Book Basics – Media Room – Related Reading – Your Page – Meet Dorothy Fall
This is a story of a man whose intellectual curiosity about a war in Indochina became a lifelong obsession and ultimately led to his death at the age of 40.
Bernard Fall was a young doctoral student in 1953 when he began learning about the French occupation of Vietnam. The subject would become his life’s work as a military analyst, historian and author of six books on Vietnam.
His wife Dorothy referred to Vietnam as her husband’s “mistress” and it was Fall’s passion for documenting the war from the front lines that ended his life in 1967. And it was Dorothy’s determination to honor her husband’s quest for the truth that provided the impetus to write his memoirs.
In this exploration, we discover what made Bernard Fall risk and lose his life to record the French and American military quagmires in Vietnam. In light of the current military quagmire in Iraq, Fall’s insights are a timely reminder of the futility in using military solutions to solve political conflicts. (See in-depth review below).
— Nancy Peacock
Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar.By Dorothy Fall
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.,
Number of pages: 265
ISBN Number: 1-57488-957-5
Buy the book:
Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar
Nancy Peacock is a former reporter, columnist and editor whose freelance articles have been published in BusinessWeek, Midwest Living, and Cleveland Magazine. She is the author of eight published books and resides in Medina, Ohio.
Review of Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar
Forty years after he stepped on a landmine in Vietnam, Bernard Fall’s
writings continue to influence military historians, academics, political
analysts and the media.Two days before his own death on April 23, Pulitzer Prize-winning
writer David Halberstam described Fall as a great teacher and a
wonderful historian whose seminal work, Hell in a Very Small Place: The
Siege of Dien Bien Phu, predicted the later American defeat in Vietnam.
Fall’s wife Dorothy was a young mother with three small daughters when
her husband died in 1967. Taking a six-month leave of absence from her
job in 1971, she tried to write his memoirs from the mountains of
documents and research in his basement office. But the project was left
unfinished until 24 years later, when former Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara published his memoirs In Retrospect. In it, he claimed
he made bad policy choices in Vietnam because policy makers “lacked
experts to consult to compensate for their ignorance.”Dorothy’s outrage at McNamara’s historical revisionism, coupled with
FBI files that revealed the bureau’s surveillance of Fall and his
family, gave her the momentum to complete his memoirs. The book is a
tribute to his relentless search for the truth about French and American
involvement in Vietnam and the enormous price this country paid for
ignoring the primary research and reporting of an eminent writer, military
analyst and scholar.There is no one better to tell Fall’s story than Dorothy, who admits
to being enthralled by his larger-than-life personality, yet
understands how her husband’s attraction to dangerous assignments
ultimately led to his death. Though Dorothy identifies herself
primarily as an artist, her writing is eloquent and the compelling
story pulls the reader into those stormy years of social upheaval.
Also, she has the benefit of great subject material. As an Austrian
Jewish teenager hiding from the Nazis in France during World War II,
Fall became a saboteur in the French Resistance. After the war, he
studied at Syracuse University where he met Dorothy. He first learned
of the French war in Indochina while studying for his PhD. In 1953
Fall went to Vietnam. Fluent in French, he interviewed everyone from
the foot soldier to the generals on both sides. His conclusion that the
French did not control Vietnam was eerily prescient of the American
conflict years later.Street Without Joy was published in 1961 and reviewers praised the
book for its insights. But as the United States became more militarily
committed in Vietnam, Fall’s observations became less welcome by
American policymakers. Yet the anti-war movement and the media
increasingly sought out his analysis and members of Congress called on
Fall for his perspective.In 1967, the 40-year-old Fall took a sabbatical from his teaching
position at Howard University to travel once again to Vietnam for
first-hand observation and reporting. He was out on patrol with the
Third Marine Division near Hue on the Street Without Joy, a string of
villages northwest of the city. Fall was walking in a line of soldiers
along a dike, narrating into his tape recorder, when he detonated a
“Bouncing Betty” land mine. He was killed instantly. But thanks to the
painstaking research and passionate determination of his wife, Bernard
Fall’s story remains an unflinching, lifelong quest for truth.Reviewer Nancy Peacock is a former reporter, columnist and editor whose
freelance articles have been published in BusinessWeek, Midwest Living,
and Cleveland Magazine. She is the author of eight published books and
resides in Medina, Ohio.
