Book - Oxford University Press
Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare
An elegant biography of a highly influential twentieth-century military thinker, a man haunted by both the Holocaust and the futility of modern warfare.
Featured in the Belfer Center Spring 2021 Newsletter »
In a 1965 letter to Newsweek, French writer and academic Bernard Fall (1926–67) staked a claim as the ‘Number One Realist’ on the Vietnam War. This is the first book to study the thought of this overlooked figure, one of the most important experts on counterinsurgency warfare in Indochina. Nathaniel L. Moir’s intellectual history analyses Fall’s formative experiences: his service in the French underground and army during the Second World War; his father’s execution by the Germans and his mother’s murder in Auschwitz; and his work as a research analyst at the Nuremberg Trials.
Moir demonstrates how these critical events shaped Fall’s trenchant analysis of Viet Minh-led revolutionary warfare during the French-Indochina War and the early Vietnam War. In the years before conventional American intervention in 1965, Fall argued that—far more than anything in the United States’ military arsenal—resolving conflict in Vietnam would require political strength, willpower, integrity and skill.
Number One Realist illuminates Fall’s study of political reconciliation in Indochina, while showing how his profound, humanitarian critique of war continues to echo in the endless conflicts of the present. It will challenge and change the way we think about the Vietnam War.
About This Book
Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare
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For Academic Citation:
Moir, Nathaniel L. Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, April 2022.
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Featured in the Belfer Center Spring 2021 Newsletter »
In a 1965 letter to Newsweek, French writer and academic Bernard Fall (1926–67) staked a claim as the ‘Number One Realist’ on the Vietnam War. This is the first book to study the thought of this overlooked figure, one of the most important experts on counterinsurgency warfare in Indochina. Nathaniel L. Moir’s intellectual history analyses Fall’s formative experiences: his service in the French underground and army during the Second World War; his father’s execution by the Germans and his mother’s murder in Auschwitz; and his work as a research analyst at the Nuremberg Trials.
Moir demonstrates how these critical events shaped Fall’s trenchant analysis of Viet Minh-led revolutionary warfare during the French-Indochina War and the early Vietnam War. In the years before conventional American intervention in 1965, Fall argued that—far more than anything in the United States’ military arsenal—resolving conflict in Vietnam would require political strength, willpower, integrity and skill.
Number One Realist illuminates Fall’s study of political reconciliation in Indochina, while showing how his profound, humanitarian critique of war continues to echo in the endless conflicts of the present. It will challenge and change the way we think about the Vietnam War.
About This Book
- Recommended
- In the Spotlight
- Most Viewed
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Journal Article - Small Wars Journal
Bernard Fall as an Andrew Marshall Avant la Lettre (Part II)
Journal Article - Small Wars Journal
Rethinking Bernard Fall's Legacy. The Persistent Relevance of Revolutionary Warfare (Part I)
Magazine Article - War Room
Jungle Mission: A Review
In the Spotlight
Most Viewed
Analysis & Opinions - Politico
'My Mother Told Me Not to Speak Ill of the Dead': Political Experts on Henry Kissinger's Legacy
Paper - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Attacking Artificial Intelligence: AI’s Security Vulnerability and What Policymakers Can Do About It
Analysis & Opinions - The Boston Globe
Is Trump Risking the Bedrock Principle of the U.S.-India Partnership?