Overview

Like Gettysburg, Stalingrad, Midway, and Tet, the battle at Dien Bien Phu--a strategic attack launched by France against the Vietnamese in 1954 after eight long years of war--marked a historic turning point. By the end of the fifty-six-day siege, a determined Viet Minh guerrilla force had destroyed a large, tactical French colonial army in the heart of Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese victory would not only end French occupation of Indochina and offer a sobering premonition of the U.S.'s future military defeat in the region, but would also provide a new model of modern warfare in which size and sophistication didn't always dictate victory. Before his death in Vietnam in 1967, Bernard Fall, a critically acclaimed scholar and reporter, drew upon declassified documents from the French Defense Ministry and interviews with thousands of surviving French and Vietnamese soldiers to weave a compelling account of the key battle of Dien Bien Phu. With Fall's thorough and insightful analysis, Hell in a Very Small Place has become one of the benchmarks in war reportage.

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9781665297356

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A thorough account of a brave, sanguinary battle that has since turned out to have immense historic importance.-- The New Yorker

Author Information

Bernard B. Fall was forty years old when he was killed as a journalist on patrol with the U.S. Marines in South Vietnam. A noted scholar of Indo-Chinese history, Bernard studied Vietnam in all of its phases, publishing seven books on the subject, including Street Without Joy. He also wrote for the New York Times, Washington Post, and New Republic. Robertson Dean has acted on- and off-Broadway and in many leading roles at regional theaters throughout the United States. His film work includes Star Trek: Nemesis and Vanilla Sky.

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