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Title: Dien Bien Phu (Sieges That Changed the World) by Richard Worth ISBN: 0-7910-7228-2 Publisher: Chelsea House Pub (Library) Pub. Date: March, 2003 Format: Library Binding Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95

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Average Customer Rating: 1 (1 review)

Rating: 1
Summary: Save yourself 20 bucks.
Comment: At the 50th anniversary of the battle any new book on the subject is bound to attract interest from those with either a casual or an in-depth interest in Dien Bien Phu. Unfortunately, unless you are a primary school student, this isn't the book for you.
"Richard Worth has thirty years experience as a writer, trainer and video producer" according to his blurb, so at least he does not claim to be a historian. This is just as well as this book relies completely on secondary sources and adds nothing at all to the body of knowledge or historical debate about the battle. The style is very simplistic: "Indochina is a long peninsula in Southeast Asia. The peninsula recieved the name Indochina because its culture had been influenced by both India and China." The English is sometimes odd: "French ships bombed [sic] the harbour." The content is superficial and the illustrations are often wrong or anachronistic: the frontis map includes the Ho Chi Minh and Sihanouk Trails along with the US Corps boundaries in South Vietnam, although it does at least include Dien Bien Phu picked out in yellow marker pen. The famous picture of Bigeard's 6th BPC retreating from Tu Le years before Dien Bien Phu is recaptioned as: "French paratroopers were brought in to help defend Dien bien Phu during the seige. Seen here marching along a mountain pass in the region..." Although there is a 24 page description of the battle there is no map of the Dien Bien Phu battlefield, so, if you were new to the battle, most of the descriptions would be unintelligable.
If this book is intended for primary students it should say so up front so that the rest of us can save 20 bucks. Anybody above the age of 13 would be better served by going straight to the classics on the topic. Still, its a lost opportunity in this anniversary year. Even a primer for students should be well written and accurate.