Pierre Brocheux is Professor of Contemporary History at Université Paris VII-Denis Diderot and the author of Ho Chi Minh: A Biography and The MeKong Delta: Ecology, Economy and Revolution, 1860-1960. Daniel Hémery is Professor of Contemporary History at Université Paris VII-Denis Diderot and the author of In the Servitude of Power: Energy and Civilization through the Ages, among other books.