Fall, Bernard B., 1926-1967

Epithet: American writer on Vietnam

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000561.0x000228

Bernard B. Fall (1926-1967), historian and war correspondent, was born in Vienna, Austria. He grew up in southern France, losing both parents in World War II. Fall joined the resistance as a teenager and transferred to the regular army and fought with the Allies in the liberation of France and the drive into Germany. He worked briefly as an investigator for the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal and studied at the University of Paris in from 1948 to 1949; at the University of Munich from 1949 to 1950; and in the United States at Johns Hopkins University and Syracuse University. He received his M.A. from Syracuse in 1953 and his Ph.D. in political science in 1955. In 1956 he accepted an academic appointment at Howard University in international relations, which he retained until his death. Fall because of his command of French, he was prepared for work in Vietnam. Fall went to Indochina in 1953 at his own expense to research a doctoral dissertation (published in 1954 as The Viet-Minh Regime) on the Vietminh insurgents. He accompanied French troops on operations in the field, and his letters to his wife describing these operations provided the basis for his classic study of the First Indochina War, Street Without Joy (1961). He was killed by an exploding booby trap planted by the Viet Cong.

From the description of Fall, Bernard B., 1926-1967 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10581811