{"product_id":"9780691180168","title":"The Road to Dien Bien Phu","description":"Author: Christopher Goscha\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9780691180168\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 07 Jun 2022\u003cbr\u003ePages: 512\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA multifaceted history of Ho Chi Minh's climactic victory over French colonial might that foreshadowed America's experience in Vietnam.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn May 7, 1954, when the bullets stopped and the air stilled in Dien Bien Phu, there was no doubt that Vietnam could fight a mighty colonial power and win. After nearly a decade of struggle, a nation forged in the crucible of war had achieved a victory undreamed of by any other national liberation movement. \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Dien Bien Phu\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of how Ho Chi Minh turned a ragtag guerrilla army into a modern fighting force capable of bringing down the formidable French army.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTaking readers from the outbreak of fighting in 1945 to the epic battle at Dien Bien Phu, Christopher Goscha shows how Ho transformed Vietnam from a decentralised guerrilla state based in the countryside to a single-party communist state shaped by a specific form of \"War Communism.\" Goscha discusses how the Vietnamese operated both states through economics, trade, policing, information gathering, and communications technology. He challenges the wisdom of counterinsurgency methods developed by the French and still used by the Americans today, and explains why the First Indochina War was arguably the most brutal war of decolonization in the twentieth century, killing a million Vietnamese, most of them civilians.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePanoramic in scope, \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Dien Bien Phu\u003c\/i\u003e transforms our understanding of this conflict and the one the United States would later enter, and sheds new light on communist warfare and statecraft in East Asia today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46798841839774,"sku":"ADS-9780691180168","price":62.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9780691180168.jpg?v=1778120805","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9780691180168","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}