Bernard Fall's "Street Without Joy"

[gofaster]

Anybody read it and care to comment?  Apparently it was required reading for American army officers in the 60's to prepare them for combat in Vietnam.  I read a couple pages of excerpts on Amazon.Com and it looks like its worth the money, but what do you think?

One thing I noticed is the bit about how the under-equipped 70,000-man French army there during WW2 was pretty much abandoned by France, the US, Britain, and the Chinese Nationals under Chang Kai Shek.  They were slaughtered by the Japanese as they moved through mainland Asia on a rampant conquest of the region.  A handful of Frenchmen fought their way to China's Yunnan province, and were promptly arrested as belligerants by the Nat'l Chinese there. The US, in 1940, didn't want to send aircraft to the French, even though they had already been bought and paid for by France before it fell, because the US didn't want to anger the Japanese.

US Secretary of State Hull should've been brought up on charges for incompetence and malfeasance.  

The only enemies of Japan in the region were, ta-da, the Vietnamese Communists, whom the Americans aided with supplies and munitions.

But that's all I could glean from the samples on Amazon's site.  Does the book lay down a factual analysis and history?  I assume it must have merit if it was required reading by the military.

[Dune]

All of his books are fantastic.  He served during WW2 then went to Indochina as a reporter.  The "Street Without Joy" was the name given to Highway 1 leading from Haiphong to Hanoi.  It centers on the French's futile efforts to keep this stretch of road open against the Viet Minh.  I think Fall uses the illustration of how the French couldn't keep this one road open as a basis for his explanition of France's overall failure in IndoChina.  

IIRC, Fall later lost his life in an ambush on this road while traveling with a French armored convoy.

But, before I'd buy this book, I'd get Fall's "Hell in a Very Small Place".  It is the most in-depth look at the circumstances leading up to, and the battle itself, of Dien Bien Phu.  The book is moving in its description of the bravery of the Foriegn Legionaires who volunteered to jump into the camp, even when they knew it was a lost cause, just to be there with their comrades.  At the same time, the folly of the mission gives the reader an excellent precusor to the US's failure in Vietnam.

Read both, you will not be dissapointed.  They cover both the military strategy and tactics used and the overall political circumstances surounding the French-IndoChina War.

BTW, for even more of the subject, look for the Preatorians and the Centurions by Jean' Larteguy.  Larteguy describes the tortures suffered by the Legionaires at the hands of the Viet Minh and their return to Algeria, which was undergoing a revolt by Muslims.  The Legionaires used the brutal tactics they learned in IndoChina to attempt to put down the revolt.  In the end, De Gualle gave up Algeria, a move which caused members of the Legion to attempt to assinate him (the same story told in "The Day of the Jackal").  De Gualle tried to have the Legion disbanded after that, but in the end a couple of brigades were permenently disbanded.

[gofaster]

My plan was to get "Street Without Joy" first and read it to get an overview of the history of the region with an emphasis on French involvement, then get "Hell In A Small Place" from the public library or, if its good, add it to my personal collection from Amazon.Com.  Amazon has "Street" in hardback, but "Small Place" only in paperback.

I have a first edition of "Day of The Jackal" that I picked up several years ago at a charity used book sale, but haven't read it because I thought it was fictional, and therefore only worthy of my time if there's nothing else to do.  I never even turned the cover over.

Thanks for the directing me to Larteguy's book.  I'll see if my public library has it.  It sounds like a good source of information about the failure of French foreign policy in southeast Asia and northern Africa.

[Oldman731]

Originally posted by Dune
IIRC, Fall later lost his life in an ambush on this road while traveling with a French armored convoy.

I thought he stepped on a mine in Da Nang when the Marines were taking it back?  Sure was a loss for the history of that war.

But, before I'd buy this book, I'd get Fall's "Hell in a Very Small Place".  

Yup.  Literally a day-by-day account.

- oldman