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

This is a well written and thoroughly detailed account of an action which, I now understand upon reading it, changed the course of history and resonated harmfully down through Western democracies to this day. I find the comments made by one reviewer To the effect that is no more than a lengthy footnote to be an entirely mistaken and baseless criticism. The straitened decision making of the French command, ineptitude of the French government and the sacrifice, suffering and incredible endurance of the troops at DBP are well interwoven into a story that really has no equal in fiction. I leave the book angry and saddened that what was a just fight in what started as a wrong cause (to echo a French commanders sentiments of the viet Minh) was allowed to fail by the West and in particular stymied at a crucial point by none other than Lyndon Johnson among others. The garrison should have and could have been rescued at the very least. The lessons for the modern Western democracies who now shrink in the face of growing Chinese authoritarian influence and power are neatly summarised in this tale. I am now reading Bernard Falls “Hell in a Very Small Place“ and I find that text as equally engaging.