Picture Letters From the Commander in Chief Letters From Iwo Jima
The battle of Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest campaigns of WWII. Under the command of Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the Japanese army held off U.S. Navy and Naval Air Corps. attack for over a month before finally succumbing to defeat. Comprised mostly of personal letters from Kuribayashi to his family, Picture Letters From the Commander in Chief offers readers a unique glimpse into arguably the most iconic battle of the second World War. A sensitive man, Kuribayashi is able to articulate in these letters his love for his family and his unwavering loyalty to his country. And in doing so, he helps bring a new voice and perspective to history.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Must know old conjee very well to read and enjoy
I intially got this for my son who is fluent in Japese hoping he’d enjoy it but the conjee is very difficult for the average youthful reader.
5 Stars WWII history
This unique book offers an amazing insight into the commander of the Iwo Jima’s forces mind and experiences. It adds a great deal to both of Clint Eastwood’s films! A definite “must read”!
4 Stars Glimpse into the Private Life of an Enemy Commander.
The book is a compilation of Kuribayashi’s letters home to his children during his military career. It’s a very touching glimpse into the heart of a father from another culture who is separated from his children and is trying to have some kind of communication with them. Each letter is illustrated with Kuribayashi’s own hand and each provides for the children an illustration of their father’s everyday life in a foreign land, taking a stroll, riding in a car, even taking a bath.
Kuribayashi encourages his children to do well and to be good to each other and to listen to their mother. His last letter from Iwo Jima is especially sad as you can tell he expects never to see his family again.
4 Stars The Letters of LTG Kuribayashi
LTG Tadamichi Kuribayashi, an officer of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, was one of those rare individuals who seem born to become soldiers. Displaying a strong will and unorthodox tactics during the struggle for Iwo Jima in early 1945, he nevertheless was possessed of a rare humility and ingrained honor that made him a highly-respected leader to both his subordinates and enemies.
“Picture Letters from the Commander in Chief” is a very short read. It is simply a collection of LTG Tadamichi Kuribayashi’s letters to his family during his time abroad as a young military man and his letters from Iwo Jima island. Reading the actual letters portrayed so movingly in “Letters From Iwo Jima” serves to round out one’s understanding of who Kuribayashi was as a man.
There are no insights to his tactics for the Iwo Jima battle and only a small window is opened into his personal views on the Pacific War in one of his last letters from the forsaken island. The rest of them were written and sketched by him for benefit of his wife and children. As his son Taro and later, his infant daughter Takako, were very young when the letters were written oftentimes the subjects were light and focused on Kuribayashi’s observations of his time in the United States or anything light-hearted he could report from the dismal island of sulfur that is Iwo Jima.
The letters reveal above all a loving and doting father, who despite enormous distances from his children still cautioned them on discipline. Preparing for the Battle of Iwo Jima, which would cost him his life, he still found time to correct his Tako-chan’s grammatical errors in her letters to him and apologized to his wife for not fixing the draft in their kitchen during his last leave. His occasional snipes at his wife for not writing him or for the paucity of packaged herring roe sent to him during his stay in America will elicit a smile from any married man. His love for his wife and children permeate the letters, particularly in his first letter from Iwo Jima, when he instructs his children to grow fast and take care of their mother after his death.
“Picture Letters from the Commander in Chief,” if read as an appendix to Kumiko Kakehashi’s powerful portrayal of Iwo Jima in “So Sad to Fall in Battle,” serves to further deepen an understanding of who Tadamich Kuribayashi was as a man.
“Thought-provoking, a book sure to spark debate.” — Robert J. Schneller, Jr., Technology and Culture
“One could say this is yet another book about the rise and fall of the battleship as the centerpiece of naval power. But what sets the author’s subtle work apart from earlier histories is his purpose. He sets out neither to defame nor defend naval leaders. Do not expect fo find even the most obvious troglodyte of an admiral belittled in this text… [A] well-balanced analysis.” — Michael A. Palmer, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings
“An excellent survey of how the U.S. Navy adapted to changing technology, and how technological change in turn shaped the Navy.” — New York Military Affairs Symposium Newsletter
“McBride examines the tendency of military institutions to favour stability over radical innovations… Well researched and clearly written.” — Christopher Bell, Northern Mariner
“This masterly study of the interaction between technological change and service politics in the U.S. Navy deserves to become a standard work.” — Sir Michael Howard, former Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford University
“An excellent book. Technological Change and the United States Navy addresses a historical issue of acknowledged importance — the persistence of the battleship culture in the U.S. Navy — and does so on the basis of a substantial body of original research, much of it archival. This book makes original and important contributions to our understanding of what might be termed the intellectual life of the Navy, a matter of no small significance to the course and conduct of two world wars, a host of lesser conflicts, and the future of the Navy. Comprehensive, exhaustively researched, convincing in its arguments, and even-handed in its judgments, this book will remain the definitive work on the subject for the foreseeable future.” — John F. Guilmartin, Jr., Ohio State University
]]>A Life In Leadership From D Day to Ground Zero An Autobiography
In November 2001, New York’s Governor Pataki asked Whitehead to head up the Lower Manhattan Development Council. Although Whitehead reports that he was initially reluctant to take the job-he had just retired and wanted to spend some time traveling and catching up on reading-he eventually consented because he wanted to contribute to his city’s redevelopment in the wake of 9/11. For this memoir, Whitehead trudges through the events of his life from his childhood in New Jersey and his years in the Navy to his leadership of Goldman Sachs and his part-ownership of the New Jersey Devils in tedious, meticulous detail. Whitehead observes that he learned most his leadership lessons (honesty, loyalty) from his years as a Boy Scout. He recalls how those years in scouting also led to lifelong friendships, such as the one with John McMullen, the friend with whom he later co-owned the Devils hockey team. He recalls with humor the time that he drove Henry Ford to his New York hotel in a Chevrolet, and he recounts his many years of work for non-profit organizations such as the International Rescue Committee. Finally, Whitehead offers a few lessons in leadership: “The best leaders do a lot of listening,” leaders should be willing to delegate tasks and “effective leadership has to have an ethical dimension.”
Copyright
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Leadership for all!
I am going to skip the synopsis of this book and go right the review.
If you are in ANY sort of leadership position, from being a parent, working fast food, a seaman recruit new to the Navy to Commanding Officer of a ship, you can get a lot of of this book, in tips on leadership without looking like a complete moron. Who should really read this book are those new to a ship and family members of those in the Navy. It helps make sense of the insanity of ship board life.
5 Stars Command at Sea, A Prestigious Postion of Responsibility Involving an Unusual Degree of Accountability
A text for naval officers, with chapters on taking command, commissioning a ship or submarine, organization and administration of the command, and roles of various officers. Other subjects include maintenance and logistics, safety, training and inspections, independent operations, and forward operations and combat philosophy. Includes a glossary, and appendices of sample plans and orders. This edition incorporates changes in the field since 1982, and discusses lessons learned from the Persian Gulf, Bosnia, and Haiti.
Command at Sea is an unusual degree of responsibility & accountability that is placed on the shoulders of one individual. There is an excert on page four of the book that defines that degree of responsibility. It reads;
“In each ship there is one man alone who in the hour of emergency or peril at sea can turn to no other man. There is one man alone who is ultimately responsbile for the safe navigation, enigineering performance, accurate gunfire and morale of his ship. He is the Commanding Officer, He is the ship”.
If ever there was situation where the Comamnding Officer experienced the paramount of this statement, it was Commander Paul Rinn, skipper of the USS Samuel B. Roberts, on April 14, 1988. The ship was escorting Kuwati tankers in the Persian Gulf when it entered a mine field.CDR Rinn ordered his crew to general Quarters. Then the ship began backing down and following it’s wake. A mine exploded, blowing one of the ships’s engines off it’s mount and into the overhead. CDR Rinn knew that the survival of his crew depended on his actions, the crew watched every move he made. Throughout the night the crew fought fires, controlled flooding, treated the injured and saved their ship. In the predawn hours of April 15, 1988 CDR Rinn walked through his ship. He saw his crew, some exhausted, some sleeping, some talking quietly. The fought to save their ship, a ship that was sinking and they won. All the training, all the hours of drills had paid off. At 0503 the Quartermater of the Watch, QM2 Nicholson made the deck log entry, “Observed Sunrise”.
This is job of the Commanding Officer, this is Command at Sea. You can delegate the responsibility, not the accountability. Can you take the challenge?
1 Star ZERO stars
This book may be considered a classic, but it’s a disgrace. Its stance on Enlisted members is pure prejudice. Just read its so-called “advice” for a commanding officer to give to an Enlisted member who wishes to marry a foreign national. The Navy should denounce this book and honor the many fine Enlisted members who defend our nation.
Encyclopedia Of Western Lawmen and Outlaws
The title pretty much says it all here. The 1989 volume covers the greater- and lesser-known white hats and black hats of the Wild West. Though the text is illustrated with photographs and drawings throughout, there is also a separate section of photos of the most famous people and places.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Not up to the hype
I bought this book because the reviews were very good. Unfortunately, if you have other books to cross-reference it with, it comes up short. When it comes to the amount of information in this book, there is no comparison. However, every single thing you read must be taken with a grain of salt, because there are so many errors. It’s hard to know what to believe and what to accept as simply incorrect, if you have no further source of information. There were MANY obvious errors, involving a number of the more famous people in the book, that could be discovered by simply reading another book on the same subject. Even a picture of a famous Wild Bunch member’s lover is labeled as the wrong person. Another aspect of the book I found very disturbing, is Nash’s consistent habit of stating pure speculation, as adamant fact. Nash has the ability to make you believe that what you are reading is the only possiblity, unless you know that the facts are otherwise. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is interested in FACTS only. Too many “facts” were either wrong or fabricated. If you are interested in learning the basics about A LOT of people, and are willing to accept that things may not be as stated, then this book is fine. If you are a serious researcher of western history, I would recommend looking elsewhere.
5 Stars this has to be UNDISPUTABLY the best resource on famous Wild West Characters
anytime you here a famous character’s name in a western movie, you can bet that you can go and look it up in this book, and learn everything that has been documented about them in real life. This book is incredible, and if you’re a western history buff, this is the only book you need! You won’t believe the things that REALLY happened in the wild west… you hear all the rumors on TV, but this book sets it all straight.
5 Stars A fantastic book….must read!
This book has so many stories about outlaws and lawmen I have and haven’t heard of before. It’s presented so fantastic. Each individual is a story in their own right. I couldn’t put down this mammoth book and you would be crazy not to order this! The portraits are nice, too.
3 Stars Quantity Beats Quality
With more than 1,000 entries and 400 pictures it would be hard to complain about what is left out of this encyclopedia. That’s why I couldn’t pass it up when I saw it in a bookstore. Also it has an extensive bibliography I have found very useful. Those are the strong points. As I read through the entries, though, I began finding things that didn’t jibe with other books I’ve read. For example, Nash has Belle Starr living with Cole Younger and later robbing a California prospector while Glenn Shirley’s book, Belle Starr and Her Times, shows there is no evidence she did either. Nash has Jesse James riding with William Clarke Quantrill when they sacked Lawrence, Kansas while others, such as Edward Leslie in The Devil Knows How to Ride, shows that Jesse wasn’t part of that raid. These are only a couple of examples but I’ve run across a number of others. It has forced me to use this book with historical reservations. That’s why I would only recommend this encyclopedia after making the reader aware of its shortcomings.
5 Stars The old west comes to life!
When I first received this book I thought it would be another book briefly talking famous “bad guys” and those who brought them to justice, I was wrong, very wrong. Jay Robert Nash is one of, if not the best, at bringing to life the Old West and those who made it come alive.
With over a 1000 entries and well over 300 photos, this book goes beyond Jesse and Frank James, The Cole-Younger gang, Billy the Kidd, Pat Garrett, Bat Masterson and The Earps. You’ll read about judges, Sheriffs, outlaws and so much more.
I spent over four hours reading this book form cover to cover and every page has something new and fascinating. Facts and myths, legends and tales, it’s all here and waiting for you to explore. You’ll ride along with the Texas Rangers and help out the Pinkertons, and never have get dirty.
I have seen books on lawmen of the old west, and also books on outlaws of the west, for the first time you have a reference book that gives you both and at a price that makes it a great gift for anyone.
]]>The Yokota Officers Club A Novel Ballantine Readers Circle
Stories nestle inside stories like a set of Russian dolls in Bird’s (Virgin of the Rodeo) wonderful fifth novel. Set in the late 1960s, it is narrated by 18-year-old Bernie, the eldest of six children in the peripatetic Root family. After her freshman year in college, Bernie joins her nomadic kin at their current home, an Okinawan air force base. They have changed: her younger sister, Kit, is out of control and “now being played by Lolita”; her once glamorous mother, Moe, is overweight and depressed; her father, who was a heroic and swaggering fighter pilot, has become a distant, self-loathing “ground pounder.” And Bernie can’t stop thinking of Fumiko, the family’s former maidservant, whom no one is allowed to mention. Before being sucked into the family’s torpor, Bernie escapes by winning a dance contest that lands her in Tokyo as the stage partner of Bobby Moses, a third-rate borscht belt comedian. There she delves into the past to solve the mystery surrounding Fumiko’s disappearance and her family’s deterioration. Bernie sharp and snarky, yet severely introverted is a delightful heroine, and the large cast that swirls around her is equally endearing. Particularly fine are the wisecracking yet nurturing Moe and the oddly touching Bobby Moses, who’s vulgar and mediocre, but insistent on professionalism. The dialogue is first-rate, and all the ’60s brand-name dropping is amusing; the decade becomes fresh again when seen from the unusual perspective of a military family (especially this one) removed from mainland society. (June) Forecast: Bird has David Sedaris’s gift for mining scathing wit from family dysfunction. Only one of her earlier novels is still in print, but hopefully her move to Knopf (and a slew of enthusiastic blurbs from the likes of Rick Bass) will help her to win the large readership she deserves.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars childhood memories
Growing up in an Air Force family stationed at Yokota Air Force Base, this book caught my attention. It is interesting to see Kadena and Yokoto compared, and the memories this brings back are too fun. Interesting story style – just wish Sarah Bird did not see the need to use the “F” word…so unnecessary. The story is great without it!!
4 Stars Good book – Entertaining – Good ending & I was there
I was stationed at Yokota AFB from 1964 to 1966. Though I was just a lowly airman and not an officer, I can tell you that the descriptions of everything were quite accurate, at least from what I knew.
It was interesting to note that Sarah Bird’s father flew reconnaissance missions and the squadron that I worked for, the 67th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron (67th RTS), no doubt processed the film his crew shot – though unknown to me at the time. Also, after my tour of duty at Yokota, I was transfered to Kadena AFB in Okinawa as was the character in the book (and presumably Sarah’s father). However Okinawa was considered an important military base and not a dead end as depicted in the novel. It was after all the Far East home of the SR-71 Black Bird “spy” plane.
If you are interested in more on that subject, there is an interesting book on Amazon about the 67th RTS called “Asia From Above” ISBN 1420834894 which told me more about what happened during that time than I knew when I was working there.
In summary, Sarah’s book is very interesting and nostalgic for those where there, and has an interesting multiple twist ending. I recommend the book.
For those who were in the 67th who would like to correspond, I can be reached at: Temp at AltairSeven dot Com
Just replace the “at” with “@” and the “dot” with “.” and make it all one word.
3 Stars I lived this life at Yokota AFB in the early 60’s!
What a title! It grabbed me by the heart! I watched the mail for the book everyday, wondering if it would be as exciting a read as I hoped it could be and it was! ! I was so excited to stumble onto Sarah Bird and this book about an era and real place in which I lived. As an Air Force Officer’s dependent, my Dad was #3 on Yokota Air Force Base. We were there during the worst Cold War era, late 50’s thru early 60’s. My Dad’s tour was extended several times, for “important” reasons. One of our early maids was fired because she was asking me too many questions about my dad. That was a very big deal, as she was our favorite maid, much like the story. It was all probably innocent, but it was the times, but I too felt responsible. We’d see her from time to time at the O club where she worked as a waitress, and it was always sad and she was sad, too. I identified with so much of Sarah’s story. I remember my dad’s frustrations about things, too. The riots were very real, frequent, scary and steps away from our North Area quarters. All that separated us from thousands of protestors were two high barbed wire perimeter fences. Their behavior was such a departure from the wonderful Japanese people that were in our daily lives, it was really scary for us, as children. But 99% of the Japanese people were just so wonderful and kind and hospitable, as well reflected in Sarah’s story. I lived a few houses away from the Yokota Officer’s Club. So I give kudos to Sarah’s mom, as I think this is as much her story as Sarah’s and her protagonist’s story. Sarah’s mom needs great thanks for the texture and accurary and tone of this book. It is obvious she helped Sarah with those important minute details from 40-45 years ago. For example, details like; YAFB’s O club’s “pink” women’s lavatory and other minute details like the garden behind the club which I don’t remember are a few of the details, if real, I credit to Sarah’s mom. I remember the big dinig room and we had strawberry waffles there every Sunday. You could buy freshly made glazed do-nuts in the morning of swimming lessons and every summer morning. I swam in that pool every summer day for nearly four years and went to the theater down the road every Saturday, hoping for the “21″ lucky ticket stub and ate one of only three candies offered at the concession stand; a Three Musketeers bar, or else the other choices were Necco wafers, or black licorice, yuck! Unless, of course some deep details are pure poetic license, but with so many details right, I’m not sure. So it did awaken memories I’d long forgotten and added things I didn’t know, that only Sarah’s mom could know in detail. Alas my parents are gone or else I’d ask them to verify the accuracy of some things I’d forgotten, but it’s amazing how much I remember, too. I just loved reliving it all thru this book. We didn’t live under such threat of being sent home, but I’m sure it might have existed, maybe because we weren’t teens, yet. My little first grade brother broke the windshield of the school bus with a rock filled snowball and we never feared being sent home and never knew of anyone sent home for dependent’s bad behavior reasons. He had to write 1000 times “I will not throw snowballs at the bus.” Being in first grade, I don’t know how much he got done or if he could even print that sentence, but I know he did some of it. Then, he broke another car windshield throwing a baseball and had to go see the Base Commnader, my dad’s friend, but that’s as far as it went. They scared him good, telling him he was going to be sent home! I can just see my dad snickering, now. He had a great sense of humor. One New Year’s he and his buddies tied huge strings of fire crackers to the same Base Commander’s tree outside his front door, across the grounds from our quarters and lit the tree on fire. I watched them have fun putting out the little tree fire with pots of water from our house, all seen secretively from my second story bedroom, so I’m not so sure the atmosphere was that stiff. We all had grounds gardeners, so the grass was never an issue, maybe in Okinawa, but not at Yokota. But we all dressed up, but that was the era. We had our own personal seamstresses. I enjoyed my unique, one of a kind, designer Barbie clothes made from scraps from my mom’s evening gowns. Sarah and I and our mothers could have gone to school together at the same base school, same time and our moms could have been in the same clubs as my mom was frequently an officer or a chairwoman in every known club for the wives, like the antagnoist of this story. But my mom wasn’t ruthless, cliquey or cruel to fellow wives. They sure did have a gazillion teas though, as I was in training to be a proper hostess when I became an adult. I was one to help with the silver and brass polishing, food prep, table setting, punch serving, pouring, clearing, etc. and all that teas and formal entertaining entailed with our housemaid and houseboy helping. I still have all of her nice tea services and linens. My mother received an accomodation for her volunteerism and programs she created for Japanese wives of the servicemen from President Eisenhower. They wore blues most of our tour. Watching all salute my dad was a thrill. But Sarah got so much of it right, that it was truly a fun, nostalgic flashback for me. I attended school on base too, in West Area and lived both in West Area and North Area, doors away from the club. I’m pretty sure our West Area school was not called Bob Hope School during my time and the time of this book. We had annual Halloween parades from school thru the streets of West Area. I wore my kimono our maid helped us purchase. I also rode the bus to Johnson AS for 6th and 7th grade. Living off base was temporary for Officers, full time off base housing was relegated to NCOs and new arrivals, usually. We never lived off base, perhaps because of my dad’s position. But the town is real. It was very quaint and sweet then. Went there many many many times for festivals and buying things. Sarah’s story of their beloved housemaid, and we loved our maids and one houseboy also a gate guard, was something I never as a child or adult thought about and now wonder about — who they were before they came into our lives. Very beautifully done. I too am a writer, working on my break-through projects, in part, due to those stolen late nights under the covers, with my little Japanese radio won at Bingo. Our Armed Forces radio station on the weekends played “THE SHADOW KNOWS”, “SALVATION ARMY THEATER” and “THE WHISTLER” radio dramas. I’d never miss them. We toured Japan extensively. It was so beautiful. I discovered Nancy Drew and still have my books and I was the winner of the supposed last Yokota Officer’s Club Bingo coverall jackpot of $150 dollars. I remember how the adults groaned and my dad was sure I made a mistake. My winning number was G-48! I never forgot this and my dad took me space-available on our father-daughter trip to Okinawa, visitng friends on the base in this book, Taiwan, Hong Kong, I bought a pretty Princess ring, and went on a three day cruise for dependents from Hong Kong to S. Korea, then a 9 hr. train ride to the AFB where we flew home again to Yokota AFB. And irony of ironies, my husband and I went to school in Japan at the same time, same school and 21 years later, I stumbled upon this very familiar guy while working out in a health club in N. Calif. His parents had two tours of Japan; one right after the occupation, and era written so dramatically in Sarah’s book, and one with us. Both of our sisters were born at Johnson AS. This year will be our 24th together. All the best to Sarah Bird for helping me re-live a great childhood and fondly remember those wonderful Japanese people who touched our lives so sweetly. It would be lovely to correspond with you, Sarah. And to all of you service dependents, it was the best childhood, ever, wasn’t it! I can’t wait to read more of Sarah’s work! carlyn@ojai.net. Carlyn Hansen-Kennedy, Friday Harbor WA
5 Stars Excellent example of military life
I was an Air Force brat in the late 1970s, living in Germany during the height of RAF violence. My stepdad was a Major, too. The descriptions of Air Force life, the threats of getting kicked out of base housing (for things as mundane as playing my 45 records louder than a whisper), the gossipy nature of military spouses, mostly women, and the constant reminder that you are an officer’s child came back to me. The vocabulary: RIF, TDY, PCS all still hold true, too.
The story is not exclusively military related, as anyone can read this story and know what is going on: an otherwise very “strat” Air Force officer committed an unmentionable act with which the entire family has to learn how to cope. Some of the family members cope better than others, because some are more willing to talk about what happened while those still suffering from the consequences refuse to even mention the event. These family secrets are all classic coming-of-age stories. Add in a Japanese background, 1968 Vietnam War, military life and you have one wonderful story.
4 Stars A fun read!
I enjoyed this book. I do agree with another reader that there was times when it seemed to drag on but I wanted to know how the author tied up ends. Being in the AF and stationed on Kadena, I enjoyed reading about it. However, I think it would be enjoyed my anyone that enjoys a good coming of age story. I highly recommend it!
The Confidante Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy
At the end of President George W. Bush’s first term, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was prepared to leave politics and return to an academic post at Stanford University before she was drafted by Bush to be secretary of state. Two years later, polls showed American voters regarded her as the most powerful woman in the country. In this gripping and intelligent account, Washington Post correspondent Kessler chronicles those two years, drawing on his firsthand experiences traveling with Rice as well as an impressive array of documents and interviews. Kessler organizes the book by region, vividly dramatizing Rice’s travels and negotiations overseas—the chapter including her visits to Khartoum and Darfur is a standout—while providing thoughtful analysis and historical background to put these vignettes in context. Kessler praises Rice for a number of successes, including her role in weakening a secret CIA prison system in Europe, but he also criticizes her failure to provide a coherent foreign policy vision and her weakness at implementation and follow-up. This balanced, detailed text offers invaluable insight into Rice’s rise to power, though its exclusive focus on foreign policy may limit its appeal. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Five Stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I’d say it’s essential reading for anyone who follows current events on any level. The writing is both direct and engaging and the author provides background and context in each chapter without overcomplicating. I really felt like a Washington insider with access to fascinating accounts of behind-the-scenes negotiations. Kessler’s treatment of Rice is even-handed; he highlights her dedication, drive, poise and intelligence but also holds her accountable for failed outcomes and missteps. Reading the New York Times is a whole new experience now – I have a much deeper understanding of the issues and people in the news. Highly recommended!
4 Stars The Diplomatic Fashion Runway
No one denies that Condi Rice is a talented and hard-working diplomat, but Kessler’s excellent book chronicles a series of missed diplomatic opportunities during her tenure, inviting one to consider how effective Rice has been as Secretary of State during Bush’s second term. Rice initially built a strong and brilliant team under deputy secretary Robert Zoellick, and some of the success stories Kessler describes took place while Zoellick was at the helm.
Rice had a public profile and was popular with the public during her time on the NSC, but once she ascended to role of Secretary of State, she sought systematically to raise her public profile, and to do so largely through a series of media splashes accompanied by high fashion statements. Rice focused heavily on image. Perhaps the most salient example of a woman in power who used fashion to great effect is Margaret Thatcher, who was a relentless implementer; Kessler demonstrates that once Rice launched initiatives, her execution and implementation were weak, and apparently style trumped substance. Rice does dress the part, carries it off well, and clearly enjoys being a leading fashionista. Dean Acheson also dressed extremely well, but this was probably secondary to his diplomatic skill, and in any case his sartorial statements were not on prominent media display during his trips abroad, although I imagine had he appeared for dinner in Saudi Arabia, as Rice did, wearing flowing white silk with gold pinstripes threaded through the fabric, that would have changed quickly. But if the most innovative fashion statement conservatives can muster is the adoption the solid-color necktie look pioneered by James Baker, then we should welcome Rice’s attempts to raise the bar.
While Rice is known to be extremely bright, she appears to compensate for a lack of strategic intellectual firepower with a highly developed sense of performance. Splendid performances can go a long way in diplomacy, it seems, but Rice’s tenure has been marked by unlucky breaks and wrong-footed initiatives which Kessler does an outstanding job of covering, while simultaneously guiding us through some of the major foreign policy challenges of the last few years with skill and brevity. The book’s title, however, suggests that a more detailed examination of the Rice-Bush relationship would be on offer, with insight into how she became so influential with Bush. Here the book falls short, but is nonetheless an essential read for anyone seeking to understand Rice’s leadership, or lack of it, during a few turbulent years. Interestingly, as she was provost of a highly complex university and managed a stable of world-class talent, she seems to have brought no managerial skill at all to the running of the Department of State, neglecting to tap the vast resources available there and demonstrating her tacit acceptance of the Bush style of a closed inner circle that doesn’t look beyond its own resources or mental models.
Rice brings to the table an outstanding set of personal and intellectual qualities, but if Kessler’s book is accurate, she may not have the chops to take on a future leadership role in electoral politics. One can only wish her well in the remaining months of her term, but Kessler provides little comfort that major breakthroughs are to be expected, particularly in the mid-east, where Rice has declared her intent to bring peace and stability, and realize the President’s stated goal of fostering a Palestinian state. Even now, her role in managing other issues, such as those presented by Iran, seems less than significant.
3 Stars Correct Title
“In the spirit of Yom Kippur, the United States will not hold Israel to any agreements obligating them to accept Dollars as payment for their foreign aid. We will translate our obligations into Euros or whatever currency that best fits Israel’s needs. We need to place our Israeli obligations at the top of our national priority list. Israel should not suffer any inconvenience due to currency fluctuations” -Condoleezza Rice 09/21/2007
Soon OPEC and others will demand equal consideration and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth all across this once great country.
5 Stars A fascinating read!
Never much one for politics, I began reading this book only because my father was reading it and had vehemently recommended it to me. However, upon picking it up and reading just a few short pages, I was hooked. The book provides a riveting portrait of one of the most important women, no, one of the most important people in our country. Rice was once believed to have had a substantial chance of becoming the first female president, but lost that chance through foolish political choices. This book shows Rice’s weaknesses and her strengths, and portrays her admirable if not greatly successful attempts to fix her mistakes. The insider point of view Kessler offers as a journalist who followed Rice closely provides a wonderful personal touch to the examination of her character, and, in some ways, despite her controversial choices, one cannot help but admire her core of steel and her keen intelligence and sarcastic wit.
5 Stars A Seat at the Diplomatic Table
Kessler’s thesis is two-fold: (1) Rice has spent her years as Secretary of State saddled with the impossible task of trying to undo the damage that she did in Bush’s first term as a National Security Advisor who fell under the sway of the administration’s neoconservative ideologues. (2) Despite keeping up the most frenetic travel schedule of any Secretary of State since Kissinger, Rice’s performance has been a series of missed opportunities attributable to a lack of any coherent strategic vision. As a reporter “on the plane” with Rice, Kessler is able to give you a detailed and psychologically nuanced look at Rice and the other players, foreign and domestic. It is a finely observed rendition of a disaster in the making, made all the more poignant by the fact that Rice herself is portrayed as a brilliant, talented, strong, energetic, attractive, and even charismatic person who might have played a constructive role in the world had she attached herself to a more competent mentor. As a reporter, Kessler stops short of articulating what he thinks an appropriate foreign-policy agenda might have looked like and tends to judge Rice’s performance in relation to the goals that the she and the Administration set for themselves. But the book’s agnosticism is part of its attraction, as it gets you thinking about your own foreign-policy values and commitments. What would a good response to the Hezbollah-Israeli war have looked like? What role should democracy and human rights play in foreign policy–and does an excessive focus on those values make a country end up looking hypocritical as idealism comes into contact with reality and inevitably becomes compromised? When is refusing to negotiate directly with a dangerous outlaw state like North Korea a useful tool, and when does it become an impediment to achieving important goals, like nuclear nonproliferation? Kessler’s book doesn’t answer these questions, but raises them in such an intriguing way as to ensure that it will still be attracting readers long after Rice has left the public stage–whenever that may be.
The Armed Forces Officer 2007 Edition National Defense University
Initiated in 1950, this 2007 edition is the latest in a classic series of books of the same title. Journalist-historian S. L. A. Marshall wrote the first at the behest of Gen. George C. Marshall, who formed the great citizen army of World War II. The general believed officers of all services needed to base their professional commitment on a common moral-ethical grounding, which S. L. A. Marshall set out to explain. Ever since, these books have provided a foundation of thought, conduct, standards, and duty for American commissioned officers.
Available now to the general public, this new edition takes the series’ inspirational premise into the new century. It educates officers of all services, as well as civilians, about the fundamental moral-ethical requirements of being a commissioned officer in the armed forces of the United States. Understanding the common foundation of commissioned leadership and command of U.S. military forces is essential for achieving excellence in the joint operations of today’s combat environment. This philosophy unites the officers of the uniformed services in the common calling of supporting, defending, and upholding the Constitution in service to their country.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Essential read for any officer of any branch
This book should be on the essential reading list for any junior officer in the armed services of the United States. It provides significant information on the history of the profession and outlook of each of the services.
It develops the though process of what being an officer means as a profession including the duties and responsibilities to society and your Soldiers/Sailors/Airman/Marines.
I can not recommend it in high enough terms.
5 Stars An invaluable, meaningful reference.
This 2007 edition of a classic adds to a series of books of the same title, written by a journalist and historian who wrote the first book at the behest of Gen. George C. Marshall, who believed all officers needed to base professional commitments on a common moral-ethical foundation, presented here. Any military or public library strong in officer inspiration needs THE ARMED FORCES OFFICER: it updates scenarios to modern times, covers everything from accountability issues to honor, respect and duty concerns, and it surveys training routines and strategies across the board. An invaluable, meaningful reference.
Freelance journalist Kitfield relies heavily on personal accounts in this story of the officers who reshaped the U.S. Army and Air Force after the experience of Vietnam and then led our troops in Operation Desert Storm. In the 1970s the U.S. began to adjust to a professional military after depending on the Selective Service system. In the 1980s, increased defense budgets enabled the modernization of arsenals and the stockpiling of supplies and equipment, while cumbersome higher command systems were simplified. By the time of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, America’s military leaders were eager to demonstrate what 20 years of reform had wrought. This is a highly favorable account of that effort.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars FANTASTIC and IMPORTANT!
Excellent modern history of the US military from the Vietnam War up until 1995 or so. The history is told through semi-biographies of officers who began their careers around the time of the Vietnam War and chose to stay in the military, despite all of the problems that were evident in Vietnam. The draft, which brought in sub-standard service members, was a disastrous way to build a military. Thankfully, a number of dedicated people stuck around to see the military made stronger. From the all-volunteer military, to the GI Bill, to the Reagan defense build=up, to the Goldwater-Nichols Act, to the Gulf War, highly motivated and intelligent men helped improve the military so that it could overwhelm the Iraqi forces in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
One of the officers who was featured quite prominently was Barry McCaffrey. I have come to appreciate his interesting analysis on television, but I never knew his life story. Though it didn’t surprise me as I knew he retired as a general, but what an impressively courageous man he has been throughout his military career! What he went through in Vietnam is enough to amaze even the gutsiest American.
Another interesting aspect of the book was the coverage of contentious social issues that the military has had to deal with: race, women, and gays and lesbians. Kitfield pointed out the increasingly important role that blacks and women have played in the US Armed Forces.
Regrettably we are left to wonder what happened since then when our powerful military get sucked into a war in Iraq, starting in 2003 with no end in sight, without a plan to finish it. It’s easy enough to point to Tommy Franks, Richard Myers, and others, but maybe there’s a larger institutional story to tell about the debacle that is now Iraq. Hopefully Kitfield will tell that story too. He has a book out about Iraq, but since it was written a year or two ago, it can’t possibly accommodate for all that has occurred since publication.
5 Stars Required Reading for Every Officer
James Kitfield has studied one of the most turbulent times in American military history and distilled its lessons into one tightly written narrative that is both engaging and full of tremendous insight. The passage through the ranks of the Vietnam generation officer corps molded our 1980’s military into a truly revolutionary force. Their experiences in the muddle of Vietnam and the lessons they extracted colored every decision and every reform they sought in their service. In the end, while not perfect, these able officers forged a doctrine based around rapid, audacious movement, technology and local authority–all things lacking in Vietnam. The payoff came with the tremendous victory in the 1991 Gulf War.
This book needs to be read by every officer in every service. Study this, extract the lessons. Many of the mistakes made during the Vietnam-Era have now repeated themsleves in the War on Terror. Many of the lessons Colin Powell and others taught us during Desert Storm have already been forgotten.
If you are an officer, buy this book. Let it guide you through the many critical decisions you will have to face during the years ahead as you work your way through your own career. And never forget the most important lesson of all: never chose your career and its future over doing the right thing. Prodigal Soldiers pointedly demonstrates that when senior officers do that, men die needlessly.
John Bruning
Author of “The Devil’s Sandbox: At War with the 2-162 Infantry in Iraq”
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5 Stars Things can get better!
When you read a book like this and have seen the Army at its best and worst. That and have seen the gradual improvement to where the Army is today, i.e. one of the most trusted institutions and one of the greatest killing machines since the Roman Legions under the early Caesars. I just feel better and safer. That and I want to thank all those who did not turn tail and run away from the wreck of the post Vietnam War Military but stayed and fixed it. God Bless you all!
5 Stars Written in 1995 – Relevant in 2002
I first read James Kitfield’s book in 2000 and have just finished rereading it. I am recommending it to my sons, an Air Force pilot working on his master’s in military science and an Army combat engineer, as one of the four most influential books on the development of the United States military since WW II. The author traces in a very readable style the coming of age of the officers of all branches of service during the Viet Nam and post-Viet Nam eras and how those experiences shaped our ability to win a decisive victory in the 1990 Gulf War. The book also reveals the back room political wheeling and dealing that goes into watershed legislation such as the sweeping reforms of the Goldwater-Nichols Act. It’s a “must read” for every professional military leader and student of the art of war.
5 Stars a book that has “a message” – for everyone who reads it
From the prologue to the epilogue, and everything in between, this book is fantastic reading. Anyone who has ever been associated with the U.S. military will have a much clearer picture of the totality of resurection within all the services after Vietnam. “Duty, Honor, and Country” does not always mean the same thing to different people, to some it means a career that spans over thirty years, to others the words are just something on a recruiting poster. To anyone who reads the book these three words will take on a much clearer meaning. Some chapters will cause tears in even the toughest of old veterans, and even the young generation of future service members will begin to understand some of the major events which have transpired in the military in the decades since Vietnam. James Kitfield tells a story that is not just a chronicle, or a documentary, but a story worthy of telling, and he does it with style.