An Honorable Exit

Prix Goncourt winner Vuillard (The War of the Poor) offers an impassioned and impressionistic indictment of the cruelty and hubris that sparked the First Indochina War (1946–1954). Vuillard opens with a 1928 visit by French labor officials to the Michelin rubber plantation in Vietnam, which had experienced a rash of worker suicides. Though the inspectors were horrified to discover stockades for deserters and “deep contusions” on workers’ bodies, the ensuing report led “to not one single reform or indictment.” Vuillard then skips ahead to October 1950, when a rebel army whose ranks have been swelled by former rubber plantation workers “annihilated” two columns of French forces in the Tonkin region in northern Vietnam, which led to a fractious debate in the National Assembly over whether to seek peace or escalate the conflict. Lawmakers chose the latter, and Vuillard uncovers the role that corporations and financial institutions, particularly the Banque de l’Indochine, played in pushing France toward military defeat—and entangling the U.S. in the process. Throughout, Vuillard emphasizes the venality, racism, and greed of the French elite, and provides visceral sketches of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and other clashes. This slim volume delivers a powerful anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist message. (Apr.)