Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul
Michael Reid. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2007. 384 pp. $30.
Reviewed by Colonel John C. McKay, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)
Apart from popular misconceptions and mythologies, certain ingrained racial prejudices, immigration, and now the antics of Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, Latin America is writ small in the public's eye. There have been short periods of popular interest, for example in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, during the Banana Wars of the interwar years, and the Central American wars during the Reagan and first Bush administrations. Various U.S. administrations, starting with President James Monroe and the Monroe Doctrine, have been periodically engaged with concerns south of the Mexican-U.S. border but with scant more regional insight or studied consideration than that of the general public. Though of fairly recent vintage, anti-Americanism has incurred the ire of many unaware of its roots and causes.
There have been dedicated and sincere attempts—the 1889 first Pan-American Conference, President Franklin Roosevelt's "good neighbor" policy, and President Bill Clinton's 1994 First Summit of the Americas (Cuba's Fidel Castro was not invited) are mentioned by Michael Reid—to forge a meaningful and mutually advantageous relationship with our neighbors to the south. More often than not these have either been overshadowed or eclipsed by more pressing matters.
Reid, a British journalist with The Economist married to a Peruvian, has traveled throughout Latin America and reported extensively from the region for 26 years. He is a worthy guide, an excellent writer, and has admirably performed a difficult though sorely needed task in Forgotten Continent, drawing sagaciously from a wealth of pertinent historical and contemporary sources. His book provides an in-depth, non-judgmental summary of Latin America's travails from the Iberian conquest, through the Wars of Independence—which were "longer, bloodier, and more destructive" than the American Revolution—and their aftermath, up to the present. He is guardedly optimistic about Latin America's prospects, given the well-documented diversity and often tragic background of the region. Those prospects are contingent on a myriad of factors that Reid painstakingly details. The ongoing economic problems in the United States unfortunately may have the effect of tilting those prospects back into the unfavorable column.
History hangs heavy in the Latin American milieu as does the corrosive effects of concomitant racism and regionalism. Economics, too, have played their own critical role, more often than not negatively. But looming ever large over the entire region is the neighbor to the north: "In all, between 1898 and 1934 there were some 30 separate military interventions of the United States in nine countries of the Americas—all of them in the Caribbean Basin." The Great Depression hit Latin America particularly hard, and as Reid rightfully points out: "If the Great Depression did not amount to a decisive turning point in Latin America's economic history, it certainly marked a sharp political rupture." In no small part it ushered in the age of the dictators and subsequent loss of nascent democratic movements in many of the region's countries. Possibly one of the more egregious acts of the United States was the CIA orchestrated 1954 overthrow of the democratically elected Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz. As Reid states, "In the event, the U.S. crushed democracy not communism in Guatemala." Ernesto "Che" Guevara was present when the Arbenz government was overthrown.
Michael Reid has written a scholarly book free of journalistic jargon that rightfully addresses the neighbors with whom we should have, and now need to have, a much closer relationship. Forgotten Continent has the important distinction of being a work of erudition devoid of esoterica, making it intellectually accessible to policy makers, scholars, and the general reading public. As Elizabeth Monroe's Britain's Moment in the Middle East (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981) should have been required reading by high-level policy makers before March 2003, so too should the incoming administration's Latin American decision makers have Michael Reid's excellent work on their must-read list.
Unknown Waters: A First-Hand Account of the Historic Under-Ice Survey of the Siberian Continental Shelf by USS Queenfish (SSN-651)
Captain Alfred S. McLaren, U.S. Navy (Retired). Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2008. 243 pp. Illus. Maps. Notes. Bib. Appen. Index. $29.95.
Reviewed by Commander Don Walsh, U.S. Navy (Retired)
This extremely readable book adds an important but little known story to the rich literature on Arctic Ocean exploration. Because most U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine operations in the Arctic have been highly classified, there are few who could have accurately written this account. Captain Alfred S. McLaren is one of them. During his submarine career he was on several pioneering under-ice voyages that included surfacing at the North Pole and a submerged first-ever survey of the fabled Northwest Passage.
The author entered the nuclear submarine Navy just a year after the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) began a series of experimental voyages under the Arctic ice. The advent of nuclear power finally made such voyages possible. From being a junior officer, and ultimately a commanding officer, McLaren participated in the development of U.S. Arctic Ocean operational know-how. This polar experience served him well when he was ordered to command the mission that is the subject of this book, the 1970 covert submerged survey of the Soviet Union's Siberian continental shelf. Then-Commander McLaren was selected to do the survey with his submarine Queenfish (SSN-651).
He was no stranger to the Queenfish; he had been assigned to her as the executive officer while she being constructed and then later served as her captain for a remarkable four years. She was the first of 37 Sturgeon-class subs to be built and specially configured for under ice operations.
McLaren develops his involvement with Arctic Ocean exploration beginning with a modest autobiographical background. After his admission to the Naval Academy in 1951, he describes his early years in the surface navy and volunteering for the submarine service and later its nuclear power program. This is against a backdrop of concurrent events of the 1950s and '60s that helped establish the need for the Navy's Arctic Ocean operational capabilities. He further provides geographic and oceanographic information to assist the reader in learning about the remote reaches of the Arctic Ocean. All of this useful detail helps set the stage and explain the events of the expedition that is the focus of this book.
In those days many in the Navy did not support having a strong under-ice submarine capability. Thus those involved were the pioneers in a significant frontier. For those familiar with this evolution in the Navy, the book is a chance to revisit the people and places from the early days of nuclear power.
After retiring from the Navy, Captain McLaren earned a master's of philosophy degree from the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University and a PhD in polar geography from the University of Colorado. Today, in his mid 70s, he continues to do undersea research as senior pilot of the new Super Aviator submersible, travel, lecture, and write on subjects related to the Arctic Ocean and global climate change.
In this book his love for the cold places is very evident. And, as a former Sailor, he knows how to tell a great sea story.
China's Energy Strategy: The Impact on Beijing's Maritime Policies
Gabriel B. Collins, Andrew S. Ericson, Lyle J. Goldstein, and William S. Murray, editors. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2008. 513 pp. $47.95.
Reviewed by Sol Schindler
China's incredible economic development over the past 20 years has made it a formidable player on the international scene. Its voracious appetite for raw material has helped fuel the worldwide commodity boom and its policies must be taken into account when viewing any world issue. Accordingly, the Naval War College established the China Maritime Studies Institute in 2006. This book is a result of the institute's second annual conference, which examined the possible relationship between China's evolving energy strategy and its general naval strategy.
Four editors present 21 separate contributions, with the resultant product very much a team effort. Their work first examines the world atlas and notes that oil tankers going to China from the Middle East pass through the straits of Malacca, Lombok, or Macassar in Indonesia to reach their destination. The U.S. Navy has the capability to block these choke points if necessary. The article's author, Charles Freeman of the State Department (who speaks both Chinese and Arabic), notes that while we import almost 70 percent of our fuel requirements, China imports somewhat less than half of its needs, some of it coming by way of oil pipeline. Both countries would suffer from interruptions in maritime delivery, we perhaps more than the Chinese. He feels that as the two largest consumers of energy, we have common problems and that a strategy of working with the Chinese would have many benefits, including bringing them into the International Energy Agency which coordinates strategic petroleum reserves and responds to energy emergencies. We should encourage Chinese importation of oil from Central Asia; it is more cost effective for them, least cost effective for us, and would lessen Chinese competition with us for other sources. He feels also that the Peoples' Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), if asked, would work with us to our mutual advantage in safeguarding oil routes and depots.
This theme of cooperation is stressed throughout the book and the editors hope to encourage it. Certain portions, however, deal with the problems of blockade, the technical advances of the PLAN, and its current capabilities, none of which suggest cooperation. Nevertheless, Chinese foreign policy, unlike the former Soviet Union, does not advocate worldwide revolution nor military expansion. China appears to be content to remain within its borders while strengthening its ever-growing dominant economy. There is no reason China's economic might should be a threat to us unless we thoroughly mess up our own affairs.
China's preference for soft power is evident in its approach to the Middle East and Africa. It focuses on securing the best financial deals possible without endangering its relationship with its biggest foreign trade customer, the United States. In Iran, progress has been slow not because of ideological differences but simply because the Iranians are difficult and demanding negotiators. In Africa the Chinese focus on financial rather than political matters. In the Sudan they control the oil production but show no concern for the genocide that is going on in Darfur. In the sub-Sahara they continue to entrench themselves by making advantageous financial deals while eschewing overt politics.
How long can this continue? Will fuel oil prices now well over $100 a barrel continue to rise, making maritime transport even more critical, or will the often-predicted worldwide recession knock prices back? Will the Chinese economy, which despite what its admirers say has some real weaknesses, finally implode? Whatever happens, the editors feel that we have more to gain through cooperation than confrontation and that if the two largest consumers of energy work together they can keep a volatile situation manageable
Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report—and Survive—the War in Iraq
Kimberly Dozier. Des Moines, IA: Meredith Books, 2008. 288 pp. Illus. $24.95.
Reviewed by Major General Perry Smith, U.S. Air Force (Retired)
Kimberly Dozier is a tough woman with a powerful story to tell. Horribly wounded on Memorial Day, 2006 in Iraq, Dozier tells the poignant but ultimately uplifting story of a combat journalist who never should have survived. Her cameraman and soundman were both killed, as was the U.S. Army company commander and his Iraqi translator—all who were standing a few feet from her when the car bomb went off. Of all the people who survived that day, she was the last to receive medical assistance. Her heart stopped twice and she almost lost both of her legs.
The daughter of a Marine who had fought on Guam and Iwo Jima, Kimberly Dozier comes from very good stock. What is amazing about this book is how candid she is in describing her ordeal. Her portrayal of the acute pain she suffered on many occasions is so descriptive that it made my skin crawl.
[E]very day at Landstuhl surgeons would powerwash the dirt and dead, burned tissue from my legs. Picture strapping a patient to the operating table and turning a fire hose on them at full blast.
She explains the emotional pain she suffered and the many problems she had relating to people who thought they knew what she was going through but were basically clueless.
It is hard not to quote her jarringly descriptive narrative.
My bone was responding to the injury by healing like mad and sprouting rogue bits of bone that were sending sharp fingers into the soft tissue of my right and left upper thighs. My doctors feared it might also be growing near my knee joints, where the titanium rods had been driven through into my broken femurs. Carol [Lieutenant Commander Carol Petrie, her physiotherapist] and I had to work to break these strands of bone before they thickened and fused my knee into immobility.
One of Dozier's operations lasted 11 hours. Large strips of skin on her back were harvested and used as grafts on her badly mangled legs. She received more than 2,000 stitches during that operation. Later her back became badly infected and was the source of constant, excruciating pain.
Who would find this book fascinating? The audience should be very wide. This is a human-interest story of how life can change in the blink of an eye and how extreme adversity can be both challenging and ennobling at the same time. I especially recommend it to those who have been (or might expect to be) engaged in close combat, to medical professionals, to journalists, especially those noble ones who are considering being embedded in combat units. In fact, this book should be mandatory reading at every school of journalism. Others who should read this book are those who are harsh critics of journalists, especially those who don't understand or respect the calling of people who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of both the truth and the story.
In the two years since she was wounded, Dozier has handled herself with grace and dignity. She has traveled the world to seek out and thank those who saved her life, who gave her such great care, and the tough love she needed to fight through the pain and work herself back to a full and productive life.
In May 2008, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, which consists of the 105 living recipients, presented her with its top award for journalistic excellence.