![]() ![]() In harrowing detail, Fall describes the brutality and frustrations of the Indochina War, the savage eight-year conflict - ending in 1954 after the fall of Dien Bien Phu - in which French forces suffered a staggering defeat at the hands of Communist-led Vietnamese nationalists. Originally published in 1961, before the United States escalated its involvement in South Vietnam, Street without Joy offered a clear warning about what American forces would face in the jungles of Southeast Asia: a costly and protracted revolutionary war fought without fronts against a mobile enemy. Defeat came at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, setting the stage for American involvement and opening another tragic chapter in Vietnam's history. The French fought well to the last, but even with the lethal advantages of airpower, they could not stave off the Communist-led Vietnamese nationalists, who countered with a hit-and-run campaign of ambushes, booby traps, and nighttime raids. Fall vividly captures the sights, sounds, and smells of the savage eight-year conflict in the jungles and mountains of Southeast Asia from 1946 to 1954. In this classic account of the French war in Indochina, Bernard B. ![]()
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