Recommended Readings
Cooper, Nicola. France in Indochina: Colonial Encounters. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2001.
The period of French colonial rule in Indochina spanned some ninety years and not only did it witness France's Fourth Republic's first experience (and loss) of colonial war, it also exemplified the often contradictory representations and perceptions of imperial identity, colonialism and the legacy of the 1789 Revolution. Framed by political, ideological and historical developments and debates, each chapter develops an intriguing socio-cultural account of France's own understanding of its role in Indochina and its relationship with the colony. The author brings together striking images from colonial expositions, metropolitan fiction, travel journalism, world exhibitions, popular song, gendered and familial representations as well as film to reveal the confusion over imperial identity that prevailed in France until the eve of the Second World War.
This authoritative work provides an important re-evaluation of French Indochina and its legacy.
Giap, Vo Nguyen. Dien Bien Phu. Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers, 1999.
The memoirs of Gen. Vơ Nguyên Giáp about the Điện Biên Phủ victory (1954) are important for understanding just how the Vietnamese won at this pivotal battle.
Giap, Vo Nguyen. Dien Bien Phu (2nd ed.). The Gioi Publishers, 2004.
In this edition, the author has provided new materials relating to the decisions to launch the Điện Biên Phủ Campaign.
Giap, Vo Nguyen. Unforgettable Days. Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers, 2004.
A book that reminiscences about a harsh and complicated historical stage of the Vietnamese revolution after the general insurrection for seizing power (August 1945) to the beginning of the long resistance against French colonial authority (October 1946).
Pham Cao Duong. Vietnamese Peasants under French Domination, 1861-1945. Berkeley: Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Monograph Series No. 24 and Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1985.
Popkin, Samuel. 1986. "Colonialism and the Ideological Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution," Journal of Asian Studies, 44.2:349-58.
The 30-year War 1945-1975 (2 vols.). Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers, 2002.
French and the U.S have compiled this book. Evidence comes in the form of first-hand documents and other information. This two-volume book attempts to retrace the wars of Vietnamese Resistance.
Windrow, Martin. The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam. Da Capo Press, 2004.
In this account of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu of 1953-54, Windrow dissects retrospective criticism of the French strategy. For reasons that emerge within his analysis, the ideas behind the French strategy at Dien Bien Phu were taken from a prior victorious battle. Generals believed that establishing a ground base deep in Communist-controlled territory and supplying it by air would regain them the initiative against the Viet Minh insurgency. The heart of Windrow's narrative, and implicitly his sympathies, lies with the officers and men who carried out the strategy--and bore its cost as its assumptions were progressively stifled by the Viet Minh commander, Vo Nguyen Giap. As the mobile battle envisaged by French planners degenerates into a wallow of World War I-style attrition, Windrow describes with brutal realism the carnage of the combat.
Zinoman, Peter. The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
This book focuses on the colonial prison system in French Indochina and its role in fostering modern political consciousness among the Vietnamese. Using prison memoirs, newspaper articles, and extensive archival records, Zinoman documents how colonial prisons, rather than quelling political dissent and maintaining order, instead became institutions that promoted nationalism and revolutionary education.
Video and Film Resources
Indochine (1992)
Regis Wargnier's epic is set during the French occupation of Southeast Asia in the 1930s. Catherine Deneuve plays a plantation owner who searches for her adopted Vietnamese daughter Camille (Linh Dan Pham) after the young woman falls in love and becomes a communist revolutionary. "This intimate and tautly scripted work interweaves layers of deep affection with stirring historical details of 30s French Indochina, maintaining throughout an unshakable tension of a world about to change" (Toronto Festival of Festivals). Winner of the 1992 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Song of the South (1998)
Doan Gioi's classic Vietnamese novel about a boy's quest to find his father in a troubled country, Dat Rung Phuong Nam, is brought to life in this epic 11-part television series produced by Ho Chi Minh City Television Film Studio. Set in the 1930's during the period of French resistance in Vietnam, the series follows 12-year-old An as he searches for his father, who left the family to join the resistance in the Mekong Delta region. A rich examination of Vietnamese life and culture, filmed on location in South Vietnam.
Internet Resources
A Vietnam War Diary – The French in Indochina
http://www.menziesera.com/vietnam/vietnam_diary.htm
Dien Bien Phu, Symbol for All Time by Alain Ruscio
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/20/024.html
The Lessons of Colonialism – Asian Nation: The Landscape of Asian America
http://www.asian-nation.org/colonialism.shtml
Vietnam Documents – Agreement on the Independence of Vietnam
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/van_kien/indagree.html
Vietnam Documents – Declaration of Independence, Democratic Republic of Vietnam
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/van_kien/declar.html
Vietnam War Bibliography – Background: Pre-colonial and Colonial Vietnam
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/facultypages/EdMoise/back.html
Vietnam War Bibliography – World War II and the First Indochina War
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/facultypages/EdMoise/firstwar.html
Vietnam War Bibliography – The End: Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Conference
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/facultypages/EdMoise/1954.html