Street Without Joy

The French Debacle in Indochina

Bernard B. Fall

• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780811767750
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Vietnam War
• Index: History

First published in 1961 by Stackpole Books, Street without Joy is a classic of military history. Journalist and scholar Bernard Fall vividly captured the sights, sounds, and smells of the brutal— and politically complicated—conflict between the French and the Communist-led Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina. The French fought to the bitter end, but even with the lethal advantages of a modern military, they could not stave off the Viet Minh insurgency of hit-and-run tactics, ambushes, booby traps, and nighttime raids. The final French defeat came at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, setting the stage for American involvement and a far bloodier chapter in Vietnam's history. Fall combined graphic reporting with deep scholarly knowledge of Vietnam and its colonial history in a book memorable in its descriptions of jungle fighting and insightful in its arguments. After more than a half a century in print, Street without Joy remains required reading.

Table of contents

• Foreword to 2018 Edition
• Introduction
• Foreword
• Author’s Preface
• 1. How War Came
• 2. Set-Piece Battle—I
• 3. Set-Piece Battle—II
• 4. Diary: Milk Run
• 5. Laos Outpost
• 6. Diary: The Women
• 7. “Street Without Joy”
• 8. Diary: Inspection Tour
• 9. End of a Task Force
• 10. Diary: The Men
• 11. Death March
• 12. Why Dien Bien Phu?
• 13. The Loss of Laos
• 14. The Second Indochina War
• 15. The Future of Revolutionary War
• Appendix I. Glossary of Abbreviations
• Appendix II. Comparison Between French and U.S. Losses
• Appendix III. Report on Viet-Nam
• Appendix IV. A Military Bibliography of Indochina