The War That Came Before

America’s war in Vietnam left deep scars, after the United States poured blood and treasure into the struggle against the North Vietnamese. Victory proved elusive, as some 60,000 Americans were killed in the defeat. Many more were wounded in body and spirit. The conflict exacerbated deep racial and class rifts in the U.S., and its dark shadow continues to lie across a divided land. Canadians watched with horror and pity as more and more Americans were sucked into the maelstrom in Southeast Asia and as the Vietnamese people were killed in shocking numbers.

The Road to Dien Bien Phu is centred on the war that came before. In this important book, Christopher Goscha, a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal and the author of several award-winning histories of Vietnam, offers new insight into a post-colonial struggle that emerged from the Second World War.