The Road to Dien Bien Phu: A History of the First War for Vietnam

University of Quebec history professor Goscha (Vietnam: A New History) analyzes in this comprehensive account the complex political, social, economic, and military developments behind the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s decisive 1954 victory against France at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Seeking to explain how the Vietnamese guerrilla army transformed itself into a professional fighting force capable of defeating France in a large-scale, pitched battle—and why anticolonialist forces in Algeria and Indonesia weren’t able to “engineer such a military revolution”—Goscha punctures the myth that nationalism was the primary force behind Vietnam’s victory. He documents how Chinese and Soviet support allowed Ho Chi Minh to simultaneously intensify the war against France and transform the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from a “republican-minded, national union government” into a single-party state. According to Goscha, North Vietnamese leaders employed a “communist toolkit,” including compulsory military service, the creation of a cult of personality around Ho Chi Minh, and land reforms, to “control and mobilize” the country’s majority peasant population against France and, later, the U.S. Goscha’s deep research impresses, though neophytes may get lost in the details. Still, this is a thought-provoking reexamination of the recipe for Vietnam’s back-to-back victories against Western powers. (Jan.)