The Folly of War - American Foreign Policy, 1898-2005 [Hardcover]

Donald E. Schmidt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2005

This is a disturbing book that raises questions about how we go to war, how we fight wars, and how we eventually lose wars. This historical examination of American foreign policy in the 20th century questions how we conduct wars, and how we maintain the proud self assurance known as "American exceptionalism." The Folly of War is a hard-hitting, critical analysis of American wars in the 20th century. Drawing on a wide rage of sources and rigorously marshalling the facts, the book concludes that American wars in the past century have been futile, unnecessary and foolish. Rejecting the Left s contention that American foreign policy has been driven by greedy corporate interests, the author starts from the premise that average Americans have supported these wars out of a will to do good but have failed in that aim, and in the process done much harm.
Many Americans view the military defeat in Vietnam as an aberration, interrupting a string of foreign military successes. This book sees that tragedy as part of a line of politically reckless engagements that span the century. Driven by a proud self assurance that is often termed American exceptionalism, the nation arms itself to the teeth and intrudes into every region, pacing on a treadmill of perpetual war to achieve perpetual peace.
At the end of seven major wars and after one million American soldiers have been killed, we are no closer to the perfect security we seek.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is as amazing as it is tragic that much of the world believes George Bush to be as dangerous as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein." Based wholly on secondary sources, this provocative book blames the US's modern wars on a legacy of "militant idealism" traceable to Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and a flawed belief in "American Exceptionalism." George W. Bush is not the first US president to use deception in plunging the nation into a war with unintended "aftershocks." Franklin D. Roosevelt was a master of misrepresentation, albeit, his admirers argue, in a just cause. Schmidt disagrees. While scholarly opposition to the Spanish-American War, WW I, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf wars is common, the author's views on WW II border on conspiracy theory. The chief villain: Winston Churchill, who also enlisted US help in 1916 and 1946 in the service of British interests. Concerning the ill-fated 1938 Munich conference, Schmidt believes appeasement to be a practical way of redressing past mistakes (e.g., the Versailles Treaty). By wrongly applying the "Munich analogy," he concludes, the US has foolishly meddled in regional upheavals and "has turned into a marauding, rogue superpower, marching to and fro across the globe." A useful work, with these reservations. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. -- J. B. Lane, Indiana University Northwest --Reviewed in CHOICE Feb 2006.

I have always thought that we Americans believe that we are a peace-loving country, slow to anger and only going to war rarely and with the very best of reasons. We always take the high ground, lending assistance to the weak, beating up on the bullies.
Then I look around the world. Sweden, I don't believe, has been at war since the Great Northern War in the 1770's. Switzerland's last war was the Wars of Kappel, an internal religious war in about 1530. Both Sweden and Switzerland maintain standing armies, in Switzerland virtually every male spends time in the Army. And their armies are quite advanced in terms of weapons and electronics. These tend to keep people from attacking them, and they don't go out to attack others.
Why then does the US seem to go to war frequently? In this book the author argues that U.S. foreign policy has been driven by the public's desire to 'do good.' As in we had to destroy Hue in order to save it.
The author analyzes the wars the US has fought in the 20th century. The back cover sums it up best: "Many Americans view the military defeat in Vietnam as an aberration, interrupting a string of military successes. The Folly of War sees that tragedy as part of a line of politically reckless engagements that span the century. Driven by a proud self-assurance that is often termed "American exceptionalism," the nation under the banner of Militant Idealism, arms itself to the teeth and intrudes into every region of the world. The US has been on a treadmill of perpetual war to seek perpetual peace."
This is a very interesting view of the wars the US has fought. --Books-On-Line --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Donald E. Schmidt received an advanced degree in modern American diplomatic history from California State University, Northridge in 1969. He taught history and political science at the college level for over 20 years. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 388 pages
• Publisher: Algora Publishing (June 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875863833
• ISBN-13: 978-0875863832
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,263,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent survey of US foreign policy, January 19, 2006

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Folly of War - American Foreign Policy, 1898-2005 (Hardcover)

The author, an experienced teacher of diplomatic history, has given us a very useful survey of US foreign policy from 1898 to 2005. He shows how all America's wars, except World War Two, have been corrupt in origin, vicious in execution, and disastrous in effect.

He has great knowledge of the various ploys that have been used to embroil states in wars and to persuade the gullible that the wars were just.

For example, in 1915, the British Admiralty gave the Cunard passenger liner Lusitania no destroyer escort. British government agents had illegally loaded her with explosives and other munitions. The week before she sailed, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote to the President of the Board of Trade that it was `most important to attract neutral shipping to our shores, in the hope especially of embroiling the United States with Germany'. When a German U-boat sank the Lusitania, it was a big step towards the US entry into the war.

Schmidt denounces the US state's wars, against Korea, Vietnam and Iraq as colonial and genocidal. He shows how the US state has used its assets to start wars, as in 1980 when US Secretary of State Brzezinski used Saddam Hussein, telling him that the US government would not object to `an Iraq move against Iran'. Saddam attacked, starting an eight-year war that killed 1.5 million people.

At the end of the 1990 war against Iraq, the US government assured Iraq that its "withdrawing troops would not be attacked." Then, after the ceasefire, USAF and RAF planes carried out the massacre at Mutla Ridge, the infamous `turkey-shoot' on the `Highway of Death', killing thousands of soldiers who had already surrendered, a major war crime.

Quiz questions: who described the First World War as this `glorious delicious war'? Kaiser Bill? Lenin? Or Churchill? Who first used poison gas on Iraqi people? Saddam Hussein? Ayatollah Khomeini? Or Churchill? Clue - the answer to both questions is the same.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting View of America's 20th Century Wars, June 23, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Folly of War: American Foreign Policy, 1898-2005 (Paperback)

I have always thought that we Americans believe that we are a peace loving country slow to anger and only going to war rarely and with the very best of reasons. We always take the high ground, lending assistance to the weak, beating up on the bullies.

Then I look around the world. Sweden, I don't believe, has been at war since the Great Northern War in the 1770's. Switzerland's last war was the Wars of Kappel, an internal religious war in about 1530. Both Sweden and Switzerland maintain standing armies, in Switzerland virtually every male spends time in the Army. And their armies are quite advanced in terms of weapons and electronics. These tend to keep people from attacking them, and they don't go out to attack others.

Why then does the US seem to go to war frequently? In this book Schmidt argues that U.S. foreign policy has been driven by the public's desire to 'do good.' As in we had to destroy Hue in order to save it. Schmidt analyzes the wars the US has fought in the 20th century. The biggest war was World War II. In his discussion of WW II he leans pretty hard on Roosevelt, he seems to take the theory that FDR maneuvered Japan into the attack at Pearl Harbor. He quotes John Toland's book 'Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath,' where Toland claims that Roosevelt knew the attack was coming. This is, however, something that we will never know for sure. Yes, there was a lot of intelligence pointing to the attack. But most people believe that these various bits of information were submerged in a sea of data points and not put together until afterward. Monday Morning Quarterbacking is a lot easier than putting it together before hand.

This is a very interesting view of the wars the US has fought. My one real complaint is that the type is too tiny for my old eyes. More, bigger pages and larger type would have suited me better.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars J. Robbins-Dallas Texas, August 24, 2005

By 

J. Robbins (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Folly of War: American Foreign Policy, 1898-2005 (Paperback)

I would recommend this book to anybody who seeks a deeper understanding of American foreign policy. The open minded reader will find the book quite refreshing, as it diverges from the standard vanilla treatment of history, however, some readers will find the book disturbing because it challenges deeply held beliefs that America is always right. Each chapter is logically developed with facts to substantiate claims. I strongly agree with Schmidt's assertion that American foreign policy went awry with devastating effects when our "leaders" decided to abandon the neutrality policies of the founding fathers and instead decided to institute a policy of interference and favoritism.

I think the chapter on World War I is the most important because it illustrates exactly why the founding fathers desired a neutral foreign policy. The Germans did not sink the Lusitania out of so-called naked aggression. They sank the ship because America was secretly supplying war material to Britain and they rightly or wrongly believed that the Lusitania was transporting such material. Had America remained truly neutral, innocent peoples lives would have been spared and History, quite possibly, would have pursued a different course-one without the harsh and punitive Versailles Treaty and one without Adolph Hitler.

Schmidt also emphasizes the pathetic lack of geopolitical knowledge of many of our leaders with President G.W Bush as the most prominent example. Bush never even had the desire to travel to Europe before becoming President. Note, Bush alone is not singled out for criticism nor is this a partisan treatment of foreign policy.

The chapter on the War on Terrorism is important because it illustrates the deception of the Bush Administration regarding the threat of Saddam Hussein. No clear unambiguous evidence has been produced linking Saddam with 911. International Law, in which United States is a signatory, forbids the invasion of any sovereign nation that is not an aggressor. It also should be noted that a declaration of war is required to invade a sovereign state.

There are many other important topics discussed in this chapter including the role of influential Zionists such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and others who years earlier argued for the overthrow of the Hussien regime.

The Folly of War provides a much-needed critique of American foreign policy as well as serving as an accurate and concise historical reference. It may very well be one of the most important books of our time as it serves as a much-needed wake-up call for all Americans who believe in the Republic. In Schmidt's view, the terrorist threat of today is directly related to foreign policy "follies" that are in direct opposition to the views and writings of the founding fathers. I for one, agree.