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Title: America's Splendid Little Wars: A Short History of U.S. Military Engagements: 1975-2000 by Peter A. Huchthausen ISBN: 0-670-03232-8 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 24 July, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.57 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Overview of Modern "Small" Wars
Comment: The major U.S. wars -- especially the Civil War and the highly romanticized WW II -- loom large in the American consciousness. But as Max Boot demonstrated in his "The Savage Wars of Peace" (2002), scores of military engagements, interventions, peacekeeping operations and so-called "small" wars have had consequential impact. Boot discusses many such pre-Vietnam operations, including the efforts to end Barbary Coast piracy, the Spanish-American war, the Pancho Villa expedition, and various South America and the Caribbean interventions, among others.
Now Peter Huchthausen picks up where Boot left off, with a concise examination of more than a dozen military operations that occurred between 1975 and 2000.
Huchthausen, best known as the author of "K-19: The Widowmaker," presents the ignominious (Iranian Hostage Rescue, Lebanon, Somalia) alongside the unqualified successes (Panama, Desert Shield/Storm, Libya retaliation) and engagements in which success came at a price (Grenada, Kosovo).
Throughout the narrative, it is interesting to observe the U.S. military progressively restoring its efficacy following its "hollow" period in the immediate aftermath of Vietnan. And we see the positive effects of the Goldwater-Nichols reforms (1986) in fostering increased inter-service cooperation and improved operational performance. Inter-service coordination, for example, was much better in Panama (late 1989) than in Grenada (1983).
Huchthausen's book is a highly readable, compact overview, easily digestible in one session or two. Well worth the time for anyone interested in the creation of the modern U.S. military, whose recent successes in Afghanistan and Iraq we've all marveled at.
Rating: 3
Summary: Nice Tidy Survey
Comment: * Peter Hutchthausen's AMERICA'S SPLENDID LITTLE WARS is a short survey of
major US military involvements from 1975 (the rescue of the freighter
MAYAGUEZ from Khmer Rouge pirates) to 1999 (the air campaign against Kosovo).
The book mostly focuses on the details of military actions, citing dates and
commitments of specific forces and the specific operations taken.
It is interesting to observe the evolution of US military operations over
the period the book covers, with the military going through a series of
fumbles from the Mayaguez rescue operation (in which the number of US
casualties was greater than the number of crewmen rescued), through the
disastrous attempt to rescue the Iran hostages, the confused and bungled
intervention in Lebandon, and the clumsy (though successful) invasion of
Grenada.
The 1986 bombings of Libya, OPERATION EL DORADO CANYON, were something of a
turning point, in which a well-coordinated USAF / US Navy air strike
definitely intimidated Colonel Qaddafi, and then the 1989 invasion of Panama,
OPERATION JUST CAUSE, demonstrated a new military in which interservice
cooperation was the rule and things went like clockwork. This led to the
resounding triumph of the Gulf War and the follow-up operation to protect the
Kurds in Northern Iraq. However, it was also followed by the bungled
intervention in Somalia, which was almost a replay of the Lebanon fiasco
played on a different stage with different characters, and then the almost
inevitably confused interventions in the Balkan Wars.
This is a concise and tidy book, but given its length its focus is
necessarily narrow, with the political context of the actions discussed in a
minimal fashion. It it comes across as something like a military war college
thesis. It's not quite that dry, but it certainly makes few attempts to
introduce any color to the narrative, such as how US troops played tunes like
"I Fought The Law & The Law Won" over loudspeakers into the Vatican Embassy
in Panama to harass Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
To be sure, there's not much space in a short work like this for such
fripperies, and there's also a certain failure, possibly for the same reason,
to weigh pros and cons, though that may also be because Hutchthausen is a
retired Navy captain -- military officers are trained for good reasons to
make unambiguous decisions; equivocating to a superior officer is *not* a
good career move. The downside is that realities are not always so
unambiguous.
The author makes a case that the invasion of Grenada was a highly positive
accomplishment, though the necessity of the operation was arguable, -- and at
the same time ignores how big a political win the operation was for the
Reagan Administration. Similarly, he judges the withdrawal of the Americans
from Somalia as a defeat, which it was, but somehow both acknowledges and
muddies the fact that the defeat was in not doing it sooner -- if you end up
playing a game where you can't figure out in definite terms what it means to
win, the likely result is that you lose.
These are minor things. Overall, this is a sound if unspectacular work,
worthwhile in itself if by no means close to the definitive word on its
subject matter.
Rating: 3
Summary: A good premise, but a disappointing book
Comment: It was a good idea to review these episodes in American history, but the events are presented in a shallow, jingoist manner, and were not informative or insightful.
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Title: The Iraq War: A Military History by Williamson Murray, Robert H., Jr. Scales ISBN: 0674012801 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Ripples of Battle : How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think by VICTOR HANSON ISBN: 0385504004 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: American Soldiers: Ground Combat in the World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam by Peter S. Kindsvatter, Russell Weigley ISBN: 0700612297 Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda by JOHN KEEGAN ISBN: 0375400532 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea by ROBERT K. MASSIE ISBN: 0679456716 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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