5 comments about RED ROAD FROM STALINGRAD: Recollections of a Soviet Infantryman.

1. I enjoyed this book. Better yet, "I'm sorry I finished this book." I read this before I went to sleep every night. I could have gone on reading it right up to the present. NOTE: it didn't go on to April 13, 2007. There is a very human and humble quality to this book which I appreciated. I have read the German accounts of the various battles and got a better appreciation of the hardships. Is this the difference between "winner" and "loser" I don't know? Maybe you do?



2. This is an excellent account of the war as seen by a mortarman attached to a Soviet infantry division. It is very moving to read of the hardships Abdulin and his comrades experienced in this most brutal of wars. I was particularly struck by one story, in which the author and his friends feel overjoyed to immerse themselves in human excrement in an old latrine that had been forgotten and covered by snow. Compared to the -50 degree temperatures they had experienced, the feces were like a warm blanket. This really brings home just how unfathomably horrible the Eastern Front could be. Abdulin also gives us a view of the take-no-prisoners mindset that characterized both sides on the Eastern Front. He boasts of an incident where he and his men shoot several wounded Germans after overrunning their positions. As anyone who has studied the Eastern Front knows, this was an unfortunate, but common, practice on both sides. It makes the reader hope quite fervently that war will never reach this level of cruelty again. It should also be remembered that it already has, many times even if on a smaller scale, since the last shot rang out in Berlin.



3. A series of new World War II memoirs by soldiers of the Red Army provide fresh and valuable insights into the Soviet armed forces of the Great Patriotic War. Readers will find Mansur Abdulin's "Red Road From Stalingrad" among the best written, compelling and moving works recently published.
   
   Abdulin reminds us that Ivan, the Red Army soldier, was a living, breathing being, who cherished life as much as his counterparts in the West and who was willing to defend his family and his homeland fanatically and lay down his life dearly for all that he loved. This stands in stark contract to the myth of the Soviet soldier - savage, unfeeling, and following orders unquestioningly - embedded in the military culture of the West by the officers of the defeated Wehrmacht seeking to exploit the growing rift between the West and the Soviet Union after the war.
   
   In the first months of his invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler's Wehrmacht inflicted catastrophic losses on Stalin's Red Army, causing many to wonder how it was Russia managed to survive. By December 1941, or only six months after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the Red Army had lost 177 divisions, comprising some five million men, including almost three and a half million, which had been captured by the Germans. Gone too were tens of thousands of combat aircraft, tanks and artillery pieces. Abdulin's book makes it clear that by 1942 Russia's strategic situation was already stabilizing, although much hard fighting and further defeats lay ahead. Still, in 1942 and 1943 Soviet Russia and the Red Army were fighting to survive a Wehrmacht bent on nothing less than the complete annihilation and enslavement of the Jews and Slavs and winning Lebensraum [living space] for Hitler's Third Reich. Liberation of the wide expanses of the Soviet Union captured by the Germans seemed a distant hope in 1942. It was only through the heroic efforts of tens of millions of Red Army soldiers like Mansur Abdulin that Hitler and the Wehrmacht found only defeat in Russia.
   
   Born a Tartar in central Siberia in 1925, at a time when the newborn Soviet state was suffering from prolonged famine and disease, Abdulin experienced a hard childhood. "My mother would sometimes get hysterical from constant starvation and despair, screaming madly," he remembers. Abdulin went to work at a young age as a miner alongside his father. In June 1942 he volunteered to fight for the Red Army. After completing his course at the Tashkent Infantry School, he fought as mortar man on the Stalingrad Front during the Soviet counter-offensive, which crushed Field Marshal Paulus' Sixth German Army in the city between November 1942 and January 1943, killing and capturing hundreds of thousands of German and Romanian soldiers. Later, in July 1943, Abdulin took part in the battle of Kursk, where the Red Army held its ground against an unprecedented German onslaught led by Hitler's most elite divisions and supported by hundreds of new Tiger and Panther tanks. The Wehrmacht and the German panzer force were gutted during the battle and the Red Army followed up with a stinging counteroffensive, which hurled the Germans back across the Steppes all the way to the banks of the Dnieper River. It was there that Abudlin was seriously wounded.
   
   Throughout his book Abdulin describes the small delights as well as the agonies of being a soldier in the Red Army during the war. "It was a great joy for us to receive a letter, a note, or a parcel from home," he writes. "Also, in each box containing shells, bombs or cartridges, we found pleasant surprises: a piece of paper bearing the address of an unknown girl, so that we could write her, or tobacco pouches filled with makhorka [strong Russian tobacco]." These small joys, however, were overshadowed by the death of friends and family, which dogged every Red Army soldier with each step westward. "I cried, like women cry, beside the dead boy of their beloved," admits Abdulin, poetically, as only a Russian can, on the death of a close friend in January 1943. "I howled, like little children howl, when they are greatly and unfairly offended by someone." The author also details the atrocities uncovered by Red Army soldiers as they advanced westward, liberating Russian villages and towns. "We entered a concentration camp for Soviet prisoners. Some of the men were on the verge of death; they were speedily evacuated to hospital," he remembers. "Several thousand corpses were stacked in an open field. One horror followed another. How can I survive this nightmare? If a bullet doesn't find me, surely I'll lose my mind..." Indeed. In all, more than three million of the almost five million Soviet prisoners held by the Wehrmacht died in such camps during the course of the war. Such atrocities fed Ivan's hatred for the Germans, prompting the Soviet solder to attack even more attack fanatically and defend even more tenaciously than before. More ominously, such massacres also fed Ivan's thirst for revenge. The author admits that at one point he ordered the execution of more than two hundred German prisoners held by his unit. "By nature I am a tender and sensitive person," writes the author. "I was never a hooligan or a brawler. But when I went to war I wanted to destroy the Fritzes; `Kill or be killed.' This was my message to the newcomers. I was consumed by the idea that while alive, I would have my revenge on the Germans in advance: for I never expected to survive that slaughter."
   
   In January 1943, Abdulin's 293rd Rifle Division was redesignated the 66th Guards Rifle Division for its role in the battle of Stalingrad. "Fighting for our Soviet Motherland against the German invaders, the 293rd Rifle Division proved to be a model of bravery, courage, discipline and order," noted the order signed by Joseph Stalin, designating the unit an elite formation. "Engaged in continuous combat...the division inflicted heavy casualties on the Fascist forces and with its shattering blows destroyed enemy manpower and equipment, mercilessly crushing the German invaders." Abdulin was one of the fortunate few to have survived the war. Having done his part to defeat Hitler's armies, he returned to his work as a miner. He lives in retirement near Orenburg in the Urals, one of Russia's Greatest Generation.



4. Overall this is a pretty good book. It shows the very hard life of a Soviet soldier in WWII. One does, however, have reason to question the accuracy of the author's memory. For example, he tells us that just prior to the battle of Kursk he and other veterans told inexperienced soldiers about the strengths and weakness of various German tanks, including the Ferdinand. Since that particular tank made its debut at Kursk, his claim is hard to believe.



5. If the reader approaches this memoir as literature, he'll learn quickly enough that Red Road from Stalingrad is no War and Peace - hence my three-star rating.
   
   BUT - if the reader is interested in real history, in raw "data", in developing a feel for what it took to beat into pulp the greatest Army the world has ever seen, this book and its ilk are invaluable resources: the simple records of simple men.

5 comments about Naked in Da Nang: A Forward Air Controller in Vietnam.

1. I too was a forward air controller. The col. relives alot for me. The Ho Chi Ming trail was pure hell. 57mm rounds leave a lasting impression on one who has experienced war. The book deserves 20 stars.



2. This is an entertaining and honest read. I really enjoyed the writing style. This book focusses more on the life of a FAC than the actual flying of the missions. Fans of DaNang Diary and A Lonely Kind of War might be disappointed to find much less in the way of the white knuckle accounts of hostile engagements, but anyone interested in the people who fought the war can't fail but to be impressed with this book.



3. I initially ordered this book because I didn't think it could live up to its reviews and I was going to give it less than five stars. After reading it, I would give it six stars if that was possible. This is a top drawer example of a really well constructed, well written and well drawn picture of a man and his impressions and experiences in combat. Te story telling is brilliant, a real "page turner." I have read numerous volumes of war stories, many were excellent but none were able to catch and hold me like this one. Mike Jacksin has done a large favor for Vietnam veterans by showing just how normal they really were.



4. What a special book this is. It traces Mr. Jackson's experiences as a young man growing up in Ohio and follows him into air force training, pilot training and, finally, into combat. It does an excellent job of showing civilians what it is like to train for and experience war. I think it gives a more personal and even funny view of Vietnam than other books I have read of that era. It is also a timely book with solders once again marching off to war. Mike Jackson has my respect and appreciation.



5. I really enjoyed this book. I am not very interested in war or military titles but this was a departure from the standard fare. Mr. Jackson's personality and joyful approach to life left me feeling proud. His view of life is very uplifting. I can't really explain the way this book made me feel, a combination of proud and sore, from laughing, but with a better understanding of why someone is willing to fight a war. The last chapter made me cry as did other parts but overall the book was a pleasure to read. I may even read it again I definitely will be buying it for friends. Thank you to the authors for helping me understand things that were unknown to me before this book.

3 comments about BROTHERHOOD OF DOOM: Memoirs of a Navy Nuclear Weaponsman.

1. As a former GMT/WT who didn't have an opportunity to serve with Gunner Little I have to say that from the time I picked up the book till I put it down, it was amazing all I could think of was if I were to change some of the names and dates the book pretty much followed my experiences in the Navy. It's good that someone wrote a book that documents our time in the Navy. Most anything you read or see is about Navy pilots and this is a behind the scenes look at the enlisted and officer rating that was hidden behind doubled barbed wire fences and locked behind armed Marines. A small elite organization that took pride in its accomplishments. We still meet once a year to rekindle our memories. And if anyone wants to find out more about us log onto Navy Nuclear Weapons Association dot com



2. Jim Little tells his thirty year military story, starting with his first encounter with nuclear weapons when his teacher screamed at her seven year old students, "Duck and cover." Few today remember these Cold War drills, but those of us who do will never forget them.
   
   After graduating from high school, seventeen year old Jim Little enlisted in the U.S. Navy and the story begins. A story of enlisted life in the Navy, and a story of dedication, sacrifice and love of country. It is also is a window into the secret world of nuclear weapons: what it took to stockpile, train, load on aircraft, and then return the weapons to their secure magazines. A story that explains how the U.S. was able to safely maintain the power to destroy the world and insure freedom.
   
   Little's story also provides insight into events involving the Navy and, Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea, and China.
   
   This is a book that any man or woman planning to enter the military, enlisted or officer, should read. Little leads the reader through his experience that made him a leader as he climbed the ranks to Chief and then Warrant Officer. As a former Army officer, I recognized some of the personalities, officers and enlisted, described. The characteristics of a good military leader also apply in the civilian world. There is much wisdom in this book.
   
   CWO4 Jim Little's career revolved around Navy nuclear weapons. We have been to many of the same places, and assigned to the same command--DASA.
   
   This well written book is worth reading. Little keeps the story going, and you begin to feel you are part of his family. I plan to share it with my grandchildren when they reach their senior year in high school.
   
   My only disappointment with the book is the title. I would prefer BROTHERHOOD OF PEACE, for men and women like Jim Little kept the peace by making MAD (mutually assured destruction) possible, thereby keeping the Soviet Union and China in check.



3. a very intense read! ONE LIVES EVERY INSPECTION, PERSONAL CRISIS AND LEARNS TO APPRECIATE THE SACRIFICES MADE BY THOSE WHO SERVE!

4 comments about Sammy: The Autobiography of Sammy Davis, Jr..

1. I thought this book was very inspiring. This book was very good, and kept me very interested. I like how they put in pictures, and exact dates of when things happened to Sammy Davis Jr. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about an all around performer.
   
   Reviewer: Samantha, Cisneros



2. For beginners, this isn't bad. But those who are familiar with "Yes I can" and "Why Me?" (the Davis bios that this book was edited from) will not be happy. Too much of the good stuff from "Yes I Can" is missing, such as Sammy's guilt over his treatment of James Dean and his own mistreatment at the hands of other children and teenagers. Those were some of the most moving parts of that book and they should be included here. Oh well, you can always read the original.



3. I gladly give the life of Sammy Davis Jr. 5 stars, however, the Boyers have done this bright icon who came into their lives a disservice by simply expanding on Sammy's two previous autobiographies with more & longer details without any attempt to focus his memories or put order into the reading & that is why I give the book only 2 stars.

   Sammy Davis Jr. rose from childhood stardom in vaudeville to become one of the most famous African-Americans of the 1950s & 1960s. At the same time his career, friends & lifestyle were surrounded by controversy & his experiences as a black performer in segregated America.

   Of all the celebrities in the American star-studied panoply, Sammy Davis Jr., crossed over more lines. He converted to an unpopular religion; he had no fear of dating & marrying beautiful white women; he was close to the Kennedys & the Nixons; he was a member of Frank Sinatra's notorious Rat Pack & he played with alcohol & drugs.

   It's amusing to read his opinions of the two songs he liked the least as they became best-sellers - going platinum to his amazement.

   I think an Index of his best-selling songs, his legendary Las Vegas performances, his world-wide concerts & his movies & television shows should have been included. Sammy Davis Jr., was also a spokesperson for his people & an Index of the movers & shakers of the Civil Rights Movement & the politicians of his time with whom he consulted & for whom he worked, is vital.

   There isn't even a curriculum vitae! Do check out my full review of this & other biographies.




4. This book tries to cram together Yes I Can and Why Me? and in the process the humor and emotions which made those books great, especially Yes I Can, is lost. There is VERY LITTLE new material here. This book is a waste of time to anyone who already knows about Sammy and if they don't this isn't the place to start.

2 comments about John M. Schofield and the Politics of Generalship (Civil War America).

1. This is truly a wonderful book. I have always maintained an interest in civil military relations, but until I read this book, I never truly understood the importance of this topic. I am currently a student in a Graduate degree program, and I can't express how often this book touches on our day to day studies. In fact, I can pull something from this book on almost any topic. In fact, I think I'll recommed that our professor make it mandatory reading. I hope he'll agree!!
   Dan Saumur, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas



2. John Schofield was one of those young men who managed to graduate from West Point just before the start of the Civil War. When the war began, like many others, he quickly became a general officer. Unlike many others, he retained this rank for the rest of his very long career. He held administrative and battlefield commands during the war, was Secretary of War, superintended West Point, and eventually became commanding general. Yet, he is almost unknown outside the circle of civil war experts and even within that group is not a major subject of research. This book will fill that gap. It is copiously detailed and covers every aspect of Schofield's career. The book centers on Schofield's negotiation of the politics of the military life. However, the author provides an opbjective and appropriately critical discussion of Schofield's role in the Atlanta/Franklin/Nashville campaigns. Schofield's personal virtues and flaws are also analyzed. As the book deals with army administration, army/congressional relationships, and politics, it is not a quick read. However, if you are willing to devote the time needed to carefully read this book, you will come away with a good understanding of the role of this interesting and important officer.

1 comments about One Perfect Op: Navy SEAL Special Warfare Teams.

1. I've really enjoyed reading this book. Contrary to the impression given by the title, it is not an in depth recounting of a single mission. It is really a biography of sorts of the life of a SEAL from his childhood through retirement, touching on the highlights of his career. As with any non-fiction military literature, there are details of missions that must be left out, but it has been done well enough that the impact of the stories has not been sacrificed. This is my third Navy SEAL non-fiction, a genre I will be reading from more and more!

5 comments about Cold Zero: Inside the FBI Hostage Rescue Team.

1. A disappointment after making promises to be a first-person account of thrilling FBI sniper missions. The first half of the book was just about engaging with its descriptions of the tough training required to make it to FBI's elite units. After that, the missions Whitcomb described were just plain dull and dreary. His philosophical musings make for more entertaining reading than his missions and it wasn't supposed to be that way. I am sure there are better books of this sort out there and I am going to find them. Whitcomb has written more books after this one but I am not interested.



2. Well here it is folks. Cold Zero recounts Whitcomb's time as a HRT sniper.. during Ruby Ridge and Waco. It is tough for me to give a rating on this book, as the Ruby Ridge case has certain facts that do not mesh with this book. Some of you readers will say "You were not there, who are you to judge?" or "Try walking a day in their boots". Others, " this is one of the snipers , who despite training around the clock, shot a woman in the face at two hundred yards... while she was holding a baby( NOT Whitcomb, his comrade, Lon Tomohisa Horiuchi)". Whitcomb uses the old "we followed orders, and we protect Americans" lines to justify not standing up to outright evil actions of his FBI. If you enjoy reading Federal agency books, you may like this. If you want lame excuses why one of the best trained snipers in the US screwed up BIG time, you might enjoy this one. Caveat Emptor!



3. The author talks about his career as an FBI agent and his successful entry into the HRT (Hostage Rescue Team). The author is sincere and gives great detail on FBI missions. He also discusses how the FBI's HRT handles missions not quite military, but too intense for law enforcement. Very good book and well written.



4. A close-up look at the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team.
   
   Whitcomb takes you through the FBI Academy, New Operator Training School and the U.S. Marine Corps Scout/Sniper School. Since his background was not miliary/law enforcement, he presents an interesting perspective on the training and day-to-day life of one of the more elite units in U.S. law enforcement.
   
   A significant portion of the book is dedicated to Ruby Ridge & Waco, two pivotal events in Whitcomb's career and the FBI in general. It appears the FBI learned some hard lessons at both of these events and is a better organization now. I did not get the sense that Whitcomb or his peers fully grasped what was wrong with the FBI in the first place. His laundry list of "stuff" he had in his firing position at Waco (300 yards from the compound) should have been a red flag; grenades, two Browning pistols, CAR-16, Remington 700, Barrett .50 cal, M60 machine gun, .223 cal Squad Automatic Weapon. That is serious firepower and should not be necessary for a law enforcement operation.
   
   Overall a great book that does credit to the FBI and the author.



5. I met Chris recently at a college reunion. I had not known him in college, but when I saw that someone from our small rural liberal arts college would discuss being on the FBI Hostage Rescue Team and more, I was intrigued. His tales were intriguing and I ordered up the book. Better still! For clearly this is a product of much thought, of much living even, and here is someone who feels like one of us doing things quite amazing, exciting, frightening, and sometimes very deflating. His prose is great, sometimes poetic. He weaves a tale in a wonderful way...as when his tale of his first killing, a New Hampshire deer, shifts brilliantly into a key moment in his role as a sniper. His reflectiveness is what grabbed me, as he has much depth of thought to add to some stark tales. I have read this book while walking, late into the night, and when I really should have been doing other things. And this despite some clear breaks between parts of the book. A rare gem. Wish I had known Chris better in college!

4 comments about Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN.

1. This 303-page book is not a comprehensive history of our involvement in Vietnam. Also, it is not about the Army of the Republic of Vietnam ("ARVN"). It is about two Vietnamese army officers, Pham Van Dinh ("Dinh") and Tran Ngoc Hue ("Harry"), whose military careers closely paralleled each other up until the time that each was ordered to fight to the death in the face of insuperable enemy forces.
   
   Dinh is the elder of the two by nearly five years. Both men were from the Hue City area of central Vietnam. Dinh immediately built a reputation for aggressive leadership and was given command of the elite Black Panther Company ("Hac Bao"). Harry graduated from Vietnam's military school and before long, he was given command of the Hac Bao. Following impressive leadership exploits, both rose in the ranks of the ARVN, Dinh to the command of a regiment and Harry to the command of a battalion. Both men proved to be outstanding leaders in combat.
   
   In March 1971, the North Vietnamese army overran Harry's battalion in Laos and, badly wounded, Harry was taken to a prison in Hanoi. In April 1972, Dinh was in command of a regiment that was about to be overrun by a superior enemy force. Dinh surrendered his command to the enemy. About one month later, Dinh accepted an offer from his captors and switched sides, becoming an officer of the North Vietnamese army. In contrast, Harry refused all such offers and remained a prisoner for thirteen years before being released. Thereafter, he worked his way to the U.S. and became a U.S. citizen.
   
   The book provides interesting accounts of the Battles for Hue City, Hamburger Hill, Lam Son 719, and the final breakthrough of the North Vietnamese army at the demilitarized zone. The book mentions the "forgotten" ARVN only in the introduction and in its conclusion.
   
   While this book is interesting and informative, there are several aspects that detract from it value.
   
   > The time-frame of the U.S.-Vietnam relationship is unclear because the text shifts in such references, often focusing on a beginning date of 1965 when the U.S. committed substantial ground troops to the effort. However, the fact is that the U.S. began providing military assistance in the late 1950s. Vietnam had about 20 years to develop an effective government and an effective military.
   
   > The reasonable expectations of the two nations are not discussed. How long could the U.S. be expected to fight another country's war; what reciprocal action is reasonably expected from Vietnam?
   
   > The tone of the book is often professorial in that many conclusions are stated in ex cathedra fashion without any facts being presented to support those conclusions. For example, one wonders at the many assertions that it was the U.S. fault that Vietnam's army was organized and controlled by self-interested politicians and incompetent military leaders. Similarly, references to a "U.S./ARVN symbiosis" leave this reader cold.
   
   > There is no clear analysis of the state of mind of Dinh, nor any distinction made between the surrendering of his command and his defection to the enemy. These were two different actions and should be analyzed separately. Surely, a commander can opt for surrender; defection is another story entirely.
   
   All told, it is an interesting book. It is unlikely that one will find these facts in the run-of-the-mill histories that we usually encounter.



2. This a great story too long left untold. In addition to telling a wonderful but tragic tale of two men sharing similar histories whose lives take radically different courses, it is also a story about the betrayal of South Vietnam by this country. Mind you,I opposed the Vietnam War at the time, but it has become abundantly clear to me that it was a war that could have been won.
   This is no whitewash. Wiest makes it clear that the Army of S. Vietnam had a lot of problems, but he also makes it clear that many of these were caused by US training a lack of understanding on our part of the Vietnamese culture and society.
   It is a thoughtful and thought provoking book. A must read for anyone interested in the Vienam War.



3. `Vietnam's Forgotten Army" is about two ARVN soldiers and how they have lead their lives based on the concepts of Freedom - Country - Family - Duty - Honor. Their stories of loyalty, betrayal, life, death, love and hate are told so brilliantly compelling that makes it impossible to put the book down.
   
   The South Vietnamese Army is probably the military force that is most analyzed and most harshly judged by the US. In the teachings of history in current Vietnam, ARVN doesn't even exist. The war, according to the Communist Vietnam, is the fight for Freedom by the North Vietnamese Communist to liberate the South from the colonial US.
   
   This book is one of the very few books that introduces the readers to a fairly balanced view of the Vietnam War and its complexity.
   
   The one problem I have with the book, right from the beginning, is the explanation of Hue and Dinh's support of the war: "In a nation where Confucian values of family and honor are of the utmost importance, Dinh and Hue were drawn to the support of South Vietnam for the most Vietnamese of reasons, following paths blazed by their fathers" (p. 11) Mr. Weist then goes on to dedicate several more subsequent pages about `Family Matters' to support this reason.
   
   While this is undoubtedly a big reason, it is not the only one.
   
   Before 1954, the year Vietnam was divided, most Vietnamese people had already had a good idea of what communism was.
   
   Between 1945-1954, the North Communist initiated a systematic execution of anyone who was thought to be dangerous to the Vietnamese Communist Party. Ten of thousands of nationalists, Catholics and others were massacred in a campaign called `The Great Purge'. They also emulated China's Land Reform Campaign that lasted from 1945 to 1956 during which an estimated 15,000 landlords were killed.
   
   During this time, my father, who had lost most of his family including his mother and sisters due to starvation and sickness, seeing the French as the lesser of the two evils, joined the French Army and later, owing to his father's advice, moved South.
   
   My mother's grandfather, a land owner, sentenced by the Communist People Court, was staked to death in his own rice paddy. Her father was captured and then was fortunate enough to be set freed by his loyal former farm worker, ran home, gathered up his family and fled South via Hai Phong Harbor along with other millions of refugees to seek Freedom in the South.
   
   By the early 60's, when both Dinh and Hue joined the military, South Vietnamese fear of communism was proven valid by Mao's cruelty of `The Great Leap Forward' and `The Cultural Revolution' during which, 20 million of Chinese had perished.
   
   
   I believe that both North and South Vietnamese fought for the Freedom of Vietnam. For North Vietnam, Freedom meant a self ruled nation with Vietnamese leadership, regardless of how totalitarian this leadership was. For South Vietnam, the value of Freedom was not universal. For some people, it was National Freedom in a Democratic Vietnam, advanced and prospered like France or US or at least as the imperial past. For my father, it was political freedom, the idea that it could be under a common wealth, as long as this common wealth brought peace, law and order, security and prosperity to the populace. For my mother and probably the majority of Vietnamese people, the value of Freedom was an individual one. It meant having enough rice to eat, freedom to raise families, freedom to worship their gods or ancestors and own property. Sadly, these values became the great sources of conflicts within the South Vietnamese hearts.
   
   In this book. Andrew Weist did point out this complexity:
   "Certainly the South Vietnamese state and the ARVN were imperfect. Even so, South Vietnam fought for twenty-five years and the ARVN lost more than 200,000 dead. After the war, millions chose to flee South Vietnam rather than live under the suzerainty of their brothers from the North."
   
   The book did an excellent job in highlighting the reasons for the destruction of South Vietnam: Cultural hubris of American Leadership, moral blindness of the media, corruption and incompetence of the Vietnamese Leadership and the lack of enforcement of the democracy ideology for the South, thus in the critical hours, Democracy for South Vietnam could not stand against ideology trained soldiers of the North.



4. "Vietnam's Forgotten Army" is the most complete personal account of ARVN soldiers at war and in the aftermath as experienced by two middle-ranking officers through the personal choices they made. It is written with balance and flair by a scholar who is devoted to a thorough accounting of Vietnam. With firsthand research, Wiest provides the crucial missing voices, those of the South Vietnamese often misportrayed, overshadowed, and underappreciated by their powerful American allies. He gives readers glimpses of what American advisers and their Iraqi counterparts may be facing in Iraq today.

5 comments about My War Gone By, I Miss It So.

1. This is Anthony Loyd's first book, an accounting of his somewhat haphazard entry into the world of freelance journalism during the 1990s war in Bosnia. His writing style is alternately informational, amusing, harrowing, ornate and thought-provoking, and I recommend it highly for anyone interested in war reporting that is not jingoistic, self-assured or written in a "I know it all, I have all the answers" fashion. It also furnishes a good overview of the root causes of the Serb-Croat-Muslim nightmare that gripped Europe; it's a confusing and tangled web, but for those of us who don't remember what happened or why, he for the most part successfully explains the sequence of events and the disastrous consequences.
   Loyd's second book, "Another Bloody Love Letter", covers his further adventures as a freelancer in various parts of the world; with his musings on death, the power of addiction, the travails of war and the lure of being in the midst of danger and bloodshed, it's even more well-written and gripping, but both are really fascinating reads.
   In the context of what is happening today in Iraq and other parts of the world, it behooves us to learn what we can about what is really happening on the ground: it is thanks to freelancers like Loyd, his murdered journo friend Kurt Schork, the freelance journalist Steven Vincent, killed in Iraq in 2005, and so many others who risk their lives to report on what they see without having to filter it through the cheesecloth of a major media organization, that we know as much as we do. Read these books. Learn, and never forget what risks people take to get you those stories and photographs in your morning paper.



2. This is an amazing account of a terrible war, and it's beautifully written. If you don't know the background of the wars in the former Yugoslavia, be sure to read a quick history online first to fill you in. But don't let a lack of knowledge of the situation deter you from reading the book - it's incredible.



3. It is a positively realistic book. I understand his connection between addictions. One in his blood by choice the other not. So to those not capable of digesting the dark observations of this story, stay away. There is a reason people will take vacation to Disney World and not Baghdad. Lets be glad that there are Loyd's who have the stomach to see these things, and the head to write the story.



4. I don't like British people: fokking Beitish. Let me explain. I dislike and despise the Average Joe London, the man of the streets, the Cockney accented bastard; the people from mining towns, the soccer fan mobs, bent on drinking and destroying. To hell with them all. I also intensely dislike the radical democratic, skeptical, agnostic way of thinking responsible for the parliamentary revolutions, reicides, and the collapse of the British Empire: Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Bertrand Russell: hang them all. Now here comes this book, written in that tradition by an eminently unknown journalist. He is a total anti-hero: atheist, drug user, heroine addict, lacking visions and ideals. The only thing I appreciated in the book is his description of his relationship with his father and the few references to the cowardice of the UN during the Bosnian conflict. A few fleeting references to the evil harboring in people's hearts deserved to be developed further. All in all a disappointing book.



5. A messed up report of a messed up war by one very messed up dude. Sounds more like a drug log than any reporting. The haze of drug abuse makes the atrocities reported more like a drug dream, remote that is, than any reality. Found the book incoherent. For a more coherent report read "Love Thy Neighbors" by Peter Maass.

5 comments about Duffy's War: Fr. Francis Duffy, Wild Bill Donovan, and the Irish Fighting 69th in World War I.

1. Top notch telling of the adventures of Father Duffy and the Fighting 69th. Maqnificent battle sequences as well as historical background.Fine piece of work...R.D.Morgan..author of "The Tri-State Terror" and "Taming the Sooner State".



2. My husband has this book in hardcover and liked it so much that he bought the soft covered version for an older gentleman he knows from the Catholic War Veterans: Father Duffy Post in Manhattan, NY. It is a well written and informative story that does great justice to the bravery and courage of this Catholic Chaplain and others from the Fighting 69th. It also tells the story of the immigrants of NYC as they fought and died together during this first World War.



3. This is a very good book and thoroughly researched about the Fighting 69th Regiment New York US Infantry. It provides a very detailed account of the Regiment's actions in the Great War of 1914-1918, although the United States did not declare war on Germany until early 1917. The Regiment was transported to France towards the end of 1917 and went into the trenches in February 1918. The book describes the various actions in which the Regiment fought and the doughboys suffered very heavy casualties in its advance to the Hindenberg Line. The book was based upon the writings from his diary of the regimental chaplain Father Francis P Duffy, who also wrote a book in 1919 about the Regiment, a copy of which has recently been received from Amazon and will be my next read.



4. The 69th regiment, is one of the oldest and most famous units in the United States Army. It's history goes back to 1851 when it was known as the 69th New York Militia. ('A' company can trace its roots further back to the Revolutionary War.) The unit gained fame at numerous Civil War battlefields and Gen. Lee gave it the name 'The Fighting 69th.'
   
   This book takes the regiment into the next war, World War I, where its actions were no less heroic. It spent 170 days in the front lines suffering hundreds killed and thousands wounded. Perhaps its most famous members were Father Francis Duffy (whose statue is in Times Square, which technically is really Duffy Square), Wild Bill Donovan who headed the OSS in World War II, and the poet Joyce Kilmer ('Trees') who was killed. The regiment was part of the 42nd Rainbow Division under Douglas MacArthur.
   
   This is the full, previously unpublished story of the regiments actions in World War I and fills out a trilogy of stories concentrating on individual regiments by the same author.
   
   The 69th still exists. It was one of the first military responders at 9/11 - having two men killed there, and it was federalized and sent to Iraq in 2004.



5. I've read a lot about the American Expeditionary Force and the Fighting 69th, but Stephen Harris's study really expanded my knowledge about both. I'll certainly have a much better appreciation of Joyce Kilmer's "Rouge Bouquet" next time I hear it read and of the goings on at the River Ourcq next time I visit that battlefield. What I really enjoyed, however, was the author's biographical sketches and background on a whole raft of fascinating individuals. These include average Joes caught up in the adventure of lifetime, Medal of Honor recipients, plus well-known characters like Kilmer, Wild Bill Donovan and--most importantly--the namesake of the book, Father Francis Duffy. The good father turns out to be amazingly multi-dimensional: a good Samaritan to Teddy Roosevelt's returning malaria-afflicted Rough Riders, a learned modernist intellectual who works his way into his bishop's doghouse, a military politician of the first order, the proud protector of his Irish and unofficially Irish flock, and New York City's most beloved humanitarian. A strong recommendation for Duffy's War.