Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: rests our destiny, United States, South Vietnam, Street Without Joy (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A captivating book that is equal parts historical primer, personal love story, and eerie reminder of the folly of waging an unconventional war in an unfamiliar land." - Washington Times "All students of the Vietnam wars know the works of the great historian Bernard Fall. This poignant and unblinking account reveals the life that propelled him to his monumental and ultimately tragic task." - Don Oberdorfer, former Washington Post diplomatic correspondent and author of Tet! The Turning Point of the Vietnam War "A captivating book that is equal parts historical primer, personal love story, and eerie reminder of the folly of waging an unconventional war in an unfamiliar land.... It may seem a strange word to use, but this is a lovely book about an important man - important to his adopted country, important to his many friends and to his students... and most of all important to his wife and children. It is that last importance that makes this book so sad." - Washington Times "Dorothy Fall's charming, intensely personal portrait of her late husband as a man of vision, courage, and great humanitarian instincts adds to our understanding not only of him but also of an era that spans America's thrusting optimism in the wake of World War II, its self-discovery in the civil rights revolution, and its disillusionment during Vietnam. Bernard Fall fought with the French underground, investigated Nazi war crimes, and became America's leading scholar on Indochina as well as an outstanding author and journalist. His life was cut tragically short by his pursuit of truth, but he lived it to the brim." - Jim Hoagland, associate editor, The Washington Post "All students of the Vietnam wars know the works of the great historian Bernard Fall. This poignant and unblinking account reveals the life that propelled him to his monumental and ultimately tragic task." - Don Oberdorfer, former Washington Post diplomatic correspondent and author of Tet! The Turning Point of the Vietnam War "This is a tale of two love stories: one for a family, the other for a haunting 'mistress' - Vietnam. As this memoir by his widow vividly illustrates, it remains appalling that Robert McNamara or any of the 'best and brightest' architects of the Vietnam War did not heed Bernard Fall's brilliant accounts of how and why the French failed in Vietnam. It also reveals the riveting 'made-for-the-movies' secret risk-taking life of Fall, who saw his parents perish in the Holocaust, shot Germans as a teenage French resistance fighter, became a courageous and famed journalist, and lost his life in the pursuit of truth." - Myra MacPherson, author of All Governments Lie! The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone and Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation "Bernard Fall knew the country, the enemy, and the nature of the war better than any person I met during my long involvement in the war in Southeast Asia.... His death was a great tragedy to our nation. He had the power, the knowledge, and the ability to influence the policy-makers and just at the time he died, he was on the ascent. His followers were virtually a quiet army, and I'm proud to say I was one of those soldiers." - Col. David H. Hackworth, U.S. Army (Ret.), author of About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior "Surely the Vietnamese people are not the only ones awaiting Dorothy Fall's memoir written with her heart about the life of her husband, Bernard Fall. He was a great friend of the Vietnamese people, a fighter who sacrificed himself in the struggle for truth, freedom, and peace on our Earth, which so often is not peaceful." - Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, commander of the People's Army of Vietnam during the Vietnam War "Well worth reading for anyone with more than a passing interest in the Vietnam War." - David Chanoff, Washington Post" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

"Dorothy Fall’s charming, intensely personal portrait of her late husband as a man of vision, courage, and great humanitarian instincts adds to our understanding not only of him but also of an era that spans America’s thrusting optimism in the wake of World War II, its self-discovery in the civil rights revolution, and its disillusionment during Vietnam. Bernard Fall fought with the French underground, investigated Nazi war crimes, and became America’s leading scholar on Indochina as well as an outstanding author and journalist. His life was cut tragically short by his pursuit of truth, but he lived it to the brim." —Jim Hoagland, associate editor, The Washington Post

"All students of the Vietnam wars know the works of the great historian Bernard Fall. This poignant and unblinking account reveals the life that propelled him to his monumental and ultimately tragic task." —Don Oberdorfer, former Washington Post diplomatic correspondent and author of Tet! The Turning Point of the Vietnam War

"This is a tale of two love stories: one for a family, the other for a haunting ‘mistress’—Vietnam. As this memoir by his widow vividly illustrates, it remains appalling that Robert McNamara or any of the ‘best and brightest’ architects of the Vietnam War did not heed Bernard Fall’s brilliant accounts of how and why the French failed in Vietnam. It also reveals the riveting ‘made-for-the-movies’ secret risk-taking life of Fall, who saw his parents perish in the Holocaust, shot Germans as a teenage French resistance fighter, became a courageous and famed journalist, and lost his life in the pursuit of truth." —Myra MacPherson, author of All Governments Lie! The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone and Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation

"Bernard Fall knew the country, the enemy, and the nature of the war better than any person I met during my long involvement in the war in Southeast Asia. . . . His death was a great tragedy to our nation. He had the power, the knowledge, and the ability to influence the policy-makers and just at the time he died, he was on the ascent. His followers were virtually a quiet army, and I’m proud to say I was one of those soldiers." —Col. David H. Hackworth, U.S. Army (Ret.), author of About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior

"Surely the Vietnamese people are not the only ones awaiting Dorothy Fall’s memoir written with her heart about the life of her husband, Bernard Fall. He was a great friend of the Vietnamese people, a fighter who sacrificed himself in the struggle for truth, freedom, and peace on our Earth, which so often is not peaceful." —Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, commander of the People’s Army of Vietnam during the Vietnam War

Bernard Fall wrote the classics Street Without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place, which detailed the French experience in Vietnam. One of the first (and the best-informed) Western observers to say that the United States could not win there either, he was killed in Vietnam in 1967 while accompanying a Marine platoon.

Written by his widow Dorothy, Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar tells the story of this courageous and influential Frenchman, who experienced many of the major events of the twentieth century. His mother perished at Auschwitz, his father was killed by the Gestapo, and he himself fought in the Resistance. It focuses, however, on Vietnam and on two love stories. The first details Fall’s love for Vietnam and his efforts to save the country from destruction and the United States from disaster. The second shows a husband and father dedicated to a cause that continuously lured him away from those he loved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc. (September 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574889575
• ISBN-13: 978-1574889574
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #934,385 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Scholar Portrayed by Outstanding Widow, September 20, 2006

By	S. Annand (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was lucky in that I got to see the first book presentation by Dorothy Fall on the day this book came out, September 18.

I used a number of Fall's books in my thesis on Vietnam over 20 years ago. As Dorothy stated, there are many lessons to learn regarding the war in Iraq and modern issues from what happened to Bernard Fall.

I was surprised to read how Bernard's mother was deported to Auschwitz, where she died. They were Jewish and living in Austria, fleeing to initially to France. They were given up by the Jewish community leaders, something Bernard never forgot. He claims to have murdered the French Jews responsible as the worst kind of collaborators. His father was eventually caught and killed by the Gestapo, which was why Bernard joined the resistance at 16. He made some interesting observations, in that killing Germans resulted in 50 French being killed in retaliation. the resistance switched to killing traitors and collaborators, which was much more effective. Toward the end of the war, Bernard was in the regular French Army and fighting with the Moroccans.

I was surprised that Bernard then worked for the Nuremberg Trials as a researcher, specifically the Krupp trials. He seemed to have come up with a great idea of producing maps and diagrams like a statistician. He would later use this technique to prove VC domination in Vietnam. He made maps that showed areas where the villagers did not pay taxes and also where the most assassinations were taking place.

The chapter "Howard" was another revelation. He really planted the seed with black students at this prestigious black university. Even Stokely Carmichael wrote glowingly about Fall as an influence. Even the late Ron Ridenhour, the Vietnam War soldier who broke the My Lai massacre by writing to congressmen (who blew him off), said he was inspired by Fall and had read his book Street Without Joy.

I was also surprised that Dorothy, an extremely gifted painter, drew the diagrams, maps, and pictures in that book. When Bernard interviewed Ho, he mentioned that his wife had drawn a picture of him for the book. Ho got excited and had him show it. He was impressed, then took the flowers out of the vase on the table, gave them to Bernard, and told him to kiss Dorothy on the cheek for him. Unfortunately, Bernard was killed in 1967 at age 40 when he stepped on a mine while on patrol with Marines.

The chapter Surveillance shows how out of control this government was. He was watched and the phone tapped by the FBI, just because he told the truth about the war and how badly it was going. The FBI tried to get the military to stop inviting him to speak, but they always stuck by him. Many job opportunities and visa rejections were put out by the FBI. Even many big national newspapers refused to print his reports. Dorothy, however, still seemed not to understand why the Washington Post refused to print his stories, while one Post reporter called Bernard a traitor.

Dorothy says there are many lessons for today. I totally agree. It's all here: positive spin over truth, a government out of touch with reality, corrupt politicians, and a weak American media. Strange how history repeats itself.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Unique View of a Fascinating Life, October 3, 2006

By	GEORGE W. SHADOAN Pa - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a taut, lucid, sometimes emotional, but never sentimental account of a fascinating life - that of Bernard Fall. Of course, I had heard of Bernard Fall. What literate adult during the Vietnam War had not? But, unlike many, I had not read his books and certainly did not know his story. In his widow's eyes, the author of this book, Bernard was a soldier-scholar who devoted his life to the unyielding pursuit of truth. He was a tough guy. From age sixteen until age nineteen he fought against the Nazis as a member of the French resistence and then served in the French army. At age twenty he worked as an investigator assisting the Nuernberg tribunal. But during the Vietnam War, while popular with the military, he was a misguided missile in the mind of FBI Director Hoover. His phones were tapped. FBI surveillance was openly conducted. Government officials who spoke with Fall were subjected to FBI interviews suggesting that care should be taken with their associations. A lesser man would have been intimidated. Not Fall. And, of course, then as now the efforts to silence political critics with labels of "aid and comfort" to the enemy were wrong to the point of lunacy. For example after describing the Vietminh death march of French prisoners following the fall of Dien Bien Phu - Ms. Fall quotes Bernard's outraged response, ". . . it turns my stomach over what the Commies have done to our men. And it is kept secret for fear it'd upset the delicate apple cart in certain situations. Like hell - I'm gonna get some of this out and politics be damned. " [p. 118]

This book reveals some unmistakable lessons of history. Now, as a result of reading this book, I have purchased Street Without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place, which are venerated as Fall's masterpieces. I expect that the story of that terrible time will, in some ways, be more richly revealed in them. But Ms. Fall's book discloses personal details that will not be found in her husband's books. These give added meaning to her late husband's writings - and to his life. If you are interested in which lessons from the Vietnam era that should have been studied before and after America's invasion of Iraq, you definitely should read this book.
George W. Shadoan

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Book for Generations, March 3, 2007

By	John J. Casserly "Jack Casserly" (Prescott, Arizona) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This intimate portrait of Bernard Fall by his wife is a detailed reflection on the author and his collected works that will be read for generations by many of the world's military as well as politicians, reporters and others. It offers a personal vantage point into Fall's insights regarding the nature of insurgency warfare in Vietnam. This work leads the reader to reflect on why American leaders did not have the foresight to heed the author's warnings about the necessity to learn the history, culture and politics of a nation before leaping into war. In the latest case, Iraq. The profound depth and originality of Fall's work is confirmed by the detailed insights into the man and motives by his wife. One powrful aspect of this book is that is not pretentious. Jack Casserly longtime war correspondent and author of 10 books