history

"11 Days" is a no holds barred look at Operation Linebacker II, the December 1972 bombing of North Vietnam, the performance of the B-52s, their crews, and the Strategic Air Command (SAC). It also covers, in a limited way, President Nixon's less than totally successful efforts in getting SAC to execute the operation as he desired. "11 Days" illustrates that while many aspects of Nixon's Presidency can be debated, his assessment regarding the results of massive air strikes into the heart of North Vietnam cannot and the release of 591 American POWs serve as proof of that conviction. "11 Days" also provides a view of the operation as seen by the North Vietnamese, with excellent discussions in each mission on the employment of the SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM) and the Fan Song radars and how the North Vietnamese determined exactly when to launch their missiles that resulted in the lost of 15 B-52s.

While SAC might have been the capable of professionally executing a retaliatory nuclear strike against the Soviet Union, "11 Days" aptly demonstrates how ill prepared the organization was in conducting massive conventional bombing strikes against a technologically challenged third world nation. There were a variety of reasons for the near failure of Linebacker II, but the principal one, as shown by Colonel Michel, was that of weak and near fatally flawed leadership at SAC and its staff. Fortunately for the crews of the B-52s and the POWs, the North Vietnamese were not equipped with the Soviet Union's latest SAMs, otherwise even their best efforts would probably not have been sufficient to overcome the shortcomings and shortsightedness within SAC.

My one complaint (far too strong a word) about "11 Days" is that Colonel Michel did not include, as an appendix, the article by Dana Drenkowski's "The Tragedy of Linebacker II."

The author offers a nice mix of in-depth research intermixed with first hand accounts of those involved, at every level and on both sides. This is a great book, easy to read and hard not to enjoy. I have read only a few books on the air war in Vietnam, 'The Ravens' by Christopher Robbins, 'The Rescue of BAT-21' by Darrel Whitcomb and 'One Day in a Long War by Jeffrey Ethell and Alfred Price'. However I still have no hesitation in recommending this book to any one who enjoys a well-written historical account of air warfare.

The author takes the reader through the background and events leading to the decision to carry out America's Linebacker II campaign. Covering points both from the political and military aspects of this campaign he shows the faults uncovered during the bombing campaign both with SAC and their political masters. It is surprising to read of the inadequacies uncovered and the stupidity behind some decisions.

By the time you get to the end of the book you come away with nothing but praise for the air crews involved in this battle regardless if you agree with the strategy of this bombing campaign or not. Further, the author offers you a rare insight into the North Vietnamese crews defending Hanoi and Haiphong during the bombing.

Not only does Michel offer you an excellent historical account of this campaign but you really get drawn into the story as you follow the crews of the B-52's as they make their way to their targets during the dark nights of December 1972. This is a great book that offers excellent story telling backed by in-depth research and numerous first-hand accounts from the participants of the campaign. Well done to the author.

Though not without its losses (15 of the 26 aircraft lost were B-52s) the results were such that by the end of Linebacker II (which paused on Christmas Day) the USAF had effectively run out of major targets.

In the light of so many good overall reviews, I will just focus briefly on the actual bombing ops. It is both disturbing and intriguing to discover the reasons for those losses. While some of the downings were almost 'chance' hits, where the Enemy had fired volleys of SAM-2s ballistically i.e. unguided (due to the ECW assets being employed), many occurred due to precision hits.

Where this was the case, it was sometimes due to 'burnthrough', where the Enemy ground radar signal nullified or overwhelmed the ECM cell being generated by the BUFFs. This sometimes occurred due to onboard E/F generator failures (all too common), due to an aircraft straying outside the cell during a maneuver, or in the case of the B-52Gs, simply not having enough ECM power to cope with the signal strength from the SAM site radar emmitters.

Six B-52Gs were shot down while making high banking turns at the end of the bombing run, which created an acquirable radar cross section (the plane's ECM was no longer pointing straight downwards, opening up a chink in the electronic armor). After this, the Gs were re-assigned to ARC Light Missions (standard B-52 bombing support missions). Ironically, the older D models had more powerful ECM capabilities.

The chaff dispensing was also problematic as the high winds were causing the chaff (foil strips) to disperse prematurely and provide too narrow a corridor for the following bombers. Additonal chaffing aircraft were allocated and altitude adjustments were made to compensate.

At least one MIG 21 was shot down by a tail gunner, as they were believed to be spotting altitudes and attack vectors for the ground radars. Not too hard when you could see a sea of upper rotating (anti-collision) beacons ahead of you.

A great campaign, carried out with tremendous courage and skill by hundreds of B-52 and bomber support crews, and one that actually achieved something in short order. The final Peace accord was signed just a few weeks later.

But then Victor Klemperer is also a hero. As I read his diaries, I began to realize the bravery of his writing and of those who hid the pages for him. Klemperer's opinions of the Third Reich are explicit. Exposure would have ended his life immediately. I kept wondering whether I could ever do that, say, if the mayor declared Italians to be the Master Race and blue-eyed blonds were systematically searched, deported and killed. Would I care so much for posterity, and for the future of humanity, that I would dare to write what is right no matter the consequence, to expose evil in the midst of it, and perhaps to die for it? Victor did. Reading his diary is to honor that heroism.

But then Victor Klemperer is also a human being. He wrestles mightily with his German heritage, with his privileges by marriage to an Aryan, with his being alive while others disappeared. Through all the terror, he is still willing to seek out trust when mistrust is the word to live by. He is saddened by the devastating bombing of Dresden, not vengeful. When I expect his words to be filled with hatred, I am struck by their frequent ambivalence and even passion. Klemperer is a complex person, like most human beings, like you and me. This is a diary that confirms that, when ordinary people are put into extraordinary circumstances, they become extraordinary. As is this book.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Klemperer's observations is that he held what we now call the Goldhagen debate within his own mind. Was antisemitism a deeply embedded and inseparable part of the German people, or not? He described acts of kindness and acts of discrimination and brutality in counterpoint over and over again. In the end, he did not form a final conclusion himself on this issue.

There has been much ink spilled on the Gestapo. How effective and how pervasive was this force in institutionalized and systemic terror activities? Klemperer's detailed and careful observations over a period of years provides an insight that transcends any other. He describes not only his own mounting sense of terror at Gestapo tactics, but dispassionately describes the impact on his friends and neighbors, most of whom did not survive the experience. To the question: How much did ordinary Germans know or guess about the extermination activities in the concentration camps? Klemperer's diaries leave no doubt at all that everyone knew.

Klemperer was a learned professor. He had both a strong work ethic and great courage. He attributes his survival to his wife Eva, an observation that is undoubtedly true. He wrote, she was the courier, a friend hid the pages at great risk. There is no way to overstate the importance of Klemperer's diaries. And there is no way to ever thank these people enough for their effort, courage, and sacrifice. These are powerful books.

Every Marine learned the legend of General Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller in boot camp. Chesty is our icon (See his biography "Marine"). Lewis Jr. was raised in that tradition and became a Marine officer himself.

His story is told eloquently and movingly. His suicide more than 20 years later is a death that belongs etched on the Vietnam Memorial Wall along with the other honored dead.

Lewis B. Puller, Jr. is the patriotic son of a beloved Marine Corps legend. "Fortunate Son," is the story of how the author follows his father's footsteps...joining the Marines and going to war. What follows is a chilling portrait of the Vietnam war. It is also a fabulous window of understanding of how many Vienam veterans turned against the war.

The author's narrative of his childhood and his relationship with his famous military father is outstanding. Moreover, the tale of his combat wound and his subsequent survival along with other American casualties of the war while in military hospitals in the States is comprehensive and objective.

Puller does an enormous service for the nation. He honestly delivers one of the most powerful...as well as painful first hand testimonies of the longest war in the history of the United States of America. This book will endure the test of time.

But it's so tragic. I'm dumbfounded knowing he killed himself! All this time, his remarkable story sustained me through my own struggles. He is a loser after all! How awful. I wish I hadn't read the reviews here that told me about the suicide!

The writing is great anyway. But what a waste. I'm really disappointed!

I must say that of the 4 other Nietzschian works I have read (BG&E, Geneology of Morals, BOT, and Antichrist) this is the best, most complete, and most enjoyable so far. This book showcases Nietzsche for what is probably his most noticable strength: his ability as a psychologist and sociologist. He seems to have a good understanding of the types of innate moves people possess and utilize in their respective environments. Probably his understanding of exatcly what that environment is, namely, his sense of objective reality, is what allows him to comment so precisely on human nature. True, he's an indefensibly offensive misogynist and war monger, and that notwhithstanding, many of his observations are still germane in this day and age, which suggests an accute sense of psychology and anthropology on his part; although naturally a bit dated. Of course, I believe that in modern America we tend to discount the utter sagacity of 19th century Europeans in their pragmatism. Perhaps Nietzsche just seems sagacious compared to the discourse of present day America. His comments on hegemony, or how the ruling class manipulates the masses into cooperation are great. Nietzsche's love of science and his comments on the silliness of self-proclaimed objective types is excellent too. The opening aphorism of Book Two, entited "To the Realists-" is a clarion mockery to those so enamoured with logic that they deny, zombie-like, their own humanity and necessary (if not intentional) delusion.

Previously I was confused by Nietzsche's style. After hearing some lectures by professor Bob Solomon I came to understand how utterly ironic Nietzsche is trying to be in his writing from the outset. The title of this book, the 'Gay' science is trying to tell us that. Only by not taking Nietzsche seriously, by understanding his intentional irony and sarcasm, can one begin to hear him seriously. For all this book's sturm und drang it is frivolous and insignificant; and what of life isn't? so be gay and carefree my friends (while keeping watch with a jaundiced eye)! hence the nascent, cheerful, crushing existentialism of Nietzsche. Life is a tale told by an idiot signifying nothing, so let's go have a beer and catch some of the performance art of the wise, having ourselves a good laugh over their wardrobes and posturing. In this context, in his clever craftiness and irony, Nietzsche's message congeals to reveal the mind of, if not a mentally deranged person (who of us isn't after all), then a mind twisted into a sage of sorts who, motivated and feuled by an almost divine derangement, serves as a valuable alterego sibling. Nietzsche burns the midnight oil as a sibyl for our collective subconscious. This is the best work by Nietzsche I have read yet.

The Gay Science is a pivitol book for Nietzsche because it is the first in which the tension between the spiritual seeker and the atheist becomes manifest. Gone is the skeptical pose of "Human All Too Human"; instead we have the anguish of a man torn between two conflicting ideals. The tension, while it ravaged Nietzsche, did produce some brilliant ideas and unforgettable prose, even if it did not ultimately lead to a liveable philosophy.

(It is in the "Gay Science" in which the prelude of the now famous proclaimation "God is dead" first appears)

With his usual "aphoristic" style, Nietzsche creates delightfull read, his message is both profane and profound.

It's a book I recomend to all...

There is no question that General Puller was an exceptionally brave individual, but at what cost? Much of his early experience was gained in Haiti and Nicaragua against poorly trained and equipped rebels who tended to fire high. Unfortunately, it did not serve him or his men well against either the Japanese or the Chicoms--On Peleliu, Puller's 1st Marines was the first regiment that had to be withdrawn because of casualties. By way of contrast, the 5th Marines used firepower more effectively and sustained fewer casualties.

Unfortunately this book came out just before the escalation in the Vietnam War, and inspired many Marines to "charge the hill," instead of relying on firepower. As a result, the Corps lost many of its best officers and noncoms early on. Overall, Marine casualties in Vietnam exceeded those in World War II, all of which may help explain why Headquarters Marine Corps seems to want to forget Chesty. Another factor was Chesty's immense popularity with the troops, which came to be resented by other generals.

Burke Davis did a fine job in writing this book, but the objective biography of Chesty Puller has yet to be written.

Readers who enjoy "Marine" should consider buying "We Were Soldiers Once and Young," by (Army) General Hal Moore, which is itself a fine study in leadership--so much so that the Commandant placed it on the "must read" list for all Marine officers.

Semper Fi!

Well-written and romantic in its tales of combat, the book remains a definite must read for all in the profession of arms. The story could easily make for a good book from the worst author, but Davis applies fine writing to make for a classic of grit and determination.
Don't expect ultra-violence and gore, however, as the author foregoes the grim realities of the battlefield for a more Ambrose like model that somewhat sanitizes the combat experience to keep the story moving and focus more on the man's accomplishments than the images he most likely lived with forever.
Without a doubt, one of the best military novels ever written, it's hard to put down and will get anyone motivated! Also an excellent read for those in the business world, as Puller's no retreat/take no prisoners attitude is a foundation for modern warfighting and corporate business practices.