How the Vietnam War Was Won

Giap: Volcano under Snow, by John Colvin (Soho, 336 pp., $25)

ON MY first visit to Hanoi, in March 1952, I had a long talk with General de Linarès, the French commander in Tonking. A few weeks earlier, he had withdrawn the French force from Hao Binh. As I was leaving, he murmured: “I wish I had Giap on my side.”