The Savage Wars Of Peace: Small Wars And The Rise Of American Power Review

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(More customer reviews)"The Savage Wars of Peace" is a book that is likely to surprise all but the most ardent military history buffs. Once and for all it does away with the myth that before World War Two, America was completely "isolationist" in its foreign policy. The book focuses on America's many "smaller" military actions, from the Tripolitan War circa 1801-1803 to the hundred years (1840-1941) that American troops were continuously stationed in China to the Phillippine "Insurrection" (1900-1902) to the many 20th Century American interventions in Latin America.
Surprises abound, the biggest being how Author Max Boot demonstrates that for the most part America's interventions happened for idealistic reasons, rather than the usual sterotype that has the U.S. always watching out for big business interests. Also surprising is Boot's account of how effective America was at fighting anti-guerilla wars, at least up until Vietnam, when our misguided tactics may have actually snatched victory from our grasp. Boot covers each intervention seperately, combining politics with actual battle narratives in an excellently readable manner. Colorful figures emerge, like "The Fight Quaker" Marine General Smedley Butler, who for over thirty years was America's foremost (and most successful) guerilla fighter, only to become a staunch pacifist upon retirement.
Though it is a historical narrative, it is obvious that the author is trying to send a message to today's military leaders, especially in the wake of such misguided post-Vietnam policies as the "Powell Doctorine." The message is that America has a duty to continue to fight small wars to make the world a safer place (especially after September 11th), but that it should also not encorage our enemies by cutting and running from such engagements after the first casualties.
Overall, Boot has wrtitten and extremely enjoyable military history book that carries with it a powerful message.

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Strong Men Armed: The United States Marines Against Japan Review

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(More customer reviews)Three veterans of the First Marine Division have written accounts of WWII. E.B. Sledge in "With the Old Breed," William Manchester in "Goodbye Darkness," and Robert Leckie in "Strong Men Armed."
"With the Old Breed" and "Goodbye Darkness" are personal reminiscences, but "Strong Men Armed" is a scholarly study. It doesn't dwell on personal experiences, but gives the vast panorama of the Navy/Marine Corps island hopping campaign, and helps to put Sledge's and Manchester's personal memoirs into the context of the whole war in the Pacific. Leckie does give his chronicle a personal touch by occasionally stopping to pay tribute to some of the matchless individual deeds heroism and sacrifice. One arresting theme is his account of each and every Medal of Honor awarded to Marines who threw themselves onto live hand grenades to save their comrades. ("Greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.")
Sledge's book ("With the Old Breed") is a plain spoken account of one man's view of the horrors of the war in the Pacific. Manchester's book ("Goodbye Darkness") reads something like the out-loud ruminations of a mental patient working through unresolved issues on the psychiatrist's couch. Leckie's book is an epic account of a titanic struggle.
For the Big Picture of the war in the Pacific, "Strong Men Armed" can't be beaten. For a more personal look at the war, read "With the Old Breed."

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Written by Robert Leckie, whose wartime exploits will be featured this spring in the upcoming Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg HBO miniseries The Pacific, Strong Men Armed has been a perennial bestselling classic account of the Pacific theater in World War II. As scout and machine-gunner for the First Marine Division, Leckie fought in all its engagements until his wounding at Peleliu. Here he uses firsthand experience and impeccable research to re-create the nightmarish battles of the Pacific campaign.

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