The March of Folly_ From Troy to Vietnam - Barbara Wertheim Tuchman [1]
House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to The University of
Chicago Press for permission to reprint an excerpt from
The Iliad, translated by Richmond Lattimore. Copyright 1951 by
the University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
Used by permission.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 84-45672
eISBN: 978-0-307-79856-5
This edition by arrangement with
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York.
v3.1
“And I can see no reason why anyone should suppose that in the future the same motifs already heard will not be sounding still … put to use by reasonable men to reasonable ends, or by madmen to nonsense and disaster.”
JOSEPH CAMPBELL
Foreword to The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology, 1969
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
One PURSUIT OF POLICY CONTRARY TO SELF-INTEREST
Two PROTOTYPE: THE TROJANS TAKE THE WOODEN HORSE WITHIN THEIR WALLS
Three THE RENAISSANCE POPES PROVOKE THE PROTESTANT SECESSION: 1470–1530
1. Murder in a Cathedral: Sixtus IV
2. Host to the Infidel: Innocent VIII
3. Depravity: Alexander VI
4. The Warrior: Julius II
5. The Protestant Break: Leo X
6. The Sack of Rome: Clement VII
Four THE BRITISH LOSE AMERICA
1. Who’s In, Who’s Out: 1763–65
2. “Asserting a Right You Know You Cannot Exert”: 1765
3. Folly Under Full Sail: 1766–72
4. “Remember Rehoboam!”: 1772–75
5. “… A Disease, a Delirium”: 1775–83
Five AMERICA BETRAYS HERSELF IN VIETNAM
1. In Embryo: 1945–46
2. Self-Hypnosis: 1946–54
3. Creating the Client: 1954–60
4. “Married to Failure”: 1960–63
5. Executive War: 1964–68
6. Exit: 1969–73
Epilogue “A LANTERN ON THE STERN”
Reference Notes and Works Consulted
About the Author
Source references will be found in the notes at the end of the book, located by page number and an identifying phrase from the text.
Illustrations
THE TROJANS TAKE THE WOODEN HORSE WITHIN THEIR WALLS
1. Amphora showing the Wooden Horse, 670 B.C. (Mykonos Museum, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Athens)
2. Wall painting from Pompeii, c. 1st century B.C. (Museo Nazionale, Naples; Photo: Fogg Art Museum)
3. Bas-relief depicting an Assyrian siege engine, 884–860 B.C. (British Museum)
4. Laocoon, Roman, C.A.D. 50 (Museo Pio-Clementino, Belvedere, Vatican)
THE RENAISSANCE POPES PROVOKE THE PROTESTANT SECESSION: 1470–1530
1. Sixtus IV, by Melozzo da Forli (Vatican Museum; Photo: Scala)
2. Innocent VIII, by Antonio del Pollaiuolo (St. Peter’s; Photo: Scala)
3. Alexander VI, by Pinturicchio (Vatican; Photo: Scala)
4. The Mass of Bolsena, showing Julius II, by Raphael (Vatican; Photo: Scala)
5. Leo X, by Raphael (Uffizi, Florence; Photo: Scala)
6. Clement VII, by Sebastiano del Piombo (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples; Photo: Scala)
7. The Battle of Pavia, Brussels tapestry (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples; Photo: Scala)
8. The traffic of indulgences, by Hans Holbein the Younger (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dick Fund 1936)
9. Lutheran satire on papal reform (American Heritage)
THE BRITISH LOSE AMERICA
1. The House of Commons during the reign of George III, by Karl Anton Hickel (National Portrait Gallery)
2. William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, by Richard Brompton (National Portrait Gallery)
3. George III, from the studio of Allan Ramsay (National Portrait Gallery)
4. Charles Townshend, British School, painter unknown (Collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, K.T., Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfriesshire; Photo: Tom Scott)
5. Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, by Pompeo Batoni (British Museum)
6. Edmund Burke, from the studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds (National Portrait Gallery)
7. Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, from the studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds (National Portrait Gallery)
8. Racehorses belonging to Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, exercising under the eye of the Duke and