Reddit reviews Street Without Joy: The French Debacle in Indochina (Stackpole Military History Series)

It's kind of frightening to think that there's so much to learn about the last 150-200 years just to be able to get some sense of of it all. We teach our children almost nothing in school and, somewhere along the line, being well-read became socially unacceptable and "good" writers fewer and farther between.

By the way, if you have any interest in French military history in Indo-China and Algeria, I can suggest:

Hell In A Very Small Place: The Siege Of Dien Bien Phu

Street Without Joy: The French Debacle In Indochina

A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962

I find military history a good starting point to researching who\what\why\how of any particular time and place.

I'm also fond of the history of The Crimean War; absolutely fascinating glimpse into the start of what many would consider "how it all ended up this way". Just really neat history that branches off in so many directions.

If I had to choose one single book to recommend about Vietnam it would be Neil Sheehan's superb A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam

Also essential:

• Bernard Fall's Street Without Joy
  
  
• David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest
  
  
• Daniel Ellsberg's Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
  
  
• Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA(not specifically about Vietnam, but goes into a great bit of detail regarding the CIA's involvement in south-east Asia. Illuminating.)
  
  
• David W.P. Elliott's The Vietnamese War: Revolution and Social Change in the Mekong Delta, 1930-1975
  
  Hope this helps!

First, I would recommend two books by Bernard B Fall, a French war correspondent and historian. They are peerless historical accountings of the First Indochina War, and are essential to understanding the American debacle in Vietnam. His analysis of the failings of the French were a direct warning to the US, which were largely ignored, resulting in a predictable failure. He died in 1967 while embedded with US Marines in Vietnam after stepping on a mine.

• Street Without Joy starts with post WW2 French colonial Indochina and the rise of the Indochina War in 1946, giving detailed analysis and reporting on the conflict until it ended in 1954 following the battle of Dien Bien Phu.
  
• Hell In A Very Small Place covers specifically the battle of Dien Bien Phu, how the Viet Mihm were able to prevail and how it could happen to the US.
  
  
  I also recommend a book by Romeo Dallaire, a Canadian general.
  
  
• Shake Hands With The Devil covers Dallaire's experiences as the commanding officer of the failed UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda that culminated with the genocides in '94.

Street Without Joy describes the French experience fighting in Vietnam. By the time the US entered the war France had already learned the lessons it would take the US a decade to learn for itself. US leaders were arrogant fools to get involved in Vietnam as French experience clearly demonstrated.