40 Men and 12 Rifles: Indochina 1954

"The title of this richly illustrated graphic “faction” – a term used by Marcelino Truong to describe fiction based on meticulously researched facts – refers to a propaganda unit of 40 ill-equipped, not-quite-battle-ready artists who nevertheless helped Ho Chi Minh’s army achieve victory at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and terminate France’s century-long colonization of Vietnam. The narrative centers on Minh, an illustrator conscripted into serving the communist war effort but openly resisting the facile David and Goliath narrative. The book makes a clear distinction between the romance of Marxism and its totalitarian approach: The fact that a nation behaves heroically or suffers tremendously in war does not make the ideology that governs it admirable."