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0 In Love and War

Jim and Sybil Stockdale. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. 472 pp. Illus. Append. Ind. *17.95 ($14.36).

Reviewed by Colonel W. Hays Parks,

U- S. Marine Corps Reserve

James Bond Stockdale is a U. S. Naval Academy graduate and fighter pilot who, ^as a commander in his 20th year of com­missioned service, became the highest tanking naval officer to be taken prisoner °f war (POW) by the North Vietnamese. Shot down and captured on 9 September 1965, he suffered torture and long peri­ods of solitary confinement before even­tual repatriation on 12 February 1973.

Despite severe and permanently dis­abling injuries suffered on ejection that were aggravated by subsequent torture and neglect, he recognized and accepted his responsibilities as the senior POW and discharged his duties in spite of every effort by his captors to defeat him. For his heroic leadership and indomitable courage as a POW, he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1976. Promoted to fear admiral shortly after his return, he fose to the rank of vice admiral and served as the president of the Naval War College.

Admiral Stockdale’s biography alone contains enough material for an excellent book, but it would tell only half the story. The other half concerns the extraordinary efforts by Admiral Stockdale’s wife, Sybil, to demand humane treatment for her husband and his fellow POWs. Her tenacity helped her become the organizer and first chairperson of the National League of Families of American Prison­ers and Missing in Southeast Asia, and led to better care for U. S. POWs.

As columnist George Will aptly put it, “Admiral Stockdale, one of the heroes of our time, is, it turns out, married to an equally remarkable heroine.” For her service, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Thomas B. Hayward, awarded Sybil Stockdale the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the only wife of an active-duty officer so honored. Such is the stuff of which good books are made.

In Love and War lives up to expecta­tions. The story is told chronologically with the exception of the first chapter which relates then-Commander Stock­dale’s personal experience during the Gulf of Tonkin raids of 3-5 August 1964, that plunged the United States into the Vietnam War. Admiral Stockdale’s ac­count is riveting and clear: Although his flight of F-8 Crusaders on 3 August was successful in attacking the North Viet­namese patrol boats that previously had fired upon the USS Maddox (DD-731), the alleged attacks on the Maddox and USS Turner Joy (DD-951) on 4 August (which led to retaliatory naval air strikes on targets in Vinh the following day) never occurred. Admiral Stockdale based his views on his first-hand experience. He was flying close cover over the ships at the time of the alleged attacks.

In Admiral Stockdale’s opinion, Sec­retary of Defense Robert S. McNamara knew—or should have known—that the second attack did not occur. But as the North Vietnamese collected their first American prisoner of war the following day, the Johnson administration used the two “attacks” to negotiate the Tonkin Gulf Resolution through Congress. Ad­miral Stockdale became a prisoner of war slightly more than one year later.

The importance of his account of those days in August 1964 extends beyond his being a key player in the events. From its first day, the leadership of the United

States chose an unwinnable strategy in Vietnam by electing to fight a limited war with less than total effort, while allowing the North Vietnamese to fight an unlim­ited war with total effort. Admiral Stock- dale makes the connection poignantly later in the book:

“My uncertainty extended to Ameri­ca’s resolve. As October [1967] wore on, it was clear, even to one whose only contact with the world was aural, that the bombing raids that were fi­nally doing the job late that summer had dropped off. . . . Just when America had finally gotten the idea of how to get this war over with, it was clear that we were being betrayed by the very men who couldn’t wait for

the right justification to start it. . . .”

The remainder of the book features al­ternating chapters, complementary in time, by Sybil Stockdale and her POW husband. The early chapters deal with growing up, home life, college, and their years of marriage, typically Navy, which included frequent moves interspersed with inevitable deployments. Although then-Commander Stockdale comes across as one who possessed the “right stuff,” serving as a test pilot, then as a carrier air group commander at the time of his cap-

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ture, the Stockdales see themselves in those years as ordinary people unpre­pared for the challenges they were about to face.

Admiral Stockdale’s story differs from many of the earlier Vietnam POW ac­counts because of his leadership role. Mrs. Stockdale’s account is more per­sonal. She begins as one would expect: the good Navy wife, with faith in the sys­tem and in our nation’s elected leaders. However, an intolerance of bureaucratic incompetency is fostered and comes through in an early confrontation (re­solved in her favor) with Navy fiscal per­sonnel. It is a harbinger of things to come.

Almost a year after her husband’s cap­ture, Naval Intelligence personnel ap­proached Sybil Stockdale with a plan for passing materials to her husband that would permit clandestine communica­tions between them, and be of help to Naval Intelligence. This essential com­munications net plays an important part in the Stockdales’ narrative.

Knowing more than most POW next- of-kin, and willing to seek answers, Mrs. Stockdale questioned U. S. officials re­garding the steps being taken to ensure that the POWs in North Vietnamese hands would be provided the minimum protection under the 1949 Geneva Con­vention Relative to the Treatment of Pris­oners of War (GPW). Although both na­tions were parties to this treaty, the North Vietnamese improperly denied its appli­cation to its prisoners because there had been no declaration of war. American leaders declined to protest this interpreta­tion or disclose the overwhelming evi­dence of North Vietnamese abuse of U. S. prisoners on the erroneous theory that “quiet diplomacy” would lead to better treatment and a negotiated settle­ment of the war.

In this respect, In Love and War is not just the personal account of two people who experienced a small portion of the Vietnam War; it is a microcosm of the entire war and the failures of many of its leaders. Sybil Stockdale’s meeting with Ambassador Averell Harriman— originator of the “quiet diplomacy” phi­losophy—at the time the POWs were being threatened with “war crimes” tri­als reveals the ineptness of U. S. leaders to come to grips with the war and pro­vides reasons that explain why Mrs. Stockdale eventually elected to “go pub­lic” with her concerns. While Article IV of the Code of Conduct admonishes U. S. prisoners of war to keep faith with their fellow prisoners, the U. S. leadership obviously had failed to keep faith with its own men held in North Vietnamese and

Viet Cong prisons. Slowly but surely, Sybil Stockdale organized, learning one of the fundamental rules of Washington power politics: It is the squeaky wheel that gets greased. As the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia grew, it be­came one of the squeakiest wheels in town.

Some of the first grease for the POW wheel was the May 1969 rejection by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird of the Harriman ostrich approach to the North Vietnamese abuse of U. S. POWs. Pub­licly confronted, the North Vietnamese made a scapegoat of its overall prison commissar. Although it continued to re­fuse to permit inspection of the camps by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, North Vietnam other­wise began to care for its prisoners in terms generally consistent with the GPW. As the war dragged on, Mrs. Stockdale writes of her meetings with members of the Nixon administration. Repatriation of the U. S. prisoners became one of the highest priorities of National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger in the Paris peace talks—owing to the public aware­ness raised by Sybil Stockdale and the National League of Families.

In this same time frame, James Stock- dale was being put to some of his greatest tests, physically and mentally. He re­counts his efforts, resistance, and frustra­tion, as he sparred with his tormentors. Yet the account is somewhat reserved and distant. A critical element of his ability to resist and survive is missing from his ac­count: his deepest inner thoughts, and their foundations. It is well known that Admiral Stockdale relied heavily upon his earlier study of Epictetus and the clas­sical scholars. Admiral Stockdale’s phil­osophical foundation was essential to his survival as a prisoner of war; yet it is not mentioned. In Love and War was in­tended to be a narrative of events and experience without a discussion of its philosophical underpinnings. Readers seeking the latter can find it in his second book, A Vietnam Experience: Ten Years' Reflection (Hoover Institution, 1984).

Contrary to the views of some current military reform “experts” who have characterized the 1970 U. S. rescue effort on the Son Tay POW camp as a military failure, Admiral Stockdale recognizes its beneficial effect in forcing the North Vi­etnamese to consolidate most of the POWs in the Hao La Prison in downtown Hanoi. At this point, the worst of the or­deal was over. All that remained was re­patriation, which was later hastened by the Linebacker II bombing operations in December 1972.

Two criticisms have been heard of I’¹ Love and War. The first concerns Admi ral Stockdale’s discussion of the comma nications intelligence (Comint) mission being executed by the Maddox that pre­cipitated her attack. One member of t ⁰ Senate Armed Services Committee is known to have requested the Nations Security Agency to advise him if ^l^^eK had been any security breach by Admira Stockdale. This concern is without merit- The Comint mission of the Maddox has been public knowledge for years. More over, as the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty (AGTR-5) and the 1969 sei­zure of the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) attest, other nations are well aware of the execu tion of Comint missions by U. S. Navy vessels.

The second criticism relates to t ^e Stockdales’ disclosure of their clandes tine correspondence, the concern bentr voiced that correspondence with U. • POWs in a future conflict may be jeopar dized as a result. This criticism ignores the dilemma of most potential captors.

weighed against the benefits. Becaus U. S. prisoners had taken advantage ⁰ North Vietnamese lack of knowledge o the English language, American slang- the American culture in writing letters “confessions,” English-speaking ^L bans such as the infamous “Fidel ^r°^u^ tinely screened incoming and outgoi s mail; but the mail still came and wen , because the North Vietnamese saw ^eX ploitation of the POWs as a necessary part of their equation for winning ¹ war.

Similarly, now-Senator and then-Navy Commander Jeremiah Denton is kno^ for his Hanoi press conference in wm he blinked out the word T-O-R-T-U-R' j It embarrassed the North Vietnamese, did not stop the press conferences, origins of the cat-and-mouse game ^ tween captor and prisoner can be trac ^ to well before the Vietnam War. Stockdales’ disclosure is unlikely change the rules of the game

book. A long time coming, worth the wait.

Colonel Parks is a past contributor to the            ₀f

ings. He occupies the Charles H. Stockton C ^a International Law at the Naval War College ⁰ 1984-85 academic year.

Trident

D- Douglas Dalgleish and Larry Schweikart. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984. 502 pp. Illus. Index. Append. 532.50 ($29.25).

Reviewed by Norman Polmar

Authors Dalgleish and Schweikart, both political scientists, have focused on the Trident submarine program as a “pol- ■cy analysis" while challenging “the stan­dard news-media approach whereby ex­tremely complex issues are reduced [with multinationalist fervor, it seems] to the space allowed in a newspaper column or the two-minute time slot on the evening news. In particular, the authors sought to show how the Trident affects and is affected by a vast array of military and non-military factors.

The authors searched through several books and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles and press releases for facts and opinions about the Trident; they also conducted several interviews, the most noteworthy of which was with P. Takis Veliotis in June 1982. (From 1977­82, Veliotis, now a fugitive from justice bving in Greece, was general manager at >he Electric Boat/General Dynamics [GD] yard, where the Trident submarines are built.) The authors have performed a valuable service by publishing that

lengthy interview. Also useful are the 79 pages of authors’ notes which, along with a selected bibliography, provide an inval­uable source for published material re­lated to the Trident program.

Unfortunately, the authors have sought out this vast amount of data and have simply regurgitated it to the reader— correct and incorrect, relevant and irrele­vant. For example, in discussing Trident structural cylinders, we are told:

“The cylinder frame stock varies from 12 to 24 inches in vertical height cross-sectionally and exhibits nar­rower or wider flanges, according to use and bearing strength needed. Bow and stern hull components have exter­nal rather than internal frames in some cases. On a spherical basis, a hull frame of 12 inches can reduce the use­ful inside diameter of the pressure hull by as much as 24 inches, but, since the hull is not double, much equip­ment can be handily installed between sets of hull frames.”

Elsewhere we are given numerous sta­tistics about the Trident submarine’s sail structure, but we are never told why it is that size, nor why the diving planes are mounted on the sail and not on the bow.

Minor errors innundate the book, for example: Trident submarines are built by

the Electric Boat Division of GD, it has not been a separate company, as stated by the authors, since 1952; the Army’s 280­mm. nuclear cannon was towed, not self- propelled, and was never considered a strategic weapon; Admiral Hyman G. Rickover did not “visit" Oak Ridge in 1946, he was assigned there; Trident sub­marines do not have missile magazines; cruisers as well as Tridents and battle­ships have state names; Seafarer was not to be installed under Lake Michigan; a PMS is not a program manager within the Naval Material Command, but rather within the Naval Sea Systems Command; the Bureau of Ships did not exist when Trident was being developed; many names are misspelled: Admiral Isaac Kidd (not Issac), Rear Admiral Julian Lake (not Luke), Captain D. K. (not L. B.) Patterson, Lieutenant Keith Arter- burn (not Arthurbum); the USS Ohio (SSBN-726) was not tracked on her trials by a Soviet spy trawler . . . posing as a fishing ship,” but rather by a naval intel­ligence collection ship.

More significant are errors such as list­ing General Maxwell Taylor as head of the STRAT-X study, the origin of Tri­dent, rather, Fred Paine, at the time with Martin Marietta, chaired that study. In­deed, Taylor probably had no involve­ment with STRAT-X or Trident. Other

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major errors abound: a Trident submarine does not have a speed “in the neighbor­hood assuredly 40 knots or more;” a sin­gle Trident submarine’s missiles could not reach all 200 high-value targets in the Soviet Union because of the limitation of the “footprint” of the reentry vehicles, an issue never discussed by the authors; the development of Polaris was not con­centrated in the hands of Admirals Rick- over and William Raborn—Rickover was specifically excluded from the develop­ment of the Polaris system by the then- Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Ar- leigh Burke; the SS-N-11 was not a So­viet antisubmarine missile, but was a designation briefly used for an improved version of the Styx antiship missile.

These are some of the problems in the first hundred pages of the book; the list goes on. There are contradictions. On page 23 we are told the BQQ-5 sonar is in the Los Angeles (SSN-688) submarine, which has a hull diameter of 33 feet, but on page 281 we are told the similar BQQ-6 can only fit in a Trident hull (42 feet) and not in a smaller, Poseidon sub­marine, which also has a 33-foot diame­ter. But most disturbing is the misquoting of sources. This includes listing this re­viewer as first among supporters of the small missile submarine or shallow un­derwater missile (SUM) when he has always been opposed to the concept, as well as crediting this reviewer with want­ing to use the Tomahawk antiship missile, against Soviet submarines. (There are no citations given for either statement.)

The authors’ bottom line appears to be that Trident is the most effective, most survivable, and most efficient missile submarine that can be built. The data do not support this nor do the authors’ at­tempts at analysis. In fact, both the Po­seidon hulls and Trident submarines are far behind Soviet advances in titanium welding technology, and comparing the British Polaris submarines, built in the late 1960s, with Trident technology is meaningless.

Although containing a vast amount of data, the book is severely limited by the authors’ lack of accuracy and weak anal­ysis and conclusions. They hold their bottom line that the Trident is the best strategic submarine system possible above reproach. They ignore criticisms, valid and invalid, and avoid major issues, such as the impact of force levels and SALT constraints on the Trident, or the debate over the Trident’s potential for first-strike attacks against the Soviet Union. An academic analysis of the Tri­dent system development, as Harvey Sapolsky did for the Polaris in his The Polaris System Development: Bureau­cratic & Programmatic Success in Gov­ernment (Harvard University Press, 1972), is still needed.

Mr. Polmar is author of Guide to the Soviet Navy (Naval Institute Press, 1983) and The Ships and Air­craft of the U. S. Fleet (Naval Institute Press, 1984), and coauthor of the biography Rickover: Controversy and Genius (S&S Press, 1982). He is currently par­ticipating in major studies of future U. S. attack and strategic missile submarines.

Pigboat 39: An American Sub Goes to War

Bobette Gugliotta. Lexington KY:

University of Kentucky Press, 1984. 264 pp. Illus. Maps. Bib. Ind. $19.50. ($15.60).

Captain Paul B. Ryan, U. S. Navy

How does a civilian qualify to write a startling authentic account of life on board a combat submarine, the S-39, in the Far East during 1939-1942?

To begin with, Gugliotta is an author with two books and many nationally pub­lished articles and short stories to her credit. Her husband, Captain Guy F. Gugliotta, U. S. Navy (Retired), is a ca­reer Naval officer (Annapolis class of 1938), who served in the S-39 during the hectic times she portrays. Thus, with her own research on submarine operations and warfare coupled with the benefit of having an experienced submariner close at hand for technical advice, she has been remarkably successful in capturing this slice of naval history, including the crew’s frustration over defective torpe­does, the triumph of making a successful periscope attack on a fat tanker, and the sheer tenseness of evading an enemy depth-charge attack by silent running and careful depth control.

To gather her material the author spent several years on tape-recorded interviews with surviving crew members, wives, and widows. Her book should prove to be a mine of information for scholars inter­ested in the family background of typical Navy men and their wives in the late 1930s. The backgrounds of the crew vary from that of “Dutch,” the chief machin­ist’s mate, who was a U-boat sailor in the Kaiser’s fleet, to those of 17-year-olds who sought the service as a change from depression-ridden farms and cities.

Gugliotta searched the submarine liter­ature, including the war patrol reports and related correspondence on the S-39, held at the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., and her industrious­ness has paid off. Regardless of the fact that much of the dialogue has been recon­structed, the book’s strength is that the dialogue realistically reflects the Navy’s mindset, its jargon and slang, and the

speech patterns of that era.

The S-39 was one of 29 submarines assigned to Admiral Thomas Hart, the Asiatic Fleet Commander in Chief. With no strong surface force, little air power, and a lack of mobile logistic ships, Hart s fleet could only slow down—not stop the invading Japanese armada. The story of these submarines and their crews, a varied one of successes and failures, has been told by such notables as Samue Eliot Morison, Theodore Roscoe, ^an Clay Blair. In this book, however, Gugliotta chose a different approach, giving her readers a picture of the times as seen by both the 40 crewmembers ° the S-39 and the wives of those men who also “served;” for these women, the boat was the center of their world as wel •

In the plummy days of 1939, the 5-3 was based at Manila and visited Shangha' and Tsingtao, China, with ship-following wives and their husbands enjoying m® good life. But, as the Japanese increase their pressure on China and later Frenc Indochina, the U. S. Navy sent all d^e pendents back home to the United States. The S-39 began a series of patrols d^e signed to prepare the crew for the war that many feared was imminent. Then came word of Pearl Harbor. Old subtnan ners will nod in recognition as Gugli°^tta describes the first Japanese bombing ^at tacks on Cavite and Manila, the hasty refit at Surabaya, Java, and Captain James “Red” Coe’s cool leadership dur ing successful sinkings and escapes from enemy ships. The S-39 made its way ^t0 Fremantle and later Brisbane, where cab­arets and pleasure spots, frequented by the S-39’s enlisted men and the soldiers and sailors of other nations’ vessels, are the settings of some hilarious adventures-

On her fifth and last patrol, under a new skipper, the 5-39 grounded one nig on a sunken reef off Rossel Island in m^e Coral Sea. Fortunately, an Australian ship rescued all hands, but the boat was later destroyed.

In this graphic record, Gugliotta takes her place with the other chroniclers of t ^e doomed Asiatic Fleet such as Rear Adm' ral Kemp Tolley and Captain Walter Winslow. She has captured in vivid sty ^e the valiant spirit of the men who held t■ ® line in the face of disaster. But equa 3 important, by depicting the roles play^e by the wives of the crew members. Gugliotta has helped to fill a gap that has been largely ignored by naval historians-

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Summons of the Trumpet: A History of the Vietnam War from a Military Man’s Viewpoint

Major General David R. Palmer, U. S. Army. New York: Ballantine Books, 1984. 354 pp. $3.95 ($3.56).

Reviewed by Captain Anthony L.

Jackson, U. S. Marine Corps

It seems the further we move away from the Vietnam War era, in terms of time, the more objective our perspective and understanding of that epoch become. In his book, Summons of the Trumpet, David R. Palmer provides us with a rich contribution to the study of that period. The author does not seek to clarify the political or moral aspects of our role in the Vietnam War, nor does he dissect each campaign or battle. What he does explore, in a comprehensive, readable and frank manner, is how U. S. national policies were translated into military strategy and operations.

Palmer, however, does not view this strategy in isolation from its tactical reali­ties, and so he intertwines selected mili­tary campaigns or battles in his narrative. Consequently, he clearly defines how this strategy translated into tactical military successes or failures. Further, to add credibility to his work, the author suc­cessfully makes an effort to present the adversarial positions of both sides in each strategic equation.

In order to provide some historical and chronological perspectives, the author ably depicts how America’s military role in Vietnam passed through three distinct phases, each phase being marked, in its end, by dramatic events. The first of these phases was the decade in which Americans served only as advisors. This period ended in 1965 with U. S. combat troops pouring into the conflict. The sec­ond period was marked by the responses of bewildered military leaders on both sides who sought solutions to the strate­gic paradoxes with which they were faced. This phase ended with the battles of the 1968 Tet offensive. The third and final period was characterized by the U. S. search for a way out of the war, and concluded with the massive bombing of North Vietnam during Christmas 1972. Despite the importance of the political, economic, and psychological ingredients of the war, the author’s primary analyti­cal thrust is toward an investigation of America’s military involvement. Palmer discusses other factors only as a backdrop to that story.

Some of the author’s insights should be of particular interest to those who fought in Vietnam or to those in search of an­swers as to why we lost there. For in­stance, Palmer bluntly points out:

“The Tet offensive was the most dis­astrous defeat North Vietnam suf­fered. . . . Paradoxically, it was also the North’s most resounding victory during the years of American military presence. . . . The clash of fighting forces on the battlefield produced a tactical military result—defeat for North Vietnam—quite the opposite of its strategic, psychological harvest in Washington—victory for North Vietnam.”

The author proceeds to explain how the Northern offensive crumbled the will of the American people, expedited the de­parture of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, toppled the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, and ushered in the administration of Richard M. Nixon, who pledged to seek “peace with honor” and the “Vietnamization” of South Viet­nam’s defense efforts.

Another point of particular merit which reveals itself in this work is the success of America and its allies on the tactical bat­tlefield. The capabilities of our arms were marked by success in major engage­ments, but, as the author vividly por­'threshold

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trays, the tactical successes often waxed meaningless in the face of an incoherent and bankrupt national strategy.

In his epilogue, “No More Viet- nams,” Palmer points out that his title phrase “. . . is at once a plea for peace and an entreaty to do better next time.” In conclusion, the author illustrates how we did many things correct and many things wrong in Vietnam. “These les­sons,” he writes, “must not be lost.” This work is, in the final analysis, an admonition not to repeat our errors.

Palmer, both a soldier and scholar, is aptly qualified to author such a book. During the Vietnam War he served as an advisor to the National Vietnamese Mili­tary Academy and Vietnamese armored units. Fie taught military history at West Point and was a staff officer in the Office of the Army Chief of Staff. At the time this work was published, the author was a major general in the U. S. Army.

Captain Jackson has a BA in history and an MA in Asian History from San Jose State University. He served as officer in charge. Recruit Field Training Division, Recruit Training Regiment, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, CA. and is now the com­manding officer, Marine detachment, USS Lone Beach (CGN-9).

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NOTHING BY CHANCE is a film masterpiece which grew from the dream of author Richard Bach (Jon­athan Livingston Seagull) to return to aviation of a simpler time and lifestyle. It's a moving story about the Great American Flying Circus. Five aviators who sought to relive a way of life they thought had ^appeared over forty years ago. NOTHING BY CHANCE captures the joys and disappointments of these men as they learn to live by the Barnstor­mer s Code. During the course of one summer they discover what barnstorming is all about A bedroll under a fabric biplane, the freedom of an open cockpit, and the unity between man and ma- cmne. They learn that NOTHING in life is truly BY CHANCE, that each event in our lives has its own significance and meaning. The film follows these reborn aviators as they travel across the scenic midwest, taking eagerly awaiting passengers on an exhilarating flight among the clouds. Each pas­senger can only hope to catch a glimpse of this fleeting moment in time, this backward glance into yesterday. And each pilot can only do his best to share it with them ....

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Books of Interest

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U. S. Navy

By Jack Sweetman

an illustrated chronology

American Naval History

American Cruisers of World War II: A Pictorial Encyclopedia

Steve Ewing. Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1984. 140 pp. Illus. Bib.

‘nd. $9.95 ($8.96).

Capsule descriptions and 148 black-and-white Photographs provide an overview of 74 Ameri­can World War II cruisers. Eleven different classes of heavy and light cruisers are repre­sented, as well as the Alaska-class “battle­cruiser” and those cruisers that were con­^verted into light aircraft carriers. A section on •he scout-observation planes carried on board Ihese ships and one on Japanese cruisers round °ut this pictorial history of an important com­ponent of World War II sea power.

® American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps 1775-Present

Jack Sweetman. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1984. 331 pp. Illus. Gloss. Bib. Ind. Maps. $29.95 ($23.96).

Beginning with the early days of the American Revolution in 1775 and ending with the re­commissioning of the USS Iowa (BB-61) on

28 April 1984, U. S. Naval Academy profes­sor Jack Sweetman has compiled a fascinating ^and useful historical work. A general index Permits location of events by subject matter; a calendar index makes it possible to trace all significant happenings throughout the Navy’s history for any given day of the year; and a Pair of indices facilitate finding items pertain- ^lng to specific ships. A bibliography, illustra- ttons, and a section featuring maps makes this an excellent reference book.

Eisenhower: The President

Stephen E. Ambrose. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984. 750 pp. Illus. Notes. Bib. Ind. $24.45.

This is the second and concluding volume in a profile of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The first volume covered his life from birth to election as 34th President of the United States. This second volume is a detailed analysis of "Ike” as president and sheds new light on his rela­tionships with Richard Nixon, Nikita Khru­shchev, and Charles DeGaulle, among others, as well as provides insight on the dilemmas which faced this charismatic leader during the eight years he was in office. Ambrose was one of the editors of the Eisenhower Papers and has written a previous book about Eisenhower covering his years as Supreme Commander of Allied forces during World War II. He con­tends that as president, Eisenhower’s greatness is overshadowed only by Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson among 20th century presidents.

From Gunboats to Diplomacy: New U. S. Policies for Latin America

Richard Newfamier, editor. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984. 254 pp.

Bib. Tables. $25.00 ($22.50) (hardcover) $11.95 ($10.76) (paper).

In this collection of essays from 16 different contributors, the binding theme is that recent U. S. policy toward Latin America has taken a misguided turn. These scholars suggest that “overemphasis on the East-West conflict has obscured the indigenous origins of much of the unrest in Latin America.” Five of the essays deal with the region as a whole and provide an overview of current and historical U. S. policy as well as a focus on economic and migration issues. The other ten essays each deal with a specific nation and its relations with the United States. The contributors represent an impres­sive array of universities and policymaking organizations, and reflect a diverse sampling of the political spectrum.

Herman the German

Gerhard Neumann. New York: William Morrow and Company. 1984. 269 pp. Illus. $15.95 ($14.36).

The life story of one of American industry s top executives would seem to be of little inter­est to most people outside of the Wall Street community. But the complexion of the mate­rial changes when that industry giant also hap­pens to be a former German refugee once classified as an “enemy alien” by British authorities, a former member of General Claire Chennault’s “Flying Tigers,” an

American OSS agent, and the inventor of a key component to nearly all the world’s jet engines. Add to this story the fact that this businessman was made a U. S. citizen by a Special Act of Congress and that he, his Amer­ican wife, and their Airedale terrier survived a 10,000 mile journey across Asia in a jeep whde fleeing the Chinese Communists’ ad­vance on the mainland, and you have the auto­biography of Gerhard Neumann—“Herman” to his comrades in the Flying Tigers.

Our Own Worst Enemy: The Unmaking of American Foreign Policy

^{1 M}- Destier, Leslie H. Gelb, and Anthony Lake. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984 319 pp Notes. Ind. $17.45.

“Congress and the President play pin-the-tail- on-the-donkey (or -elephant) over who has the responsibility for foreign policy and who gets the blame for foreign failure,” write the au­thors of this book in describing the dilemma of U. S. foreign policy over the last two decades. Their contention is that each new administra­tion disavows the previous one and that, in this political upheaval, national purpose and conti­nuity become casualties. This failure in for­eign policy is the result of struggles not only between political parties, but between the vari­ous elements of the press, Congress, cabinet departments, and personal advisors. Policy­making is referred to as a form of “ex- ecucide” in which leaders are thrust into gladi­ator-like roles where a spectating public en­courages them to kill off one another. These well-qualified authors appeal for a non-parti­san foreign policy that is centered around na­tional interests and unencumbered by ideologi­cal warfare.

The Oxford Book of War Poetry

Jon Stallworthy, editor. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. 358 pp. Notes Ind $19.95 ($17.96).

Bringing together under one binding the se­lected works of Homer, Milton, Coleridge, Melville, Eliot, and MacLeish, among many others, this anthology of poetry uses war as its central theme. From ancient Israel to the mod­em distant early warning line, these poems are arranged chronologically to span the centuries and a myriad of viewpoints. Indexes of first- lines and poets and translators are included.

Putting Up With The Russians

Edward Crankshaw. New YorK: Viking 1984 269 pp. $17.95 ($16.15).

As a correspondent for The Observer (London) since 1947 and the author of Khrushchev: A Biography and Russia and the Russians,

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among many others, Crankshaw has been a prolific writer about the Russians for a long time. This latest work is a collection of his past writings. Excerpts, essays, and reviews, in­cluding entries such as “Russia’s Weakness and Our Duty” (1947) and “No Tears . . . and Not Much Hope” (1984), provide a fasci­nating historical perspective as well as a knowledgeable commentary on the Soviet Union.

The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust and Modern Conscience

William Shawcross. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984. 464 pp. Ind. $19.95.

The author of Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia (Washington Square Press, 1979) writes once again about that troubled Southeast Asian nation. This

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Qty- work takes a hard look at the way the world responds to major human catastrophe. Against a backdrop of famine, Shawcross examines CARE, the Red Cross, UNICEF, and other international relief organizations, and assesses their merits and failings. Although his first book was an indictment of U. S. policy and actions toward Cambodia, The Quality of Mercy has been hailed as fair-minded and non­partisan in the book review sections of The New York Times and The Washington Post newspapers. For example, he gives high marks to both the U. S. ambassador to Thailand and to Soviet dockworkers in their responses to the tragedy. While he retracts none of his Side­show allegations regarding U. S. responsibility for starting the original chain of disastrous events in Cambodia, he now writes that “Viet­nam bears the principal, though not the exclu­sive, responsibility for the continuing crisis today.” The book includes an analysis of world reaction to the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge.

The Secret Army

David J. Bercuson. New York: Stein and Day,

1984 . 278 pp. Illus. Bib. Notes. Ind. $19.95 ($17.96).

In the early hours of 15 May 1948, armies from the six member-nations of the Arab League converged on the fledgling state of Is­rael to crush the day-old nation out of exis­tence. The new state, forbidden to raise an army under the terms of the British mandate, would have been easy prey for its adversaries had there not been a clandestine army ready to oppose the attack. Volunteers—not all of them Jewish—from the United States and many other nations fought side by side with mem­bers of the Haganah and the Irgun. These vol­unteers, equipped with arms smuggled in

under difficult circumstances, helped ensur the survival of this reborn nation. The Set re Army is the story of that historic ^stru^⁶ which changed the political face of the Mid s East and the world. The book is important no^ only as history but as an aid in understanding the current situation in the Middle East.

Submarine U-137

Edward Topol. New York: Quartet Books, 1984. 288 pp. $15.95 ($14.36).

Coauthor of the best-selling Red Square, Topol uses this novel to impart his theory t Soviet submarine incidents in recent years ar actually clues to a Soviet grand plan of placing seismic weapons around the Western Europea littoral. The story deals with a high-level e fection that promises to reveal the truth abou ^ Russian submarine grounding off the coast Sweden. Intrigue is high and the pace is f^{ast a} the protagonist travels through parts of 1 Soviet Union that are not usually °P^en Western eyes.

Zeppelin! A Battle for Air Supremacy in World War I

Raymond Laurence Rimell. Ontario: Canada s Wings, Inc., 1984. 256 pp. Illus. Bib. Notes. ¹¹ Append. Approx. $32.50 ($29.25).

On 19 January 1915, strategic warfare i^,eca^ a reality to residents of Great Britain as 1 Zeppelin L3 rained six 110-pound bombs an seven incendiaries on the port of Great Ya mouth. Precursor of things to come, the Zep pelin raids continued until August 1918, w L53 became the last Zeppelin shot down > combat. This book is a detailed account oft ^a^ unusual chapter in aviation warfare. A P^rod . of extensive research, Zeppelin! '^nc.^u _ many first-hand accounts and over 300 lH trations, many never before published.

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⁰ Jima

fee IAL

^JHieder

SlJTieUS.

Marines and the \Pacific A War

y UVCI dd|Jdl I.

Pages/96 illustrations/bibliography/ Price: $24.95 Member’s price: $19.96

An excellent account of how American fighting men conquered Iwo Jima, and how the courage, devotion to duty, and teamwork of all

the United States Armed Forces won the war against Japan." —Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle, USAF, (Ret.)

“One of the great epics, vividly captured.”

—Leon Uris

“I can’t be too extravagant in my praise for

this masterful book. The battle leaps out from the pages—gripping, penetrating, and accurate to the tiniest detail—bringing back to anyone who was there the sounds, smells, and horrors of what went on.” —Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. Editor of American Heritage

Bill D. Ross, recipient of the U. S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association 1984 Award of Merit, saw the brutal action on Iwo Jima as a combat correspondent. Iwo _L.Jima is his gripping account of why the battle was fought,

* how it was fought, the drama and infighting among the top brass of the U. S. armed forces, the savage battle's importance in the conquest of Japan.

Over 70 rare photographs/maps/ bibliography/index List price: $22.50 Member’s price: $18.00

New and Current Special Book Selections

^e9acy of y_a/c

^{By B}'H D. Ross

A Special Valor: The U.S. Marines and the Pacific War

By Richard Wheeler

Drawing extensively on front­line eyewitness accounts, official U.S. action reports, and captured Japanese ma- ,nq₀                       terials, Marine veteran and

^lwo. Richard Wheeler, describes in ^detail all the battles in which his \i_r 7“^es-in-arms so valiantly fought. He tells of ^rP[1] [2]^{C de}*^ense Wake Island against an ^lt|6lon^{eming Ja}P^anese assaultforce. Hetraces ‘^r°Uaht f^{nd blood}y ^{battle ,or} Guadalcanal which i⁹ Ain ^{the Marines} their first victory and gave ■^0||°Wsth ^{contro1 of the} Solomon Islands. And he ^:,tack » ^Slow' P^ainful> island-by-island counter­ed, J°ward the Japanese homeland during a' ⁶ ^^arines created new legends at VoT^ille. Saipan, Tarawa, Guam, Iwo Jima *'th *^lnawa. Their remarkable exploits are told ^ly^C'tement, sensitivity, and knowledge, as ^;'>ui_d‘?^l®^nted writer who was personeny involved ,^5rrati ^Special Valor is the definitive one-volume ^{6 of the} U.S. Marines’ contribution to the ' , an victory over Japan.

Pigboat 39

An American Sub Goes to War

By Bobette Gugliotta

Pigboat 39 is the gripping story of S-39 and the cour­age, skill, and suffering of her officers and men. Working together in the tight and perilous confines of the old sub, fighting with her primitive equipment, they manage to sink two enemy ships, then to elude the onrushing Japanese and slip through the Sunda Strait to a temporary haven in Australia, before sailing to further action in the Solomon Islands.

But Pigboat 39 is more than a tale of war at sea. From navy records and from the letters, journals, and still-lively memories of the S-39's men and their wives and sweethearts, Bobette Gugliotta has woven a re­markable portrayal of American service life before and during World War II; of the social life of officers' families in the vanished world of prewar Manila; of teenage sail­ors and their girlfriends on movie dates in Oakland on the eve of the war; of sailors on brief and raucous lib­erty in Asiatic ports; of the men and women who sur­vived the dangers, privation, and boredom of the Pa­cific war. "There are no heroes in Pigboat 39," Gugliotta writes, "unless everyone is."

7 9841288 pageslillustrated/bibliography List price: $19.50 Member’s price: $15.60

intimate remembrance of the

USS Abercrombie, "one of the smallest but meanest _.                fighting ships in the USN"

The author, an officer on board the destroyer escort during her entire World War II cruise in the Pacific has used his personal journal, the ship's log, and interviews with scores of surviving crew members to recount her action-filled story. His vivid reconstruction of her peril­ous days on the ping line at Okinawa when she miracu- ously survived numerous kamikaze attacks is particu­larly memorable. But Edward Stafford is probably at his best in describing the crew as they develop from a bunch of civilians in uniform into a highly skilled team. He has a knack for the telling detail and anecdote that help to brilliantly reveal the strengths and weaknesses the sorrows and joys of the Abercrombie crew as thev went about their daily routines.

7984/336 pages/illustrated/index

List price: $17.95 Member’s price: $14.36