America the Dutiful: An Assessment of U. S. Foreign Policy Since World War II
Philip W. Quigg. New York: Simon and Schuster, 191. 22 pp. $6.95.
Reviewed by Commander Delbert D. Boerner, U. S. Navy
(Commander Boerner was awarded a B.A. degree in International Relations/Political Science in 1967 at the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School. In addition to serving on board destroyers and with the Military Assistance Advisory Group at Oslo, Norway, he was commanding officer of the USS Sagamore (ATA-208) and the USS Indra (ARL-37). He is presently serving as force personnel officer on the staff of the Commander, Service Force, U. S. Atlantic Fleet.)
At a time when most discussions of American foreign policy seem to be dominated by the Vietnam war, a concise appraisal of the whole scope of that policy, since the end of World War II, which neither chastises nor apologizes is most welcome. America the Dutiful avoids the emotionalism evoked by recent events in Vietnam and deftly injects rationality and balance into the arguments raging over the morality and effectiveness of U. S. foreign policy of the past quarter century. Author Philip W. Quigg is most qualified to present this unbiased appraisal. His 15 years as managing editor of the prestigeous [sic] Foreign Affairs journal, have afforded an unequaled opportunity to deal intimately with both key policy-making officials (without being a part of government) and knowledgeable scholars. In addition to this association with these officials and scholars, Quigg has gained an objective evaluation of the international viewpoint of American foreign policy through travel in over 50 foreign countries. He has skillfully combined these two assets to produce a lucid work of high quality.
America the Dutiful is addressed to “. . . that minority—or that part of it still willing to listen—which believes that the United States is inherently aggressive, unprincipled, and either incompetent or unsuited to play any responsible role in the world . . . for dissenters and reformers willing to believe that change within the system is still possible.” Perhaps so, but there is no doubt that both the casual and the serious student of American foreign affairs will find this a thought-provoking book. At a time when old values and obligations are being challenged, this assessment puts past events in perspective, providing the rebuttal to those who would have the United States withdraw into its shell and ignore the rest of the world despite the consequences of such actions.
Discussion ranges from the dangerous world in which we live (“Since 1945, there have been some 54 armed conflicts of sufficient intensity to be classified as wars.”) to the possible impact of Vietnam on the future course of U. S. foreign policy. Quigg not only observes that the world would not have been made less threatening by unilateral disarmament or withdrawal, he suggests that it might have been more dangerous under those conditions.
Arrogance of power—a theme of American foreign policy? Most assuredly not, asserts the author. And if such is the way we are viewed from abroad, the members of Congress, “. . . concerned with winning votes at home, not friends overseas . . .” must shoulder a significant portion of the blame. Though our involvement in Vietnam is often cited as an example of arrogance, Quigg demonstrates that our difficulties there have stemmed, not from arrogance but the opposite, from softness and indecision.
And what of Vietnam? Although Quigg concedes that Vietnam may be a turning point in the course of U. S. foreign policy, his discussion of “. . . our most costly and disastrous intervention . . .” is all too brief. Brevity notwithstanding, it poses some challenging questions:
What is meant by “No more Vietnams”? That we will never again assist a nation under attack? That next time we’ll use nuclear weapons? That we’ll send airmen but not soldiers? That we’ll fight close to home but not far away? That we’ll defend strong societies but not weak ones? That we’ll help countries where we understand the culture, but not where we don’t? That we’ll fight declared but not undeclared wars?
These questions are not academic. Their answers are the determinates of our future foreign policy. Some foreign observers feel that our Vietnam experience will cause the United States to drastically reduce its support for the world security system, which could precipitate a period of chaos and disorder such as the world has not known for centuries.
America the Dutiful is an appraisal of the past, not a prediction for the future. It succeeds in giving perspective at a time when basic decisions are being made on the direction of American foreign policy for the next quarter century.
The Tailoring of Melville’s White-Jacket
Howard P. Vincent, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1970. 239 pp. Illus. $7.00
Reviewed by Professor Wilson Heflin
(Professor Heflin teaches “The Literature of the Sea” in the Department of English at the U. S. Naval Academy. He is a former president of the Melville Society of America.)
Had Herman Melville joined the Pacific Squadron of the U. S. Navy a year earlier, and especially had he been assigned to the sloop-of-war Cyane, he might have witnessed enough stirring scenes to fill the pages of a long, adventuresome seaman’s narrative—among them, an amphibious landing and seizure of a Mexican fort; six men flogged through the Fleet for mutinous conduct; a drunken seaman beaten with a club by a midshipman; an officer ordered to cut off his whiskers or suffer arrest; the jumping overboard of a crazed sailor; and even a duel between two midshipmen, one of them Melville’s cousin.
Enlisting as an ordinary seaman on 17 August 1843 in the frigate United States, flagship of the same Pacific Squadron, Melville experienced instead a more or less routine tour of duty. There were 163 floggings and the loss of a cooper who fell overboard. There were brief visits to Polynesian islands, which Melville had seen before, and views of several Latin American ports, but apparently only three days of shore leave. Finally, there was a homeward-bound cruise, around Cape Horn with a stop at Rio, then an international race out of the harbor, and the sail on to Boston. Otherwise, Melville’s career as an ordinary seaman, objectively viewed, was singularly uneventful.
Yet, White-Jacket, or The World in a Man-of-War (1850), Melville’s fifth book, contains many exciting episodes, including a fall from the mainmast into the sea by the protagonist, the remission of his punishment when he was about to be flogged, and his witnessing the brutal amputation of a sailor’s leg. The book angered naval officers, especially the chapters on flogging, and it entertained many other contemporary readers, most of whom considered it straightforward autobiography. So did Melville’s early biographers and critics. It was not until Charles R. Anderson had studied all the pertinent naval documents and had published his findings in Melville in the South Seas (1939), that the record began to be set straight. Professor Anderson, in separating fact from fiction in White-Jacket, believed that Melville’s most powerful scenes were attributable to “deliberate invention.” More recently, scholars have challenged Anderson’s conclusion in the professional journals, maintaining that Melville, in composing White-Jacket, borrowed key episodes from more than a dozen printed sources, most of them seamen narratives.
Now, Howard Vincent in The Tailoring of Melville’s White-Jacket, the first book-length study of the work, has convincingly traced the genesis of Melville’s book. He shows the author at work, not imaginatively making up great scenes out of whole cloth, but rather creatively appropriating incidents, details, and colorful language from other nautical writers, and often transmuting them—even as Shakespeare did the chronicles of Holinshed—into the magic of literature.
Professor Vincent studies White-Jacket according to much the same plan he followed 20 years before in The Trying-Out of Moby Dick. He concentrates on Melville’s indebtedness to “five little-known sea books”: William McNally’s Evils and Abuses in the Naval and Merchant Service Exposed (1839), Samuel Leech’s Thirty Years from Home, or A Voice from the Main Deck (1843), Nathaniel Ames’ A Mariner’s Sketches (1831), “A British Seaman’s” Life on Board a Man-of-War (1829), and Henry Mercier’s and William Gallop’s Life in a Man-of-War, or, Scenes in “Old Ironsides” (1841). Melville’s extensive use of these books, separately, and often surprisingly in combination, is analyzed in depth. Other influential works, notably Two Years Before the Mast, receive attention.
Although Professor Vincent is less concerned with factual background than literary influence, he has done important research in tracing the naval career of Jack Chase, captain of the maintop in the frigate United States, the real hero of White-Jacket and the seaman to whom Melville dedicated Billy Budd. For one thing, Chase is shown not to have been at the Battle of Navarino, although he gives an “eye-witness” account in White-Jacket. Melville got the story from his reading.
Professor Vincent’s study is unfortunately flawed somewhat by a number of careless misprints and several erroneous statements. Otherwise, it is a valuable, scholarly work, almost a handbook to White-Jacket. It shows persuasively why Melville’s story continues to be widely read—there are four paperback editions currently available—why it remains, indeed, one of the memorable books of the sea.
The Battle of the Torpedo Boats
Bryan Cooper. New York: Stein and Day, 1970. 296 pp. Illus. 17.95.
Reviewed by Paul M. Craig
(Mr. Craig served in the U. S. Navy for five years. Prior to discharge in 1962, he was an ASW aircrew instructor. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts in 1966, he received his master’s degree in history from that university in 1967. An instructor in English and History at Mary Holmes Junior College, West Point, Mississippi, from 1967 to 1968, he then became an instructor in history at Northampton Junior College, and a researcher, NDEA Local History Project, Northampton, Massachusetts. He is presently reviewing books for the Holyoke Daily Transcript in Massachusetts.)
When Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan summarized The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1785, he knew coastal waters could be both a “. . . source of great weakness or a cause of enormous expense.” Even as the maritime nations with their growing national fleets prowled the blue water, they also maintained smaller craft that could fight inshore and slip quickly through an enemy’s fleet, inflict their damage, and be off.
Bryan Cooper, in The Battle of the Torpedo Boats, has provided a well-balanced account of the importance, development, and wartime use of small, quick motor torpedo boats. “Diverse as they were, what all the smallboat operations proved—and this has been so for almost every war of this century—is the vital importance of coastal waters. It is not only through such waters that merchant ships must bring supplies from overseas, but very often coastal convoys are the only practical and economical means of transferring materials from one part of a country to another.”
The author goes on to say that “. . . equally from a military point of view, coastal waters are a major factor in mounting any expeditionary raid or invasion. This applies to defense as well as attack. . . .” With his strategic sense of coastal waters thus outlined, Cooper develops his story within three main areas of conflict for the motor torpedo boats (MTB) of World War II: (1) coastal Europe, especially around Great Britain; (2) the Mediterranean; and (3) the Pacific and Far East. Although the Pacific did not afford the same kind of combat as in the English Channel, Cooper is wrong to assert “. . . there is no record of any Allied ship being seriously damaged . . .” by Japan’s MTBs. On 3 April 1945, Lieutenant (j.g.) Theodore Arnow’s LCI(G)-82 was rammed and sunk off Okinawa, killing one officer and eight men. The Shinyo suicide boat that did this was, as Cooper knows, an MTB adapted to the kamikaze spirit so prevalent at Okinawa.
Whereas U. S. MTBs shot up most of the Japanese suicide boats before they could be used, and attacked barges and shipping, it was mostly in the English Channel, as Cooper emphasizes in his book, that MTBs dueled, where combatant nations provided motor gunboats to neutralize each other’s MTBs, where the basic tactics for small boat warfare were worked out. Lacking the scope and detail of some other published accounts of small boats (such as Captain Robert J. Bulkley’s At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy), this is a fast-moving general history of small boat sailors who only asked—as a sign of Bougainville’s MTB squadrons proclaimed—what John Paul Jones had aggressively said in an earlier war: “Give me a fast ship for I intend to go in harm’s way.” The spirit with which the crews put their boats in harm’s way is captured in Cooper’s description of MTBs as “. . . 60- and 70-foot hulls lying low in the water, wheelhouse and mast-heads raked back, angry with guns fore and aft, and with cylindrical torpedo tubes snouting out on each side of their decks.”
Between the wars, MTB development was often left to private companies and motor boat enthusiasts, Cooper explains. In England, Sir Malcolm Campbell and Sir Henry Segrave, and the companies of Vosper and Thornycroft, were among those who built MTBs for themselves and for foreign buyers. Given the widespread desire to end war and the indifference of the major powers toward small boat design, this was not unusual, and ideas flowed freely among the nations. While private enthusiasts were busy in Europe, rumrunners during the American Prohibition era worked enthusiastically for greater achievements and blessed the small boats’ speedy elusiveness. Their quests for even greater speed and hence a safer profession “. . . were to prove of considerable value during the war.”
Although the United States came late compared to England and Germany, all three entered the war with about the same number of MTBs—less than 30, although Cooper’s figures for Germany and England vary in two different chapters. When war began, Italy, with the superior Fraschini marine gasoline engine had the fastest—45 knots—and the largest MTB fleet.
Indeed, even as the war moved into its third year, Italian engines powered British boats until American Packards began arriving in sufficient number. But Cooper points out that Germany had the technological edge with the Daimler-Benz diesel engine, which reduced the “. . . risk of fire and explosion, a hazard the crews had to cope with throughout the war. . . .” especially in Italian, British, Japanese, and American boats with their gasoline engines.
As vital as they were, even before the final North Sea battles were fought in 1945, Coastal Forces (once numbering more than 1,700 craft, 3,000 officers, 22,000 men, who fought 800 separate actions) were being whittled down, older boats and their crews were paid off and bases were closed. While the European small boat war was winding down, American activity stepped up as the Pacific War island-hopped closer to Tokyo Bay. By the time General MacArthur and the others assembled on board the USS Missouri (BB-63), there were 25 PT squadrons on Pacific duty alone. “Examination showed the great majority of the boats were defective because of broken frames, worms and dry rot, broken keels, and battle damage. And yet these were the boats, with the men who sailed in them, that had contributed so much to the final victory.”
It was a victory built out of trial and error with “. . . no precedents, no rules to fall back on.” The trial and error coalesced on the night of 8 September 1941, when a new pattern for warfare at sea was set in the Straits of Dover. On that night, the small boat men of England’s Coastal Forces enjoyed their first success against a German convoy and its escorting MTBs. Cooper’s detailed description of this night shows the patient research which has enabled him to write a book of historical development and action firmly hitched to the land and air battles of World War II. In doing this, Cooper has established the strategic importance of the little boats.
Unfortunately, the illustrations are adequate only for general impressions, because many are too dark to see detail of the boats, and the maps would be more useful if they had the customary latitude-longitude markings.
Professional Reading
Compiled by Robert A. Lambert, Associate Editor
The Age of Nelson
G. J. Marcus. New York: Viking, 1971. 532 pp. Illus. $10.00.
Detailing the victories and defeats of the Royal Navy from the French Revolution through the Mediterranean campaign, the Battle of Alexandria, Trafalgar, the Peninsular War, the War of 1812, and, finally, Napoleon’s Hundred Days, this scholarly treatise also carefully constructs the historical context in which the battles were fought.
The Blind Horn’s Hate
Richard Hough. New York: Norton, 1971. 336 pp. Illus. $10.00.
Tierra del Fuego is one of Earth’s most hostile lands beyond which the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans meet in near constant fury, and through which, ever since Magellan’s passage in 1520, seamen have been forcing their way for exploration, trade, and plunder. This narrative tells mostly of starvation and death amongst the few triumphs from Magellan’s and Drake’s days to Darwin in the Beagle.
British Infantry Colours
Dino Lemonofides. London: Almark, 1971. 56 pp. Illus. 20 shillings (paper).
A concise guide to the regimental, battalion, and company standards from 1660 to the present; numerous illustrations but few in color.
Conflict Management
Cyril E. Black and Richard A. Falk (eds.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. 413 pp. $12.50.
In this third volume of the series The Future of International Legal Order, 11 contributors assess the role of law in controlling war in a closely interrelated world. Specific consideration is given to methods of handling nuclear and conventional weapons in order to reduce the prospect of future wars.
The Court-Martial of Lt. Calley
Richard Hammer. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1971. 398 pp. Illus. $7.95.
The author hates neither the military nor Calley, and his book is totally subjective as it displays a sense of controlled outrage in conveying his feelings about My Lai and the certainty of Calley’s guilt.
The Cunard Quadruple-screw Atlantic Liner Aquitania
London: Patrick Stephens, 1971. 176 pp. Illus. $4.75.
This is the third in the series Ocean Liners of the Past, and is mainly a facsimile reprint of the souvenir edition of The Shipbuilder published in 1914 to mark the liner’s maiden voyage.
Dictionary of Battles
George Brace. New York: Stein and Day, 1971. 333 pp. $12.50.
This standard reference was first published in 1904 under the authorship of Thomas Harbottle. It has now been updated to include 20th century military operations from the Boer War into the Vietnam War and has added cross-references throughout. The brief sketch for each entry gives date, place, names of leaders, numbers of troops, or ships and aircraft involved. There is a comprehensive index for personal names, ships and wars with all references to the battles comprising each war listed together by page number under the name of the war. A must for any military library.
Flat-tops and Fledglings
Gareth L Pawlowski. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1971. 530 pp. Illus. $20.00.
Using more than 400 photographs of carriers and their aircraft, the history of this unusual weapons system in the American Navy is traced from the Langley to the unnamed, unbuilt CVAN-70; from struts and wire to Phantom II. This large reference devotes a chapter to each carrier giving details of construction and operational history while each plane is pictured along with brief technical data. Many appendixes make it possible to find almost any detail.
Flying Boats and Seaplanes Since 1910
Kenneth Munson. New York: Macmillan, 1971. 164 pp. Illus. $3.95.
Arranged in chronological order, roughly five decades of waterborne aircraft are covered in this representative display of 69 foreign and domestic planes, ranging from the pioneer machines of Curtiss through the fabled China Clipper to the ill-fated Sea Master.
From the Jaws of Victory
Charles Fair. New York: Simon & Schuster, 445 pp. $8.95.
The character, causes, and consequences of military stupidity from ancient Rome to Johnson and Westmoreland are examined. Philip II of Armada fame, Napoleon, Sit Douglas Haig of the bloody Western Front in World War I, and Hitler, along with a host of others, more or less well-known, have their military reputations demolished. The supreme position for incompetents is allotted to Ambrose Burnside, whose performance prompted Lincoln’s remark which gives the book its title. The writing style is turgid, often nearly opaque; the humor is wry, but the point is sharply barbed—mankind needs bad generals, for it is they who may make war socially unacceptable.
German Machineguns
Daniel D. Musgrave and Smith Hempstone Oliver. Washington, D.C.: MOR Associates, P. O. Box 39022, Friendship Station (20016), 1970. 457 pp. Illus. $17.50.
Covering all manner of automatic weapons—standard machine guns, pistols, assault rifles, anti-aircraft cannon—this large-format volume presents historical and technical information in simple, readable text. A splendid feature of this comprehensive history is the large, clear photographs of guns, gun parts, and battlefield maneuvers. Only the lack of a bibliography keeps this reference from being considered definitive; however, it does belong in any weapons collection library.
Hess
J. Bernard Hutton. New York: Macmillan, 1971. 262 pp. Illus. $6.95.
Using as the focal point the Deputy Fuehrer’s flight to Scotland in early 1941, this is a fair assessment, perhaps an overly sympathetic portrait, of Rudolph Hess, through Nuremberg to his current status as the last war criminal in Spandau prison.
Hitler’s High Seas Fleet
Richard Humble. New York: Ballantine, 1971. 160 pp. Illus. $1.00 (paper).
Action-oriented and replete with pictures, this is a fine history of Germany’s war at sea.
Infantry Weapons
John Weeks. New York: Ballantine, 1971. 160 pp. Illus. $1.00 (paper).
An entertaining and evaluative survey of World War II hand-held firearms is presented.
Jane’s Fighting Ships 1971-1972
Raymond V. B. Blackman (ed.). New York: McGraw Hill, 1971. 729 pp. Illus. $55.00.
As with last year, the editorial comments on the obvious trends within the navies of the United States and Russia, with the sharpest words describing the decline of the U. S. Fleet. There are equally sharp sentiments expressed concerning the Royal Navy, and there is a call for the establishment of a supranational naval force to patrol the Indian Ocean. The gloomy editorial appraisal of U. S. capabilities is more than apparent in the U. S. chapter, which is probably the best detailed, edited by Norman Polmar. Naturally, the U.S.S.R. section has grown and the late Addenda pictures the most recent Krivak class of general purpose, large destroyer type being built in Russia.
Kriegsmarine I and Kriegsmarine II
Ferdinand Urbahns and Siegfried Breyer. Munich: J. F. Lehmann, 1971. Illus. DM 12, each volume.
These are volumes in an unusual sense of the word, as each consists of 12, 35-mm. color slides of several famous ships of World War II. Especially fine views of the battleship Bismarck and the square-rigged sail-training ship Horst Wessel are included.
Manual de Historia Naval Argentina
Laurio H. Destefan. Buenos Aires: Servicio de Inteligencia Naval, 1970. 166 pp. Illus. No cost given, (paper).
From its colonial beginnings in the late 18th century to its present status, this slim monograph describes the development of the Argentine navy through its ships, leaders, and engagements.
Merchant Ships and Shipping
R. Munro-Smith. South Brunswick, N.Y.: Barnes, 1970. 249 pp. Illus. $10.00.
First published in England two years ago, this handy text on construction, maintenance and shipping regulations is now available from a domestic source.
Mosquito: Wooden Wonder
Edward Bishop. New York: Ballantine, 1971. 160 pp. Illus. $1.00 (paper).
The design, construction, and operational history of this famous World War II fighter-bomber is presented in this pictorial.
Mountbatten
Arthur Swinson. New York: Ballantine, 1971. 160 pp. Illus. $1.00 (paper).
A successful military commander must be lucky and luck is not an overlooked element in this fine biography of a rather remarkable gentleman.
The Naval Academy Illustrated History of the United States Navy
E. B. Potter. New York: Crowell, 1971. 299 pp- Ulus. $12.95.
The title encapsules the contents of this easily digested, wide-ranging text that also manages to highlight salient features of land campaigns affected by the Navy although, in some instances, far from water.
The Naval War Against Hitler
Donald Macintyre. New York: Scribner’s, 1971. 376 pp. Illus. $10.00.
Opening with the Norway operations and closing with the Normandy invasion, the author focuses more on tactics rather than strategy in presenting an exciting picture of the Royal Navy’s struggle to contain Germany and keep Britain alive.
Nazi Regalia
Jack Pia. New York: Ballantine, 1971. 150 pp. Illus. $2.95 (paper).
Symbols had a special meaning and a role to play in the scheme of the Third Reich; over 100 color photographs illustrate the medals, knives, swords, arm bands, uniforms, and ceremonial equipment worn by the goose-steppers of the Nazi society.
New Dimensions of U. S. Marine Policy
Norman J. Padelford and Jerry E. Cook. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1971. 250 pp. Illus. $7.50 (paper).
Policy statements and actions, agreements and laws that have occurred since 1969 have been assembled, by subject category, in this report which supplements a similar work titled Public Policy for the Seas.
New Georgia: Pattern for Victory
D. C. Horton. New York: Ballantine, 1971. 160 pp. Illus. $1.00 (paper).
A former Coast-watcher in the Solomon Islands tells of Operation Toenails—the invasion of New Georgia Island in mid-1943.
Opening Moves: August 1914
John Keegan. New York: Ballantine, 1971. 160 pp. Illus. $1.00 (paper).
The generals, war plans, mobilization, and the early, devastating, highly-mobile battles culminating at the Marne are woven into this brief history.
Planning Tools for Ocean Transportation
I. M. Datz. Cambridge, Md.: Cornell Maritime Press, 1971. 168 pp. $10.00.
Using the mathematical approach of operations research, this text attempts to raise the decision-making process of trade forecasting, scheduling, cargo selection, and conceptual ship design from an art to a science.
Plenty of Sea Room
Emery N. Cleaves. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. 285 pp. Illus. $5.95.
Stories and episodes of a boyhood in Newburyport, Massachusetts, 60 years ago, are told in a semi-autobiographical style.
Regiments at Waterloo
Rene North. London: Almark, 1971. 72 pp. Illus. 25 shillings (paper).
More than 60 uniforms of the opposing Anglo-Allied and French armies on 18 June 1815 are shown in nearly 70 black and white drawings, but too few color plates. The text describes uniform details and synopsizes the regimental actions.
The Royal Navy and the Northwest Coast of North America 1810-1914
Barry M. Gough. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1971. 294 pp. Illus. SI 2.00.
The Royal Navy’s use of seapower in preventing American domination and aiding in the development of Canada’s Pacific coast is explained.
Russian Infantry Weapons of World War 2
A. J. Barker and John Walter. New York: Arco, 1971. 80 pp. Illus. $3.50.
Each weapon and its ammunition, including grenades and mortars, is covered in concise detail of specifications and performance.
Schweinfurt: Disaster in the Skies
John Sweetman. New York: Ballantine, 1971. 160 pp. Illus. $1.00 (paper).
The aerial slaughter suffered by the 8th Air Force over Germany during its daylight raids against the vital ball-bearing factories is the subject of this detailed account.
Second in Command
Edward R. Murphy, Jr. and Curt Gentry. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971. 452 pp. Illus. $8.95.
There are three points of agreement between the Pueblo’s captain and her executive officer, they were in the U. S. Navy, they were on the Pueblo, and they spent nearly a year as prisoners of the North Koreans. After that, agreement between the two men on almost anything is accidental. This is a bitter book, as are all the Pueblo books, but its most interesting feature—other than the claim of a White House interview—is the epilogue in which excerpts from Bucher: My Story are quoted and rebutted.
Secret Sentries in Space
Philip J. Klass. New York: Random House, 1971. 236 pp. Illus. $7.95.
The development and use of reconnaissance satellites by the United States and the Soviet Union is shown against the backdrop of several events—the missile gap, the Polaris development, the Cuban crisis. About one-third of the book is padding, but the remaining two-thirds is an uncomplicated presentation of the technology and an appreciation of the contribution to international stability brought about by those “spies in the skies.”
The Soviet Fleet Today: Cruisers and Guided Missile Destroyers
Ermanno Martino. Sun Valley, Calif.: John W. Caler, 1970. 64 pp. Illus. $3.95 (paper).
The illustrations, with a large number of close-up details and line drawings, are unusually clear in this magazine style format; text and captions are in English and Italian.
The Sunshine Soldiers
Peter Tauber. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971. 262 pp. $6.95.
A National Guardsman from New York City tells of his basic training adventures in Texas in 1970.
Temporary Military Lodging
Arlington, Va.: Military Living, 1971. 96 pp. $1.25 (paper).
Although the most-quoted rate is $2.00 per night per person, in a few instances accommodations can be had for as little as 50 cents. These are listed in this guide, which presents particulars on available facilities at military bases in ConUS and selected foreign areas.
Terror from the Sky
Edward Jablonski. New York: Doubleday, 1971. 175 pp. Illus. $9 95.
The narrative, along with photographs of German and British crews and aircraft, recreates the tragic early days of World War II and the Battle of Britain.
To Battle a Dragon
William B. Rozier. New York: Vantage, 1971. 90 pp. $3.50.
An uninteresting writing style spoils these tales of the U. S. Navy’s operations in the deltas, rivers, and swamps of Vietnam.
Tonkin Gulf
Eugene G. Windchy. New York: Doubleday, 1971. 358 pp. Illus. $7.95.
The author attempts to answer the many questions raised by the attacks on two U. S. destroyers, which led to the Tonkin Gulf Resolution and the bombing of North Vietnam. The basic thesis is not so much a dark plot to involve this country more deeply in the Vietnam war, but of insecure, confused politicians and bureaucrats holding onto bankrupt policies.
United States Aircraft Carriers
Louis Davison. Pensacola, Florida: Louis Davison, 1971. 32 pp. Illus. $3.50.
With many photographs, some sketches, and profile drawings of each class of ship from the Langley to the John F. Kennedy and the helicopter carriers, this is the slickest yet in the Waterline Shipmodelers’ Series.
United States Naval Aviation 1910-1970
Clarke Van Vleet, Lee M. Pearson and Adrian O. Van Wyen. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1971. 440 pp. Illus. $4.00.
This chronology, a second edition of one originally published ten years ago, shows the progress of 60 years from fabric and bailing wire to lunar landings.
West by North
Louis B. Wright and Elaine W. Fowler (eds.). New York: Delacorte, 1971. 389 pp. Illus. $10.00.
Selected, firsthand excerpts of writings by early explorers of North America have been brought together and linked by scholarly editing.
The World of Model Ships and Boats
Guy R. Williams. New York: Putnam, 1971. 255 pp. Illus. $10.00.
The fascinating subject of miniature water craft is presented—history, materials, techniques—from earliest Egypt to today’s plastic kits and radio-controlled, electrically-driven models.
The X-Craft Raid
Thomas Gallagher. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971. 170 pp. Illus. $5.95.
The daring attack by British midget submarines against the Tirpitz is the subject of this well-told story.
RE-ISSUES
Court Martial . . . of Capt. John Moutray . . . of HMS Ramillies
New York: Arno [1781], 1969. 170 pp. $10.00.
Diary of Ezra Green, M.D.
Surgeon on Board . . . Ranger . . . 1777
Ezra Green. New York: Arno, [1875], 1971. 28 pp. Illus. $6.00.
Ideas and Weapons
O. B. Holley, Jr. Hamden, Conn.: Archon [1953], 1971. 222 pp. $7.00.
Journal of the Cruise of the United States Schooner Dolphin
Hiram Paulding. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press [1838], 1970. 258 pp. Illus. $6.00.
A Relic of the Revolution
Charles Herbert. New York: Arno [1847], 1968. 258 pp. Illus. $4.50.