Mr Windrow's vivid and well-written account confirms that this was certainly not the case at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The account of Dien Bien Phu is a masterpiece of meticulous historical narrative' - Max Hastings 'Success in battle, according to one military maxim, may not, on its own assure the achievement of national security goals, but defeat will guarantee failure. It tells the story of the ghastly French experience in Indo-China in a way that has never been done before in English. Martin Windrow's book is nothing less than a landmark in military history.' - Professor Richard Holmes 'This is an outstanding work of military history. It is not often that the story of a struggle as dramatic as Dien Bien Phu is told with a flair that matches the courage of the adversaries and the sheer scale of the event. 'This is an epic book about an epic battle. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Militarily, it was the first defeat of modern western forces by an Asian guerrilla army. Its political consequences were profound. The French colonial army regrouped in Algeria where a new war began, one it was so determined to win that its officers would ultimately attempt a coup d'etat. The French withdrew from Vietnam but the country was divided at US insistence, creating the short-lived 'Republic of South Vietnam' for which 55,000 US servicemen would die over the next 20 years. What followed became a Stalingrad in the jungle: the French were worn down and destroyed. It fell to Winston Churchill to block the use of atomic weapons in Vietnam: President Eisenhower would not employ them without his consent. As defeat loomed, the French appealed to the USA where Vice-President Nixon and Air Force General Le May planned to drop atomic bombs on the Vietnamese supply dumps. The Vietnamese not only attacked, they isolated the French force and besieged it in its jungle base. French paras landed on the border between Vietnam and Laos, astride the Communist lines of communication.

In December 1953 the French army challenged its elusive Vietnamese enemies to a stand-up battle.

The Last Valley by Martin Windrow