The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam

A meticulous and masterly narrative of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, which doomed the French Empire and led America into Vietnam ( Wall Street Journal ).

In December 1953, French paratroopers searching for the elusive Vietnamese army were quickly isolated by their enemy and forced to retreat. They took refuge in their outgunned and desolate jungle base—a small place called Dien Bien Phu.

The Vietnamese besieged the French base for five long and desperate months. Eventually the demoralized, weakend French forces were utterly depleted and withdrew in defeat. The country was then ominously divided at U.S. insistence, creating the short-lived Republic of South Vietnam—for which fifty-five,zero Americans would die in the next twenty years.

Dien Bien Phu was a pivotal battle of the twentieth century: the first defeat of modern Western forces by an Asian guerilla army. Its political consequence reverberate to this day. The Last Valley is destined to be the classic account for generations to come—an epic book about an epic battle. . . . Nothing less than a landmark in military history (Richard Holmes, author of The Western Front ).

A masterful account. . . . [It] will be difficult to surpass. — Booklist

Certain folks in certain government offices would do well to read The Last Valley . — San Diego Union-Tribune

Windrow's vivid and well-written account . . .is a tribute to his abilities both as a historian and as a writer. . . . The reader can almost her the parachute canopies open. — The Economist