The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam | 
| Author: Martin Windrow
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 81782
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 752
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.9
ISBN: 0306814439
Dewey Decimal Number: 959.704142
EAN: 9780306814433
ASIN: 0306814439
Publication Date: December 26, 2005
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Product Description
The highly acclaimed book about the battle that doomed the French Empire and led America into Vietnam, The Last Valley is "a brilliant work of military history" -Boston Globe December 1953 French paratroopers, who had been searching for the elusive Vietnamese army, were quickly isolated by them and forced to retreat into their out-gunned 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 and weakened French were utterly depleted and withdrew in defeat. The siege at Dien Bien Phu was a landmark battle of the last century-the first defeat of modern western forces by an Asian guerilla army. The Last Valley is the first new account of the battle since the 1970s. The author has incorporated much new material from French and Vietnamese sources, including veteran interviews, making this the most complete account to-date. And Martin Windrow has received widespread praise from top historians such as John Keegan and Max Hastings (below), as well as reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic. "Martin Windrow has eclipsed Bernard Fall [Hell in a Very Small Place] with this meticulous and magnificent account of the tragedy of the French war in Indochina.... Windrow is master of every detail.... His book makes gripping reading." -Max Hastings, New York Sun
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 A Doctoral Thesis of the Battle December 15, 2008
I agree that this book is THE authority on the battle of Dien Bien Phu. It is a great reference that documents every aspect, detail and statistic of the battle and the history preceding it. However, you can skip the first half of the book if you are interested only in reading about the battle itself.
 Very good detailed history December 5, 2008
I picked this book up at a used book store for like a dollar a few years ago. When I picked it up to read it recently its length and subject matter caused me to expect a difficult tedious read. To my surprise this book is so well written that it hooked me quick. Windrow's writing is amazing. He was able to present a coherent picture of the battle as a whole and of many of its individual players. If you have an interest in this period of history this is a must read.
 Great account, but French faults are downplayed March 23, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu And the French Defeat in Vietnam
Apparently the best account ever written on Dien Bien Phu. Just two brief remarks:
1. History is shaped by strong personalities, and there was an abundance of them in Dien Bien Phu. Despite the book's large volume, there would be welcome a chapter sketching portraits of key protagonists (Bigeard, Langlais, de Castries etc), at the expense of details on arms specifications.
2.The author is favorably predisposed to French military leaders, and I tend to sustain his argument about injustices inflicted to the French army by politicians. Nevertheless, he is inclined to offer unnecessary excuses to the former, as well as to soothe down quarrels. Why not state bluntly that Cogny and Langlais could not tolerate Navarre and de Castries respectively? Even though the outcome might not be different, leadership exercised by de Castries was apparently inadequate. During this epic battle, besides heroism, mistakes had been made also on the French part, which the author appears quite eager to justify, out of respect to this unique effort.
The very best history of DBP ever written September 24, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
T. E. Lawrence wrote that amateurs do something because they love to, and professionals because they must. We can thank the muses that Martin Windrow is a self-described amateur, because this work bears all the hallmarks of serious and loving craftsmanship. He places both the war, and the battle in context, he casts a glaring light upon some of its myths, and he gives serious attention to the technical aspects of the battle that the great majority of military professionals would otherwise miss, such as the state of Viet Minh artillery tactics and doctrine. Were Fall still alive and writing, Windrow would still have outclassed him. Anything and everything you want or need to know about the battle for Dien Bien Phu is here. The very best military history I've read in English in a very long time. Bravo!
simply excellent August 21, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
the book just kind of grabbed me, twice.
first when i saw it on the library shelf, i read "hell in a very small place" many years ago and have a continuing interest in vietnam and america's involvement there.
the second time is when i started reading it, it reads like an excellent detective story, i sat and sat and finished it at one sitting, not a small feat considering it is over 700 pages long. This style is the first very notable characteristic.
not only is the writing excellent, but the author is one of those people who you can imagine talking to. he appears to a military historian from his amazon authors page. writing since the 1970's with an accent on french and the foreign legion. But this book looks like a long term research project and literally a work of love. the detail and interest he displays puts it in a class almost by itself. the only other military history that i've been this impressed by is the boer war by pakenham. The research and simply put love that went into this book is evident thoughout and is a second notable item.
there is something else that makes it outstanding, several places he shows some very unique and well thought out ideas. they are just snatches of his worldview: some pages about the wounds caused by military bullets, a couple of places where he talks about the relationships between politicians and military leaders, and his discussion about how men fight for their buddies next to them, not geopolitical big things. There are just a few of these rather tantilizing glimpses, enough to make me look for more of his books. This disclosure of the man behind the work and his ideas developed from a lifetime of study in history is remarkable and the 3rd item i wish to point out.
I'd not a fan of military histories, nor an i particularly interested in the genre. But i do like his writing. I find the careful analysis of what happened, what lead up to it, how people responded fascinating and as yesterday proved, somewhat addictive. There is an overwhelming number of names, who went where and fought whom, etc, those datum that make up military history, but it is not so bad that it bores or obscures the ideas. He is a very careful documenter of the facts, desirous of completeness and setting the historical record straight. All elements which appear strongly in the book.
There is another thing remarkable about the book and it's author, a desire to look at the facts and the events and truly learn from them. To see this part of our world, a somewhat dark one, filled with the dead and lost, and remember them not just for their sacrifices but what these things have to teach us about ourselves and the societies we find ourselves in. and the first place to find the meaning of events is to get them right, to be factual and see what happened and propose why. something that this book does in a uniquely interesting and useful way.
i sure wish the militaries of the world had more thoughtful people like this author, either in their general staffs or in their officer universities. perhaps a significant dose of reality and history is what more of our military leaders need before embarking on disastrous campaigns.
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