The Seeds of Disaster

An examination of the military doctrine that animated the French defense against the German invasion in 1940.

Argues that the French learned the wrong lessons from World War I and were ill prepared for World War II

Lessons for modern armies about how to learn from past wars and prepare for future wars

Winner of the Paul Birdsall Prize of the American Historical Association

Brig. Gen. Robert A. Doughty, USA (Ret.), is a graduate of West Point, former chair of its history department, and a prize-winning military historian. He is the author of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War. He lives in Louisiana.