The Road to Dien Bien Phu - by Christopher Goscha

Book Synopsis

A multifaceted history of Ho Chi Minh's climactic victory over French colonial might that foreshadowed America's experience in Vietnam

On May 7, 1954, when the bullets stopped and the air stilled in Dien Bien Phu, there was no doubt that Vietnam could fight a mighty colonial power and win. After nearly a decade of struggle, a nation forged in the crucible of war had achieved a victory undreamed of by any other national liberation movement. The Road to Dien Bien Phu tells the story of how Ho Chi Minh turned a ragtag guerrilla army into a modern fighting force capable of bringing down the formidable French army.

Taking readers from the outbreak of fighting in 1945 to the epic battle at Dien Bien Phu, Christopher Goscha shows how Ho transformed Vietnam from a decentralized guerrilla state based in the countryside to a single-party communist state shaped by a specific form of "War Communism." Goscha discusses how the Vietnamese operated both states through economics, trade, policing, information gathering, and communications technology. He challenges the wisdom of counterinsurgency methods developed by the French and still used by the Americans today, and explains why the First Indochina War was arguably the most brutal war of decolonization in the twentieth century, killing a million Vietnamese, most of them civilians.

Panoramic in scope, The Road to Dien Bien Phu transforms our understanding of this conflict and the one the United States would later enter, and sheds new light on communist warfare and statecraft in East Asia today.

Review Quotes

"[A] coruscating, erudite study of the background to the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu, which is far more than just an analysis of military events."---Peter Neville, Diplomacy & Statecraft

"Winner of the George McT. Kahin Prize, Association for Asian Studies"

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"

"A compelling and well-written history."---Nathaniel L. Moir, War In History

"The Road to Dien Bien Phu is the best academic book yet written about the First Indochina War."---Stein Tønnesson, H-Diplo

"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 ​​​​​​​

"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

"[A] magisterial account."---David Luhrssen, Shepherd Express

"[A] thrillingly acute and serious piece of work."---Rana Mitter, Literary Review

"[A] zestfully granular history of the Vietminh war against the French."---Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs

"[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

"A thought-provoking reexamination of the recipe for Vietnam's back-to-back victories against Western powers."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

About the Author

Christopher Goscha is professor of international relations in the History Department at the Université du Québec à Montréal and a leading expert on the Cold War in Asia and the wars in Vietnam. His books include Vietnam: A New History. He lives in Montréal.