5 comments about Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat.

1. In 1991, I had the privilege of being a student at the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth under the direction of then Col James McDonough. A man of deep reflection, he was also passionate about soldiers and ensured that everything we did as students in teh study of warfare and campaign design kept them in mind.
   
   Now I am a university professor offering courses in US military history. Part of what I do is to expose my students to leadership and battle at the small unit level. There is no better book for that purpose concerning Vietnam than McDonough.
   
   Every student takes something different away from this book because, unlike many assigned books, they read it. The book captures you right from the beginning. You really can't put it down. And, it contains more lessons about life and leadership than I can express here.
   
   Knowing the author personally in 1991-1992 is special, for I saw in him then the character that had developed from his time in Vietnam. He tells it like it is, he means what he says, and he stands by his word. His book is more than just a memoir, it is therapy for a man who must live with the past, both for better and for worse.



2. Platoon Leader was an excellent read, and one I would recommend for all those enjoy military reading. I would especially suggest it to all junior military leaders. Entertaining and well written, the author discusses at length his role as a leader, and what he views as good and bad leaders. The aspect of the book I enjoyed the most was it allowed the reader to see leadership, on a small-unit level, working in real-world combat conditions. Unlike many books leaders read for professional development, it shows how leadership works when employed and doesn't just philosophize about leadership principles.



3. As a junior officer I have an entire list of professional reading that I am trudging my way through, but so far McDonough has been by far the most enjoyable and has made the biggest impact on my own leadership style. Both Platoon Leader and Defense of Hill 781 are great books, but Platoon Leader is so far the best military memoir I have read. It has been over a year since I read this book, but the three things that have stuck with me are:
   1. Do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.
   2. Death in a combat zone is more about just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sooner or later your luck runs out, but you have the duty to your fellow soldiers to do everything in your power to protect them.
   3. The stealing of a bottle of soda from a grandmother leads slowly but inevitable to the rape of her granddaughter. If you let your soldiers steal at all you are setting the stage for what atrocities they will commit later. You must always be vigilant in your discipline.
   
   While I do not have combat experience, I am currently serving in Iraq and know second handedly that these concepts still hold true.
   
   Other than the leadership aspect of the book, Mcdonough is just a great story teller and is able to make the book engaging and addicting.



4. James McDonough provides an in-depth look at infantry platoon operations in Vietnam. This is a must read for anyone who intends to pursue a military career. The book is very graphic, but also very succint and to the point. McDonough doesn't waste time with superfluous details, every word is well chosen and critical to the telling of the story. Once you begin reading, you will not want to stop. It is a quick read, and well worth the time it takes.



5. "Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat," by James R. McDonough, chronicles the author's experiences as an officer in the Vietnam War from 1970-71. His platoon is charged with manning an outpost next to the village of Truong Lam.
   
   This is a fascinating, well-written account. McDonough fills his narrative with vivid details that really made his story come alive in my mind. He doesn't flinch at describing the goriest and most horrific images of war. There are also moments of irony and bitter humor. Also noteworthy is the informative material about tactics used in Vietnam. And the author humanizes the story by touching on such "down-and-dirty" issues as the latrine his platoon used.
   
   McDonough's story is populated with a compelling cast of characters. Particularly intriguing is his exploration of relationships among the various groups he encountered in the war zone--U.S. enlisted men, his fellow Army officers, Vietnamese military allies, enemy forces, and the many civilians caught up in the conflict.
   
   While rich in scenes of combat, "Platoon Leader" goes beyond being just an action-packed war yarn. The book explores the ethics and morals of war. McDonough deals directly with the danger a soldier faces in becoming dehumanized by the brutality of war. He vividly portrays the struggle of a leader to remain wise and humane, yet also tough and resolute, under the most trying of circumstances. This book is both a profound meditation on wartime leadership and a powerful work of American literature.

5 comments about The Devil Knows How To Ride: The True Story Of William Clarke Quantril And His Confederate Raiders.

1. Mild-mannered teacher. Mama's boy. Impressionable Army teamster. Professional gambler. Lady's man. Expert horseman. Cold-blooded killer.
   
   William Clarke Quantrill, the leader of the most feared group of guerrillas in American history, possessed all of these personas at one time or another in his short life. Tackling a subject of this complexity requires an author who is up to the task, and Edward Leslie proves that he is the man for the job in The Devil Knows How to Ride.
   
   Leslie does an admirable job transporting the reader back to a time when people's survival was day-to-day and the difference between life and death often depended on one's political sympathies. Leslie probably comes closer than any other author to understanding Quantrill the man and his motivations. This is all the more impressive when one considers that Quantrill, the most important figure in the story, died a month shy of his 28th birthday, leaving behind few correspondences and no memoirs.
   
   The book is thoroughly researched and meticulously detailed. Well-known events such as the Lawrence Massacre are covered. But so are little-known historical nuggets, such as the story of Quantrill escaping from the headquarters of a Confederate general who had placed him under arrest near Bonham, Texas. It seems that every raid ever undertaken by Quantrill's gang gets a mention, whether it be for one sentence or an entire chapter. Despite the book's great detail, its pulse-pounding pace is rarely compromised.
   
   Besides good research and an easy writing style, another of Leslie's hallmarks is that he brings objectivity to the subject of which he writes. He projects a balanced view that never resorts to "purple prose." Many of the more incendiary allegations against Quantrill are presented very carefully. For example, Leslie takes issue with stories of Quantrill gleefully abusing animals as a youth and attributes them to a single source who had reasons for disparaging his character. Perhaps because of Quantrill's fierce reputation, many such stories about him were taken at face value when they were first published.
   
   This book is ideal for readers with a basic knowledge of the Civil War who don't want to sift through long narratives of troop movements, flanking maneuvers, and the like. The irregular nature of guerrilla operations makes for interesting reading. The story is also interesting because guerrilla groups were small units compared with the regular Army. As a result, the participants in the story have related their experiences in very personal terms.
   
   Leslie's attention to detail and fresh perspective on Quantrill ensures that Civil War aficionados will appreciate the book as well.
   
   If you are looking for one book on Quantrill, or even one book on the Civil War in the West, you can't go wrong with The Devil Knows How to Ride.



2. I am a history fanatic and I loved this book. It is about a time of which I did not have a lot of knowledge and this was so well done.
   I am sorry Mr. Leslie doesn't have more books as he is an excellant story teller.



3. As little as I heard about William Qunatrell and as much as I wanted to know about him, I found this book sadly lacking in any depth or insight. Even though the author writes an introduction about knowing a sociopath who massacred a dozen people in a McDonald's and how this led him to be interested in serial killers and the like, he falls back on narrative devices of the Gone with the Wind cliche.
   
   Whilst there is a fascinating story buried in this narrative about a man who took up guerrilla warfare and how he scared the hell out of Kansas and Missouri, the retelling sucks the life out of it. The author relies too heavily on the original histories and reports some of the hokiness bits of dialogue and fictions without comment. Sure, the guerrila bands MIGHT have been avenging their sisters and the good southern women, or that might have just been the melodramatic recreation. Sure, a man might have said "D-mn them. They are desecrating the flag" upon seeing a Lawrence raider dragging an American flag on horseback. Or he might have just been running for his life and thought up the story later on.
   
   Sadly, this is considered the classic of the historical accounts. So it will be many more years before a better book comes along - one that actually attempts psychological insight and historical accuracy and actually discusses the original texts instead of swallowing every bit of romanticized twaddle without question.



4. ....and Colonel William Clarke Quantrill called in the debt. He sure as hell did. Hart was an assumed name that Quantrill used as a young man when he went west from Ohio seeking fame and fortune, or at least a living. Problem was, he landed right in the middle of the "Bleeding Kansas" mess that was especially hot along the Missouri-Kansas border. Quantrill worked as a teacher, and is said to have been a good one, but trouble was brewing...Charles Jennison and his Jayhawkers, John Brown and his murders of innocent whites....more than enough motivation for a young man to follow the South when war came.
   
   Missouri was even more deeply divided than the rest of the country; it really was brother against brother. The Confederate commander in Missouri was Major General Sterling Price, a fine and decent man, but not our best General. Initially, Quantrill served in the regular Confederate Army, but gradually broke away, with a band of followers, to form The Missouri Partisan Rangers, forerunner of the modern Special Forces, complete with proper Confederate commissions. At first, they played by regular rules...taking prisoners, giving paroles, etc. But when Jim Lane wantonly burned Osceola, and murdered civilians, the black flag came out...
   
   Quantrill's followers are the stuff of Legend...Captain Bloody Bill Anderson...Captain George Todd, who eventually supplanted Quantrill [I am married to a direct descendent of Captain Todd; our son will gladly tell you about it]...Archie Clement...Bill Gregg...Cole Younger...Frank James...Jesse James. Some died in the cause; others went on to fame after the war.
   
   Quantrill's Raiders lived off the countryside, and made things hot for the Yankees wherever they went. They even fought, and won, regular battles, like Baxter Springs. Finally, the Yankees imprisoned female relatives of the Raiders in a structurally unsafe jail in Kansas City...when it collapsed, five innocent girls, including Bill Anderson's sister and Cole Younger's cousin died...enough was enough, the bill was due, and Lawrence paid. When Ewing issued his infamous Order #11, clearing northwest Missouri of Southern civilians, resolve hardened.
   
   Eventually, Todd and Anderson were killed, and the war ended. Quantrill was mortally wounded in Kentucky in 1865. Or was he? He was seen alive as late as 1915...the ultimate legendary status...seen alive after death, joining such company as Jesse James [seen as late as 1951], Houdini, Elvis, and JFK. His skull was used as a prop in a college fraternity initiation for years; he finally received a military funeral, and Christian burial, in 1992. Surviving Raiders held reunions from 1898 till 1929; interestingly, there were two black Raiders at the reunions, though no one knows much about them.
   
   This is a well researched account of a little known aspect of our Civil War. "Quantrill's War" by Duane Schultz is more academic, but this is more readable...both get five stars.



5. I went to KU in Lawrence so I was well aware of Quantrill's raid but that was about all that I was aware of. (Pioneer Cemetery with headstone inscriptions bearing witness to that raid is just across I70 from KU on Mount Oread.) When studying the American Civil War in school one learns about Gettysburg, Antietam, Petersburg and the fighting in the Shenandoah of Virginia. Some passing mention might be made of the war in the west, usually a reference to Grant and Vicksburg. There is hardly if ever any mention of the 'border war' in eastern Kansas and western Missouri. The border war is still alive in that part of the nation; the massacre at Baxter Springs and General Order Number 11 that emptied a number of counties of citizens in western Missouri to combat bands of guerillas is still in the memory of many. Not all of the fighting was in the east and Edward Leslie does a fine job of bringing to life a bit of the war in the west. It was as nasty if not nastier than anything in the east.

5 comments about Blood Trails: The Combat Diary of a Foot Soldier in Vietnam.

1. A brillant and riveting account that offers a unique insight to life in the jungle of a combat infantryman. It's all true, I know because I was in Charlie company "Black Lions" from January 1967 to April 1967 when Chris was shot.
   It was my platoon, 3rd platoon, that was hit that day. The first two men were hit by pullets from a large Chinese mine that exploded before them. The screams still remain fresh in my mind. The concussion from the explosion was so great that it knocked the 3rd man in the formation, Battles, off his feet and he rolled into me. Then all hell broke loose and the fire fight went on for what seemed like minutes, but was actually over two hours. Chris's 1st platoon came to our rescue. Sometime during the end of the fighting, I was out in an open field and saw this soldier coming towards me in huge distress. He couldn't talk, a bullet had shattered his jaw, and he keeped running his hand around his head. It was Chris and I was able to help him. Didn't see him again till 1994.
   
   
   Fred Kirkpatrick
   webmaster, www.28thinfantry.org



2. Nothing really new to someone who has read many personal memoirs from vietnam. I found anticlimactic. There are much better memoirs out there.



3. I'm a 3-tour Vietnam vet. Salvage diver with the 20th. Engineers out of Long Binh. 69-71. I've read a multitude of books about the Vietnam War & am so very glad I volunteered as a Diver instead of a paratrooper that I came within an eyelash of doing. You line doggies out there have ALL of my considerable respect!
   
   Blood Trails is without a doubt THE best book I've yet to read on the war. The guy tells it like it was (for the infantry people) but includes a lot of sarcastic & self-deprecating humor that makes the book a joy to read. His vivid descriptions of real life combat puts you in the driver's seat & makes this reader realize how lucky he was NOT to have been a paratrooper! Great job!



4. I went with five stars against my better judgmemt. Oh, the book was most interesting and the humor alone was worth the price and effort, but we Vietnam veterans have had so many roses thrown in our paths and so much glory that I'm afraid of overdoing it.
   
   Anyway, Ronnau gets my vote and five stars simply because he was able to stop taking drugs and killing babies long enough to write a book. I was able to get my newest title, "Kill Me If You Can", out between these things, but haven't been able to completely give them up. It pleases me to no end when an 11 Bravo guy makes good. Thanks and congratulations, Doc.



5. "Blood Trails", written by Long Beach, California native Chris Ronnau, tells of his experiences as a foot soldier in Vietnam. His unit, the Big Red One, was involved in many important infantry operations in the III Corps area of South Vietnam, north and west of Saigon along the Cambodian border. In this book, he conveys the day to day emotions of a youthful soldier called off to duty in a foreign land where he ended up becoming a hero during a fierce firefight in April 1967, during which he sustained mass trauma to his face. This is his story of personal courage, along with a moving account of the battlefield comraderie among 19 year old soldiers who depended only on each other for survival in America's longest, most frustrating war.

5 comments about The Naked Soldier: A True Story of the French Foreign Legion.

1. I was never bored and it never moved slowly, I was always very interested and entertained. He is also very reflective which makes the book ten times better



2. I have always been fascinated by the FFL and this book lived up to the hype. The author gives good insight into the world of the FFL. I couldn't put the book down.



3. Bought this book seeking to read about the experiences of a modern Legionary. Mr. Sloane does recount his story, but it is very matter of fact. I hoped to understand something more of his personality and what was going on inside his head! The characters he met in the Legion need to be filled out more. Simply stating he hated this guy or that is not enough. Reading this style of text leaves one with the feeling that Mr. Sloane is a cold person with anger issues. I know Mr. Sloane is tough, and a real soldier. He knows how to suffer pain and keep on going. One would think that to suffer intense amounts of BS, takes a person with character. Mr. Sloane's character is not glimpsed by the reader, however. I guess my problem is I didn't get to hear, smell, see, and feel something of what he was experiencing through his writing. Mr. Sloane goes through Hell and back again and simpy states it blandly. He is almost invisible. Those who he interacted with on a daily basis have no personalities. They are names that come and go. As I read the book, I don't know Mr. Sloane, or any of the people mentioned. They come and go. They do and endure stuff...I don't feel anything for them. Read To Hell and Back Again,of Audie Murphy fame or Band of Brothers (101 AB). You get to know something about the people and begin to like and hate the guys you meet there! In short, if a Legionary's experiences can't be communicated to the reader...well, why even bother to tell the story in the first place?



4. This isn't a General sitting in his study writing his memoirs. This is a great, no none sense memoir of a grunts life from a grunts point of view in one of the most physically and psychologically demanding military units in the world. The story is sometimes rambling and disjointed but always fascinating and real. A lot of the books written about the Legion are by quitters who stayed a year or two and then deserted, Tony Sloane finished his commitment despite the hardship and because of that you are able to see the transformation of a restless and wandering teen to that of a hardened Soldier. For fans of the Legion or anyone looking for a good story I can highly recommend this book.



5. Tony Sloane's book The Naked Soldier is an honest and no nonsense view of the Foreign Legion.As a hoemless 18 year old in the UK, Sloane joins the Legion and not only excels at the training but he joins the elite 2nd REP.He spends time in Djbouti (Africa),completes three commando courses, and by the end of his five year enlistment he is promoted to Corporal.
   He goes into great detail about the training,the brutality, and his desire to do something positive and to make the best of his time in the Legion.
   I like Sloane's book because unlike some books such as Salazar's Legion of the Lost or Jenning's A Mouthful of Rocks he served his five year term with honor and did not give up.This is the type of guy that I would liked to have served with because he reminds me of so many of my comrades in the Marines and Army.So if you are a FFL fan I think that you will enjoy this book.I would equate this book with Simon Murrays "Legionaire".

4 comments about Omaha Beach and Beyond: The Long March of Sergeant Bob Slaughter.

1. I have already added this book to my collection, and damn proud of it too.



2. I just finished reading Sgt. Slaughter's book and I highly recommend it. Much has been written about what it was like to land on Omaha Beach, but very little has been written about the training that the GI's went through prior to the invasion. I particularly liked the anecdotal accounts of Sgt. Slaughter's drill sergeant and the accounts of some unauthorized departures from base (particularly to get a steak dinner!). The descriptions of Sgt. Slaughter's training as a 29th Ranger was very interesting as very little is available about this unit.
   
   This book is an easy book to read (it kept me turning the pages) and tells a very good and compelling story. Through the eyes of the author, the reader experiences a different aspect of war - the compassion of soldiers and the camaraderie forged by war.



3. Bob Slaughter has captured a piece of history in a unique and fascinating manner. His recounting of personal and historical events surroundnig one of the defining events of modern time is not only a good documentary but entertaining. Knowing him as a fellow "Stonewall Brigade" member adds even more interest from my perspective. He tells the story from a real life perspective ... how it really was then and what it took to succeed in the mission. Reading this book will certainly give you a great view of what the men and women went through to win the war. He pulls no punches in revealing some mistakes made in planning and execution at every level. Anyone who thinks "freedom is free" should read this to learn the real "cost of freedom."



4. Sgt. Bob Slaughter, a D-Day veteran, was the moving force behind the implementation of the National D-Day Memorial and, now at the ripe old age of 82, is the Chairman of the Foundation for the memorial. His book, some 60 years in the making, movingly tells the story of what it was like on Omaha beach, Normandy, 6 June 1944 and thereafter.
   
   The author's story really begins at the tender age of 15 when he convinces his parents to allow him to sign up for the Virginia National Guard. He joined in early 1941 and was in basic training at 16, after his unit was called up for federal service with other local Virginia outfits.
   
   Shortly thereafter, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. America, and the Virginia National Guard, was now caught up in World War II.
   
   After initially guarding the East coast his unit was sent to England. On the way his transport, a converted oceanliner, inadvertently ran into a British warship, cutting it in two and killing several hundred British sailors.
   
   While in England, the author volunteers for a ranger battalion and trained intensively in Scotland but this unit never saw combat, was disbanded, and the men were sent back to their original units.
   
   The author's training then continues in England for the invasion of Normandy. The invasion comes, of course, on 6 June 1944. The author is in on the third wave of landings that day, but the carnage experienced by his unit, D Company of 116th Infantry, 29th Division, on the beaches was no less than many on the first wave. That first day his Company suffered over 40% casualties, about one-third of whom were from his hometown, Roanoke, Virgina. (The D-Day Memorial is in Bedford, Virginia. Bedford suffered even heavier losses during the invasion, 23 alone on D-Day, than Roanoke.) The author's description of that day, as men were crushed by their own landing craft or shot and drowned under the weight of their 60-pound packs, is quite intense and not soon forgotten. Particularly memorable is the author's recognition that, at 6 feet 5 inches, he displayed an especially large and inviting target to the German defenders.
   
   The author's story continues as he survives D-Day, is twice wounded (once in the head and once in the kidneys) but rejoins his unit in the fight across France and into Germany.
   
   After being released and coming home in July 1945, the author describes the personal turmoil and feelings he and other veterans felt after the war. After being trained so long as killing machines, it was not so easy to disengage those instincts. Along with many veterans, the author kept fighting after the war ended, only this time with his fists.
   
   He eventually settles down and becomes a newspaper reporter but, as the years go by, becomes more and more peeved that not only was there no national memorial to those Americans who fought and died on D-Day but the younger generation(s) seemed to know, or care, little about it. After his retirement, he began to spend more and more time on obtaining a memorial. His efforts were finally rewarded after public attention on D-Day was increased as its 50th anniversary approached.
   
   His book is an important asset not just to the history of World War II but also as to the post-war stresses of veterans and a nation's recognition of its heroes.

5 comments about Mengele: The Complete Story.

1. Excellent book.Couldn't put it down.A touchy subject that most won't write about but if no one does then we will never learn from our past.The author tackles the subject of his life,evils and in the end his loneliness.



2. 
   That's the feeling one -regretably- obtains after going thru all the pages of this book. One quarter of it is dedicated to his ignominious "works", so it's the only chance we get to know about this criminal; because the other three quarters are about the his wherabouts since the war ended.
   
   There are no first hand testimonies or interviews to peersons who knew him. It all sounds like third person stories, and this is not to question his atrocities at all: there's more than proof to have had him executed many times. I am not looking for necrophilic detail or sadistic descriptions. What I wanted is to know the man closer, his way of thinking, his circumstance, his motivations. The book deals with this very, very, superficially.
   
   The hunt can't be called exactly a hunt, not by far as interesting as the The House on Garibaldi Street (Classics of Espionage) on Eichmann, one of the most exciting books I've read of any subject.
   
   Posner's book lacks substance, grip, interest. A subject like this guy is almost hard not to make it interesting.



3. A very helpful, scholarly bio with information about Mengele's entire life. A great book for those seeking more than just an overview of Mengele. If you want to know more about Mengele's work, visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's website for "Deadly Medicine" exhibition, now at Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta this summer (2007).



4. Was hard to stay interested in this book. I found it very boring to read.



5. First of all: A damned good book! Bonechilling material!! Furthermore:
   What kind of punishment do you give a man like Mengele?
   Deathpenalty? Life in prison? The first one is over too quick and the second one is too easy. No, I think Mengele has got the best punishment he could have. He was 34 years on the run. Never had a moment of peace in his entire life after the ending of WW2. The stress it brought him, even gave him a shorter span of life. He developed a lot of stress related sickness. Always had to look over his shoulder. Did they recognize him? Was this his last day of "freedom"? If he had been sentenced for life in prison he could have reached, like Hess, a respectable age well over 80 years old. Now he died 68 years of age. Alone and forgotten in some Godforsaken place in Brazil. He sticked, untill his dead, to his beliefs about the Nazi's and the Jews. A rigid and untolereant character of a man.
   He never got the chance to fullfill a job on his intelectuel level, always lowpaid workman's labour. Never could socialise with people of his intelect. That hurt him like hell. So, in fact, life in "freedom" was in fact life in hell. Never the hell he created for the people who died through his hands or command. But even we, as normal people, couldn't give him, if he had be captured, the torments he gave all those other innocent people. For that, we are to civilised. No, I think it has been for the best that he stayed on the run. He punished himself with it. More then we ever could give to him. I feel sorry for his son Rolf. You only get one biological father in your life and he got this one.

5 comments about The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1. Some might say Ambrose is the poor man's William Manchester. Certainly American Caesar, Manchester on MacArthur in the Pacific, is perhaps a better book. Better perhaps because of its more fascinating subject. Or better because of its more personal tone. MacArthur was certainly a poseur and so the Pacific campaign was often just all about him. And that gets us to the crux of the matter - bizarre as it may seem, this is not really a book about Ike. Or perhaps it is, in that Ike was there, but he was not really there. Someone once wrote that all men have in them a wild red dog, that once let out they become dangerous, but also capable of true greatness, or true evil. What stops most or at least many from letting that dog out is ambition. What drives a proud capable man to write a carefully crafted flattering letter of apology to a superior? Ambition. What drives us to keep our mouth shut at a crucial time? Ditto. Ike was so ambitious that he didn't see the title of Supreme Commander, Allied Forces as the pinnacle of his career, and he was right. So, the prototype of the modern politician, Ike the General here is the master deal maker, compromise maker, a fairly pro-Anglo American general running the Anglo-American coalition. By the fact that he was willing to say or do almost anything to keep the coalition, and thus his own reputation and future prospects, alive - amd that he succeeded, handsomely at times - is testimony to how shut up that wild dog was.
   
   Thus is a long read, and often, especially with the rather prosaic Ambrose style, quite dull. But don't let that put you off! Once you have slogged through the prologue and rather turgid Italian campaign - why were the allies in Italy? Answer: because they were in North Africa. Why were they in North Africa? Something about promising Stalin they would attack somewhere in 1943 - what a great reason! - you start to appreciate this long journey on into France with Patton, Bradley and Monty et al. Ambrose, Ike's official biographer, who met him personally near the end of his life, is about as pro his subject as it is possible to be. Perhaps Ike's steadiness rubbed off as Ambrose also manages to give most of the Allied commanders a fair shake (or benefit of the doubt, if you like). So, little intrigue, a long, complex campaign - if you aren't a huge fan of Ike, and I wasn't right off the bat, you will come away with a certain appreciation of his talents - perhaps he was indeed the right man for the job.



2. Stephen Ambrose has written some of the best WW@ history ever and this is no exception. Here we see the REAL general Eisenhower, the doubts along with the confidence, the heartaches along with the triumph. For a rare glimpse of the higest levels of command in the most important moment in the twentieth century, this is it.



3. This is one of Stephen Ambrose's first efforts after working with Dwight Eisenhower on Eisenhower's personal papers (The Supreme Commander first published in 1970). It is obvious that he was still very much infatuated by Ike's persona at this point in time. As such The Supreme Commander can tell almost as much about Stephen Ambrose as it does Dwight Eisenhower. As other reviewers noted, the criticism of Eisenhower's Hurtgen Forest campaign, the army's replacement policy, and the segregated army of WWII that appears in Ambrose's later work, Citizen Soldier, is missing in The Supreme Commander. Thus one can track Ambrose's maturing as a historian with the passage of time.
   
   Still, even this early offering by Ambrose has his unique narrative style and helps to much to explain how a newly minted brigadier general on December 7, 1941 bypasses many more senior general officers to become a five star general of the army, and the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, Europe by June 6, 1944. There were many general officers that had a better grasp of tactics, e.g. Patton or perhaps strategy, Alexander or Bradley but none had the understanding and patience that Eisenhower had in building and maintaining coalition forces in a prolonged conflict. He gathered able officers from all nationalities and supported the combined effort not national ambitions. This often frustrated other American generals such as George Patton but it was the course to take. He often supported and backed his commanders even other were calling for the heads - again see Patton. Eisenhower knew who he needed for ultimate victory and insisted upon having their services.
   
   Eisenhower wasn't perfect. He made mistakes such as the deployment of forces that led to the debacle at the Kasserine Pass in North Africa, and his over confidence in December 1944 that the Germans were through and could no longer launch a major offensive. However, he learned from his mistakes and attempted to profit from them. For example turning the early diaster of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 into an opportunity in January 1945 to squash what remained of the German Wehrmacht in the West.
   
   All in all, a good but not perfect early effort by Stephen Ambrose and an enlightening one as it shows how he develops into one America's favorite historians of 20th century events.



4. Ambrose edited the Eisenhower Papers project for many years and finally turned his talents on writing a military biography of Ike. The Ike opus is infinitely superior to Ambrose's earlier biography on Henry Halleck and his research and knowledge about his subject is obvious throughout.

   The only "criticism" I have is that Ambrose is blatantly biased in Ike's favor and makes no bones about it. The first words in his introduction are, 'Dwight Eisenhower was a great and a good man," which is undoubtedly true, but a biographer should take more pains to disguise their own feelings. There is very little criticism of Ike in Ambrose's work, which borders on the hagiography. Perhaps a bit more of Harry Truman's invective towards Eisenhower could have infused these pages.

   Still, Ambrose is a wonderful writer and his works are always fun to read and informative. This is an excellent look at Eisenhower in World War II, even if it is a completely uncritical examination.




5. I was not aware of the fine writing of Ambrose until I read "Citizen Soldiers" and in "Supreme Commander" he does yet another job of putting the reader right there besides Ike as he learns, commands and most importantly earns the trust of all who comes in contact with him.

   Many of Ike's compatriots questions his skills as a soldier but all are certainly of his positive human skills at bonding a diverse group to attain the goal of defeating the enemy, in this Ambrose describes well. And from this experience at war time an outstanding president is groomed. I think Ambroses' "Eisenhower: A soldier and President" will have to be my next purchase.

   One point I'm a bit disappointed is the fact that Ambrose does not spend much time dealing with Ike's rols in the debacle of Hurtgen Forest, the problems with Repple Depple, and the problems with the problems caused by Segragation in the Army, several of the areas that Ambrose had detailed discussions on in "Citizen Soldiers". But all in all, an excellent read.

5 comments about China Marine: An Infantryman's Life after World War II.

1. When "With the Old Breed" ends you do not know the entire story. This volume fills that gap and does so very well. It is written in the same style that is direct and concise. I think many civilians thought that when WWII was over the troops just came home and all was well. It was not so. Many had further duty and had a rough time of it on return to the States. Almost all became exemplary citizens again despite their hardships. This book puts that all in perspective.
   Larry Martin
   Gainesville, FL



2. E. B. Sledge's "With the Old Breed" is by common consent one of the finest -- if not the finest -- account of the life of a combat infantryman in World War II. At Pelieu and Okinawa, Sledge was one of only 10 men in his Marine company of 240 to escape being wounded or killed. "China Marine" is the follow-up to "With the Old Breed," a lesser work but one that tells of what happened to Sledge after the war.
   
   With Sledge's experience, one would have thought that he would have been among the first among the military to be demobilized after the end of the war with Japan -- but no, he and his colleagues were sent to China to disarm the Japanese soldiers there and to maintain order in several northern Chinese cities. This is Sledge's account of the six months he spent in China. His view is that of a Private First Class -- but an educated and sophisticated PFC, the son of a medical doctor from Mobile, Alabama, and an outstanding writer. He delighted in Peking, fresh food, a clean bunk, light duties, and friendship with the sophisticated Soong family -- but the danger from attack by communist armies was always there.
   
   Sledge goes on to tell of the trauma of his discharge from the Marines and homecoming to Mobile and, briefly, his long years of struggle with what we call today Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's a small book, only 160 pages, and an interesting, beautifully written, account of the decompression of a combat soldier and his return home.
   
   Sledge died in 2001 but he was often quoted in Ken Burn's recent PBS series on World War II. Sledge is a true American hero.
   
   Smallchief



3. After WWII and the follow-on duty in China, the author decided to enroll at Auburn University. The female from the Registrar's Office "slammed her pencil on the table and said in a loud, exasperated voice, 'Didn't the Marine Corps teach you anything?' A gasp ran through the crowd, and you could have heard a pin drop."
   
   Veteran Marine Sledge said in a loud, calm voice: "Lady, there was a killing war. The Marine Corps taught me how to kill Japs and try to survive. Now, if that don't fit into any academic course, I'm sorry. But some of us had to do the killing -- and most of my buddies got killed or wounded."
   
   On the last page, the author writes a powerful, thought-provoking message for the great mass of spoiled Americans (94% today are not vets) who never served. He reminds them that the Japanese soldier was "imbued with the Code of Bushido (Code of the Warrier) and yamata damashii (the fighting power of Japan). If we had not defeated an army that thought it was unbeatable, who knows how many American cities might have shared the horrid Rape of Nanking."



4. A fine book on a marine in the process of occupation duty clearly a true standout to the thousands of marine corps memoirs, and on a personal note E.B. Sledge isn't dead I am watching him on the t.v., on the show 'D-day's in the South Pacific'. This is a fine book and really worth reading, even though i personally felt he should have made sergeant and at least received a bronze star though he felt being there was enough. I personally thank all the men who fought and died for our freedom in any war, for any cause.



5. China Marine: An Infantryman's Life After World War II is the powerful World War II memoir of E. B. Sledge and the sequel to his "With The Old Breed: At Peleliu And Okinawa". Sledge is a veteran of the physical and psychological scars of war, and this former Marine narrates the end of the old China and the rise of the Communist state through the eyes of someone who was there and saw it all. Sledge also presents the troubles of having to adapt to civilian life when the era of combat had faded. A moving true story of balancing life with the immense demands of nobly serving one's country, China Marine is a welcome and recommended contribution to the growing library of World War II era biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs.

5 comments about Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller.

1. This is a really good book on Chesty's life. Sure glad it was available!



2. I had heard all the stories when I was in the Corps about Chesty Puller, winner of the Navy Cross 5 times, but knew little else. I saw this book and read it in one night. It was an interesting read about a man who went from a Private to a General Officer.
   
   It dealt with his years fighting the "Banana Wars" in the Caribbean and Central America and dealt heavily with his actions during the Second World War. I have met veterans who served under Puller who were divided on him. But there is no doubt of the impact he has had on the Corps.
   
   If you are a Marine or are no longer on active duty, read this book as a primer. Read his son's book, Fortunate Son and Eugene Sledge's With the Old Breed. They both will give you an insight.



3. In the 70's I was a teenager, about 15, and I read everything I could on military heroes. When I saw this book I passed on it because it was about a general. My heroes were Sgts or junior officers-Cols were okay if they were pilots. With only a few dollars, I bought Baa Baa Black Sheep instead. Most book publishers felt the same as I did, they didn't want another general refighting the war for self benefit. When I finally read the book, as an enlisted paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, I realized that this is not at all a general's book. Chesty fought in every rank, first as a sergeant, than from every officer billit from 2ndLt to Brig General. The book is a military history of America's little wars from the 20's to World War II, with an encore in Korea, where Puller was awarded the Army's Distinguished Service Cross and his fifth Navy Cross. I return to this book often and I think that anyone, regardless of occupation, will find this book inspiring. The Army has David Hackworth, the Air Force Bud Day, the Navy has John Bulkley, The Marine Corps has Chesty Puller, and every Marine knows his name. I know, partly because of this book I became one.



4. "We've been looking for the enemy for several days now. We've finally found them. We're surrounded. That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them."
   
   Burke Davis provides a very readable biography of Chesty Puller - the greatest Marine ever. Although easy to read, the sheer number of combat exploits is difficult to grasp. This man was in and out of combat for 37 years!
   
   If Puller were alive today, I suspect he would face many, if not more, of the same frustrations and roadblocks to training and leading marines. His early experiences with low intensity conflict would be invaluable in Iraq and Afghanistan.
   
   He respected his opponents and learned from their strengths... "We'll have to get over the idea that we're the greatest people on earth in every respect, that we're infallible and that no one else has ideas worth considering. One of the reasons we had to fight against odds on Guadalcanal was this insufferable American notion of superiority, and our carelessness in face of danger. It goes back to Pearl Harbor and far beyond."
   
   An amazing story about a rare breed of soldier that should be required reading.



5. Chesty Puller is the greatest Marine ever, and this book delves into the events that shaped this man. This book taps into the ineffencies that Puller had but also showed the strengths that Puller strived on. It's very interesting to see that Chesty was not very strong in the math department but was well versed in all the great battles of Rome, Napoleanic wars, Robert E Lee campaign, Persians and many more. Chesty was an avid reader of the classics and utilized those images to help him fight future wars.
   
   This book should be read by all future Americans wanting to lead men into battle.

5 comments about The Jungle is Neutral: A Soldier's Two-Year Escape from the Japanese Army.

1. This book could have been an excellent five star book had it kept up the action at the pace from page 1 to page 100. Those pages should be given to every western military college and used as a briefing on insurgent warfare. In a two week period the author of this book and two fellow soldiers blew up eight Japanese locomotive trains, numerous trucks, and miles of rail road tracks. This commando team killed well over 500 Japanese Army soldiers and - perhaps - were much more effective against the IJA than the weak and ill led Allied armies that surrendered to Japan in early 1942. The trouble with this book is he author becomes a training instructor for the communists and other non-regular soldiers fighting the IJA (Imperial Japanese Army). So, the book becomes more involved with the day-to-day running of camp life from about page 130 until page 330. So, from mid 1942 until early 1945 this excellent soldier tells about training insurgents, living in a camp, putting up with illness, and there is lots of writing on eating.
   
   So, yes, I read this book. Is it worth it? Yes, he gives good leadership advise on conducting small unit leadership in a jungle type enviorment. The centralized location and ramdom attacks on enemy targets allows a very small group of soldiers to do massive damage to IJA operations. The bits on camp life and cooking get a little long. I'm not making this part up; on every three pages he will give a long description on a meal.
   
   Past page 330 the book gets wildly interesting again. Liberator bombers are used as long range supply drop transports and they are seen operating all over the SE Asia area. The author makes contact and starts living the normal life of a soldier. He admits that he missed the main parts of the war. While he initially helped hinder IJA in 1942 and trained insurgents in late '42 to early '45 it was the other allied soldiers who fought and won from Burma to Stalingrad. The author admits that he sort of wishes that he had been part of that action.
   
   But this is a fair war book and I'll give it a nice 3 star rating. It give insight into jungle operations and how to conduct insurgent actions.
   
   I hope you enjoy this good book.



2. I had read a review on the "The Jungle is Neutral" over 30 years ago and finally found the opportunity to purchase and read the book. Book is written mostly as a chronicle of what happened to the author in what is now Malaysia during the Japanese occupation of WWII. It is an interesting read of that trying time and the author's nerve and tenacity (as well as a lot of luck) needed to survive in the "wild." Book is well-written but is often too interested in minutiae. Still, I enjoyed the read and the information conveyed.
   
   Tom



3. This book could easily be overlooked as an outdated World War 2 yarn.
   For years "The Jungle is Neutral" was regarded as the Bible of jungle warfare training.
   For the 21st Century reader, it is an amazing,uplifting tale of the human spirit overcoming overwhelming odds.
   A must read for the professional soldier.



4. Some of the descriptions of survival & evasion in the jungle were incredible. The first half of the book had my interest more & then I think it tailed off in the second half. Worth reading.



5. The Malaysia theater of WWII has often been neglected, especially after the capitulation of the commonwealth at Singapore. This book was written by one the the operatives the Brits sent in to hassle the Japanese forces behind their lines. It is an interesting story that leads to many adventures and insite into a complex number of peoples fighting the Japanese.