4,378 words
Hamilton Gregory
McNamara’s Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War plus The Induction of Unfit Men, Criminals, and Misfits
West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: Infinity Publishing, 2015
Hamilton Gregory unveiled a seldom-explored facet of modern military history with McNamara’s Folly. Similar subject matter is touched on with the inspiring film Forrest Gump (more…)
3,624 words
On June 8, 1967, unmarked Israeli surveillance aircraft were spotted observing the Liberty several times. Without warning, the ship was attacked by three unmarked Dassault Mirage III fighter planes, equipped with rockets, thirty-millimeter cannons, and machine guns. The tattered American flag was replaced, under ruthless and constant heavy fire, with the ship’s oversized holiday flag, seven by thirteen feet, and when this flag was destroyed, a sailor raised a third flag. There was never a time when the American flag was not flying. (more…)
2,878 words
Joan Mellen
Blood in the Water: How the US and Israel Conspired to Ambush the USS Liberty
Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2018.
Joan Mellen’s Blood in the Water is the most comprehensive account available on the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, and deserves national recognition. Ms. Mellen, a professor at Temple University, is a poor writer; she repeats herself in several places, and fails to adhere to her organizational structure. (more…)
Allen Welsh Dulles & John Foster Dulles
2,236 words
After decades of blessed obscurity, the Dulles brothers have splashed back into the news of late. There are big books, little books, forthcoming books: all leading to a flurry of newspaper and online articles (notably Alex Beam’s March 8 essay in The Wall Street Journal).
The two major volumes that have led the way are The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World (2013) by onetime New York Times reporter Stephen Kinzer; and The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government (2015) by David Talbot (more…)