|
Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945
"A must read for all Damien Lewis fans" Compass
--------------------------------------------------------- The most
explosive true war story of the 21st Century It is the winter of
2001. A terror ship is bound for Britain carrying a horrifying
weapon. The British military sends a crack unit of SAS and SBS to
assault the vessel before she reaches London. So begins a true
story of explosive action as this band of elite warriors pursues
the merchants of death from the high seas to the harsh wildlands of
Afghanistan. The hunt culminates in the single greatest battle of
the Afghan war, the brutal and bloody siege of an ancient
mud-walled fortress crammed full of hundreds of Al-Qaeda and
Taliban. Fighting against impossible odds and bitter betrayal, our
handful of crack fighters battle to rescue their fellow soldiers
trapped by a murderous, fanatical enemy.
--------------------------------------------------------- "The most
dramatic story of a secret wartime mission you will ever read" News
of the World "The author has been given unprecedented access" Zoo
"Gripping" Eye Spy
Despite tremendous sentiment against the American-led occupations,
citizens and soldiers continue to die. Award-winning journalist
Jamail shows a new generation of American soldiers taking
opposition into its own hands. As one of the few unembedded
journalists in Iraq, he investigates the growing anti-war
resistance of GIs embodied in organisations such as Iraq Veterans
Against the War. Gathering stories from these courageous men and
women, Jamail makes explicit the betrayal committed by politicians.
Since the fall of Saigon in 1975 there have been many books
published on why (and whether) America lost the war in Vietnam. The
senior American commander in charge of prosecuting the war during
its buildup and peak of fighting, Admiral U.S.G. Sharp, concluded
his memoir, saying: "The real tragedy of Vietnam is that this war
was not won by the other side, by Hanoi or Moscow or Peiping. It
was lost in Washington, D. C." This remains an all too common
belief. The stark facts, though, are that the Vietnam War was lost
before the first American shot was fired. In fact, it was lost
before the first French Expeditionary Corps shot, almost two
decades earlier, and was finally lost when the South Vietnamese
fought partly, then entirely, on their own. Offering an informed
and nuanced narrative of the entire 30-year war in Vietnam, this
book seeks to explain why. It is written by a combatant not only in
six violent, large battles and many smaller firefights, but a
leader with a full range of pacification duties, a commander who
lost 43 wonderful young men killed and many more wounded, men who
were doing what their country asked of them. This story is the
result of a quest for answers by one who, after decades of
wondering what it was about - what was it all about? - turned to a
years-long search of French, American, and Vietnamese sources. It
is a story of success on the one hand, defeat on the other, and the
ingredients of both, inspirational or sordid as they may be. It is
a story mostly lived and revealed by the people inside Vietnam who
were directly involved in the war: from leaders in high positions,
down to the jungle boots and sandals level of the fighters, and
among the Vietnamese people who were living the war. Because of
what was happening inside Vietnam itself, no matter what policies
and directives came out of Paris or Washington, or the influences
in Moscow or Beijing, it is about a Vietnamese idea which would
eventually triumph over bullets.
After World War II, the escalating tensions of the Cold War shaped
the international system. Fearing the Worst explains how the Korean
War fundamentally changed postwar competition between the United
States and the Soviet Union into a militarized confrontation that
would last decades. Samuel F. Wells Jr. examines how military and
political events interacted to escalate the conflict. Decisions
made by the Truman administration in the first six months of the
Korean War drove both superpowers to intensify their defense
buildup. American leaders feared the worst-case scenario-that
Stalin was prepared to start World War III-and raced to build up
strategic arms, resulting in a struggle they did not seek out or
intend. Their decisions stemmed from incomplete interpretations of
Soviet and Chinese goals, especially the belief that China was a
Kremlin puppet. Yet Stalin, Mao, and Kim Il-sung all had their own
agendas, about which the United States lacked reliable
intelligence. Drawing on newly available documents and
memoirs-including previously restricted archives in Russia, China,
and North Korea-Wells analyzes the key decision points that changed
the course of the war. He also provides vivid profiles of the
central actors as well as important but lesser known figures.
Bringing together studies of military policy and diplomacy with the
roles of technology, intelligence, and domestic politics in each of
the principal nations, Fearing the Worst offers a new account of
the Korean War and its lasting legacy.
Monuments and Memory-Making immerses students in the conversations
and controversies that emerged as the nation grappled with how best
to memorialize what was at the time the longest military conflict
in US history. As students engage in the historical process of
memory-making, they will work to reconcile the varied and often
contradictory voices that rose up after the fall of Saigon.
Students will tackle questions such as How do we create a national
memory of the past? How do we reckon with a war that was widely
understood as a defeat for the United States? How do we remember
the dead while honoring the living? How do we reunite a fractured
nation? How do public opinion and public consciousness shape our
understanding of the past, and whose voices are privileged over
others? Working with primary and secondary sources, students will
take command of the subject matter as they immerse themselves in
their individual roles as historical actors in the debate of how
best to remember and honor American participation and sacrifice in
the Vietnam War.
B-1-5 was a unique company in the Korean War. The Baker Bandits
fought at Inchon, Naktong, Chosin Reservoir, Guerrilla Hunts and
the many numbered hills. Theyinspired one B Company Commander, Gen.
Charlie Cooper to the extent that when he became Commanding General
of the Marines First Division in 1977, his time with B-1-5 inspired
his "Band Of Brothers Leadership Principles" used widely in the
Corps for many years. Emmett Shelton was a 19-year-old Marine
Reservist in 1950. He was called to duty after graduating Austin
High School and, within six months, he was a rifleman in Korea. The
Korean winter of 1950 was brutal and Emmett was evacuated shortly
after Chosin due to frostbite. After the war, Emmett got on with
life, then in the 1980s he attended a Chosin Few Reunion. He was
overwhelmed by a need to reconnect with his old Company, his Baker
Bandits. Emmett tracked down B Company members one-by-one and
started a newsletter, The Guidon, to share stories and reconnect.
For 20 years Emmett published The Guidon, monthly. The contributing
readership grew to a high of 300, including a number of young B
Company Marines fighting in Afghanistan. Chosin Brothers brings
together first-hand accounts from The Guidon, written by the men of
B-1-5 about their time in Korea: their battles, their fallen
commanders, deathin the foxhole, lost platoons, injuries and what
happened to them after the war.
As a soldier and civilian, Steven Moore has traveled from the
American Midwest to Afghanistan and beyond. In those travels, he's
seen what place can mean, specifically rural places, and how it
follows us, changes us. What Moore has to say about rural places
speaks to anyone who has driven a lonely road at night, with
nothing but darkness as a cushion between them and the emptiness
that surrounds. Place and how we define it-and how it defines us-is
a through line throughout the collection of eleven essays. Moore
writes about where we come from and the disconnection we often feel
between each other: between veterans and nonveterans, between
people of different political beliefs, between regions, between
eras. These pieces build into a contemplative whole, one that is a
powerful meditation on why where we come from means something and
how we'll always bring where we are with us, no matter where we go.
Most of us never get to test ourselves in combat. As a UH-1
Helicopter pilot flying in the jungle highlands of South Vietnam,
Warrant Officer Jim Crigler and the men he flew with were tested
daily. Coming of age in the late 1960s and early 1970s was
challenging for most young men of that era. Throw in drugs, free
love, draft notices, the Vietnam War and a country deeply divided,
and you have one of the most important books of this genre. This
true story is a raw, bold, introspective autobiography where the
author openly wrestles with his personal moral dilemma to find
meaning and purpose in his life. He calls it his "Mission of
Honor."
|
God's Love
(Paperback)
Ruth E Sheets
|
R384
R313
Discovery Miles 3 130
Save R71 (18%)
|
Ships in 10 - 15 working days
|
|
In the decades after World War II, tens of thousands of soldiers
and civilian contractors across Asia and the Pacific found work
through the U.S. military. Recently liberated from colonial rule,
these workers were drawn to the opportunities the military offered
and became active participants of the U.S. empire, most centrally
during the U.S. war in Vietnam. Simeon Man uncovers the
little-known histories of Filipinos, South Koreans, and Asian
Americans who fought in Vietnam, revealing how U.S. empire was
sustained through overlapping projects of colonialism and race
making. Through their military deployments, Man argues, these
soldiers took part in the making of a new Pacific world-a
decolonizing Pacific-in which the imperatives of U.S. empire
collided with insurgent calls for decolonization, producing often
surprising political alliances, imperial tactics of suppression,
and new visions of radical democracy.
|
You may like...
Hope Unseen
Scotty Smiley
Paperback
R473
R389
Discovery Miles 3 890
|