Barbara Tuchman\'s March of Folly

¶ … Barbara Tuchman's March of Folly and the movie Fog of War provide different historical lenses with which to view contemporary problems and issues. The writer explores each of the projects and shares reactions to them.

There is an age old saying that history repeats itself. It means different things to different people but the simple definition is that things that happened before will surely happen again, it is only a matter of time. It is important to learn from the past so that society can avoid making the same mistakes in the future and one of the ways that this can be avoided is to understand contemporary issues and how they impact the world. In Barbara Tuchman's March of Folly and the movie Fog of War one can get a sense of contemporary problems as well as the importance of understanding history in the effort to avoid repeating mistakes.

In March of Folly the author provides an insight to the importance of understanding the past as she reviews the historical events as they relate to government follies. The American public has been critical of current government for many years and Tuchman brings to light the fact that governments without criticism are often governments out of control.

Tuchman brings home the fact that a government folly is a governmental pursuit of something that is not in its own best interest.

The book goes into detail with regard to four major events in history, including the Trojan War, the American Revolution, the loss of American Colonies and the persistence of America with regards to the Vietnam Conflict.

When I read this book I felt a sense of longing to return to the moral values that have always been portrayed in the world of Norman Rockwell. Tuchman provides a clear window to past stupidities by governments, and uses those follies to unveil the weakness of mankind in the support of those governments as well.

While some people may read the book and decide Tuchman used the first few chapters to lay the groundwork for her real passion, the discussion about the Vietnam War, I realized that what she was actually doing was proving the saying "history repeats itself." Even though each of the events she discusses in the book happen in different parts of the world at different times in history, they all indicate and evidence that governments can pursue something even against significant evidence that to pursue this particular goal is not in the best interest of the government itself nor the people that government is supposed to represent.

We have seen Congress vote for wars that nobody wanted, and in the book the Renaissance chapter shows the reader how long ago that first began to happen.

The images the author provides of a Pope hiring prostitutes and having wild parties can be likened to many of the current attitudes the government has about using third world nations.

When I got to the chapter about the American colonies I was struck by the similarity I saw in the English government then and the United States government during the 1950's.

It is rare for me to read a book and after I put it down I still think about its implications in current society, but Tuchman touched a nerve in me with her streamlined views about government folly.

A clearly remember being younger and watching current events on television and when they were over with or the government finally changed its course of action I thought to myself, "Thank God that is over." Once I read this book however, I realized that it is never truly over. History will repeat itself and it causes me to worry about future generations. As the world becomes more technically advanced the ability to do great harm grows. If the governments continue to pursue goals that are not in their own best interests, or hide those goals under the guise of being for the common good what can eventually happen is the world as we know it will cease to exist.

President Bush got government backing to go to war with Iraq. This is a classic example of Tuchman's point.

Even against all advice by the American public, and the outcry that has recently become deafening he pursues the war. Even though it has caused is popularity rating to nosedive he has pursued the war.

This book gave me a solid understanding of how and why such follies occur and make me wonder how we have evolved so far as a society without being able to learn from our past mistakes.

This book is a must read for anyone who looks at history with a question mark and wants to know whether history indeed repeats itself.

FOG of WAR

The movie the Fog of War was not similar to March of Folly. It covered an entirely different topic and served an entirely different purpose.

This movie is about a very specific person and set of events. Robert S. McNamara received a Berkley and a Harvard education and for the era he was considered to be one of the most brilliant men alive. He used that brilliance to perform statistical analysis for the purpose of improving the World War II bombing strategy.

His work eventually got him elevated to Secretary of Defense under JFK and President Johnson respectively.

While the March of Folly is a rambling look at several historical events, the Fog of War is a documentary that is filled with interviews with McNamara himself.

The film includes press and news releases as well as taped conversations between LBJ and McNamara.

The most important thing that I took from the film is that society and its governing bodies do not always act in their own best interest.

A also realized after watching this film that mankind will make mistakes no matter how intelligent its leaders of advisors may be.

This man was brilliant. He was supposed to be someone who could look at a problem and produce the best solution. If that was possible he would have surely advised against the wars that he helped improve.

The one thing the film and the book do have in common for me is the repeated evidence that history will repeat itself.