Military
Reading List Monthly
MilitaryReadingList.com - August 2001 Issue
http://www.militaryreadinglist.com
IN THIS
MONTH'S ISSUE:
- Recommended Book of the Month (No End Save Victory)
- In the news (Ballistic Missile Defense)
- New to the Vietnam Reading List (The Last Battle)
-
New to the World War One Reading List (Military Blunders)
- Link Partner of the Month (Trenches on the Web)
RECOMMENDED BOOK OF THE MONTH
No
End Save Victory: Perspectives on World War II by Robert Cowley
(Editor) (March 2001)
Essays
on the most pivotal military conflict of the twentieth century written by
renowned historians and presented by the editor of the acclaimed What If?
No reader interested in twentieth-century history and the Second World War will
want to miss this collection of fascinating essays. In more than two hundred
thousand words and twenty maps, some of the most respected and well-known
military historians of our time describe the horror and heroism that defined a
generation: the chaos of Europe and the Nazi reign of terror prior to D day; the
far-flung fight in East Asia and the Pacific; the secret struggle of
intelligence services; the final Allied push into Central Europe; and the atomic
end in Japan.
Stephen E. Ambrose tells the miraculous story of a single American company that
captured a bridge over the Rhine-a river Hitler had considered a barrier never
to be broken. John Keegan takes us inside Berlin in the Spring of 1945 during
the most intense city siege in history. William Manchester reminds us of the
vital importance of the RAF's radar towers during the Battle of Britain, one of
the truly hair-raising "narrow misses" of the war. In two pieces,
Caleb Carr illuminates the only war Hitler won-the Blitzkrieg campaign over
Poland in 1939-and brings to life the German "Black Knight," Field
Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, who so inspired his troops in late 1944 that he may
have prolonged the war another six months.
Essays from other illustrious contributors include Antony Beevor on Stalingrad;
Victor Davis Hanson on General Curtis LeMay; Eliot A. Cohen on Churchill; and
Alistair Horne on Montgomery. Publisher Putnam.
IN THE NEWS: Ballistic Missile Defense
Defending America: The Case for Limited National Missile Defense by Michael E. O'Hanlon, James M. Lindsay, Michael H. Armacost (April 2001)
It
seems that Ballistic Missile Defense is front page news once again. The
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, or BMDO as they are known within the DC
beltway, continues to grow with the renewed emphasis on ballistic missile
defense in our national security strategy. Defending America examines the
emerging threats, technologies and politics associated with this controversial
initiative. Written for a general audience.
NEW TO THE VIETNAM READING LIST
The Last Battle: The Mayaguez Incident and the End of the Vietnam War by Ralph Wetterham (June 2001)
As
commanding and revelatory as the recent best-sellers Flags of Our Fathers and
Black Hawk Down, this new volume on the Vietnam War ranges from an obscure
Cambodian island in Southeast Asia to the Oval Office of the White House as it
chronicles one of the most overlooked incidents and heartbreaking episodes in
America's costliest foreign conflict. On May 12, 1975, barely two weeks after
U.S. helicopters lifted off the roof of the American embassy in Saigon, the S.S.
Mayaguez was seized by Cambodian forces. Four days later, President Gerald Ford
ordered a raid to free the ship, even though American diplomacy had already
successfully negotiated its release. The U.S. Marine strike force took flight.
The ensuing battle, the last of the war, took fourteen hours and the lives of
forty-one Americans, including three soldiers who were unwittingly left behind
when the U.S. choppers flew off. Vietnam veteran Ralph Wetterhahn has spent more
than five years investigating what happened that day in the Cambodian jungle:
how the abandonment of the three men who guarded the flank of the vulnerable
Marine position occurred; why they were left to their tragic fate; and how --
from unprecedented interviews with the Khmer Rouge captors -- they met their
grisly deaths. His spellbinding account redeems to our national memory these
three entirely forgotten young Marines and their brave deeds under fire. Amazon.
NEW TO THE WORLD WAR ONE READING LIST
Military Blunders by Michael Coffey (1999 - previously published as Days of Infamy)
Military Blunders
contains a series of short chapters dealing with military decisions from the
tactical, operational and strategic levels of war. As the title indicates,
the chapters are slanted towards mistakes by military commanders and/or their
political leadership. The book is a quick and interesting read covering a
time span from World War One to the invasion of Kuwait. At times, the
reader may feel the author looks at everything as a "glass half
empty". Clearly with such short recaps of major events in history all
of the variables that influenced these commanders decisions were not covered
in-depth. Regardless, Military Blunders provides a perspective, albeit negative,
of dozens of events in military history. Several of these topics wetted my
appetite to search for more detailed histories of specific events. Without
making light of the extreme sacrifice and loss of life that these stories
reveal, I recommend
this book for its entertainment value. Military
Reading List Review. Click here for more information on Military
Blunders.
LINK PARTNER OF THE MONTH
Trenches on the Web - An Internet History of The Great War
Trenches on the Web contains information on the people, places, and events that comprised one of the worst calamities of modern history (World War One). Entire kingdoms were to vanish in the clash. The map makers of the world would be busy indeed! The trenches are set up in such a way as to allow you to explore the "The Great War" at your own pace and in your own manner. A superior site that is a must visit for the military history enthusiast. www.worldwar1.com
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ABOUT THE
AUTHORS
MilitaryReadingList.com is owned and operated by David Gran and Jeff Stansfield. Both Jeff and Dave are career military officers who came up with the idea for MilitaryReadingList as an educational resource for military personnel and military history enthusiasts.