Czechoslovaks on the Battlefields of Indochina Cover Image

Czechoslovaks on the Battlefields of Indochina
Czechoslovaks on the Battlefields of Indochina

Author(s): Jan Bečka
Subject(s): Review
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro soudobé dějiny

Summary/Abstract: Kudrna, Ladislav. Bojovali a umírali v Indočíně: První vietnamská válka a Čechoslováciv cizinecké legii [They Fought and died in Indochina: The first Vietnam War andCzechoslovaks in the Foreign Legion]. Praha: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimůand Naše vojsko, 2010, 400 pp. The book under review is about Czechoslovaks in the French Foreign Legion fighting in Indochina against the movement for national independence in the first half of the 1950's. The book presents this historic episode by discussing the fates of twenty-one Czechoslovaks in the Foreign Legion, which the author discusses in the context of the war in Indochina and relations between the Czechoslovak Communist regime and the movement led by Ho Chi Minh and the government he established in North Vietnam. The author also discusses the Czechoslovak legionaries’ return to their native land and their lives afterwards. The reviewer considers the work a useful contribution to the history of a previously ignored topic.

  • Issue Year: I/2013
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 159-164
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: English