This book is not a history of the two “Indochina War” – that were fought by the French from 1946 to 1954 with their Vietnamese allies, and by the South Vietnamese and their American allies from 1957 to 1973 but a historical sketch of certain key developments in both wars, and of the men who fought on both sides. As a battlefield Indochina was unlike any other fought over by Western forces previously for warfare there assumed the aspect of what the French called “ la guerre sans fronts” – a war without fronts - and therefore, without secure rear areas.