Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare
Nathaniel L. Moir
Hurst: 2021
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When was the last year in which war in Vietnam could have been averted? 1964, when the US Congress approved the ‘Gulf of Tonkin’ Resolution? 1954, when the Geneva Accords ‘temporarily’ partitioned the country? 1945, when Ho Chi Minh and his comrades declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam? Any advances on 1945?

Bernard Fall was one of the earliest commentators to offer an answer. This new biography should be applauded for bringing his heroic life story to the attention of contemporary readers. Fall first arrived in Hanoi in May 1953, a time when French military commanders still believed they could crush the Vietnamese nationalist movement with firepower. This was just a year before the nationalist movement crushed the French military at the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

• Tags: Bill Hayton, Issue 28, Nathaniel L. Moir, Vietnam