Guy's Book of the Day. (11/14)

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Product Description

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. With a foreword by the late David Halberstam.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #689946 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-19
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From the Publisher
Fall was the scholar, historian, journalist, and humanitarian frequently cited as the person who very early on had the correct answers about Vietnam—but to whom the U.S. government would not listen

Based on thirty years of interviews by his widow and on recently released U.S. government documents

About the Author
Bernard Falls widow, DOROTHY FALL, is a professional artist. She conducted interviews for this book in the United States, France, and Vietnam for thirty years and drew from her husbands entire correspondence, his autobiographical writings, his notes written in Vietnam, and official U.S. government files revealed here for the first time. She lives in Washington, D.C.

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Customer Reviews

A Great Man
I took a break from coding, wandered over to the internet and googled 'Bernard Fall'. I ended up at a website that asked for reminiscenses from any people who might have known the great scholar-journalist-soldier. I had never met Bernard Fall but always felt a kinship so I sent an e-mail and the next day received a reply from Dorothy Fall, his widow. She told me about her book and now I have read it.

Mrs. Fall's account of Bernard's falling out with his professor brought home to me a truth that I have learned in life: once harsh words are spoken, something breaks inside that can never be repaired. Yes, you can reconcile but the trust -- the true friendship -- that was there is gone never to be regained. I have seen this too many times. Never humiliate or let your angry words cross the line that separates communication -- however heated -- and personal attack. If you do, your friend will become your acquaintance. If it is your spouse, your child, your mother or father, brother or sister, you will acquire a sadness and a regret that stays with you until you die.

Except for my father and elderly relatives, I have never lost a loved one and the prospect has always been my greatest fear. But Mrs. Fall lost her dear one in such an abrupt way and at such a young age. The greatness of the man never diminishes but his fame does diminish with time. I can't imagine what it is like to live with the memory of such a man after over 40 years. I am grateful that she wrote this book to help keep his memory alive and I hope that it will point some young people in the direction of his books and thus carry his legacy to future generations.

To the extent that Bernard Fall's major works can be described as scholarly in nature, they are of an extremely engaging and accessible type. If they can be called journalism, they are a rare form of scholarly journalism. I know his books are read widely in the military. I wonder if his works and his methods are studied much in journalism schools. They should be. The point here is that his observations were delivered not as simple reportage or advocacy but as the result of careful and thorough research. Would that all reporters today took that approach. Would that the men in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations had given him the time that he deserved. Some had a bunker mentality born of the realities of the cold war. They correctly saw that many on the anti-war left were not just against the war but were ideologically in sync with communism and hoped for an American defeat for its own sake. Their error was that they could not see that Fall was not one of them. He could have helped so much. Others were just arrogant.

Another aspect of Fall's writing is his acceptance of the nature of war. Read 'Hell In A Very Small Place' and reflect on the affection that the French soldiers had for their 'quad 50's'. Fall understood that affection and related it to the reader unalloyed by moral reservations. Up until the end of the seige, French voluteers jumped into the valley and likely death. Again, Fall understood what motivated these men and this understanding comes through in his writing. Had he been in the service at the time, I am sure that he would have been among those who jumped.

So why would a 61-year-old programmer end up googling Bernard Fall? I was a history major but went to study in Thailand in '66 while under the influence of the finest teacher I have ever met, political science professor Ralph Fretty. I bought Fall's books from a bookstore in Bangkok and read them all in my spare time. Professor Fretty taught me what true scholarship is and I immediately perceived that in Fall's writings. When I read the affectionate accounts of Fall's former students that Dorothy Fall included in her book, everything clicked. I hold Bernard Fall's memory dearly because he is, for me, a Mr. Chips. Like professor Fretty, he taught me the true meaning of scholarship. When the teacher is of such greatness, the devotion never dies.

Fall of an Icon
I'll never forget that February day in Saigon when the message announcing Bernard Fall's death crossed my desk. It was unbelievable that Viet-Nam had finally consumed this man. All of us who'd been there in the early '60s and involved in our counterinsurgency effort had read his books and to us he was the one person who really knew something about the country. When Lee Lanning and I wrote our seminal book on the communist Vietnamese soldier we relied heavily on Dr. Fall's writings. Although his criticism of our government's policy in Viet-Nam put him into the company of some people whose anti-war motives I've always considered far more sinister than "educating" the public, Bernard Fall was always a loyal American, an honest scholar, a friend of the American soldier, and no communist. I knew that 40 years ago but it came as a shock to me to read Mrs. Fall's account of how the FBI spied on him. I was also unaware that he tried to bring pressure on the VC through Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia to release Capt. Humbert R. Versace from captivity. I knew Capt. Versace when he was an advisor to the Vietnamese 5th Infantry Division. Dr. Fall's intervention on Rocky's behalf, albeit unsuccessful, was an outstanding act of humanity typical of Bernard Fall. Those are only two of many fascinating insights this excellent biography brings to light about this extraordinary scholar-soldier. There are areas where one may disagree with Mrs. Fall's opinions about certain Vietnamese leaders and her husband's views on how we should've dealt with them. She does not seem to understand that the Viet Cong were nothing more than an extension of the North Vietnamese Politburo whose agenda and strategy were dictated from the very beginning by Hanoi. Also, the South Vietnamese people never rallied to the Viet Cong and the war was not won by popular resistance to Saigon but by North Vietnamese tanks and artillery after the United States Congress cravenly withdrew U. S. military support from our Vietnamese allies. Are there parallels here to events of the present day, as Mrs. Fall suggests? You bet there are. But this is not a critical biography in the way others have written about famous people or an analysis of the Viet-Nam war. It is the intimate, honest, and compelling story from an unique perspective of Bernard Fall's life. I've often wondered what Dr. Fall would've thought of the events that occurred after his death, the great Tet Offensive of 1968, the Paris peace talks, the final collapse of South Vietnam, the hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees fleeing communism, and the concentration camps into which the Vietnamese who trusted us were thrown. I don't think any of that would have surprised him. I don't think he'd have been very happy about it either.

Love Story, War Story, and Much More
This is a wonderful book. This judgment is with the knowledge that I would most probably not have liked Bernard Fall (French resistance fighter, scholar, writer, historian, professor) had I been privileged to have known him. He was too much the adventurer, often arrogant, too cocksure, and hell-bent in pursuit of the passions which cost him his life. But I admire his intellect and most of all the integrity through which he doggedly stalked the facts from which he drew unpopular conclusions and expressed, without reservations, what he perceived as the truth about the quagmire that was Vietnam for both France and the United States. For this, I believe, his work will live on for as long as nations fall prey to the lure of empire.

All that aside, I fell almost in love with Dorothy through the words of this memoir in honor of the soldier-scholar who was her destiny. While she is a canvas artist by profession, she is equally an artiste when it comes to words in print. "Bernard Fall" is, at its roots, the story of a marriage, if sometimes a frustrating one. In its opening pages she candidly recognizes the competition of his mistress: the bizarre, baffling, and enigmatic attraction to Vietnam and to warfare into which it led him. At first it seemed a strange methapor by which to open a biography. But Barnard's love of both war and Indochina was so great that there was no better choice. She had married not only a husband but a mistress as well. And so there was no extraction. Even as she powerfully describes considerations of divorce, we know that it could never have happened. They are, as the writing of this book so long after the events which propels it illustrates, tied together beyond "until death us do part."

The book, however, is more than a biography and a love story. It is a travelogue offering stunning descriptions of the sights, sounds, and essences of locales where she and Barnard lived or visited in Southeast Asia, a compendium of quotations from his writings and from their letters, and a book of art and photographs. A piece of Dorothy's art heads each chapter and numerous photos are scattered throughout. Of particular interest is a chapter on the FBI's investigations and surveillance of Bernard and Dorothy; phones tapped and agents parked for hours near their home in the quiet Hollin Hills neighborhood in Northern Virginia not far from where I have lived for years. Eerie when so close to home. J. Edgar Hoover thought him a French spy. But to the FBI's credit they seem to have finally cleared him and given up the chase. Yet it remains an example of the paranoia of our age.

Perhaps, I am a little too harsh on Barnard for his cock-sure adventurism and his attachment to warfare even while so keenly analyzing the foibles and follies of both France and America in dealing with it in Vietnam. We are fascinated by and too often attracted to evil of which war is the epitome. More than forty years after experiencing deadly combat during World War II, I felt its seductive enticements again as I researched and wrote a memoir about it. Even Bernard Fall's scholarly bent failed to shield him from war's come-hither siren song. It seems doubtful if humankind shall ever learn to flee its alluring call.