I am currently in the process of assembling a Vietnam book haul.
I would like to include works on Dien Bien Phu, but I don't know enough about the Vietnam War to know in what direction to go.
I need help in deciding whether or not to read both "The Road To Dien Bien Phu," Valley of Death," or both.
I understand that no work on any subject can serve as a stand alone resource.
But which of the two would give me the better sense about that battle?
by AdvancedFood172
2 Comments
I haven’t read either, but if memory serves (it’s been almost 20 years) Hell in a Very Small Place by Bernard B. Fall was very comprehensive. It was the one my college history professor recommended.
*Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Ph*u by Bernard Fall is probably the best. I read it many years ago,
>“*Operation Castor*” dies.
>“The western flank of the fortress was the last to be occupied by the Viet-Minh, since its positions were still covered by extensive minefields and barbed-wire entanglements. Some of the strong points on Claudine were occupied as late as 1820 hours. One of the last to be occupied was strong point Lily, still held by a handful of Moroccans under Major Jean Nicolas. As Nicolas looked out over the battlefield from a slit trench near his command post, a small white flag, probably a handkerchief, appeared on top of a rifle hardly fifty feet away from him, followed by the flat helmeted head of a Viet-Minh soldier.
>“‘You’re not going to shoot anymore?’ said the Viet-Minh in French.
>“‘No, I am not going to shoot anymore,’ said Nicolas.
> “‘C’est fini?’ said the Viet-Minh.
>“‘Oui, c’est fini,’ said the French major.
>“And all around them, as on some gruesome Judgment Day, mud covered soldiers, French and enemy alike, began to crawl out of their trenches and stand erect as firing ceased everywhere.
>“The silence was deafening” (p. 411, *Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu* by Bernard Fall).