Warriors and Fools

Warriors and Fools is not just another book about the Vietnam War.  It is different from most.  Unlike some others, the author is a veteran of that conflict, and a retired military officer with nearly thirty years’ service.  He has spent much of the last three decades studying the war and taught a course on Vietnam at a prestigious senior military war college.

This book is also different from others because it is a story not just of the American decisions and actions during the war.  This Vietnam War story uses the latest, ground breaking research and released documentation of the war from the Communist Vietnamese side of the conflict.   Consequently, the book delves deeply into the decision making, strategies, motives, and goals of the North Vietnam leaders as they waged their war for unification, first against the French and then against the Americans.  The book also uses memoirs, interviews, and oral histories of former South Vietnamese leaders and combatants to discover their views on their struggle to form a new nation free from communist aggression.

Warriors and Fools is both broad and deep in scope in its narration of the Vietnam War story.  It takes the reader from the White House’s oval office and Hanoi’s Politburo room, to the Pentagon’s and North Vietnam Army’s command centers, to Vietnam’s mountain and rice patty battlefields to show the determination, deceit, foolhardiness, mistakes, courage, and horrors of war from the views of both sides. 

While it examines multiple participant views, overall the book seeks to answer one specific question - why did the US fail to achieve its principal objective to defend South Vietnam from communist aggression?  The story’s findings and conclusions are neither orthodox nor revisionist.  Those trying to gain insights on how American civilian leaders lost the war that its military could have won; or how the US Congress, Press, or Antiwar activists convinced the Public to stop its support will be disappointed.  None of these traditional ‘answers’ on why the US lost are really valid.

Rather, as this story explains the answer is much more linked to human factors, interactions, and relationships.  In this case, the interrelationship between American civilian and military leaders and advisors was extraordinarily divisive and dysfunctional.  So much so that it resulted in flawed, timid policies and foolish strategies that led to defeat.  Moreover, that troublesome interrelationship was primarily a result of mistrusts, misunderstandings, and misperceptions on their roles, responsibilities, and what they thought would lead to a positive end to the war.  In addition, primarily because they were either ignorant of the nature of war or overconfident from their past experiences, civilian and military policymakers ignored or misunderstood their enemy.

Warriors and Fools should be of interest to those who served in the war, and serious students and teachers of this event and period.  It is not intended as light reading, or for someone trying to get just a brief understanding of what happened there and in America at the time.

"[In Warriors and Fools] Rothmann (None Will Surpass, 2014), a West Point graduate, retired Army colonel, and a veteran soldier who led infantry units into combat in Vietnam, has his own theories [about the loss in Vietnam]: “Leader misjudgments and miscalculations were not the only reasons for this failure...they were more a result of personal faults and a lack of trust, honesty, and understanding among and between American civilian leaders and their military counterparts.” Furthermore, neither the U.S. military commanders nor the nation’s civilian leaders had an adequate understanding or respect for their adversary, an expertly organized and dedicated force that pursued its clear goals through subterfuge and strategy. The author uses firsthand accounts from both sides to analyze the conflict from its beginnings in 1950s Cold War politics to the Fall of Saigon in 1975. He also critiques the (incorrect) lessons that American leaders took from the Vietnam War and how these have been applied to the country’s subsequent conflicts. Rothmann writes in an accessible prose that reads mostly as general history (with a few of his own reflections and opinions scattered throughout. A thought-provoking, well-researched diagnosis of the Vietnam War." Kirkus Indie Review

"Vietnam War remains an enigma in American history. It was a war in which the victor lost every battle; a war in which a cabinet hailed as the ‘best and brightest’ seemed to stumble across every tripwire they came across. There are so many baffling angles about Vietnam that it’s safe to say we have only begun the effort to understand what happened - both in the jungle and back home in Washington.

In that vain, Harry Rothmann has put together [in Warriors and Fools] one of the most comprehensive retrospectives on the war- diving deeply into the dysfunction of the relationships between US military and civilian leadership. Leveraging recently released classified material, Rothmann offers rare insights into the complex dynamics of the relationships between LBJ, Taylor, Westmoreland, Abrams, Lodge, Bunker, Kissinger, Nixon, etc. Through comprehensive research he sheds light on how Washington and its top brass got it wrong, while America’s brave troops fought a war they had no chance of winning. Rothmann thoughtfully contrasts the US resolve and strategy against that of its enemy. Accessing a trove of interviews with North Vietnamese leadership, Rothmann sheds light on the evolution of the North Vietnamese’s winning strategy.

For those looking for a deep and thoughtful look at the mistakes America made during the prosecution of this war, and those who enjoyed Ken Burns/Novick PBS series but want even more insight, Rothmann’s “Warriors and Fools” is a great read" ..LIzzo on Amazon

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I have been a student of the Viet Nam experience for over 50 years. Through the years I have read hundreds of books focused on the operational to strategic aspects of the Viet Nam conflict. This is the single best piece of literature I have ever read concerning this conflict: warriors (both sides), political dynamics, military leaders and fact based "so what" analysis. I have never read a book that weaves all of the pieces together. After all these years Harry Rothman finally has told the complete story. Warriors and Fools is the complete literary work concerning the Viet Nam conflict. Rothman writes as an author who was not only a War College History Professor, but also carried an M-16 as a warrior leader in the jungles and villages of Viet Nam. As you read Warriors and Fools, you read a wonderfully blended piece of non fiction that is hard to put down. Fantastic holistic research and personal experiences that make this a must read! Highly recommend! RThomas on Amazon