph
Forty years ago, Frances war with the anticolonial Communist-led Vietminh insurgency climaxed in the bloody battle for the valley of Dienbienphu. The Vietminhs victory put the 17 million people of North Vietnam under Communist rule and would, in two years, induce Americas attempt to save South Vietnamwithout heeding the French armys catastrophic defeat. That defeat, former French soldier Jules Roy explains, occurred not because of a shortage o...