Asia

Reading

HISTORICAL CONCEPTS

Cultural Development
Human Endeavor

The Professions

ETHICAL FOUNDATIONS

The Futility of Utility

A Rational Approach

PROGRESSIVE IDEAS

Chinese Orthographic Reform

RECOMMENDED READING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Travelogue Korea

This is what I'm reading and have read. I recommend all of these; I'd tell you if one of them sucked:

The Making of Strategy, Williamson Murray, MacGregor Knox, and Alvin Bernstein, eds. Compares the process of policy-making in numerous states throughout history.

George C. Marshall, Soldier-Statesman of the American Century, Mark A. Stoler. A relatively light read and defensive at points, this is still a well-written and worthwhile book. Many of the political and military issues discussed relate directly to principles examined in The Making of Strategy, above.

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, Barbara Tuchman. Relates the large-scale movements of nations and peoples in China in the first half of the 20th century from a close perspective. Stilwell, during a key briefing, ultimately fails to convince Roosevelt that Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang party are unviable for China's future and like Guderian (below) must live with the fact that his work in his lifetime was ultimately a failure, though future generations will undoubtedly profit from his experiences and the foundation he laid. He was a brilliant strategist but possessed an uncanny myopia for the big picture.

Battle Ready, USMC Gen. Anthony Zinni.

From Pusan to Panmunjom, ROK Army Gen. Paik Sun Yup. Outstanding, great tactical and leadership work. Ignores any complicity with the Japanese pre-war, but truly Korea has no more faithful son than Paik.

American Soldier, Army Gen. Tommy Franks. Good book. Takes up where Zinni leaves off: to counter asymmetrical threats, Franks first identifies the threats specifically (slices), and then develops non-traditional collaborative efforts (lines of operation) to defeat them. From these he makes a matrix showing who fights what; lines of operation may counter multiple slices. I don’t see Franks as having the great variety of assignments Zinni had, but they are very difficult to compare because their terms as CENTCOM commander were completely different. Zinni was a CinC conducting small-scale operations with generally good support from the Arab world and practicing a policy of Iraq containment. Franks was a combatant commander who conducted two full scale wars with sketchier Arab support while aggressively defeating Iraq. Franks was unfairly criticized for his combat doctrine: his use of overwhelming firepower from all sources working together brought about some of the greatest victories the US has had. I will criticize him, however, for not taking the reconstruction of Iraq to be part of the war effort, leaving it instead almost entirely to the State Department (who from his vantage seemed most ill-prepared). Despite the assertions of unknowledgeable persons to the contrary, victory in traditional combat operations was never in doubt, even as in Vietnam; it was always the violent reconstruction we were unsure about. Particularly myopic, in that Franks identifies in several passages with the ancient Roman proconsuls, leaders not just in war, but in politics throughout the extended Roman domain.

Inside Al Qaeda, Rohan Gunaratna.

Panzer Leader, German Wehrmacht Field Marshall Heinz Guderian. Outstanding book, if probably self-serving. Makes the great point that if other branches require armor to advance, being unable to advance without it, armor is the de facto principal branch of arms.

Panzer Commander, German Wehrmacht Col. Hans von Luck. A fine book, more a memoir than a war chronicle, but hitting the nitty-gritty of Soviet postwar POW camps and the human condition.

Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond. Excellent book on the history of humanity. Paints our past in broad strokes that explain our situation today.

Legion of Strangers, Charles Mercer. Good historical work, at times histrionic, but probably rightfully so given the colorful history of the legion.

Band of Brothers, Stephan Ambrose. Many fine accounts, a bit dry, but outstanding when consumed along with the miniseries.

IBM and the Holocaust, Edwin Black. Made a fairly strong case for knowledge of events, specifically by DeHoMaG (Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft) employees and at least in a general sense by US company HQ leaders. IBM and DeHoMaG seemed to employ people at grisly Nazi tasks to the degree their conscience would allow. The flip side is that, of course, to prove a point the author had very little in the way of counterarguments; in fact the book’s case was not as airtight as it made it out to be, certainly leaving room for doubt.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig. A real how-to: maintain your automotives, life, self.

The Joy of Work, Scott Adams. Fairly funny, occasionally hilarious, perhaps a hair less than “Principal” and “Future”.

Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier. Good, dramatically pleasing book.

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury. Apropos commentary on our times, alternately shortsighted and far-looking.

The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown. Fun, light reading.