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

In 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.

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• Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea
• Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present
• The Pacific
• Words of Fire, Deeds of Blood: France in Revolution
• The Illustrious Dead: The Terrifying Story of How Typhus Killed Napoleon's Greatest Army
• Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific
• Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942
• Death in the Jungle: Diary of a Navy Seal
• In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines