Professor Christopher Goscha of the Université du Québec à Montréal, with his academic focus on the rise and maturity of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, is one of today’s “rock stars” of Vietnamese studies. He might, arguably, have a few equals in the United States and France, but none can surpass his scholarship and mastery of both French and Vietnamese sources, and his ability to contextualise these by drawing on wider international and historical perspectives. Consequently his “History of the First War for Vietnam” has been much anticipated. (Well, anticipated by me at least. I pre-ordered this book in May 2021, and loath to wait for the shipping to Hong Kong I downloaded the Kindle edition on its release at the end of March 2022. I do not know if Professor Goscha has children, but if he does, I do not begrudge contributing to their university tuition fees by paying twice for this book!)
To continue the music analogy, a cursory look at the contents of the book might lead you to believe that you have purchased “Christopher Goscha’s Greatest Hits,” as many of the chapters cover aspects of the DRV that he has addressed in books and articles before, such as building military force, the wider Asian connection, the technological wiring of the revolution and state, the Indochinese aspects, and the trauma of battle. But on reading the work you realise that this is really “Christopher Goscha’s Greatest Hits: Remixed and Remastered,” as instead of just “cutting and pasting” his previous work, every section has been thoroughly updated with the most recent scholarship.
Thus, this is not a straightforward account of “The Nine Years’ War of Resistance Against the French,” with a continuum of dates and battles. Many of the chapters are thematic, but the narrative arc only suffers slightly, (albeit there are moments when the historical narrative is repeated or jumped,) because the book is anchored around two premises: First, the nature of the DRV, always nationalist, but always communist, (at first restrained, later dominant.) Second, the effort required by the DRV to put the army and state together that could liberate their country by going head-to-head with the French in conventional warfare. He eschews the myth that the DRV’s war against the French was always that of the nimble insurgent tiger versus the monolithic elephant, rather the DRV eventually built its own elephant. Goscha, and Pierre Asselin, have previously noted the cost of this effort on the state and the people, with Goscha describing this as akin to “total war” which collapsed the dividing line between combatants and civilians, the home front and the battle front, to mobilise the full power of the state to achieve victory. Goscha now expands on this premise by using the concept of “War Communism” – what happened in Vietnam between 1950 and 1954 was akin to the Bolsheviks’ mobilisation of society in the Russian Revolution and Civil War.
Professor Goscha’s use of sources is masterful, and he has the fortunate knack of expressing all this academic research, and consequent detail, in an almost conversational and very readable manner. His style is quite personable. The book has a “cast of thousands” but where an obscure name turns up that you have a nagging feeling that you have heard before, he is kind enough to re-introduce you with a “whom we last met at…” rather than leave you to scour the index. Also, at several points he departs from the narrative or theme with “… this is worth a detour…” as he leads you off the main path for a bit to make a point. He is always right. It is worth the detour, and you enjoy the overall journey even more for it.
If this sounds more like a hagiography than a review it is simply because I consider “The Road To Dien Bien Phu” to be an exceptional work. It does have its limitations, but only because it has set its own limits. Purists will wonder at the lack of Vietnamese diacritics, although I doubt that the general reader will miss them. Despite its title it is not a military history of the war. Indeed, the military aspects are described in a “broad brush” style, relying on a few, well-chosen but not exhaustive, sources. There are other, far more detailed military histories out there. Neither is it a description of the war from both sides. The French and The Associated State of Vietnam feature because their actions impacted on the DRV, but their motivations and methods are rarely considered in detail. Finally, because of its thematic nature, academic excellence, and focus on the DRV, this is not a history for neophytes in the topic. If you know something about the First Indochina War read this book next. If you don’t know any thing about the war get a simple grounding first – then read this book next. Either way, read it.
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