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

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