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Epic Folly

March 12, 2026 · 12:05 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Richard Haass: “It has been over forty years since the historian Barbara Tuchman wrote The March of Folly. The book examines wars that ought not to have been fought as they went against the self-interest of the empire or country that undertook them even when preferable alternatives were available. Tuchman’s thinking aligns with my own, with what I termed ‘wars of choice’ in an op-ed published in 2003, months into the Iraq War, and in my subsequent book, Wars of Necessity, Wars of Choice.”

“The subtitle of Tuchman’s book is From Troy to Vietnam. An updated edition might well read, From Troy to Iran or, better yet, From Troy to Iraq to Iran.”

The March of Folly
From Troy to Vietnam
by Barbara Wertheim Tuchman · Random House · 2011
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