“Dien Bien Phu. Hell in a Very Small Place. The Siege of Dien Bien Phu, by Bernard Fall, translated from English (United States) by Michel Carrière, revised by Michel Désiré, prefaces by Roger Lévy and Nathaniel L. Moir, Les Belles Lettres, “The taste for history”, 722 p., €19.50.
“Winter 1812. Retreat from Russia”, by Michel Bernard, La Petite Vermillon, 296 p., €8.90.
Next May 8the celebration of the 80e birthday “landings, Liberation and Victory” there is a strong risk of capturing the essence of French memory and leaving only a very modest place for another May 8, 70e anniversary of the last message sent from the entrenched camp of Dien Bien Phu : “Missed exit stop can no longer communicate with you stop and end. » A few words to indicate that after less than two months of fighting (March 13-May 7, 1954), the curtain falls on the Indochina War (1946-1954) and that it will end, after sixty-seven years of intensive colonization. , the French presence in Asia.
Besides, what can we do with a defeat, if not treat it as a nuisance and abandon it at the curb, meditate on its lesson, which we rarely do, or draw from it a vengeful myth or a sacrificial legend, which is readily practiced. Dien Bien Phu concentrates all of this at the same time in its soggy basin, with its 31,000 French and Vietnamese dead, its 11,000 prisoners, its forts with maiden names (Isabelle, Eliane, Huguette), its warlord conflicts ( the cold and methodical Navarre facing the fiery and lyrical Cogny), his gentleman rider, Christian de Castries, his courageous reporter, Brigitte Friang, and his angel at the Red Cross, Geneviève de Galard.
Whoever wants to tell us such an adventure can only promise us “blood, abbreviations, tears and sweat”, committing to being at the same time Alfred Sauvy and Pierre Schoendoerffer. This is what the Franco-Austrian war correspondent, political scientist and Asia specialist Bernard Fall (1926-1967), resistance fighter, man on the ground, managed to do with this classic of military history with a clear title: Dien Bien Phu. A corner of hell. No cartridge case lost in the mud, no devastated village is forgotten. It rains as many acronyms as mortar shells: “ZONO”, “GONO”, “RALP”, “DBLE”. Let us only give the last one: Foreign Legion demi-brigade. And yet, it is a war of men, and portraits, full-length or group, vibrate and abound. When it comes to military stories, lyricism lies in precision, vision in clarity: including action.
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