The Siege of Dien Bien Phu by Bernard B Fall

This book has the subtitle "Hell in a very small space" which is certainly a good description of the place under siege.

This book was published in 1966 and I wondered if the author had published an updated edition with the release of files etc since the conflict.  Nope. His entry in Wikipedia makes for interesting reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_B._Fall and also explains why there was no sequel.

The book has a lot of detail about French troop movements during the siege, almost down to the platoon level.  The Vietminh are more handled at the division and sometimes battalion level.  Lots of anecdotes and the author was well connected having been in Indochina during the 1950s and later, as well as having access to a range of people, including Ho Chi Minh.

What comes across in the book is the bravery of the combatants, as well as the ultimately pointless slaughter.

The politics are interesting as one forgets that people making decision in the 1950s have been shaped by events going back to the 1930s.

I'm glad I was too young (just) to avoid the wider conflict.