by Ted Morgan. In 1956, the French-born Ted Morgan, who later became a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and an author (e.g., My Battle of Algiers), served as a lieutenant in the French army. At that time, he conducted interviews, used here as source material, with veterans of the bloody battle of Dien Bien Phu, fought in 1954 between France, a nation trying to reclaim its pre-World War II Indochina empire, and the Vietminh peasant army under the determined leadership of Ho Chi Minh and Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap. Morgan is effectively providing an update to Bernard Fall's classic Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu by accessing sources not available to Fall and showing that this first Indochina War in 1954 was actually a proxy fight between America, which wanted a strong France to stand against the USSR, and China, which loathed any colonial presence that threatened its supremacy. He skillfully appraises the Cold War diplomacy that led up to the battle and includes gripping and graphic accounts of the protracted fight that resulted in more than 7000 French and 20,000 Vietminh casualties. He also faults France for its ineffective strategy and poor leadership. VERDICT This compelling narrative shows how the American-led Vietnam War repeated many of France's earlier mistakes. Highly recommended for all serious readers of military history. --Library Journal.
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