How does a nation come to terms with losing a war especially an overseas war whose purpose is fervently contested In the years after the war how does such a nation construct and reconstruct its identity and values For the French in Indochina the stunning defeat at Dien Bien Phu ushered in the violent process of decolonization and a fraught reckoning with a colonial past Contesting Indochina is the first in depth study of the competing and intertwined narratives of the Indochina War It analyzes the layers of French remembrance focusing on state sponsored commemoration veterans associations special interest groups intellectuals films and heated public disputes These narratives constitute the ideological battleground for contesting the legacies of colonialism decolonization the Cold War and France s changing global status