A forensic study of Vietnam's war, imperial history and international relations in the years following the Second World War.

A forensic study of war, imperial history and international relations, following the Second World War and leading into the Cold War and defeat of Western imperialism in Asia. And above all, the story of the pivotal battle and French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. It shows France's revanchist attempt to regain imperial 'glory' in her former Asian empire following humiliation in the Second World War - defeat and Vichy. The effort was spurred by de Galle's chauvinism and desire to recover France’s honour and reputation, after so many humiliations by friend and foe. The Communist led Vietminh, were guided to victory by ruthless revolutionary Ho Chi Min - far from the attractive 'Uncle Ho' who is revered as a communist saint in contrast to louche playboy emperor Bao Dai – and the very able General Giap. Communist strength in rural Vietnam society - the Vietminh represented a nation in arms – was backed by supplies from Communist China and the Soviet Union. It was an existential struggle on the French side - the end of cafe society, and the gravy train for planters, officials, the military, and politicians. Military matters including General Giap’s strategy and tactics are analyzed in detail, but it was a 'soldiers' war', told at ground-level, and readers will feel the heat and fear of battle, be shocked at war crimes, and intrigued by the tales of Graham Greene et al. The global importance was not lost on the powers following exhaustion from world war and in the shadow of the Cold War. All great leaders were involved, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Churchill, Stalin, Khruschev, Chou En-Lai and Mao Zedong, Under the shadow of the A bomb, a negotiated peace and first detent of the Cold War would end in the sumptuous salons of Geneva.

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• CHAPTER I Parachutes Blooming, and the Origins of French Indochina
  • Introduction
  • The sky blooms parachutes
  • The geography of Indochina
  • Climate and environment
  • Statesmen and Indochina
  • Asymmetric warfare
• CHAPTER II The Origins and Beginnings of French Imperialism in Indochina
  • Origins of France’s Asian empire 1615–1860
  • Imperialist competition 1860–1906
  • Colonial life
  • Cafe life
  • Anyone for tennis?
  • At the beach resort at Kep-sur-Mer
  • Executive life in Haiphong
  • Colonial women
  • Planters’ life
  • Colonialism, xenophobia, racism and resistance
  • Economy and society: exploitation and development from 1880–1945
  • Economic geography of Indochina
  • An economic and political vision of French Vietnamese co-development in Indochina
  • Tonkin
  • Cochin economy
  • Transport
  • Education, culture and identity
  • Plantations
  • Tourism
  • Taxes
  • Chancers, gangs and crooks
  • Predominantly an agricultural society in 1945
• CHAPTER III Statesmen
  • Ho Chi Minh
  • The Vietminh
  • General Charles de Gaulle and the road from Brazzaville
  • Ho and Indochina
  • General Giáp
• CHAPTER IV French Terror
  • French terror and the justice system
• CHAPTER V War and Revolution 1940–45
  • French surrender, and revolutionary opportunity
  • Vichy, the Japanese and Admiral Decoux 1940–45
  • Japan surrenders, and the Vietminh takeover in Tonkin
  • Independence Day
  • French politics and imperial policy
  • Revolution in the countryside and small towns
  • Admiral Decoux goes home
  • British troops occupy Saigon and Phnom Penh
  • The ‘defrocked’ priest Admiral d’Argenlieu, and Leclerc arrive, 9 October 1945
  • Reconquest phase in the south, October 1945
  • Hanoi: Kuomintang occupation
• CHAPTER VI War and Peace
  • Ho in Paris, Giáp in Hanoi
  • Letters to America
  • The liquidation of enemies
  • Haiphong October–December 1946
  • The French storm Hanoi and pretences are over, 20 January 1947
  • Fight for the countryside and military ‘sweeps’
  • The struggle for Cochin-Saigon and the Mekong delta
  • North, south and the indigenous tribes’ role in the war
  • Operation Lea in the Bac Kan
  • Nguyen Binh in Saigon
  • French offensive operations and Dinassaut
  • Cao Dai, Hoa Hoa, Binh Xuyen, Catholic militia, and Khmer Krom
• CHAPTER VII The Time of Grenades
  • The time of grenades, and the struggle for Cochin
  • The defeat of the Vietminh general offensive, March–April 1950
  • The dirty war
  • Mines and IEDs
  • Blockhouse attacks
  • Lao and Cambodia
  • Opium and Indochina
• CHAPTER VIII France and the Home Front
  • French party politics 1946–1949
  • Economic wreckage
  • Gaullism and Rassemblement de Peuple Francais (RPF)
  • Instability in the Fourth Republic but stability of Indochina policy
  • Bao Dai and the French Union
  • The Pignon era 1948–50: drift and disenchantment
• CHAPTER IX International Communist Politics
  • Ho Chi Minh in Moscow February 1950
  • Stalin gets the ‘bomb’, Mao wins China, Kim Il Sung invades South Korea
  • Peace movements and the French Fifth Column 1948–50
  • Vietminh intelligence
  • Red Army on the border 1949–50
  • Chinese Military Advisory Group (CMAG)
  • From the beach: Legionnaire Krause at Phyu Ven, 1949
  • The road to Cao Bang
  • The Vietminh regular army – first blooding: March–May 1950
  • The 308th Division in the north-west
  • A personal war on the Cambodian border
• CHAPTER X Route Coloniale 4, October 1950
  • Cao Bang evacuation, 3 October 1950
  • Route 4 and Cousin Luc
  • Attack on Dong Khé, 1 and 2 October 1950
  • Charton’s trail of tears
  • Massacre at Coxha Gorge
  • Charton’s last stand
  • Flapping fish
  • North, West and Central African troops
• CHAPTER XI Enter General Lattre de Tassigny
  • The actor ‘Roi Jean’
  • De Gaulle exits politics
  • Giáp’s plans to swamp the French in their Red River bastion
  • The de Lattre lines
  • Skewered by a lance
  • Battle of Vinh Yên, 13–17 January 1951
  • Battle of Mao Khé, 23–29 March 1951
  • Battle of the Day River, 29 May–18 June 1951
  • Political consequences of failure and trouble in the party De Lattre in America
  • Jack and Bobby in Indochina October 1951
• CHAPTER XII Giáp’s New Strategic Directions – Death of Stalin – Land Reform
  • Battle of Nghia Lo, 3–10 October 1951
  • Blockhouse attacks
  • The Hoa Binh campaign: October 1951–February 1952
  • Why Hoa Binh?
  • Salan
  • First moves: setting up firebases and Klaus Klause cruises up river to Hoa Binh
  • Attacks on river supply route
  • Attacks along the RC6
  • Attacks on the garrison at Hoa Binh
  • Retreat from Hoa Binh and Legionnaire Krause, February 1952
  • Postscript to Hoa Binh
  • Vietnamisation and US pressure
  • Fall of the T’ai country, Tu Le and Bigeard’s escape
  • Priests
  • Operation Lorraine, October 1952
  • Korean armistice and Pierre Mendes-France
  • The beginning of the Lao problem
  • Land reform, class war, terror and civil mobilisation 1952–3
  • Uncle Chinh
  • The radical phase of land reform
• CHAPTER XIII Genevieve’s War
  • Genevieve’s path to Indochina
  • Saigon – Dolce Vita
  • Genevieve in Hanoi and the medivac tour
  • Ná Sán
  • Vietminh reaction to defeat at Ná Sán, and American criticism of Salan
• CHAPTER XIV Lao – France’s Achilles Heel and the Navarre Plan
  • Giáp attacks Lao, April 1953
  • Churchill on Indochina
  • General Navarre arrives
  • US reaction to the Navarre plan and the political situation in Indochina War
  • Tactical and strategic issues for both sides and the decision to occupy Dien Bien Phu
  • Operations Hirondelle and Atlante
  • Graham Greene in Dien Bien Phu
• CHAPTER XV Theatre of Battle, Strategies, and the Road to Bermuda
  • The theatre of battle
  • French tactical plan
  • Developments in US policy and communist tactics, the Cold War
  • Vietminh strategy
  • Towards détente?
  • Taking the goat in Bermuda
• CHAPTER XVI A Nation on the March
  • ‘We must win at all costs’
  • Marching with Pham
  • Closing the doors
  • Operation Castor, opening gambits
  • The Lai Chau debacle
  • US political opinion
  • Berlin, February 1954
  • The great convergence
  • Giáp’s crisis, delay and reversal of strategy, January 1954
  • The 308th’s Laos excursion, January–February 1954
  • The troops
  • Legionnaires and the Camerone
  • The roads, logistics and air power
  • French defences
  • The artillery duel
  • The French commanders
  • Hill 781
  • Divided objectives/divided counsels
  • French intelligence analysis and GMI (GMCA)
  • Pham waits to attack
  • Diplomacy on the road to Geneva
• CHAPTER XVII The Battle of Dien Bien Phu, 13 March 1954
  • First general offensive, Beatrice (Him Lam), and closing the airstrip – 13 to 14 March
  • Aftershock
  • The fall of Gabrielle (Dôc Lâp)
  • Anne-Marie
  • Pause and replenishment
  • Trench warfare 16–17 March
  • The AA battle
  • Bigeard has landed
  • The path to Isabelle
  • Sniping around Isabelle mid-March 1954
  • Bigeard’s attack on the western front, 28 March
  • Pham’s war and the monsoon
  • Genevieve flies in
  • General Ely goes to Washington, 22 March 1954
  • The low Élianes and Dominique
  • The others: PIMs, camp followers, coolies and river rats
• CHAPTER XVIII The Second General Offensive
  • The Battle for the Five Hills, 30 March 1954
  • The general assault and Éliane 1, 30 March
  • Dominique 2 and Éliane 2, 30 March
  • Lieutenant Brunbouk stands by his guns
  • Casualties at dawn
  • French high command
  • Negative rightist thoughts
  • In Washington
  • Izvestia calling
  • French rations
  • First Battle for Huguette 6, 4–6 April 1954
  • Dominoes, 7 April press conference in Washington
  • Crisis diplomacy in Washington, London and Paris
  • Churchill’s policy
  • Hold by the belt
  • Genevieve’s view
  • Bigeard’s offensive to re-take Éliane 1, 10 April
  • Rescue: flight of the condor
  • Eden’s diplomatic dance
  • Huguette 6 final offensive, 17–19 April
  • Churchill says ‘No!’ The loss of the fortress must be faced
  • Fight for Huguette 1, 18–22 April
  • Scraping the barrel, 20 April
  • Washington, 23 April
  • New positions and Bidault’s desperation
  • Washington, 29 April
• CHAPTER XIX The Third General Offensive, 30 April
  • Attacks on Huguette 5, 30 April–1 May
  • Éliane 1, 30–31 May
  • Dominique 3, 2 May
  • Isabelle, 2 May
  • Huguette 4 and Lily, 4 May
  • Huguette 3
  • Logistics crisis
  • Jumps into hell
  • The general’s visit to the field hospital
  • Éliane 2, 5.30 p.m. 5 May
  • Éliane 4
  • 6 May and Éliane 10
  • From Russia with love, 7 May
  • Endgame
  • Central zone
  • Claudine 5, 6 May 11 p.m.
  • Éliane 4, 6/7 May
  • 7 May
  • Éliane 4
  • Finale: the fall of Éliane 11 and 12
  • Afternoon, 7 May
  • No white flags, 7 May 5 p.m.
  • Isabelle and breakout
• CHAPTER XX Prisoners
  • Geneva Conference and after
• Appendix I: Casualties
• Appendix II: Military Assessment of the French Indochina War
• Abbreviations and Basic explanations, Including Ideological Terms
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Plates