1 comments about The Life and Adventures of Nat Love (Blacks in the American West).

1. The Life and Adventures of Nat Love is the narrative of a former slave who went west first to become a cowboy in Texas and across the plains during the American Reconstruction period and then to retire as a Pullman Porter in Oklahoma (I believe). It is a culturally significant work because there are obviously very few such stories and it highlights the fact so many cowboys in the latter part of the 19th century were, in fact, black. It would probably be inaccurate, however, to read Nat's narrative as the gospel truth. Rather, it reads more like a dime novel romp with a heavy dose of Horatio Alger and Booker T. Washington's 'Up from Slavery' philosophy. Which seems strangely fitting for a former slave during Reconstruction who believed himself undeniably American. Nat became a cowboy because he was a free spirit, despite slavery, and the order of the day for Americans was to 'go west.' Thus, like other Americans at the time, he has (at first, at least) no sympathy for marauding Indians (the best one being a dead one) and no cultural identification with non-Americans (i.e., Mexicans). Like other American cowboys (and dime novel heroes) he was a crack shot and superior horse-man, eventually earning the name of Deadwood Dick for these talents (notably on July 4). The narrative is definitely an intriguing read and anyone with an interest in slave or cowboy narratives, or dime store novels, should be interested in looking deeper into this one.

2 comments about The Trials of Anthony Burns: Freedom and Slavery in Emersons Boston.

1. Looking for an exciting book that you can't put down? Anthony Burns would be a great one. A slave who has be accused for stealing and he is on trial, fighting for his life and freedom. It's a sad book because he's in jail with water once a week, food twice a day (which is raw meat, cornbread, and really just scraps of food. The end is shocking and it's a great book that I recommend reading.You will never put it down.



2. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end. This is a monumental piece of writing and extremely important for anyone interested in American history particularly relating to slavery and aboltion. it really does not get any better. Anyone in the civil rights movement , activst or attorney, should get a copy of this book. Get 10 copies and pass them around. It reads like a Dumas novel and informs like an encylopedia. A masterpiece. Thank you professor Von Frank.
   
   Randy Credico
   Director
   William Moses Kunstler Fund For Racial Justice

1 comments about General Edmund Kirby Smith, C.S.A. (Southern Biography Series).

1. Edmund Kirby Smith remains one of the most neglected of the important figures of the Civil War era. Best known for his command of the Trans-Mississippi Department from 1863 until the close of the war, Kirby Smith found himself acting with military, civil and economic authority after the Union essentially divided the Confederacy in two. He was an important figure and yet his tale is perhaps better told in studies of his administration rather than in a biography.
   
   Joseph Parks gives a solid if not particularly compelling account of Kirby Smith's career. Kirby Smith, a Floridian, served under Joseph Johnston at the First Battle of Bull Run and was seriously wounded. After recovering from the wound, Kirby Smith commanded Confederate forces in East Tennessee and showed some tactical ability in the invasion of Kentucky which culminated in the battle of Perryville. During that campaign, Kirby Smith feuded with Braxton Bragg who commanded the main wing of the Confederate invasion. Kirby Smith would later command the Trans Mississippi region and, while there were some successes such as the Red River campaign, all in all Kirby Smith was content on the defensive, much in the style of his mentor Johnston. Parks offers little on Kirby Smith's post war career which is fairly odd since Kirby Smith taught at the University of the South, an institution that Parks was affiliated with.
   
   This is all well and good. However, the chief problem with the book is Parks' lack of interest in Kirby Smith's roles in politics and economics. Kirby Smith's role in the Confederacy was not simply that of a general. He was the highest ranking Confederate offical west of the river and was isolated after the fall of Vicksburg in 1863. For almost two years, Kirby Smith dealt with economic problems (such as trade), morale problems as Southerners lost hope in the cause, Indian raids, the continuing struggles of the French in Mexico and political problems, as the Confederate government and the states clashed. Parks does not offer much in the way of insight to these problems that vexed Kirby Smith and prefers to focus more on military matters. Kirby Smith simply did not have that many chances on the battle field and the spheres he occupied were very different than most other Confederate commanders.
   
   Furthermore, Parks seems a bit too willing to give his subject the benefit of the doubt at all times such as his feud with Bragg. While this was not particularly odd (Bragg quarreled with a host of Confederate commanders), Kirby Smith simply can not be as blameless as Parks portrays him. Richard Taylor, for one, would also have severe problems with Kirby Smith later on in the war during the Trans Mississippi command. At the same time, the view espoused by the late Thomas Connelly of Kirby Smith as a young man deluded by a messianic complex seems equally flawed as well.
   
   For basic information on Kirby Smith, take a look at Parks though be warned the book is very dated. For the importance of Kirby Smith and his role in the greater story of the Confederacy, take a look at Robert Kerby's study "Kirby Smith's Confederacy." While not offering much in the way of biographical information, Kerby's book seems a bit nearer the mark in capturing Kirby Smith than either Parks or Connelly did, showing a young man with some talents overwhelmed by a task that was simply beyond his, or anyone else's, abilities. For Smith's feud with Taylor, Jeffery Prushankin's "Crisis in Command" is solid.
   
   As for Parks, while he does give some of the basics of Kirby Smith's life, he really fails to capture just how important his subject was in the story of the Confederacy. If Kirby Smith is ever going to rise out of obscurity, it will not be on his military record but on how an untrained military leader found himself trying to maintain some sense of order as he tried to hold together a collapsing economy, society and political system. It's an interesting tale and one that deserves to be told. Too bad Parks simply could not see the bigger picture.

No comments about A Crown of Life: The World of John McCrae.

No comments about Mademoiselle Miss: Letters from a First World War Nurse at an Army Hospital Near the Marne.

4 comments about A MiG-15 to Freedom: Memoir of the Wartime North Korean Defector Who First Delivered the Secret Fighter Jet to the Americans in 1953.

1. All right all right! In cyberspace I stand corrected ...its No, not Ro Kum-Sok. I never could get those Korean names straight when I lived there either. Rudyard Kipling would have loved Seoul....

   This is a good book, interesting reading. As a non-flyer, non-pilot all the tech talk about MiGs vs. Sabres is a bit daunting, but if you are a fan of the Public Television show Wings, this book is for you.
   The book starts with the author landing at Kimpo before some dumbfounded US personnel. Then he flashes back to his childhood under Japanese occupation. Mixed in with discussion of childhood pranks is a rapid fire, zipped version of Korean history from the Shilla dynasty to the present. While no admirer of the Japanese (like many Koreans, he stauchly refers to the Sea of Japan as the 'east sea.') he points out that the Red Army also had a record of rape and pillage. This will not sit well with selective outrage enthusiasts who use the 'comfort women' issue for Japan bashing in the region.

   Kum-Sok states that the Korean Navy and Air Force collapsed early in the war...it was the Inmingun, or North Korean Army, that held together. Kum-Soks' summary of the war is essentially the western rendition of the battles. When the stalemate developed after mid 1951, the war shifted to the skies over North Korea and Manchuria. It remains a common myth that the US did not pursue MiGs into the skies of northeast China, but after April 1952, says the author, they did exactly that with deadly effectiveness, knocking MiGs down as they slowed to land. Again, stories about air wars and battles are hard for me to follow and understand, and Kum-Sok often gets lost in endless renditions of sorties, statistics, or engineering specifications. Still, he does discuss a number of weaknesses that MiGs had:
   ...they were not supersonic, even when diving;
   ...the T-shaped tail obscured your view and often was fatal when exiting the cockpit;
   ...the double-wall canopy would often fog up;
   ...there was no rear view mirror;
   Authors comment. Rear view mirror?? Fighter pilots use rear view mirrors? Do they use turn signals too?
   ...poor fuel economy;
   ...long and visible contrails from Soviet jet fuel;
   ...lousy tires;
   and a few other sundry items.

   After he defected to the south came the inevitable interrogation, tests of his credibility, and finally, fame. OF COURSE, one issue of tremendous relevance that our security services made sure to ask about was whether No Kum-Sok 'ever had sex with another man.' [I can just hear these losers on the runway at Kimpo ..."what? You are gay? Take that MiG back to North Korea NOW, homeboy!!!"]

   By the way Kum-Sok was unaware of the operation Moolah offer for a MiG, and defected to the west almost two months after the KoreanWar was over. He did receive the 100 grand, however




2. ON SEPTEMBER 21, 1953, A YOUNG NORTH KOREAN MiG-15 PILOT, NO KUM-SOK, DEFECTED TO THE AMERICAN SOUTH KOREAN AIR BASE AT KIMPO, TURNING OVER RUSSIA`S TOP JET FIGHTER TO THE UNITED STATES, AND FULLFILLING SEVERAL YEARS OF PLANNING TO ESCAPE THE REPRESSION OF COMMUNISM. NO KUM-SOK WESTERNIZED HIS NAME TO KENNETH ROWE, AND IS NOW A PROFESSOR AT EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY IN DAYTON BEACH, FLORIDA. HIS LIFE STORY, "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM," IS A FASCINATING AND RICHLY DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST AIR WAR PITTING JET AGAINST JET. THE KOREAN WAR ALSO FEATURED THE LAST AERIAL BATTLES AT RELATIVELY CLOSE QUARTERS USING GUNS, RATHER THAN THE RADAR GUIDED AIR-TO-AIR MISSLES THAT SOON FOLLOWED. ON ONE SIDE WAS THE AMERICAN MADE F-86 SABRE, AND ON THE OTHER, THE RUSSIAN BUILT MiG-15, EACH REPRESENTING THE LATEST AND BEST TECHNOLOGY OF THE TWO SUPER POWERS OF THE COLD WAR. AS J. ROGER OSTERHOLM POINTS OUT, LITTLE HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT, OR PORTRAYED ON FILM, THE NORTH KOREAN AND SOVIET SIDE OF THE KOREAN WAR. THIS BOOK GIVES IMPRESSIVE INSIGHT INTO LIFE IN NORTH KOREA, ESPECIALLY IN THE COMMUNIST AIR FORCES, WITH EXTENSIVE DETAIL OF RUSSIA`S INVOLVEMENT IN KOREA, A CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET AT THE TIME. STALIN SENT TWO DIVISIONS OF TOP SOVIET FIGHTER PILOTS TO MANCHURIA, FROM VARIOUS UNITS WITHIN THE SOVIET BLOC. IN LATE 1949, AND AGAIN IN EARLY 1950, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, DEAN ACHESON, PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED THE DEFENSIVE PERIMETER IN ASIA THAT THE UNITED STATES WOULD VIGOROUSLY DEFEND, BUT EXCLUDED SOUTH KOREA. THE U.S.S.R., CHINA, AND NORTH KOREAN LEADERS THEN BELIEVED THAT THEY COULD , BY FORCE, REUNITE THE TWO KOREAS UNDER THE COMMUNIST BANNER WITHOUT INTERVENTION BY THE UNITED STATES. THEY WERE WRONG. THE EVENTS THAT LEAD TO THIS BOOK BEING WRITTEN, PROBABLY WOULD HAVE NEVER OCCURRED WITHOUT THE EARLY PARENTAL INFLUENCE FAVORING AMERICA AND CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. NO KUM-SOK`S FATHER WAS NON-COMMUNIST AND A MEMBER OF A DEMOCRATIC PARTY. HIS MOTHER WAS A ROMAN CATHOLIC, WHO REGULARLY ATTENDED CHURCH SERVICES, IN THE DAYS BEFORE COMMUNISM AND KIM IL-SUNG. NO KUM-SOK`S LIFE LONG ASPIRATION WAS TO LIVE IN AMERICA SOMEDAY. MOST KOREAN WAR HISTORIANS DISCOUNT THESE FACTS, AND, IN FACT, SUGGEST THAT NO KUM-SOK`S DEFECTION WAS ONLY FOR THE $100,000 REWARD OFFERED SEVERAL MONTHS EARLIER (OPERATION MOOLAH) TO THE FIRST RED PILOT DELIVERING AN AIRWORTHY MiG-15 INTO ALLIED HANDS. AMERICAN B-29`S HAD DROPPED LEAFLETS OVER AIR BASES IN NORTH KOREA WITH THIS OFFER IN APRIL, 1953. NO KUM-SOK IS CERTAIN THAT NO MiG PILOT EVER SAW ONE OF THE LEAFLETS, OR EVEN HEARD OF THE OFFER. NO CHINESE OR RUSSIAN PILOTS WERE STATIONED IN NORTH KOREA AT THE TIME, AND HAD A NORTH KOREAN PILOT READ ONE OF THE LEAFLETS, THE MONEY OFFER WOULD HAVE MEANT LITTLE, NOR WOULD THEY HAD TRUSTED THEIR AUTHENTICITY. "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM" EXPRESSES WITH STUNNING CLARITY, THE FEELINGS EXPERIENCED BY A YOUNG NORTH KOREAN JET PILOT, LIVING A COMMUNIST LIE, HAVING TO FACE SUPERIOR TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED AMERICAN F-86 PILOTS IN "MiG ALLEY." THE BOOK OFFERS MANY TECHNICAL DETAILS OF THE AIRCRAFT INVOLVED IN THE BATTLE FOR AIR SUPERIORITY-THEIR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES. HAVING A HOBBY OF GIVING PROGRAMS ON THE AIR WAR OVER KOREA TO CIVIC CLUBS AND SCHOOL HISTORY CLASSES, I TRAVELED TO FLORIDA IN DECEMBER OF 1997,WHERE I HAD LUNCH WITH, AND INTERVIEWED, MR. KENNETH ROWE (NO KUM-SOK), AND FOUND HIM TO BE A VERY JOVIAL, INTELLIGENT, AND ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL GENTLEMAN. I HAVE READ HIS BOOK TWICE, AND HAVE GIVEN IT AS GIFTS TO AMERICAN F-86 ACES OF THE KOREAN WAR. NO KUM-SOK`S STORY WOULD MAKE A TREMENDOUS MOVIE. "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM" IS AN AWESOME BOOK! I LOVED IT!



3. ON SEPTEMBER 21, 1953, A YOUNG NORTH KOREAN MiG-15 PILOT, NO KUM-SOK, DEFECTED TO THE AMERICAN SOUTH KOREAN AIR BASE AT KIMPO, TURNING OVER RUSSIA`S TOP JET FIGHTER TO THE UNITED STATES, AND FULLFILLING SEVERAL YEARS OF PLANNING TO ESCAPE THE REPRESSION OF COMMUNISM. NO KUM-SOK WESTERNIZED HIS NAME TO KENNETH ROWE, AND IS NOW A PROFESSOR AT EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY IN DAYTON BEACH, FLORIDA. HIS LIFE STORY, "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM," IS A FASCINATING AND RICHLY DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST AIR WAR PITTING JET AGAINST JET. THE KOREAN WAR ALSO FEATURED THE LAST AERIAL BATTLES AT RELATIVELY CLOSE QUARTERS USING GUNS, RATHER THAN THE RADAR GUIDED AIR-TO-AIR MISSLES THAT SOON FOLLOWED. ON ONE SIDE WAS THE AMERICAN MADE F-86 SABRE, AND ON THE OTHER, THE RUSSIAN BUILT MiG-15, EACH REPRESENTING THE LATEST AND BEST TECHNOLOGY OF THE TWO SUPER POWERS OF THE COLD WAR. AS J. ROGER OSTERHOLM POINTS OUT, LITTLE HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT, OR PORTRAYED ON FILM, THE NORTH KOREAN AND SOVIET SIDE OF THE KOREAN WAR. THIS BOOK GIVES IMPRESSIVE INSIGHT INTO LIFE IN NORTH KOREA, ESPECIALLY IN THE COMMUNIST AIR FORCES, WITH EXTENSIVE DETAIL OF RUSSIA`S INVOLVEMENT IN KOREA, A CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET AT THE TIME. STALIN SENT TWO DIVISIONS OF TOP SOVIET FIGHTER PILOTS TO MANCHURIA, FROM VARIOUS UNITS WITHIN THE SOVIET BLOC. IN LATE 1949, AND AGAIN IN EARLY 1950, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, DEAN ACHESON, PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED THE DEFENSIVE PERIMETER IN ASIA THAT THE UNITED STATES WOULD VIGOROUSLY DEFEND, BUT EXCLUDED SOUTH KOREA. THE U.S.S.R., CHINA, AND NORTH KOREAN LEADERS THEN BELIEVED THAT THEY COULD , BY FORCE, REUNITE THE TWO KOREAS UNDER THE COMMUNIST BANNER WITHOUT INTERVENTION BY THE UNITED STATES. THEY WERE WRONG. THE EVENTS THAT LEAD TO THIS BOOK BEING WRITTEN, PROBABLY WOULD HAVE NEVER OCCURRED WITHOUT THE EARLY PARENTAL INFLUENCE FAVORING AMERICA AND CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. NO KUM-SOK`S FATHER WAS NON-COMMUNIST AND A MEMBER OF A DEMOCRATIC PARTY. HIS MOTHER WAS A ROMAN CATHOLIC, WHO REGULARLY ATTENDED CHURCH SERVICES, IN THE DAYS BEFORE COMMUNISM AND KIM IL-SUNG. NO KUM-SOK`S LIFE LONG ASPIRATION WAS TO LIVE IN AMERICA SOMEDAY. MOST KOREAN WAR HISTORIANS DISCOUNT THESE FACTS, AND, IN FACT, SUGGEST THAT NO KUM-SOK`S DEFECTION WAS ONLY FOR THE $100,000 REWARD OFFERED SEVERAL MONTHS EARLIER (OPERATION MOOLAH) TO THE FIRST RED PILOT DELIVERING AN AIRWORTHY MiG-15 INTO ALLIED HANDS. AMERICAN B-29`S HAD DROPPED LEAFLETS OVER AIR BASES IN NORTH KOREA WITH THIS OFFER IN APRIL, 1953. NO KUM-SOK IS CERTAIN THAT NO MiG PILOT EVER SAW ONE OF THE LEAFLETS, OR EVEN HEARD OF THE OFFER. NO CHINESE OR RUSSIAN PILOTS WERE STATIONED IN NORTH KOREA AT THE TIME, AND HAD A NORTH KOREAN PILOT READ ONE OF THE LEAFLETS, THE MONEY OFFER WOULD HAVE MEANT LITTLE, NOR WOULD THEY HAD TRUSTED THEIR AUTHENTICITY. "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM" EXPRESSES WITH STUNNING CLARITY, THE FEELINGS EXPERIENCED BY A YOUNG NORTH KOREAN JET PILOT, LIVING A COMMUNIST LIE, HAVING TO FACE SUPERIOR TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED AMERICAN F-86 PILOTS IN "MiG ALLEY." THE BOOK OFFERS MANY TECHNICAL DETAILS OF THE AIRCRAFT INVOLVED IN THE BATTLE FOR AIR SUPERIORITY-THEIR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES. HAVING A HOBBY OF GIVING PROGRAMS ON THE AIR WAR OVER KOREA TO CIVIC CLUBS AND SCHOOL HISTORY CLASSES, I TRAVELED TO FLORIDA IN DECEMBER OF 1997,WHERE I HAD LUNCH WITH, AND INTERVIEWED, MR. KENNETH ROWE (NO KUM-SOK), AND FOUND HIM TO BE A VERY JOVIAL, INTELLIGENT, AND ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL GENTLEMAN. I HAVE READ HIS BOOK TWICE, AND HAVE GIVEN IT AS GIFTS TO AMERICAN F-86 ACES OF THE KOREAN WAR. NO KUM-SOK`S STORY WOULD MAKE A TREMENDOUS MOVIE. "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM" IS AN AWESOME BOOK! I LOVED IT!



4. "Pour out and zero-in this vindictive ammunition to the damn Yankees!" So reads an inscription in red Korean characters just below No Kum-Sok's gunsight in his swept-wing MiG-15bis fighter jet . That inscription may still to this day be seen by visitors to the US Air Force Museum, where his North Korean MiG (aircraft number 2057) has been on display for the past several decades. [A small photo of `Glorious Leader' Kim Il-Sung was originally displayed next to it on the instrument panel, as it was in all North Korean MiGs, but it was removed, thrown down, and stepped upon by No Kum-Sok as his first act upon arriving safely upon South Korean soil in 1953.]
   
   No Kum-Sok changed his name when he became an American citizen to "Kenneth Rowe", the name by which I shall refer to him here. His story of a flight to freedom from North Korea to South Korea in a MiG jet is one of the most interesting in recent aviation history, in my opinion, and all the more so because so very little is actually known by the American public today about that formative 'UN police action' that helped launch the subsequent 'Cold War' era (a `police action' in which more than 53,000 American soldiers died, despite the fact that it lasted only a third as long as the subsequent Vietnamese conflict, in which 55,000+ died).
   
   Ken, now 76 years of age, visited us at the Aerospace Museum of California very recently (located at the former McClellan AFB site in Sacramento, CA) and spoke to a gathering of invited aviation people and the general public about his amazing life. Although many were drawn to his presentation owing to technical interests in the MiG aircraft he flew, by the time his presentation had ended, the MiG had almost been entirely overshadowed by the personal story of this fascinating refugee from Communism who knew from his earliest years that he wanted to live as a free citizen in the United States of America. By the time Ken had finished speaking, it was clear to all of us that the MiG played only a relatively minor role in Ken's story and that the desire to live in a truly free society was the primary theme of his interesting life.
   
   Of the many smaller highlights and anecdotes Ken shared with us about his flight to freedom were two that remain strongly with me. The first was that after it became known in North Korea that he had `defected' [a word Ken detests, since he repeatedly emphasises that he was never a Communist North Korean...just a native born Korean who wished for freedom (hence there was nothing to defect from, in his view) from his earliest childhood], five of his closest fellow squadron pilots were arrested and executed in symbolic retribution for his act.
   
   The second concerns his amazing fortune in reaching South Korea's Kimpo Air Field without first being intercepted and shot down by American Air Force Sabres. It seems that on the day Ken made his escape to Kimpo, US Air Force technicians had shut down the field's radar for 15 minutes, so as to allow for some much needed repairs to that system. Ken acquired the field five minutes after that radar was switched off and managed to land five minutes before it was switched back on, by pure coincidence. If the radar had been active at the time, he would certainly have been intercepted well before he even reached the field; as it was, he managed to actually land safely on the US runway before anyone was even aware of his presence (an absolutely astounding coincidence, seemingly).
   
   It was interesting to learn in the course of Ken's talk that the CIA played a major role in his life after he landed, and that even the $100,000.00 reward that US propaganda leaflets had offered to any successful defector bringing a MiG to the South was ultimately paid to Ken out of a covert CIA black operations `slush-fund' (Ken makes it clear that he knew absolutely nothing of this offer prior to his escape, since any North Korean caught looking at or reading leaflets in North Korea was summarily shot on the spot). Of course, those who have any awareness of military history in the post WWII period already know how large a part the CIA played in just about all `Cold War' operations, and this information is therefore not startling (to me personally); to the politically naive American who persists to this day in thinking of America in the simplest, purest, and most ethically ideal terms, that particular revelation may be startling.
   
   Ken details much in his book about post-war Soviet style Communism that led to a predominance of that form of political philosophy in Southeast Asia and it may therein be seen that, just as in the case of a Middle East region whose later difficulties may be directly attributed to agreements reach at the conclusion of the First World War, so too can Southeast Asia's difficulties be placed squarely at the feet of Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt (Truman), subsequent to the defeat of the Axis Powers at the end of WWII.
   
   Years after Ken's having been granted US citizenship (through a special act of Congress), he continued his academic studies and ultimately acquired a doctorate in aeronautical engineering, after which he eventually became a professor of aerospace studies at Embry-Riddle University in Florida (where he resides). I am pleased to say that Ken is a wonderful, kind-hearted, patient, and very wise man whom I had the greatest pleasure meeting and listening to. After the lecture he presented at our air museum, we took him over to our museum's MiG-17PF and F-86F aircraft, where some memorable photos were taken. He was most gracious in signing numerous copies of his book, a great number of litho prints (of an original piece of art done of him by Col. Dick Stultz, former F-106 driver and chief of flight test at McClellan AFB), and even signed a Chinese flight helmet/mask set and a few MiG-15 models. To say he performed yeoman's duty thereby is considerably understating his good-nature, but he was able to maintain his cheerful demeanor throughout the lengthy ordeal. His students at Embry-Riddle University say he is a demanding, but supremely patient and understanding teacher. And so he is.
   
   I highly recommend Ken's fascinating book to anyone who professes an interest in the little-understood Korean War conflict, but most importantly I suggest it to anyone who wishes to gain some rare insights on what the genuine meaning of freedom is to those who STILL do not enjoy the many rights and privileges most Americans accept unquestioningly as their birthright. His message is both inspiring and encouraging and the book remains something every American should read to gain fresh insight on what a wonderful gift freedom actually is!
   
   [The original 300 page publication (by McFarland Publishers) was a limited edition library-bound version, brought out in 1996. The book was reissued in paperback form (222 pages) in the same year and is available today at most booksellers. Ken's aircraft was exhaustively flight-tested by the US Air Force, after his flight to the South, and provided the West with its first close-up operational analysis of this important first Russian swept-wing aircraft design; in that series of tests, no less luminaries than General Albert Boyd and General Chuck Yeager figured prominantly. The plane is today a very popular US Air Force Museum display memorial to the Korean War era, in Dayton, Ohio.]

4 comments about Red Clay on My Boots: Encounters with Khe Sanh, 1968 to 2005.

1. Few people are more intimately acquainted with the horrors of war than Navy corpsmen serving with U.S. Marine units in combat. Upon that terrible and grisly stage, corpsmen carry out their duties, and become heroes to Marines, by risking their lives to help others; bandaging wounds, easing pain, comforting the dying and lamenting (sometimes forever) the loss of those they could not save.
   
   In 1968, at age 19, Bob Topmiller found himself in just such a situation, amidst of the longest and bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War -- at a place called Khe Sanh. Surrounded by as many as 30,000 of North Vietnam's best troops supported by artillery, tanks, anti-aircraft guns and rocket units, 6,000 Americans successfully held the majority of their positions despite fierce ground attacks and endless artillery bombardment. Young Bob Topmiller was among a handful of corpsmen that, at great peril to their own lives, forayed out each day under intense enemy fire to assist some of the nearly 3,000 Marines who would eventually be killed or wounded during the three-month long battle.
   
   In Red Clay on My Boots: Encounters with Khe Sanh 1968-2005, now Professor Bob Topmiller combines chilling personal recollections, with his expertise as a distinguished scholar of Vietnamese history, to create a unique and powerful account of the Vietnam War -- and the disturbing human toll it continues to exact. Topmiller's courage during that fierce and bloody battle would later serve him well in his tireless quest for reconciliation; eventually leading him from the brink of despair to rediscover a level of compassion he thought lost forever amid the carnage and ubiquitous red clay of Khe Sanh.
   
   Topmiller's search took him back to Vietnam a dozen times, visiting a multitude of cities, villages, and former battle sites. His knowledge of the language and culture permitted him access to facets of the society often missed by more causal travelers, but which provides the reader with astonishing glimpses of the war and its aftermath.
   
   Everywhere he traveled, Bob Topmiller witnessed the shocking legacy of Agent Orange on Vietnamese society; particularly evident in the appalling numbers of children deformed at birth by an environment still poisoned from the war. His search for inner peace ended in 2002 at a non-descript doorway on a street in Hue - a special school for these severely handicapped boys and girls. Since that day, Bob has been supporting them- back again, easing the pain of war.
   
   Terrifying, heartbreaking, enlightening and, above all, honest; Red Clay on My Boots is a story hard to forget.



2. After looking forward to receiving my copy of the book, I was not disappointed. I read the first 100 pages at once. The descriptive details Doc gives and the feelings that he shares with the reader are overwhelming. I found myself clenching my teeth. It is hard to believe that so many 18-19 year olds were subject to this type of intense stress over such long periods of time. I felt alot of saddness and anger as I read through the first section thinking about the war and how many lives it ruined on both sides. And many of us are still asking why.
   Doc's experiences as a corpsman, brought back memories from the late 70's and early 80's for me. I worked at the local VA Hospital with Viet Nam vets especially those on the psychiatry ward who were suffering with PTSD. In my experience,none were more affected than the medics. They seemed to have their own particular brand of trauma: survivor guilt, their inability to save everyone who needed saving, and just the everyday life as a medic.
   The second section of the book provides more of a hopeful feeling. Doc
   seems to come grips with his demons, maybe not completely, but at least gives the reader a feeling that "coming to terms" is a possibility. His efforts at peace and reconciliation with the people who were his enemies reminded me of Nelson Mandela's generous olive branch to his enemy captors. His commitment to "the children" is a turning point for him and made me recall the Albert Schweitzer idea that: "only those of you who have learned how to serve will be truly happy." Doc finds a purpose with the children in the Catholic orphanage and in the School of the Beloved.
   All is all, this story of one man's journey to find his own brand of peace, is a worthy read. I hope that with each subsequent visit to Viet Nam, Doc can find more answers to his questions and above all the acceptance and inner calm he seems to be searching for.



3. Robert J. Topmiller paints a brutally honest picture of the mayhem and carnage of war in "Red Clay on My Boots: Encounters with Khe Sanh 1968 to 2005". In January 1968, Corpsman "Doc" Topmiller arrived at the Khe Sanh Combat Base a few days prior to the North Vietnamese Army attack that initiated the infamous siege. "Doc" found himself living his solemn pledge to care for the injured, but never imagined the physical devastation he would encounter. Doc's description of the initial attack and subsequent days of the siege are honestly and vividly graphic.
   
   Doc provides a personally revealing look at the aftermath of war, on both sides of the skirmish line. Topmiller's anger clashes with his sincere compassion as he struggles to understand the decisions made by the leaders of both countries, the United States and North Vietnam, and the damage inflicted, then and now, upon the combatants of the past, the lives of the present, and what the future holds for the Vietnamese people under communist rule. Red Clay on My Boots is a provocative read that will evoke emotion and bring the reader into a closer relationship with the realities of war.



4. Boy oh boy, this book will get you going. Before you know it you will have drawn your battle lines, and as surely as the Vietnam War divided this country in the 60's and 70's, readers of this book will divide themselves again. Generally, I hate and fear books like this, because I don't have the time or patience for soap boxes. I just want to read the story without the crapola, the present without the shiny wrapping paper. To be straight up, I don't like pushy people, REALLY, REALLY don't like them and Mr. Toppmiller will push every available button you have. I received this book on recommendation by author Mike Archer, a man I truly admire- which is a good thing too, because otherwise I would have done with this book what I have done with others- that I thought were similar- give it the boot. Now after having read it of course, I am glad I did not make that mistake.
   
   What I found when I read this book was a complexity that I could not have foreseen. I have read many with bigger words and more mumbo jumbo designed to make me think the author is an authority. But I do not think I have ever read one with as much in my face pure gut and heart thinly veiled in political opinion. The author gets in your face and pretty much stays there the entire time, but when you think of it, that is not unlike the history of the Vietnam War itself. I would also like to add that unlike many authors of books written about the Vietnam War, this man is not writing form information he gleaned from national archives, DOD documents, second hand information and opinion not based in fact. He lived it. He survived it and whether he believes it or not, he triumphed inspite of it.
   
   It would be easy to be caught up in his rants about the state of the world today and feel you need to be left or right, conservative or something else. Don't be misled, not only has this man earned his right to say the things he has, not only has he seen the greatest evils and greatest kindnesses that man can offer another, there is something more here. There is a lot more here, so please look. This book is the testimonial of the human spirit written by a Navy Corpsman who survived the battle for Khe Sanh, the only way he could. Guts. He calls it a lot of other things and I respect his opinion, but I will respectfully also
   disagree with his own self effacing descriptions. You cannot survive Hell and not have guts, fortitude, deep down survival instincts and a reason to live. You cannot
   come through such evil and devastation and waste unscathed. You come out angry, broken, beaten and regretful. You leave that pile of rubble knowing it is the
   most expensive and worthless piece of real estate on which you have ever tread. You come home sad, defensive, easily aggravated and distant to the world. You come home
   different. You want, need, ache for what cannot be articulated. You come home someone else. You are not understood, even by yourself and if you are destined to
   help others to heal and perhaps heal yourself you write a book. What I think the author fails to realize the depth of his healing of others as he continues, by his actions, to bandage the wounds of his comrades, which is the greatest triumph of all.

2 comments about Forgotten Valor: The Memoirs, Journals, & Civil War Letters of Orlando B. Willcox (History Book Club Selection).

1. Orlando Willcox's voluminous memoirs, letters, and correspondence are an important, valuable contribution to our understanding of the Civil War. Covering his life in the army from his days at West Point in the 1840's through divisional command in both theaters of the Civil War, this magesterial compilation will interest specialists and buffs alike. Willcox's keen observations and trenchant comments on persons and events are reminiscent of the classic recollections of Charles Wainwright, E.P. Alexander, and Robert McAllister. Robert Garth Scott's judicious editing (footnotes are blessedly placed at the bottom of pages rather than the end of the book) greatly enhances what will instantly become a standard source for anyone seeking a greater knowledge of the American conflict. The price may seem hefty, but it is well worth the cost.



2. This is truly an enjoyable book. I certainly got a "kick" from his letters. I read two or three of the chapters several times. One thing I noticed about him from his writings was the hidden and totally unintentional secrets he exposed regarding his personality. I think the man was a "saint," because he revealed absolutely no vices or bad habits, as well as he was the ultimate possessor of Victorian manners. I spoke with a friend of mine, who also read the book, and he had the same impression of Willcox that I got. This book will make you appreciate the man once you get to know him more personally. I have quoted Willcox before, in my own writings, gleaned from other books, and from the Official Records, but until I read his personal letters, I never knew who he was. Mr. Scott should be commended for all of his hard work bringing these letters to life.

5 comments about Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes, and Trial of a "Desk Murderer".

1. The problem with all books dealing with evil people is that they begin with the assumption of exceptionalism: that the mass murderer is an exception. The 20th Century, if not all recorded history, should have taught us that this is not so. The Mongols Ghengis Khan led in their slaughters were no more inherently evil than Eichmann or the Soviet executioner who won an award for shooting several thousand people in a few days.
   
   Cesarani does a good job of presenting Eichmann as an ordinary man seeking advancement and prestige within a society that saw nothing wrong with murdering millions. Hannah Arendt's characterization of Eichmann as a dim-wit was nothing but an intellectual's refusal to acknowledge that the Germans in their bloodlust were no different than the Soviets, Communist Chinese or other societies that considered murder and enslavement a normal part of the exercise of power. (It should be remembered that Stalin and Mao each murdered more of their own citizens than the total of all murdered by the Germans. Stalin and Mao also enslaved hundreds of millions more people than the Germans. These have always been inconvenient facts for left-leaning intellectuals to deal with, thus their propensity to attempt rendering the German experience as unique.)
   
   Cesarani traces every aspect of Eichmann's life, sometimes to the point of dullness. The ultimate story is that Eichmann wasn't any different than any of his peers in Germany, the Soviet Union or what would become Communist China. In Germany, it is estimated that about 500,000 people were at one time or another in the extermination of Jews and other groups, not counting their Ukrainian, Polish, French and other European helpers. Eichmann held an important position in this apparatus, organizing and administering much of the system that gathered and delivered Jewish victims to the place the Germans had designated for their cruel deaths.
   
   Cesarani successfully "humanizes" Eichmann as a man who could spend his work hours plotting the deliberate enslavement and murder of millions simply because they were Jewish and literally go home to be a typical husband and father. It is that part of Eichmann and nearly all the other state-sanctioned murderers like him through the ages that is so disturbing. To them, slaving and murder was an ordinary part of their lives. For many today, it still is: just look at the recent experience in the Balkans, the Sudan and elsewhere.
   
   The ultimate repugnancy of Eichmann is that he was the exception in that he was tried and hanged. Of the estimated 500,000 Germans who are estimated to have participated in the murder of the Jews, very few were punished. Most went on to live the normal lives their victims were denied. The same is true of the killers in the former Soviet Union, China and elsewhere in the 20th Century. Such crimes and the criminals who commit them are too easily forgotten. Cesarani is to be congratulated for once again reminding us that ordinary men and women can embody the most horrible evil.
   
   Jerry



2. The first half of the book is rather dull: a dry account of Eichmann's climb through the ranks of the SD and the SS. It gets more interesting after the point of Eichmann's flight to Argentina. There's a certain twisted romanticism when it comes to the Nazis who fled to South America and went underground. Kidnapped and taken to Israel, Eichmann awaits trial. This trial takes up most of the second half of the book. Since I'm a lawyer, the legalisms may appeal more to me than to other readers but, even so, the narrative does drag at points.
   
   Overall, the book is pretty good. What is, perhaps, most striking is just how "normal" Eichmann was. In many ways, he seemed a typical middle-class Austrian bureaucrat. He didn't seem to have the personal oddities of Rohm, Hess, Himmler, and the others. This "normalcy" makes Eichmann more interesting in the sense that he demonstrated how easily one can pass beyond the pale of human decency. Making these people into "monsters" de-historicizes them and, I think, belittles their crimes and their victims.
   
   Happily, this author chose not to sensationalize his subject.



3. Great job on researching the early life of Eichmann. Here is a man with no conscience who was willing to become a killer because of the elite status he obtained by doing so. He was a person who thought he could escape Germany and put it all behind him. I couldn't tell from the book if Eichmann ever regretted his role but it was clear he regretted getting caught.



4. Since the recognition that Adolph Eichman played a leading role in the Holocaust there has been a debate about his true role and the meaning of it. One group has spoken of him as a mindless, dull bureaucrat, who followed his orders and was part of a tyrannical Nazi regime. Another group has tried to show that he had intent and hatred in his efforts to destroy the Jews of Europe. This book seeks not only to blend this scholarship but to re-examine the evidence for his crimes and ask the question `to what degree was Eichman responsible as a person and not as a bureaucrat?' In other words this is a critique of Arendt'sEichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics) or the The Specialist - Portrait of a Modern Criminal This is a new and interesting biography of the man who was personally responsible for the destruction of the Jews throughout Europe from Hungary to Greece and the Netherlands. Eichmann had a zeal for organizing death.
   Much has been made of he learned Hebrew and studied Jewish history. Others have shown that he was not a personally brutal individual. But this work seeks to show the degree to which he was personally involved in the final solution, above and beyond his following `orders.' A very interesting and necessary contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



5. Cesarani's book is (1) an attempt to come to grips with an enigma, a seemingly bloodless bureaucrat who was responsible for the murder of more than five million people in WWII and (2) a rebuttal and revision of the highly influential thesis of Hannah Arendt that Eichmann was the archetype of a new kind of murderer, a pencil pusher who sent people to their death at the behest of a monolithic state machine (Eichmann in Jerusalem, 1963). (Stanley Milgram's controversial experiments on obedience to authority (also 1963?) buttressed to Arendt's conclusion. Cesarani presents a much more nuanced view: Eichmann wasn't an unhappy child, wasn't persecuted by or identified with Jews, but he did imbibe the deep anti-Semitism of those around him. His entry into the Party and his drive to succeed, a perverted careerism as it were, eventually blunted all moral sensibilities and he became a moral monster. Quotations from Eichmann and others in this book are telling -and chilling. Of his operations in Hungary, Eichmann claimed that "On principle, I never went to look at anything unless I was ordered to." Eichmann's superior Heinrich Muller stated: "If we had fifty Eichmanns we would have won the war automatically." Eichmann said that when he finally knew the war was lost, "I sensed I would have to live a leaderless, difficult individual life, I would receive no directives from anybody, no orders and commands would any longer be issued to me, no pertinent ordinances would be there to consult -in brief, a life never known before lay ahead of me." When Eichmann in hiding in Argentina, a neighbor reminisced that he was very good with forms; whenever his mother had official forms to fill out, she would asked Eichmann to help because "he understood how they all worked." Eichmann's son Klaus talked Quick magazine in 1966 about their life in hiding in Argentina: "We learned Spanish at high speed. Father ordered me to learn one hundred words a day, no more, no less. It had to be exactly one hundred words. Our father was very correct, everything had to be just so, everything had to be in exact order." When Eichmann was interrogated before he went on trial, he stated: "I have no regrets at all and I am not eating humble pie at all. ... I must tell you that ... my innermost being refuses to say that we did something wrong. No -I must tell you, in honesty, that if of the 10.3 million Jews shown by [the statistician] Korherr, as we now know, we had killed 10.3 million, then I would be satisfied. I would say, `All right. We have exterminated an enemy.'" One of his jailers observed that as a prisoner, Eichmann "behaved like a scared submissive slave whose one aim was to please his new masters." Denying any active role in the mass murder of Jews and other `defectives', Eichmann said: "Although there is no blood on my hands I shall certainly be convicted of complicity in murder."
   
   Of Eichmann's demeanor during his trial, Cesarani writes: "His studied indifference was a piece with his conduct during the months of interrogation. Eichmann was obsessively neat and tidy. He was focused on things being in the right order. He seemed immune or insensitive to the swirl of intense feeling that went on around him. In that sense he was `ghostlike'; he gave the impression of someone emotionally dead or profoundly repressed. What mattered to him was order, the satisfaction of things being `just so', and he manifested irritation with any disruption to the preferred state of things."
   
   On the implementation of the Final Solution, Eichmann testified that "it was up to me to obey, and that is what I bore in mind over the future years.... I had no more to do with this than the actual processing of the paperwork..... I have never killed a human being. [It is] a mystery to me.... My position was exactly the same as that of millions of other people who had to obey. The difference is simply that I had a much more difficult task to perform in accordance with my orders.... Those who gave orders are responsible, not those who receive them....I had nothing to do with the actual technical side of things [i.e. killing millions of Jews]. I was responsible for drawing up timetables..."
   
   Learning of Eichmann's conviction, his wife Vera told a British journalist: "I am sure above everything else that he will come back. All this terrible thing will be straightened out." The Chicago branch of the Nazi Party cabled birthday greetings to him, calling on him to `set an example for us to follow.' A fellow Austrian offered him the comfort of knowing that millions of Germans didn't consider him a murderer. At the very end, a minister, Reverend Hull, tried to get him to confess his crimes. Eichmann retorted: "I have nothing to confess. I have not sinned. I am clear with God. I did not do it. I did nothing wrong. I have no regrets."
   
   Vera Eichmann, in an interview: "In the home politics were never discussed. But we were so happy."
   
   In Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt painted the modern age's most successful mass murderer as nothing more than a featureless cog in the modern totalitarian machine, not even an active anti-Semite with a will or life plan of his own. Arendt's thesis has come under heavy criticism on several grounds. Here's Irving Howe's comment: "How many people have ever boasted of having killed five million people? That kind of boast was hardly the talk of a featureless cog in a bureaucratic machine."

5 comments about Daughter of China: A True Story of Love and Betrayal.

1. I started reading this book because my sister recommended it. By the time I finished it, I was deeply touched, and at some instances even felt like I was there. The story of survival, deception, betrayal, and of course love tangled many strong emotions through me as I read about the world of Communism, the strive to survive. Excellent book, compelling read to those who's been to China.



2. I found this little gem of a book while on vacation in England. I have a fasination for Chinese fiction and non friction. This book engrossed me from the moment I started reading it. The love story between the characters is amazing. The best part is that it is a true story. The love that is shared between the two characters is something only found in fiction or if one is lucky enough once in a life time. I highly recommend this book. This book also gives a realistic view China, the good, the bad and the ugly. I adored this book. It is a must read!



3. This book was well written in the sense of giving the reader an in-depth look at how the PLA works (or worked since this was written years after Mao Zedong). The order of the book was a bit confusing. It starts with the author in prison and then goes into a history of her village. Then, she describes her interrogation and then back to her past and how she became a PLA soldier. Yet, despite this minor annoyance, I couldn't put the book down.
   
   However, it is not a love story. I never got the sense that Meihong Xu was ever in love with Larry Engelmann. The reader has to keep in mind that their marriage was ending at the time the book was written, so that could be a reason why the "love" was downplayed.
   
   Overall, I would recommend reading the book to get a first person perspective on what life is like as a PLA soldier, but not because this is a love story.



4. China, 1963: in the small village of Lishi, Meihong Xu is born. It is a difficult birth, and even in her adult life she carries the impressions of her grandmother's fingers on her forehead. Confined to a small, unheated room years later, Meihong remembers Lishi.
   
   In this, her beautiful memior, Meihong tells the story of her life, and through her life she tells the story of China. Through the flowing narrative stories are scattered. They are the stories of how her grandmother lost a daughter; of how her mother's sister came to be known as the Red Aunt; of how Meihong first fell in love. It is a book that encompases every aspect of life anywhere on the planet. Sweet, sad, sometimes comical; always knowing that things could have been different, yet never full of regret--- This is the story of the Daughter of China, and it is beautiful.



5. Meihong Zu grew up during the horrors of the Cultural Revolution which saw tens of millions of people in China ruthlessly murdered by the Communists.
   
   She recalls one of her schoolteachers being sent to a labour camp for crossing out an incorrect letter ,written by a schoolgirl, of Mao Tse Tung's name and correcting it.
   She also recalls the loud hateful chanting against individuals accused of being "class enemies" and "rightists" at rallies to humiliate these unfortunates and prepare for them for imprisonment or execution.
   The author describes the horrors of public executions and where condemmned innocents were shot to death to the vicious chanting of red mobs.
   Very often after the executions, the murdered victims were rushed to a nearby room or tent to have their organs removed for transplant.
   Organ harvesting of dissidents and minorities (such as the Tibetans and Fang Gong Buddhists) is massive industry in Communist China today.
   Education in Red China was and remains today nothing other than brainwashing, indoctrination and memorization. In referring to the public executions Meihong recounts that "All of us- adults and children- had been so steeped in hysteria and group thinking for so long that what we witnessed seemed necessary and natural. We believed that we could save ourselves only by sacrificing the lives of our alleged enemies. We never imagined for a moment that we were being manipulated by our own leaders".
   
   She also recounts the massive killing of pets by dog-killing squads that moved from house to house and village to village as owning a pet was seen by the Communist authorities as a carryover from the old order, a bourgeois practice.
   
   Meihnong was inducted into the "People's Liberation Army" at a very young, becoming a member of an elite intelligence corps. She was sent to spy on a visiting American professor, Larry Engelman, but soon found her old loyalities divided as she got to know him.
   She refused to continue activities against him and was so imprisoned and tortured. This is her story.
   
   She also recounts the the 1989 Tianmen Square massacre in which the PLA killed thousands of students, old people, women and children and randomly fired into apartments where they saw lights and movements.
   Communist China remains today one of the most evil, bloodthirsty and ruthless tyrannies, since Nazi Germany.