Execllent To understand the Vietnam War or any war this book should be a must read. Why didn't our leaders of that time do so remains a mystery to me.
Soldiers and a lost war My favorite book on the war in Indochina. I read this book or rather I studied it when I was twenty years old and a cadet at the Argentine Military Academy. It was my instructor's favorite book and it immediately became my favorite one too. A book that has everything history tactics teachings and even romantic scenes as the one in which the author sadly realizes they are going to lose the war.
This book is ALL JOY! This is a superb book that deals exclusively with the history of the early years in Vietnam and briefly in Laos. While the focus of Street Without Joy is on a French campaign between Hue and Quang Tri it covers other significant activities of the First IndoChina War. Dr. Fall one of the few correspondents with access to records of both sides opens with the War's beginning offers an extremely factual account of the early setpiece battles such as Vinh Yen Lorraine Hoa Binh and continues with an excellent analysis of the epic struggle at Dien Bien Phu. His description of the planning and execution of the campaign along Highway 1 addresses intelligence logistics weather terrain and employment of amphibious and airborne forces close air support and commander's intent. Readers will have no difficulty in following the flow of the battle and those lessons learned by the French commanders would be well worth filing away in one's personal notebook. Unquestionably one of the book's strengths is Fall's final chapter on the future of revolutionary war a chapter that may have been overlooked by those that planned and directed the Second IndoChina War. This is definitely a book worth reading and rereading by all military personnel.
A fantastic read about Indochina A great read about the daily horrors faced by the French forces in Indochina.I thought I'd read most of what was written about the horrors that were faced daily by the French army and later the Americans but this book told me things that I'd never read before. The pure unadulterated and pointless misery of the French soldiers. The inevitable idiocy of the generals who were no shining examples of military brilliance. Packed with great insights that I discovered from reading this book. Why did the Americans not read this before they went 'in country'? Very highly recommended.
Lessons not Learned I read this book while at the US Naval postgraduate School in Monterey CA in 1965. At 26 I honestly thought we the USA could do better than the French had done in SE Asia but my time participating in my generations' war convinced me that despite our questionable good intentions these kinds of wars are not militarily winnableyou win battles but lose the war. I concluded that we had learned the lessons of history after our withdrawal and saddened by the loss life and wounds mental and physical to those who were there on both sides I got on with my life. Guess whathubris knows no bounds and doesn't learn from history. I guess that the old saying Nothing is impossible for those that don't have to do it is more true than I ever believed. We did it again and again and once again policy makers found the set of military leadership who would go along with them. This book should be read by every person in a policy leadership role in Congress or any administrationone can only hope they heed the lessons contained in it.
Not another book over Vietnam Really good book about the First Vietnam war one that tends to be overlapped by the Second one and the massive intervention of USForces. Very well written by a journalist who witnessed the development of the war covers all the french period of the war. A must for anyone interested in Nam war either french or american phase.
Lessons not Learnt Though written from a time and a viewpoint that may seem quaint by todays standards the honest prose of this book shines. Fall has an understanding of the suffering of the average man in this book that he is able to counterplay against the wider strategic view of IndoChina in the 60s.The most interesting aspect of this book is Fall's ability to read the future a forecast future Streets Without Joy for the US in Vietnam.
Intoduction to the Indochina War First I suppose I am somewhat biased because I knew Bernie Fall. I liked his book in the early 60s when I was required to read it and we officers on the way to Vietnam had discussions about the book and what we had each gotten out of it and how we might have done things differently. When Bernie was writing it was then popular to refer to the communists about every third or fourth word or to call the Chinese Red Chinese as a perfectly natural figure of speech. Throughout the book he refers to the Viet Minh as communist when in fact some were and some were not. I think Bernie may have been a little prejudiced and he does write from the perspective of the near side our side etc. However his book is an excellent setup for what happens later and he sometimes inadvertently points out that we did not learn one damned thing from what the French learned before us. We get pinned downthe Viet Minh seldom ever do we still have not learned how to avoid the 100 vehicle strung out on hairpin switchback ambush which the Viet Minh continued to use to perfection we still allow the terrain to channel us or stop us while the Viet goes anywhere he wants in whatever direction it might be to do whatever he chooses to do. It was amazing while it went on and it is all covered in this book. This is an excellent book into how a guerrilla thinks plans and moves and what you should plan for. This book is essential to the survival of one not exposed to this form of behavior in the past. Dr Fall was killed while on patrol continuing his work for us. This a keeper book that you must have for you library. Please do not miss it.
books Excellent book. Recommend it to all readers of Vietnam history. This is a ONE OF A KIND I served in Vietnam and this book showed the same mistakes America usedbut on a different scale. Eye opening.
Unfortunately We Did Go Down This Street! Back in the early 1960s someone should have given our American politicians Bernard Fall's book titled Street Without Joy. Unbeknownst to me I traveled down the street without joy nine years after this book was written. This street is Highway 1 which follows through the Hai Van Pass running almost parallel to the South China Sea on its way to Da Nang and further South. It is an area of Southeast Asia which has seen some of the bloodiest conflicts of the FrenchIndo China War and later the Vietnam War when there was the American presence. It is also rather ironic that the author met his demise in 1967 travelling as his native language would describe the road as la rue sans joie when his American Marine jeep hit a land mine. What Bernard Fall has done in this very detailed and comprehensive study of the military strategies and tactics used by both the French and VietMinh is to show that wars of revolution cannot be won with standard conventional European military protocol. Mr. Fall paints a broad canvas which he shows how the VietMinh methodically and very patiently won this long war of attrition. He shows a proud and determined French Army made up of an eclectic group of military professionals from the basic French National Army to the French Foreign Legion to the Vietnamese faithful to Colonial France. What struck me as almost medieval was how the French chose to combat the VietMinh. Up in Northern Vietnam were a string of French forts made up of primarily concrete pill boxes that had interlocking fields of fire and were primary targets for local VietMinh militia and also for crack units roaming the Red River Delta. During the FrenchIndo China War the French did not have access to the mobility of helicopters. What they did have were mobile units utilizing gun trucks trying to travel through the rough road system that existed in Vietnam in the mid 20th century. Mr. Fall describes the major engagements between the French forces and the VietMinh. The most haunting of these engagements was the utter destruction of the French Mobile Force G100. This unit had two battalions which had fought alongside the American Indianhead 2nd Infantry Division in Korea. These veterans were hardcore combat infantrymen who were very experienced. As this force was going down highway 19 toward Pleiku the author describes how the VietMinh 803rd destroyed this proud unit piecemeal. The author shows how the strategies and tactics of the VietMinh were ultimately not to be defeated by the French Army.
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