5 comments about Of Spies and Lies: A CIA Lie Detector Remembers Vietnam.

1. As a history major who took courses on the Cold War in college, I can say with certainty that this book would be invaluable and highly instructive to anyone who reads it.

   As an Intelligence Analyst I have come to appreciate the work case officers like John Sullivan have done in service of their country. This book should be required reading for all polygraphers and case officers.

   As an officer in the military, I have come to realize that many of the lessons learned from Vietnam have been applied in today's armed services. The book points out low-points in the CIA that can be used to improve (if not already) current operations.

   His style of writing makes it easy to follow, and allows the reader to get a good glimpse of CIA operations in Vietnam through the eyes of an honest, hard working, dutiful man.

   Anyone who has any interest in Vietnam, whether for school, occupation, or hobby, must read this book to get the full picture.




2. John Sullivan's "Of Spies and Lies" is a fascinating account of wartime CIA intelligence operations in Vietnam that should be required reading not only for students of the Vietnam War, but also for anyone interested in the current war on terror. John's discussions of the difficulties an intelligence agency faces in recruiting penetrations of a difficult and dangerous enemy organization and his descriptions of problems caused by the shortage of officers with the requisite language and area knowledge bear disturbing similarities to headlines we see in the press every day. It is another illustration of the old saw that "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
   John's book provides a unique window into life in the CIA's Saigon Station. His description of Agency operations in Vietnam ranges from the controversy surrounding our best penetration of the Viet Cong leadership to the polygraphing of local employees over the disappearance of a few slices of ham at a party (an incident I remember quite well). John also gives unprecedented insights into the important role the Agency's requirement for polygraph vetting plays in keeping case officers, who work daily in the murky waters of spies, fabricators, and con-men, on the straight and narrow road of the pursuit of the truth. CIA polygraphers like John helped lead the way in the development of a systematic vetting process for use in the conduct of clandestine intelligence collection operations. The book illustrates how that process works and how, when the process is ignored or distorted, the entire system can quickly break down.
   I served with John in Saigon Station and know his reputation as one of the Agency's best. As a former Saigon Station officer, some of his criticisms of personnel and procedures in Southeast Asia are painful, but their accuracy is incontrovertible. I highly recommend this book.



3. Many of the stories in the book are very light accounts of annoying conversations: personality conflicts. The author is apparently a real straight arrow and he has endless accounts of turns of phrase and trivial happenstances that annoyed him. Like the guy who switched his cracked desk glass for John's good one. Who cares, I mean literally? There is very little insight given to the interrogation process proper, which I was expecting because that is, after all, the author's specialty. In the end you have a sense that Vietnam was fill of corrupt, drunk spooks, and one lone shiny penny -- the author.



4. The book starts out one story at a time and some times the thought is "why tell me about a broken desk cover" but at the end you know more about what it was really like in Laos and Vietnam. John was known as the man who would tell the truth to those in power. Now he shares it with the rest of us.

   As we see the formulation of a new "homeland security agency" it is a reminder to us that the best way to get good results is pay attention to every step of the process. Our Vietnam operation had great support and many poor operations with the information results (even the good information) seeming to get lost on the way to those who needed it. The lesson I see is that all of the details are important. Bottle necks can kill.




5. As an ex-CIA polygraph examiner who served for four years in Vietnam, John Sullivan traveled throughout much of Indochina while performing lie detector tests in support of the US war effort. Over a quarter of a century later, Sullivan's memoirs tell the story of a man who, trained by a spy agency to unearth deceit, embarks upon a mission to a Cold War hotspot where he discovers deception and incompetence to be as perennial as the grass in the Vietnamese countryside.
   
   While Sullivan makes it clear from the beginning that he did serve with a number of good men in Vietnam, he expresses astonishment at the degree of operational ineffectiveness (or just plain irresponsibility) on the part of many CIA personnel in Saigon Station and outer lying regions, which strangely enough became a backwater for 'problem' officers despite the country's exceptional strategic importance to US policy makers.
   
   In reference to the author's tradecraft, Sullivan makes three worthwhile points about polygraph testing:
   
   1) "Polygraph is about 92 percent art and 8 percent science."
   2) "The fact that intangibles cannot be quantified or scientifically measured challenges the claim that polygraph is a science. I do not believe that it is possible to put a percentage on the reliability of polygraph testing, but under optimal conditions, it is very reliable."
   3) Even if a subject registers as being deceptive on a polygraph, "unless an admission is obtained, the final determination is frequently what we refer to as a scientific wild-ass guess (SWAG)."
   
   Although I would have enjoyed hearing more detailed discussions of Sullivan's expertise, I understand that there are limits as to how much can be openly discussed regarding his specialty. Nonetheless, this book scores a high mark in that it enables readers to walk away with a better understanding of both the Vietnam War as well as polygraph testing.

2 comments about Sea Legs.

1. This is the third book in a triology written by Retired Rear Admiral Paul T. Gillcrist, all of which are "must reads" for fans of naval aviation. In Sea Legs, ADM Gillcrist provides a series of short vignettes, several for each of the stages of his naval career. As only an insider can, he captures the humor, comraderie and shared danger inherent in carrier flying. Historians may want to place this book on the "back burner" but fellow aviators, and those with an interest in the human side of those who wear the Wings of Gold, will find it a compelling book. Bravo Zulu ADM Gillcrist.



2. Third book about the Navy life of Rear Admiral (Ret) Paul Gillcrist, the other two being "Vulture's Row" and "Feet Wet".
   At times humorous other times quite serious it makes a wonderful read.

5 comments about Flawed Patriot: The Rise and Fall of CIA Legend Bill Harvey.

1. Flawed Patriot has a great topic in Bill Harvey. The author's direct knowledge seems to be based on Harvey's career in Germany . The research of the late Mr. Stockton of much of the career of Bill Harvey appeares flawed. The drama of Bill and CG's adoption of a daughter in Germany is in line with what they told my wife and me in Rome,Italy in the mid 1960s. The events surronding Bill's return to Washington from Rome are not fair and complete and appear to be based on interviews that lack some of the facts.
   Based on my personal knowledge and my research as an intelligence scholar and professor, Flawed Patroit does no justice to the pioneering work of Bill Harvey in clandestine collection, covert action and technical intelligence operations. In my opinion, Bill Harvey ranks amond the Top Ten Clandestine Service Officers in the history of the Central Intelligence Agency.



2. This book has a brilliant title. Bill Harvey was indeed a Patriot. And he certainly had flaws. His drinking was a problem from early in his life and combined with smoking was at least partly responsible for the heart attacks that killed him at the relatively early age of 61.
   
   He was also not exactly what you would call a team player. He was fired by J. Edgar Hoover for breaking regulations. His relationship with Robert Kennedy might best be called hatred. While he did some brilliant work, like identifying Kim Philby as a KGB agent and the famous tunnel into East Berlin, his relationship with the Mafia and rumors about being involved in the JFK assassination are not the sort of things that help get promotions within an organization like the CIA.
   
   This is both an interesting biography of a full fledged master spy, and a history of the early days of the CIA and the Cold War. The author worked for Harvey in Berlin for two years before becomming a journalist and now a biographer.



3. There's a lot of great info in this book, but unless you're REALLY into FBI/CIA/Bill Harvey, it's very dry reading. It jumps around a bit, but if you persevere, you'll find some interesting tidbits here and there.



4. This book should be read by every citizen seeking to understand where American government has gone wrong over the past 60 years. Flawed, yes, but critically important to our understanding of misguided actions and indeed meglomania in power centers too far removed from public scrutiny and democratic control.
   
   The problem with so-called "patriots" like William Harvey is that their arrogance and self-absorption - so evident in his acute alcoholism - tends to prevent basic comprehension that they quite rightly serve at the request of others, in particular those individuals entrusted through elective office with preserving those principles and practices that define our democratic form of government.
   
   William Harvey was a misfit granted far too much power by a rogue system of covert power that had grown exponentially under a corrupt and complicit Eisenhower-Nixon administration that had knowingly condoned repeated violation of laws and human rights at home and abroad through programs of assassination, coups, private wars, invasions, government destabilizations, media infiltration, propaganda, domestic spying, illegal surveillance, complicity with war criminals and organized crime figures, manipulation of or otherwise destruction of evidence, and lying to congress and executive branch superiors, including even the president.
   
   Harvey was, ultimately, the exact opposite of a patriot. He was in fact, an assassin and traitor.
   
   Robert Kennedy, as chief law enforcement officer for the United States and a key government official entrusted by the president with overseeing sensitive foreign operations, had every right to micro-manage affairs in order to prevent the insubordination of Harvey and others who sought to control events in violation of superiors' orders and U.S. government objectives. If anything, Kennedy was far too lenient in merely reassigning this arrogant, reckless, and insubordinate loose cannon, especially after Harvey's reckless unilateral actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis came close to causing a nuclear World War III.
   
   Most egregiously, Harvey and others within the CIA like David Atlee Phillips, after participating in the assassinations of their superiors, then went before Congress and lied to the American people, having destroyed or buried documents to the contrary, and retained or even manufactured others that would tend to portray them in a favorable light, while falsely incriminating those now unable to defend themselves and correct the public record.
   
   As for the author's difficulty in composing and arranging such a major work as this, it is to his credit that this book could even be published considering the CIA's suppression of facts, disinformation, and gross manipulation of media in this and other countries around the world.
   
   Kudos to the author for creating an important work that contributes to greater public awareness and understanding of the forces that have undermined democracy in America.



5. This book features a poorly chosen title and many flaws in composition. However, it provides the reader with a reasonable introduction to an unsung (buried) American hero of the Cold War. More importantly, if the reader reads carefully and between the lines, there is much to learn about the CIA, large bureaucracies (ala Niskanen), what it takes to gather human intelligence, imperial politics, and the future of the American intelligence establishment.
   
   First, to Bill Harvey. Sure, he had flaws ("Show me a hero and I'll show you a bum.") He was irrascible, blunt, opinionated, contempuous of those that hadn't paid their dues, and a three-martini lunch drinker. Leave off the drinking and you have Billy Mitchell, Dick Pick or Henry Ford. Harvey was the first CIA giant in positive intelligence collection, initially as an agent handler (case officer), then holding a series of supervisory positions. His output was prodigious, often working twenty hours a day, and he thought others should work as hard as he. He is remembered best for the Berlin tunnel tap on Soviet phone lines, but that was only the tip of the iceberg.
   
   On the negative side, he simply didn't "fit in." He was a Midwesterner from a non-elite university (Indiana University), different in manners, speech, social connections and attitude from the effete (as he called them) Eastern Ivy-Leaguers then as now populating the CIA (and indeed, all Federal bureaucracies.) If one thinks this is no longer the case, allow me to say that the situation is much, much worse today. The enemy (red) states cannot provide leaders in government unless they have been vetted fully through attendance in the Ivy League or Seven Sisters (like Bush, Obama, Clinton, etc.)
   
   In addition, Harvey tended to "spook it up" by packing and being devious and clandestine, rather than playing the social circuit and always being "hail and well met." It should be kept in mind that there were (are) NO "spies" in the Agency, and acting like one was anathema. Lastly, Harvey did not brown-nose those who required such action like Hoover, Bundy, Lansdale, MacNamara and Robert Kennedy. His was the Protestant work-ethic -- his good work would open the necessary doors for him. But it didn't.
   
   Harvey never prospered from his work financially or otherwise, in marked contrast to most bureaucrats in Washington. Vacations were not in the cards, and over time he simply burned out. He had been ridden hard and put away wet. And it wasn't Harvey who blabbed to Philby -- it was Angleton. Harvey worked hard to neutralize Philby even though counter-intelligence wasn't his brief, and was eventually successful.
   
   But to my main point: why is this book so important?
   
   1) It exposes the Kennedys (particularly Robert) for their ineptitude and negative impact on US intelligence (see also Hersh; "The Dark Side Of Camelot.") The decline of the Agency definitively started with the Bay of Pigs, a disaster brought about by the fecklessness of Ted Bissel (an Ivy-Leaguer) and Kennedy's lack of resolve. Then Robert went on his well-documented micro-management crusade with the Agency in his attempt to assassinate Castro for revenge. Harvey was involved in this, although the evidence is that he fought RFK over this activity and was sacked as a result. Not covered, unfortunately, was the gutting of Military Intelligence by JFK at the same time. He moved the vast majority of military agent handlers back into uniform and terminated their sources. When the Soviets staged their forces in East Germany before invading Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Army's operations that would have reported this were gone, and the Agency had failed to replace them. A significant intelligence failure was the result.
   
   2) The Agency never recovered after Harvey's demise, and became increasingly politicized over the years by a succession of kow-towing heads who stressed form over substance. Human intelligence was essentially eliminated except for walk-ins, and the result is today we have the likes of Valerie Plame supposedly undergoing five years of training and then being sent to Africa where, as a striking blond, she would easily disappear into the background. The Agency also moved from non-diplomatic cover to almost exclusively diplomatic cover so its members could enjoy the social perks that had become so important. Dirty work like what Harvey did was eschewed as being only for the unwashed. It should also be noted that Harvey was given almost no training before becoming a case officer, but today training and playing at being a case officer is more often the approved activity than doing something productive. After all, to be productive one must take risks, and risk aversion is the guiding commandment today. Harvey must be spinning in his grave.
   
   3) The Agency that had been lauded by Khrushchev ("You and I read the same reports every morning") morphed into a social club of Ivy-League bureaucrats more involved in turf wars and appearances while trusting to electronic surveillance for maintaining the flow of intelligence. As a result, human intelligence as to the intentions of others went by the wayside, never to be regained (at least not yet). Risk-takers were not wanted and were indeed an embarrassment by their constantly calling for action and producing operations plans that had to be scuttled on one pretense or the other. (I once had an operation involving a part-time prostitute disapproved because of her lack of morals. I guess the Germans should have turned down Mata Hari.) There would be no more Harveys and no more American patriots or heroes in the Agency. And the world is a more dangerous place.
   
   I once had to meet with the brother of a resident agent (spy) who had been arrested by the opposing counter-intelligence service. She had performed extremely well, but attention was drawn to her when my superiors decided to increase her access by providing her with a Moped. She received twenty years after being tortured and confessing, but lasted less than two years before dying in prison. Her brother asked me if her sacrifice had been worth it. I know what I said, but I leave it up to the reader to decide for himself. All I can say now is that her sacrifice made the reader a little safer while growing up.
   
   Harvey's hard work also made the reader a little safer while growing up. Everyone should learn about Harvey even if I don't think this book is necessarily the best vehicle. Personally, I believe the US was well-served by him, and to infer anything else is to betray one's own arm-chair, Monday morning quarterbacking ignorance.

5 comments about Fateful Rendezvous: The Life of Butch O'Hare (Bluejacket Books).

1. Having read Lundstrom's excellent First Team books, I was anxious to get my hands on this book which he co-authored. After the first fifty pages, though, I was beginning to wonder about the tune of the book; I had anticipated a bit more down-to-earth approach, but the authors opted for the "hero in the making" style. Actually, the only interesting bits are in the latter half of the book, when Butch finally gets into combat flying, and as is the case with all Lundstrom's combat books, the dogfight descriptions are absolutely great. Likewise, the account of the death of Butch O'Hare is excellent.

   The problem is that they only fill about a fourth of the book. The rest is filled with hagiography, which I was surprised to find. After all, we have the book "Bader - the man and his men", giving a detailed account of England's O'Hare, Douglas Bader, minus the holy approach. It is possible to present the life of a true hero without superficial glamour, but Lundstrom and Ewing missed it here.

   Another case in point is Blackburn and Hammel's "Jolly Rogers". There, too, a hero is given a thorough treatment, but there's no added sugar. Maybe it is because the authors are not accustomed to writing from this angle; I think I'll stick to their pure combat books.




2. Authors Ewing and Lundstrom have done an excellent job of telling the story of Butch O'Hare. Born in March, 1914 and raised in St. Louis, Butch loved the simpler things in life. He enjoyed spending time with his father hunting or fishing, or playing with his younger sisters. Family was always important to Butch, and the authors do a good job of stressing this throughout the book. Butch eventually left St. Louis and attend Annapolis, graduating in 1937. Butch's first assignment was aboard the battleship New Mexico, and he quickly developed an affection for the ship's float planes. After serving aboard the New Mexico, Butch signed up for flight training and was stationed at Pensacola, Florida. There, Butch earned his wings.

   Butch's most famous flight occurred on February 20, 1942. Butch was on board the carrier Lexington when a group of Japanese torpedo planes attacked the task force. Butch scrambled his F4F Wildcat fighter off the deck and rose to meet the enemy. In the span of about 5 minutes, Butch single-handedly shot down 6 of the attackers while saving the task force from certain damage. Butch was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt at a ceremony at the White House. Afterward, Butch embarked on a war bond tour where he visited factories and gave rally speeches. While on a visit to Grumman, Butch was able to talk to designers about the limitations of the F4F. This input led to the development of the F6F fighter, which Butch would fly later in the war.

   The authors do a good job of describing in great detail Butch's war days. I felt like I was flying right along with him. Particularly interesting was the detailed description of Butch's final flight. After attacking a group of Japanese planes, Butch's night fighter group was to regroup and head back to their carrier. However, a series of unconfirmed and sketchy events occurred which led to the death of Butch. Some people believe that Butch died as a result of friendly fire, while others believe that a snooping Japanese plane managed to get close enough to shoot Butch down without being detected. The authors claim the latter, and I agree with their assessment.

   Butch O'Hare was a true war hero. His bravery and courage were shining examples to others, and his heroism was a true morale booster during the dark early days of the war. A replica of Butch's F4F stands in O'Hare airport, named for him, in Chicago. Read this excellent book and experience the life of a true American hero.




3. Well written into the life of "Butch" O'Hare and the tragedy of this hero's loss. This book will keep you intrigued from start to finish from Butch's early life,family life,and his military life. Well documented and is a must read for the military historian.



4. The fine qualities of this book are described in the other reviews, so I'll focus on one important aspect that hasn't yet been mentioned. In most previous writings, the death of Butch O'Hare is clouded by suggestions that he may have been killed by friendly fire. Supposedly, TBF turret gunner Alvin Kernan may have struck Butch's Hellcat while firing at what he thought was a Japanese "Betty" on the Hellcat's tail. That notion took root early on, thanks to one of those in-your-face reporters who attempted to interview Kernan immediately upon landing from the harrowing flight. It gained momentum with official Navy reports, penned by officers who were not on the scene and didn't bother to debrief all of the personnel who were.
   
   The result has been something of a stigma that has dogged Kernan over the years, which seems highly incongruous given that he was awarded the Navy Cross for his part in the same action. But Ewing and Lundstrom aptly dispel the myth in "Fateful Rendezvous." A combination of testimony from TBF radar operator H. B. Rand (who wasn't questioned immediately after the mission because of battle wounds) plus analysis of Japanese records revealed to the authors that Kernan indeed fired at a Betty that had tried to join up on the American formation (the pilot apparently thought he'd found his own squadron). Seeing the U.S. planes flashing their recognition lights to each other, the Betty's nose gunner popped off a few rounds that most likely stitched O'Hare's cockpit, wounding or killing the pilot with no appreciable damage to the Hellcat itself. Rand had seen it all, stating to the authors that the only way Kernan could have hit O'Hare's plane would have been to shoot the tail off of their TBF. Ewing and Lundstrom have brought a major improvement to O'Hare historiography by correcting the "friendly fire" canard.
   
   One more positive not mentioned in the other reviews: the Bluejacket Books publication makes for an excellent read, with a bright, clear print font on quality paper. Too many books, sometimes very expensive ones, are turned loose with poor attention to the readability of the pages. This is one that you can read far into the night without eye strain; a key advantage with books like this that you don't want to put down.



5. It would seem that Edward "Butch" O'Hare is authors Steve Ewing and John B. Lundstrom's most beloved fighter pilot and they want him to be ours too. I thought being a publication of the Naval Institute Press that this would be a legitimate biography and not flat-out, gushing praise but I was wrong. In fairness, when dealing with the events of 26 November 1943, the authors did fine research in clearing up one of WWII's great mysteries and described the evolution of nightfighting tactics very well, indeed but their overall portrait of O'Hare was lacking. Rightly or wrongly, I think more readers than not appreciate a "warts and all" approach and figure a Pollyanna approach to biographizing anyone lacks credibility and ultimately creates a disservice to the subjects memory, the epilog to the book is a teary-eyed, maudlin, passage more fitting to an Irish wake. Go figure. This and the soft-balling of father EJ's underworld ties,participation in Capone's downfall, dealmaking with the DOJ and engineering O'Hare's entrance to USNA seem as though SOMETHING is being left out. Maybe it's just me but I was expecting something more.

1 comments about A Mild Form of Insanity: Recollections of a Helicopter Pilot.

1. An excellent read, a real insight into a largly unthought of world. Highly recommended!

5 comments about Operation Solo: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin.

1. I am the son of the FBI agent Richard Hansen. I can attest to the secrecy of this operation by explaining how I learned about it. In 1997 I was looking through the new arrivals at my local library. I started leafing through this book and did a double take when I saw my dad's name. I checked out the book, rushed home, called my dad. Sure enough, he admitted that he was the agent in the book. It is an amazing testament to his fidelity that he did not speak of this operation(even after he retired), until this book came out.



2. This is an incredible story of a courageous couple of brothers and their wives who, while initially being drawn into Communism, were able to see the ugly truth behind it, and use their backgrounds to become the greatest spies in history. The book is written very well and as such it is hard to put down. Aside from a great story of intrigue, the book also offers a unique perspective on what really went on in the Kremlin as well as (parts of) the FBI.



3. The only thing more incredible than the story of Morris and Jack Childs, brothers who, from the early 1950s through the late 1970s, were FBI assets within the American Communist Party, and who were personal friends of Soviet leaders, is that Hollywood has yet to commit this to celluloid. Here were four brave Americans--to include their intrepid wives, Eva and Roz--who for decades risked their lives to report to the FBI (and from the Bureau to the President) on the thoughts and intentions of Soviet leaders. So trusted by their friends in the Soviet leadership, they served as secret Soviet emissaries to China and Cuba, reporting back to the Soviets the attitudes and positions of Mao and Castro. Thus successive U.S. presidents enjoyed unique intelligence on the thinking of not only the Soviets, but of the Chinese and the Cubans as well. The story told in OPERATION SOLO is spellbinding, frought with tension, occasionally leavened by the earthy humor of its principal players. This is, in short, a terrific story about great Americans--hardworking FBI agents who shied away from the spotlight, and their courageous assets--that demands to be read or, someday, seen on screen.
   
   A couple of points about John Barron's book. It is well written overall and reads quickly. It is not without faults, however. (1) The story is sometimes interrupted to introduce fairly extensive citations of reports written or passed along by the Childs. Without greater historical context, though, these passages are somewhat sterile and dry. Someday, one hopes, a more detailed study will add historical material external to SOLO that would, along with insightful analysis, demonstrate the true value of the SOLO reporting (as another reviewer here has suggested). (2) The section that deals with Martin Luther King is disappointing. For one thing, Barron is historically inaccurate or incomplete when the author states that "No one could have been more sympathetic to King than the Kennedy brothers." See Robert Dallek's excellent book on JFK for a better treatment of the Kennedys' complex relationship with King. Barron also downplays King's true significance as a great civil rights leader in order to discuss Communist ties to his inner circle of advisors. Furthermore, in an egregious departure from journalistic objectivity, Barron appears to excuse FBI's excessive campaign against King, including the infamous hotel wiretaps, on the pretext that King's private behavior was "inconsistent with [that] of a Christian minister and moral exemplar."
   
   These misgivings aside, this is a truly amazing tale. Read the book and then amaze your friends in recounting the story. Are you listening, Hollywood?



4. Barron's prose is articulate and well-phrased without wandering into pedantic posturing. We rarely know his opinion of all the goings-on, and what events he describes! We are quickly lost in this real world of espionage and deception, thoughtfully recreated by an author who knows his business and tells it well. An exciting read.



5. This is a compelling story of high stakes espionage in the Cold War. The amazing thing is that it is not fiction--it is history. The understanding that the author has about espionage and the intelligence community is right on. If you love history and are interested in the spy game--this is the book for you.

No comments about El Lazarillo De Ciegos Caminantes.

3 comments about Down South: One Tour in Vietnam.

1. This is the single best book I have read yet of the Marine experience in Viet Nam. Hardwick does an outstanding job of communicating the episodes of sheer terror that punctuated the more routine aspects of his tour. Uncommon valor is described as unremarkable, a refreshing change from the current political diatribe.



2. This is a must read for all individuals. For those of us who did not serve in Viet Nam, this book puts you on the front line. Very well written, I couldn't put the book down.



3. I have read a lot of Vietnam war paperbacks. Hardwick did a good job for his first book, and I generally enjoyed the read. However, there are many of these books in the book stores. This is the first one that I have read which takes the point of view of a forward observer for arty. I learned some new perspectives from his point of view. Generally in all these books, America puts its young men (and women) at risk. We need to be careful if these policies are just.
   
   Hardwick came to hate the war. He did some pretty stupid things in the war. One was targeting the farmer with bombs. The farmer and his water buffalo may have been in restricted territory, but that didn't give him the right to drop a bomb on him. Hardwick came to realize the hopelessness of this war. An OK read of the Vietnam War.

5 comments about The Good Soldier: From Austrian Social Democracy to Communist Captivity with a Soldier of Panzer-Grenadier Division "Grossdeutschland".

1. Alfred Novotny is a former German solider from WWII who decided to write down some of his experiences from before, during, and after WWII. Like Guy Sajer, Alfred served in Gross Deutschland. Also like Guy, he served as a grenadier on a machine gun team.
   
   Alfred starts his story by telling us about pre-war Austria, the environment, and the events leading up to Germanys taking over of Austria. This was interesting because I didn't know that much about Austria between the wars. The political environment was interesting to say the least.
   
   During the early part of WWII, Alfred was a member of the RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst). Interestingly, he was working around St. Nazaire when the commando raid happened (yes, he did gain some combat experience there). Upon completing his duty in the RAD, Alfred was brought into the German army, rather unusually for an Austrian, into Gross Deutschland (Alfred states that most Austrians were brought into the Mountain Infantry Regiments, the 44th ID, the 2nd PzD, or the 9th PzD).
   
   Alfred gives a basic description of his time serving in Gross Deutschland. Throughout his chapters, Alfred has a little lead in paragraph that describes the situation he's going to describe in the following paragraphs. In his military service part, Alfred describes his training, his time on the front, Gross Deutschland, and the end of the war.
   
   Like most German veterans who served on the eastern front, Alfred has section on the being a Russian prisoner of war. There's some interesting things, however, most of it has been covered by other Germans as well or better.
   
   Alfred closes the book out with his post war activities. This includes his coming to America.
   
   The Good Soldier is a good basic book. Not nearly as strong as most other personal histories. For this reason, I can only give it 3 stars. There are some very good pieces in here, but unfortnetly, Alfred doesn't deliver the goods nearly as well as Guy Sager, Hans von Luck, and others. Read it, but remember, this was written so his family would know wat he did and why.



2. 5 Stars
   
   First, this book is published by Aberjona Press. I will be totally honest with you. I've never read a bad WWII book published by this business. I highly encourage amazon.com readers to read other books published by this firm. WWII is their bread and butter in the publishing business. So, I had high hopes for this book and it delivers.
   
   The Good Soldier" is about memoirs of Germany Army WWII soldier Fred Novotny. The book's introduction starts off with the proverbial Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times!" (this reviewer hopes this does not happen to himself) Novotny certainly had his share of "interesting times". This is a story of overcoming great adversary with a happy ending.
   
   Unlike most WWII stories, which begin in 1939 and end in 1945, "The Good Soldier" is across Novotny's entire lifetime. It begins with his childhood in Vienna, and continues without respite through the Anschluss, his service in the German Labor Service (RAD) and as a machine gunner with the elite "GrossDeutschland" armored infantry division, his postwar years in a Soviet prison camp, his return to freedom and eventual emigration to the USA, where he finds peace and success.
   
   The book isn't full of "combat stories" but there are enough anecdotes to get a good sense of what life in the Third Reich was like and how terrible war and the postwar peace could be. The RAD experiences in particular are very interesting, since there is little information published in English about this German paramilitary organization.
   
   Novotny's descriptions of life as a "GrossDeutschland" soldier and the Soviet penal system are fascinating as well. The reader will doubtless be amazed at Novotny's good fortune through some pretty grim situations - as he was himself!
   
   When you read about any German soldier who survived the war they all credited their military training but cursed it a the same time. The German military training made their average soldier equal to US Marines or Army Rangers.
   
   After the war Novoty's sent to work in a Soviet mine. He meets a woman and they have a brief encounter. The conditions in the mine are just as terrible as an prison. Novoty is released because the Soviets are trying to influence Austria political elections in the early cold war period.
   
   The book is about 150-odd pages but is full of photos, drawings and notes that help the reader get a sense of the writer's experiences in the general sweep of WWII history.
   
   I really enjoyed "The Good Soldier" and would recommend it to anyone interested in personal accounts of German soldiers in the Second World War. Indeed, I shall be re-reading it this week.
   
   Enjoy.



3. This book is an outstanding recollection of an Austrian soldier's experiences as a member of the German Army's renowned Grossdeutschland division in World War II. It is a rewrite of this soldier's originally privately published memoirs and is replete with interesting vignettes on the author's life, from his growing up in a family of Social Democrats in pre-war Austria, to his induction into the elite Grossdeutchland division, to his many and varied battlefield experiences, to his life as a post-war prisoner of the Soviets, to his coming to America.
   
   The combat experiences he describes are mischeviously short (as is the book itself). Unfortunately, this sometimes leaves the impression that the author is holding back information, i.e., information that would not make him look good. Nonetheless, it contains many fascinating anecdotes about life under German control and in the German army during this period. For example, while undergoing his mandatory labor service ("Reichsarbeitsdienst") in late 1941 he is shipped with his unit to build runways near some German U-boat pens on the North Atlantic coast. They are all awakened one morning, provided steel helmets, given rifles and hand grenades with five minutes of instruction on their use, and sent out to fight some British commandos who were attacking the facility because they knew the regular military garrison was 25 miles away on manuevers. Somehow, these teenage conscripts held off the commandos, who were taken by surprise, believing that the facility would be undefended.
   
   Especially interesting are the author's several near experiences with death, including, a bullet going through one side of his helmet but then traveling around the rim, leaving him without a scratch; a comrade entering the author's foxhole and moments later being blown up by an artillery shell, again leaving the author without a scratch; and hitting a heavy Stalin tank at close range with a "Panzerfaust" at the same time it fired its main gun at him, knocking the author unconscious, as the round hit a wall right above him, but otherwise laving him unharmed.
   
   The entire book is strengthened by excellent introductory and transitional comments by Marc Rikmenspoel. Also making the book a very worthwhile purchase are the inclusion of a dozen or so wartime photographs of the author (some posed, some more candid in the field) as well as pictures of his two wound tags and the certificate awarding him the Iron Cross.
   
   Beware, however, that there are grammatical and typographical errors on about every other page of the book. (Only in the parts written by Mr. Novotny and not, however, by Mr. Rikmenspoel.) These mistakes disrupt the flow and makes one wonder if there really was any editing done at all from the original edition. This otherwise superb book gets 4 stars instead of 5 due to this easily remedied flaw.



4. I just finished listening to the audio version of this book. The author himself, is the narrator which in itself is powerful. He speaks in a very slow, sincere, sometimes emotionally strained voice through which you can hear his struggling memories being conveyed. He tells of happy times, of funny boyhood pranks, of his daily life, of his participation in times and events that only hindsight fully showed him the magnitude of. No this is not a book for historians looking for detailed information full of dates and strategic manuevers and military actions. This is not a book for people wanting a documentary of factual processes by which Germany very nearly took over the entire of Europe. This is a story of Alfred Novatny... written solely for his daughter and her children so they would know him, and know where they came from. It can be overwhelmingly touching. By the end of the book, you feel you know this man. My husband, who is from Germany, listened to the most of it with me and when the book was finished, he turned to me and said "I want to find this man". We had no idea how old the book was and I warned that he was likely no longer living. But we did look him up and found him. My husband talked to him on the phone for quite some time. And he is a very kind man with such a good heart. He said there is so very much more that is not in the book... that couldn't be.. because it was just too harsh. It is a very good book that "connects" a modern world with a life and time that is now long gone and dying with the generation of those who lived it. It is a precious thing for him to have given to his children... and to the rest of us.



5. More of a lifetime biography than a war biography, which is fine . Like I say, it is worth reading, but it is not just about the war years...

5 comments about Walking Away from the Third Reich (Memories Series) (Memories Series).

1. Walking away from the Third Reich by Claus W Sellier, is a compelling story of a young German Soldier caught up in the sobering throws of a real war!! At 17, the "glory and honor of fighting for a unified Europe seemed very exciting but reality soon set in with the horrors of true life battles. Young Sellier was forced brutally into maturity and tells his story in a honest and gripping way!! Hearing this story from someone who fought on the "other side" and is now an "American" gives the reader a whole new view on what all sides went through in this time of our history. I would HIGHLY RECOMEND this book to everyone,not only history buffs. It is a story of human interest to all!!!

   I hope that Mr Sellier would consider writing about his life experiences after the "War". It would be very interesting to see how his experiences affected his later life.




2. An amazing book of the thoughts and actions of the youth in Nazi Germany. The author gives one a perspective not seen by the Allies. He attempts to simply the daily life of a youth growing up in Germany during World War II. It gives the student of Nazi Germany a different view of the war through the eyes of its youth. One can see what it was like to be a youth in Germany and be caught in the furor of war. Sellier gives one a vivid view of war with all its futile consequence. He brings to life the strengths and weaknesses of man in war, and the incredible courage endured by men of both sides of war.He denounces war as one not of glory and fame but of evil and terror. This book would be an excellent read to one with a sense of World War II, especially those who fought against the Axis powers. I would suggest this book to any student of World War II. It gives one an excellent view from the other side and shows one a picture of the horror and stupidity of war. A must read for all World War II historians.



3. Mr. Sellier tells a very moving personal story of his experiences in the German Army during World War II. The book covers three parts of his war experience: initial officer's training after secondary school, service in an artillery unit in the Balkans, and, in the last third, a nightmare journey from Rokycany in Czechoslovakia back to army headquarters in Berchetsgaden and on to army provision headquarters in Traunstein and the end of the war. Throughout his experiences, Sellier retains his sense of humanity and concern for his fellow soldiers and for the civilians they encounter, and this comes through strongly in the book. He is a great, personable, story teller and has meticulously reconstructed his army career.

   As a young man, Claus attended Castle Bieberstein, an exclusive private school, where his schoolmates included Kaiser Wilhelm's grandson and the nephew of Baron von Richthofen.Their lives in private school were far removed from the reality of the war in 1942, where their biggest worry was whether the war would last long enough for them to graduate and earn a medal. One early wake-up call occurred when the school team went to a Hitler Youth Athletic competition wearing their school uniforms, instead of their Hitler Youth uniforms. Although they won some of the events, they were disqualified, and their behavior led to an investigation of the school by the SS that nearly closed it.

   Soon after, Claus and his friends were drafted, and he joined the First Mountain Division, where his three brothers and father were already serving.

   His youthful arrogance and independent thinking got him into repeated trouble in officers training school and he was eventually demoted and sent to a combat artillery unit, where he served in Yugoslavia, fighting the Russians. He was 19. Claus grew up fast in combat, as he learned survival skills and became close to the men in his unit. He became a first rate artilleryman and survived many engagements, including a Russian attack in which many of his mates were killed, and he and a few other survivors walked through swamps for days to get back behind German lines.

   In April 1945, Klaus and some others from his unit were sent to Artillery Officers School in Rokycany in Czechoslovakia. After only a few days, they were promoted to lieutenants, and Klaus and his friend Fritz were chosen, because they were Bavarians, for the dangerous mission of taking vital documents to Army Headquarters.They remained faithful to this mission while the structure of the German army was collapsing around them into chaos in response to the American advance. They spent a few days in American custody but managed to escape and walked home to Munich, to begin to rebuild their lives.




4. A view of WWII from the "other" side made this an eye-opening and fascinating read. It humanizes the enemy and one can't help but cheer on the author through his harrowing experiences in the European theater.



5. A story of a German youth from boarding school to the Army until the capitulation on May 8, 1945. The discussion among individuals in Germany, as described, is a great resource for anyone seeking how the 3rd Reich was seen from the inside.
   
   Way too much time on his training, though. The books biggest flaw is that he leaves the reader high and dry at the end. OK, Claus, what happened to your parents, your home, your siblings, Sepp, Fritz, your Captain, Ernst, etc? Nothing.
   
   He ends with his first day on the job as a cook in a Munich hotel. Too bad because it shaped up to be a good book.