The Last Valley

Starred review from February 15, 2005
"Classic" is defined as "of the highest class or of the first order," which justly describes this study of French Indochina and its fall at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. With discerning balance, Windrow (associate, Royal Historical Soc., London) constructs the initial French colonial presence in Vietnam in the 1860s and the rise of the Communist Vietminh at the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945. Mounting tensions between the French and the Vietminh parallels the increasing number and sophistication of arms that seem to have led to the denouement at Dien Bien Phu. Windrow carefully reconstructs the backstage interplay of political forces in both France and within the Vietminh. The book's last half describes day by day the eight-week battle for Dien Bien Phu. The enormity of detail might overwhelm readers if each little piece did not fit so neatly together. A type of parachute, a radio frequency, and the power of an artillery shell are pieces of a giant puzzle, drawing us in. This extraordinary story of heroism, passion, and tragedy should long stand as the definitive study of Dien Bien Phu. -John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2005
In this masterful account of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu of 1953-54, Windrow dissects retrospective criticism of the French strategy. For reasons that emerge within his comprehensive, meticulous analysis, the ideas behind the French strategy at Dien Bien Phu were taken from a prior victorious battle. Generals believed that establishing a ground base deep in Communist-controlled territory and supplying it by air would regain them the initiative against the Viet Minh insurgency. The heart of Windrow's narrative, and implicitly his sympathies, lies with the officers and men who carried out the strategy--and bore its cost as its assumptions were progressively stifled by the Viet Minh commander, the storied Vo Nguyen Giap. As the mobile battle envisaged by French planners degenerates into a wallow of World War I-style attrition, Windrow describes with brutal realism the carnage of the combat, which snuffed out tens of thousands of lives. Many works address Dien Bien Phu's history-altering significance in the Indochina conflict, but for learning about what actually happened there, Windrow's will be difficult to surpass.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)