Grand unified books thread

[11B4V]

What next? Choices are;
A Bright Shining Lie

WTF man.  You should've read that shit already.  It's required reading on the 'Nam.

I've drilled very deep in other areas.

ABSL is an audio book also and I can listen to it on the commute. Two birds with one stone.

[CountDeMoney]

I've drilled very deep in other areas.

FFS man, there's only so many ways Kursk is going to come out   


Anyway, my Required Reading Vietnam War List--

Non-Fiction
A Bright Shining Lie, Neil Sheehan
Dereliction of Duty, H.R. McMaster
A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo
We Were Soldiers Once...and Young, Hal Moore
The Best and The Brightest, David Halberstam
In Retrospect, Robert McNamara
Chickenhawk, Robert Mason

Fiction
Fields of Fire, Jim Webb
Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien

I have a collection of short stories from the Vietnamese perspective around here somewhere, can't remember the name;  but I would like to read General Giap's book one day. HOW DID THEY DO IT

Anybody else with any recommendations?

[11B4V]

I've drilled very deep in other areas.

FFS man, there's only so many ways Kursk is going to come out   


Anyway, my Required Reading Vietnam War List--

Non-Fiction
A Bright Shining Lie, Neil Sheehan
Dereliction of Duty, H.R. McMaster
A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo
We Were Soldiers Once...and Young, Hal Moore
The Best and The Brightest, David Halberstam
In Retrospect, Robert McNamara
Chickenhawk, Robert Mason

Fiction
Fields of Fire, Jim Webb
Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien

I have a collection of short stories from the Vietnamese perspective around here somewhere, can't remember the name;  but I would like to read General Giap's book one day. HOW DID THEY DO IT

Anybody else with any recommendations?

I've read Moore's and Masons. How was McMaster's book?

[CountDeMoney]

How was McMaster's book?

It's probably the best policy work to come out on the war, and while it really tattoos the Johnson Administration, he is very critical of the JCS in knowingly allowing itself to be square pegged into political round holes.  His angle was consistently "politicians are supposed to be bullshit artists that shit the bed, professional military men are supposed to be above that" attitude. 

My only (minor) nitpick of the book is that I think McMaster is a little too critical of the Kennedy Administration's shedding so much of the JCS out of the national security staff model developed under Ike and ensconced as its own power silo; while I have never been a huge fan of the Whiz Kids, quite frankly after Bay of Pigs, the Missile Crisis and some other issues, I can appreciate why Kennedy did what he did.

Definitely worth reading.  I was going to reread it, as I hadn't read it since it first came out;  in light of recent events, I wonder if McMaster should reread it, too.

[11B4V]

Thanks, Ill put it on the list.

[CountDeMoney]

Somebody else on Languish read it not too long ago, think it was Habbaku or Berkut.

[Eddie Teach]

Wait, Trump picked an academic for his cabinet over all the bizniz men he could have gotten? 

[11B4V]

Don't underestimate the corrupting effect of being in Trump's orbit.

[The Brain]

I read Dereliction of Duty a while ago. IIRC, while he talks a lot about how domestic considerations drove a lot of the actions taken regarding Vietnam in the lead-up to full scale war, he doesn't come out and explicitly say what he thinks about that. There was certainly a lot of unnecessarily poor decisions made regarding Vietnam, but for instance weighing picking a lane in Vietnam against pushing through the Great Society is something that only the politicians can do. The Chiefs cannot advise on that kind of decisions.

There were many *facenapalm* moments though, according to the book. Johnson telling his military to "kill more Viet Cong"... they could have advised him (and McNamara) that that's not a strategy, and that they need a strategy for winning the war.

[jimmy olsen]

I read Dereliction of Duty a while ago. IIRC, while he talks a lot about how domestic considerations drove a lot of the actions taken regarding Vietnam in the lead-up to full scale war, he doesn't come out and explicitly say what he thinks about that. There was certainly a lot of unnecessarily poor decisions made regarding Vietnam, but for instance weighing picking a lane in Vietnam against pushing through the Great Society is something that only the politicians can do. The Chiefs cannot advise on that kind of decisions.

There were many *facenapalm* moments though, according to the book. Johnson telling his military to "kill more Viet Cong"... they could have advised him (and McNamara) that that's not a strategy, and that they need a strategy for winning the war.

Nice 

[CountDeMoney]

Don't underestimate the corrupting effect of being in Trump's orbit.

No kidding.  I don't think my respect for anybody whoring themselves to TrumpWorld has dropped so far so fast than for McMaster.

[Ed Anger]

Chickenhawk, Robert Mason

Loved that book in High School.

[CountDeMoney]

Chickenhawk, Robert Mason

Loved that book in High School.

Yeah, that was one of the really accessible Vietnam books in the early '80s.

[grumbler]

I'd add to the Vietnam list

They Marched Into Sunlight

A Rumor of War

Street without Joy, and

Flight of the Intruder

[PDH]

Loved Chickenhawk.  My introduction was Nam