The Seeds of Disaster – The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939

 

The Seeds of Disaster – The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939 by Robert A Doughty

When one considers the two world wars during the 20^th century, they may be inclined to ask: “Why was the country of France so prevalent during the first world war, yet basically nonexistent during the second?”  Yes, we know there was a lot fighting IN France during World War II – Dunkirk and the Normandy invasion come to mind, but we don’t hear much of anything about French soldiers nor leaders.  Other than Charles De Gaulle, we really only hear about the Vichy (puppet) government and the fact that Nazi Germany basically controlled the entire country during the bulk of the conflict.

This book is an attempt to tell us why.  This book lays out all of the details in what essentially happened in France between the two world wars that essentially led to the emasculation of the country military-wise.  I really wish that I could say that this was interesting reading. It wasn’t. It was a slog. Perhaps the subtitle with the word “doctrine” should have warned me.  Doctrines, although extremely important when studying history, don’t necessarily make interesting reading.

This book reads like a government field manual. A long government field manual.  It details everything. Now, I do attest that the subject matter in this book is extremely important for major countries that might potentially find themselves involved in a war in the foreseeable future.  This book is a good reminder that countries need a lot more than guns and bravado to succeed. Perhaps this is why we constantly hear that military budgets are so high.  For the leaders of the armed forces to be successful, no stone can be left unturned.

So we read about morale, population segments, geography, economy, relations with other countries, leadership, government, and on and on and on.  This book has a lot of detailed meticulous facts presented to the reader, but there simply isn’t much to keep one interested.  This entire book could get its point across in about 1/10 the page space.   Imagine, say, you watch a 30-minute television show.  You then watch the exact same story but it’s then presented in a format that lasts over 10 hours.  How soon would you fall asleep, or at least mentally check out?

As important as this history lesson is, I can’t honestly recommend this book. I’m willing to bet that there’s a documentary out there, or at least a YouTube video, that can make the same points outlined in this book, only with a lot more brevity that what we’re presented with here.  I’ll say it again, note the word “doctrine” in the title.  A good book for a thesis or term paper, but for enjoyment? Not so much.